Whig lawyer? no
very uncommon matter, especially as you state Mr. Herries to have lost
the estate, though retaining the designation. The laird behaves with
haughtiness and impertinence--nothing out of character in that: is NOT
kicked down stairs, as he ought to have been, were Alan Fairford half
the man that he would wish his friends to think him. Aye, but then, as
the young lawyer, instead of showing his friend the door, chose to make
use of it himself, he overheard the laird aforesaid ask the old lawyer
concerning Darsie Latimer--no doubt earnestly inquiring after the
handsome, accomplished inmate of his family, who has so lately made
Themis his bow and declined the honour of following her farther. You
laugh at me for my air-drawn castles; but confess, have they not surer
footing, in general, than two words spoken by such a man as Herries?
And yet--and yet--I would rally the matter off, Alan; but in dark nights
even the glow-worm becomes an object of lustre, and to one plunged in
my uncertainty and ignorance, the slightest gleam that promises
intelligence is interesting. My life is like the subterranean river in
the Peak of Derby, visible only where it crosses the celebrated cavern.
I am here, and this much I know; but where I have sprung from, or
whither my course of life is like to tend, who shall tell me? Your
father, too, seemed interested and alarmed, and talked of writing; would
to Heaven he may!--I send daily to the post-town for letters.

LETTER VIII

ALAN FAIRFORD TO DARSIE LATIMER

Thou mayst clap thy wings and crow as thou pleasest. You go in search
of adventures, but adventures come to me unsought for; and oh! in what a
pleasing shape came mine, since it arrived in the form of a client--and
a fair client to boot! What think you of that, Darsie! you who are such
a sworn squire of dames? Will this not match my adventures with thine,
that hunt salmon on horseback, and will it not, besides, eclipse
the history of a whole tribe of Broadbrims?--But I must proceed
methodically.

When I returned to-day from the College, I was surprised to see a broad
grin distending the adust countenance of the faithful James Wilkinson,
which, as the circumstance seldom happens above once a year, was matter
of some surprise. Moreover, he had a knowing glance with his eye,
which I should have as soon expected from a dumb-waiter--an article
of furniture to which James, in his usual state, may be happily
assimilated. 'Wha