Page:Life and transactions of Mrs. Jane Shore (2).pdf/21

 21 Barclay. She listened now in fearful trepidation, and as the joke and laugh went round, she, in the delusion of her own grief, wondered he could be so light hearted. -" a bumper, my boys," she heard one cry,“ to the Glasgow lasses ! They look blyther and kinder then ever. What say you Barclay? Yon must pledge it despite of all French trumpery!"--"My second lam- per it will be," she heard her beloved Barclay answer, " but you know, Tom, I must first pay my orison to the ruling divinity." “ Pool! that everlasting Mari- ette again! I wish you had her in your arms and he done with her.”--"A toast of that, cried Barclay- its your own dear Tom, you cannot object to it." Object !-I'd drink the Devil were the whisky good. Hurra, my lads, hurra!" It would be difficult to describe the sensations which Mariette felt on hearing these words. There was a sudden brightening up of her countenance, but more seemingly the effect of alarm than satisfaction. Every thought which she had nourished so long and so ardently, rushed in upon her, and her heart throbbed as if it would have burst its boundaries. " He remembers me yet, she said—“but is it as of one who would relieve the tedium of a wife? If it be so," added she, raising her- self, " he shall not know what I have suffered for him ; and I shall return to my own country, this moment, though my heart should break by the way.” This burst of a noble minded girl was quickly succeeded by a delightful beam of hope, which had been buried in the conflict of less pleasant passions. “He may not be married, -he cannot be -- she may have been a relation I saw-a sister ;-it is only so,"--and she rung for the landlady. “ Is there,” she asked hesitatingly, “an Allan Barclay in your house ?" " Not that I know of," was the essence of the landlady's answer. " He is a soldier," said Mariette. " You wish a soldier?" returned the landlady, smirkingly. Mariette, without resenting the insult, summoned up her spirits and told the landlady that she wished one of the name of Barclay,