said Andrew Weir to his only
daughter--"tak a faither's advice, and avoid gaun blindfolded to your
ruin. Ye are sune aneugh to marry these seven years yet. Marry! preserve
us! for I dinna ken what the generation is turning to, but I'll declare
bits o' lasses now-a-days haena the dolls weel oot o' their arms, till
they tak a guidman by the hand. But aboon everything earthly, I wad
impress it upon ye, bairn, that ye canna be owre carefu o' your company;
mind that a character is a' a woman has to carry her through the warld,
and ye should guard it like the apple o' your e'e; and remember, that
folk are aye judged o' frae the company they keep. Now, how often maun I
warn ye no to be seen wi' Charles Lawson? He's a clever lad, nae
doubt--naebody denies that; but, oh, Betty, Betty, woman! wad ye only
reflect that a' gifts are no graces; and I am far mistaen if he hasna a
serpent's heart as weel as his tongue. He has naething o' the fear o'
God before his een--ye canna deny that. In ae word, he is a wild,
thoughtless ne'er-do-weel; and I charge ye--I command ye--Betty, that ye
ne'er speak to him again in your born days; or, if ye do, ye surely will
hae but little satisfaction to break your faither's heart, and bring him
to the grave wi' sorrow and wi' shame--for that, Betty, that wad be the
end o't."

Elizabeth heard him, and bent her head upon her bosom to conceal her
confusion. The parental homily was too late--she was already the wife of
Charles Lawson.

Having thus begun our story in the middle, it is necessary that we go
back, and inform the reader, in a few words, that Andrew Weir was a
respectable farmer on the north side of the Tweed, and withal a decent
and devout Presbyterian, and an elder in the kirk. Charles Lawson's
parents were originally from Northumberland. They had known better days,
and, at the period we have alluded to, were struggling with a hard farm
in the neighbourhood of Andrew Weir's. Charles was not exactly what his
father-in-law had described him; and, were we to express his portrait in
a line, we should say, he had blue eyes and a broad brow, a goodly form
and open heart. The ringlets which parted on Elizabeth's forehead were
like the raven's wing, and loveliness, if not beauty, nestled around the
dimples on her cheeks. Their affection for each other began in
childhood, and grew with their years, till it became strong as their
existence.

A few weeks after Andrew Weir had delivered the advice we