late
gracious Sovereign, George the Third.

It therefore often happened, that bickerings hot broke out between them,
in which Oldbuck was not always able to suppress his caustic humour,
while it would sometimes occur to the Baronet that the descendant of a
German printer, whose sires had "sought the base fellowship of paltry
burghers," forgot himself, and took an unlicensed freedom of debate,
considering the rank and ancient descent of his antagonist. This, with
the old feud of the coach-horses, and the seizure of his manor-place and
tower of strength by Mr. Oldbuck's father, would at times rush upon his
mind, and inflame at once his cheeks and his arguments. And, lastly, as
Mr. Oldbuck thought his worthy friend and compeer was in some respects
little better than a fool, he was apt to come more near communicating
to him that unfavourable opinion, than the rules of modern politeness
warrant. In such cases they often parted in deep dudgeon, and with
something like a resolution to forbear each other's company in future:

But with the morning calm reflection came; and as each was sensible that
the society of the other had become, through habit, essential to
his comfort, the breach was speedily made up between them. On such
occasions, Oldbuck, considering that the Baronet's pettishness resembled
that of a child, usually showed his superior sense by compassionately
making the first advances to reconciliation. But it once or twice
happened that the aristocratic pride of the far-descended knight took
a flight too offensive to the feelings of the representative of the
typographer. In these cases, the breach between these two originals
might have been immortal, but for the kind exertion and interposition
of the Baronet's daughter, Miss Isabella Wardour, who, with a son, now
absent upon foreign and military service, formed his whole surviving
family. She was well aware how necessary Mr. Oldbuck was to her father's
amusement and comfort, and seldom failed to interpose with effect, when
the office of a mediator between them was rendered necessary by the
satirical shrewdness of the one, or the assumed superiority of the
other. Under Isabella's mild influence, the wrongs of Queen Mary were
forgotten by her father, and Mr. Oldbuck forgave the blasphemy which
reviled the memory of King William. However, as she used in general to
take her father's part playfully in these disputes, Oldbuck was wont to
call Isabella his fair enemy, though