"
Cuddie fidgeted and laughed with a peculiar expression of intelligence at
this repartee, which was followed by a dialogue of little consequence
betwixt his wife and him, in which the stranger took no share. At length
he suddenly interrupted them by the question: "Can you tell me when Lord
Evandale's marriage takes place?"
"Very soon, we expect," answered Jenny, before it was possible for her
husband to reply; "it wad hae been ower afore now, but for the death o'
auld Major Bellenden."
"The excellent old man!" said the stranger; "I heard at Edinburgh he was
no more. Was he long ill?"
"He couldna be said to haud up his head after his brother's wife and his
niece were turned out o' their ain house; and he had himsell sair
borrowing siller to stand the law,--but it was in the latter end o' King
James's days; and Basil Olifant, who claimed the estate, turned a papist
to please the managers, and then naething was to be refused him. Sae the
law gaed again the leddies at last, after they had fought a weary sort o'
years about it; and, as I said before, the major ne'er held up his head
again. And then cam the pitting awa o' the Stewart line; and, though he
had but little reason to like them, he couldna brook that, and it clean
broke the heart o' him; and creditors cam to Charnwood and cleaned out a'
that was there,--he was never rich, the gude auld man, for he dow'd na
see onybody want.
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