Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 1 - 1819.djvu/151

Rh "You are right there," said his companion, "for if it were not that these forfeitures, and that last fine that the old driveller Turntippit is gaping for, and which, I dare say, is laid on by this time, have fairly driven me out of house, and I were a coxcomb and a cuckoo to boot, to trust your fair promises of getting me a commission in the Irish brigade,—what have I to do with the Irish brigade? I am a plain Scotchman, as my father was before me; and my grand aunt, Lady Girnington, cannot live for ever."

"Ay, Bucklaw," observed Craigengelt, "but she may live for many a long day; and for your father, he had land and living, kept himself close from wadsetters and moneylenders, paid each man his due, and lived on his own."

"And whose fault is it that I have not so too?" said Bucklaw—"whose but the devil's and your's, and such like as you, that have led me to the far end of a fair estate; and now I shall be obliged, I