‘What has occurred?’ exclaimed Mrs. Charles; ‘I beg you’ll tell me at once.’
‘So I will, when I hae solaced you into a religious frame o’ mind to hear me wi’ a Christian composity o’ temper; for what I maun tell is, though I say’t mysel, a something.’
‘For goodness and mercy, I entreat you to proceed.—Where is Mr. Milrookit? where is Robina?’
‘Ye need na hope to see muckle o’ them the night,’ replied the Leddy. ‘Poor folk, they hae gotten their hands filled wi’ cares. O Bell, Bell—when I think o’t—it’s a judgement—it’s a judgement, Bell Fatherlans, aboon the capacity o’ man! Really, when I consider how I hae been directit—and a’ by my own skill, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding—it’s past a’ comprehension. What would my worthy father hae said had he lived to see the day that his dochter won sic a braw estate by her ain interlocutors?—and what would your gudefather hae said, when he was ay brag bragging o’ the conquest he had made o’ the Kittlestonheugh o’ his ancestors—the whilk took him a lifetime to do—had he seen me, just wi’ a single whisk o’ dexterity, a bit touch of the law, make the vera same conquest for your son Jamie Walkinshaw in less than twa hours?’
‘You astonish me! to what do you allude? I am amazed, and beginning to be confounded,’ said Mrs. Charles.
‘Indeed it is no wonder,’ replied the Leddy; ‘for wha would hae thought it, that I, an aged ’literate grandmother, would hae bamboozlet an Embrough Writer to the Signet on a nice point, and found out the ground of an action for damages against that tod o’ a bodie Pitwinnoch, for intromitting wi’ ane of the four pleas o’ the Crown? Had I kent what I ken now, uncle Watty might still hae been to the fore, and in the full possession of his seven lawful senses—for, woman as I am, I would hae been my own man o’ business, counsel, and executioner, in the concos mentos sederunt—whereby I was so ’frauded o’ my rightful hope and expectation. But Pitwinnoch will soon fin’ the weight o’ the lion’s paw that his doobileecity has roused in me.’
Mrs. Charles, who was much amused by the exultation with which the Leddy had recounted her exploits in the bed and board plea, perceiving that some new triumph equally improbable had occurred, felt her anxieties subside into curiosity; and being now tolerably mistress of her feelings, she again inquired what had happened.
‘I’ll tell you,’ said the Leddy; ‘and surely it’s right and proper you his mother should know, that, through my implementing, it has been discovered that your son is an heir-male according to law!’
‘No possible!’ exclaimed the delighted mother, the whole truth flashing at once on her mind.
‘Aye, that’s just as I might hae expectit—a prophet ne’er got honour in his own country; and so a’ the thank I’m to get for my pains is a no possible!’ said the Leddy offended, mistaking the meaning of the interjection. ‘But it is a true possible; and Milrookit has consentit to adjudicate the estate—so ye see how ye’re raised to pride and affluence by my instrumentality. Firstly, by the bed and board plea, I found a mean to revisidend your ’nuity; and secondly, I hae found the libel proven, that Beenie, being a dochter, is an heir-female, and is, by course of law, obligated to renounce the estate.’