Page:Guy Mannering Vol 3.djvu/158

148 All cause for haste was therefore now over, and slacking the reins upon his horse's neck, he permitted him to ascend at his own leisure the steep sandy track between two high banks, which, ascending to a considerable height, commanded, at length, an extensive view of the neighbouring country. Hazlewood was, however, so far from eagerly looking forward to this prospect, though it had the recommendation, that great part of the land was his father's, and must necessarily be his own, that his head still turned towards the chimneys of Woodbourne, although at every step his horse made the difficulty of directing his eyes in that direction become greater. From the reverie in which he was sunk, he was suddenly roused by a voice too harsh to be called female, yet too shrill for a man;—"What's kept ye on the road sae lang? maun ither folk do your wark?"

He looked up; the spokes-woman was very tall, had a voluminous handkerchief rolled round her head, her grizzled hair