"Ah, you are about to speak treason again," said she playfully. "I mean to be very loyal, and must not permit you, although there are none here who would betray you, unless it be the old corbies that croak on the chimney head. But come with me, and I will show you their nests in some strange places, I promise you; and I have flowers to visit, and my pigeons too, poor pets! I once thought never to behold them again. Come, Mr. Fenton, your hand; how beautiful the morning is!"
Charmed with her vivacity, Walter became every moment more delighted with Lilian Napier. With a very cavalier-like air which he had acquired among his Parisian comrades of the Musqueteers, who had returned from the French to the Scottish service only ten years before, he hastened to give her his ungloved hand, and they sallied forth into the garden, where the deep rows of Dutch boxwood that edged the walks, the leaden statues of satyrs, swains, and shepherdesses, the gravelled terraces and flights of steps, the old mossy sun and moon dial, and the fantastic arbours, were all in admirable keeping with the quaint old manor house that towered above them. Old John Leekie, the gardener, clad in his coarse sky-blue coat, and long ribbed galligaskins, reverently doffed his broad bonnet, and bowed his lyart head, as his young mistress passed, and patting his shoulder with her hand, bade him a "good morning." The old man's eye brightened as he surveyed the garb and bearing of Walter Fenton, and continued his occupation of hoeing up the early kail, with a sigh;
"For he thought of the days that were long since by,
When his limbs were strong, and his courage was high:"—
and when he rode in the iron squadrons of the loyal Hamilton and stern Leslie.
"Gentle Lilian," said Walter, colouring deeply as he gazed on the fine old mansion, the walls of which were quite encrusted with coats armorial and quaint legends, "it is when surveying so noble a dwelling as this that I feel most bitterly how hardly fortune has dealt with me."
"Tush, friend! hast never got the better of those old glooms and fancies yet? Read the motto over yonder window; ah! 'tis my dressing-room that," said the lively girl, pointing to a distich in Saxon characters, which was one of the many that adorned the edifice.
"Quhen Adam delved and Eve spanne,
Quhair war a' the gentlis than?"
"It is very true; but I, who am a soldier, cannot think of those things like a philosopher."
"Then do not think of them at all."
"How numerous are the coats and quarterings here! there is the eagle of the Ramsays, the unicorns of the Prestons, and the saltier of Napier."