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Rh in all those slight things which throw such sweetness on the common air of life. The old beggar, the inimitable Edie Ochiltre, at the risk of his life, meets them on the beach, because "he could na bide to think o' the dainty young lady's peril, that has aye been kind to ilka forlorn heart that cam' near her." Even the Antiquary, with all his contempt for his "womankind," has an involuntary respect for her. If any further proof of her attraction be needed, she is the object of a romantic and devoted attachment, which if eye and manner requite less kindly than the conscious heart—it is for her father's sake. However, neither she nor Lovel need regret her earlier discouragement; for what man ever valued an object whose pursuit was unattended by trouble? Difficulty is as needful to appreciation as labour is to existence.

 

preface of this work mentions, that it was less favourably received on its first appearance than its predecessors, though in the long run it has quite equalled their success. This may be reckoned among Scott's triumphs. The character of the Antiquary was less familiar to the generality of readers than it is now, when his own writings have originated a taste for the study of antiquities among