"Stuff!—name them not. I am sick to death of all damsels who owe their beauty to sweet pomade, cream of Venice, Naples' dew, and the devil's philters. Ah! the blooming glow of health and loveliness that renders so radiant the gentle Lilian arises from none of those."
"Ou' aye, ou' aye!" muttered Mersington, as he buried his weason face in the tankard. "You have been an awfu' chiel in your time, Randal, and would restore the auld acts o' King Eugene III. gif the Council would let ye—hee, hee!"
"By all the devils, I would!" laughed the roué, curling his mustachios, as he lounged in his well-cushioned chair; "thou knowest, good gossip, that the great horned head of the law always gave me a strong goût for vice."
"But Eugene's law would matter little to you, Randal—hee, hee! Ye have but few women married within your fief or barony now."
Clermistonlee bit his lip as he replied:
"You taunt me with my poverty, gossip; but remember, that though I have lost my manor of Drumsheugh, I consider that of Bruntisfield as being nearly mine. Sir Archibald was an old cavalier, and staunch high Churchman; and if the current of affairs (here his voice sank to a whisper) goes against the King, we may easily prevail upon the Council to forfeit these lands to the State for ancient misdemeanors."
"And for the leal service done to the cause of Grace in 1670, I would move that the Council bestow upon my noble friend, the Lord Clermistonlee—hee, hee!—the haill in free heritage and free barony for ever, with all the meithes and marches thereof, (as the form in law sayeth,) auld and divided as the same lie in length and breadth, in houses, biggings, mills, multures, &c., hawking, hunting, fishing, eel-arks, &c., with court, plaint, and herezeld, and with furk, fok, sack, sock, thole, thame, vert, wraik, waith, ware, venison, outfangthief, infangthief, pit and gallows, and sae forth, with the tower, fortilace, or manor place thereof, and the couthie wee dame hersel into the bargain."
"By Jove, thou art mad!" exclaimed Clermistonlee, who had listened with no little impatience and surprise to this rhapsody which the law lord brought out all at a breath.
"Hee, hee! the haill barony o' Bruntisfield is a braw tocher!—think o' its pertinents, forbye the lands o' Puddockdub, whilk yield o' clear rental ten thousand merks after paying Kirk and King!"
"King and Kirk, you mean."