t itself was coarse, though plentiful; and must,
according to Julian's opinion, be distasteful to one so exquisitely
skilled in good cheer, and so capable of enjoying, critically and
scientifically, the genial preparations of his companion Smith, as
Ganlesse had shown himself on the preceding evening. Accordingly, upon
close observation, he remarked that the food which he took upon his
plate remained there unconsumed; and that his actual supper consisted
only of a crust of bread, with a glass of wine.

The repast was hurried over with the haste of those who think it shame,
if not sin, to make mere animal enjoyments the means of consuming
time, or of receiving pleasure; and when men wiped their mouths and
moustaches, Julian remarked that the object of his curiosity used a
handkerchief of the finest cambric--an article rather inconsistent with
the exterior plainness, not to say coarseness, of his appearance. He
used also several of the more minute refinements, then only observed at
tables of the higher rank; and Julian thought he could discern, at every
turn, something of courtly manners and gestures, under the precise and
rustic simplicity of the character which he had assumed.[*]

[*] A Scottish gentleman _in hiding_, as it was emphatically termed,
for some concern in a Jacobite insurrection or plot, was
discovered among a number of ordinary persons, by the use of his
toothpick.

But if this were indeed that same Ganlesse with whom Julian had met on
the preceding evening, and who had boasted the facility with which he
could assume any character which he pleased to represent for the time,
what could be the purpose of this present disguise? He was, if his own
words could be credited, a person of some importance, who dared to defy
the danger of those officers and informers, before whom all ranks at
that time trembled; nor was he likely, as Julian conceived, without some
strong purpose, to subject himself to such a masquerade as the present,
which could not be otherwise than irksome to one whose conversation
proclaimed him of light life and free opinions. Was his appearance here
for good or for evil? Did it respect his father's house, or his own
person, or the family of Bridgenorth? Was the real character of Ganlesse
known to the master of the house, inflexible as he was in all which
concerned morals as well as religion? If not, might not the machinations
of a brain so subtile affect the peace and happiness of