dustry, who was never
above his calling, a good son, a good brother, a good husband, and an
excellent father, who trained up a large family in the way they should
go, and never entered a public-house in his life.

The loss of this invaluable parent about three years before had been
the only grief that Hannah Colson had known. But as her father, although
loving her with the mixture of pride and fondness, which her remarkable
beauty, her delightful gaiety, and the accident of her being by many
years the youngest of his children, rendered natural, if not excusable,
had yet been the only one about her, who had discernment to perceive,
and authority to check her little ebullitions of vanity and self-will;
she felt, as soon as the first natural tears were wiped away, that a
restraint had been removed, and, scarcely knowing why, was too soon
consoled for the greatest misfortune that could possibly have befallen
one so dangerously gifted. Her mother was a kind, good, gentle woman,
who having by necessity worked hard in the early part of her life, still
continued the practice, partly from inclination, partly from a sense
of duty, and partly from mere habit, and amongst her many excellent
qualities had the Ailie Dinmont propensity of giving all her children
their own way,* especially this the blooming cadette of the family:
and her eldest brother, a bachelor,--who, succeeding to his father's
business, took his place as master of the house, retaining his surviving
parent as its mistress, and his pretty sister as something between a
plaything and a pet, both in their several ways seemed vying with each
other as to which should most thoroughly humour and indulge the lovely
creature whom nature had already done her best or her worst to spoil to
their hands.

* "Eh, poor things, what else have I to give them?" This
reply of Ailie Dinmont, and indeed her whole sweet
character, short though it be, has always seemed to me the
finest female sketch in the Waverly Novels--finer even,
because so much tenderer, than the bold and honest Jeanie
Deans.

Her other brothers and sisters, married and dispersed over the country,
had of course no authority, even if they had wished to assume anything
like power over the graceful and charming young woman whom every one
belonging to her felt to be an object of pride and delight; so
that their presents and caresses and smiling invitations aided in
strengthening Hannah's i