Page:Guy Mannering Vol 3.djvu/349

Rh this room, and had solitude and leisure to calculate all the chances against him and in his favour, he could not prevail upon himself to consider the game as desperate. "The estate is lost," he said; "that must go—and between Pleydell and Mac-Morlan they'll cut down my claim on it to a trifle. My character—but if I get off with life and liberty, I'll get money yet, and varnish that over again. Let me see:—This Bertram was a child at the time—his evidence must be imperfect—the other fellow is a deserter, a gypsey, and an outlaw—Meg Merrilies, d—ndamn [sic] her, is dead.—These infernal bills!—Hatteraick brought them with him, I suppose, to have the means of threatening me, or extorting money from me.—I must endeavour to see the rascal;—must get him to stand steady;—must get him to put some other colour upon the business."

His mind teeming with schemes of future deceit to cover former villainy, he spent the time in arranging and combining