Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/323

 gratify her ambition, would still have in her heart the decided preference.

By these arguments, I in some degree tranquillized my father's mind; but his anxiety, to prevent my sister from taking any irretrievable step, induced him to set off for Edinburgh without delay. Learning on his arrival there, that the Flinders's had set out with the intention of going by Perth to Blair in Athole, he took the same route. At every inn on the road, he, in answer to his inquiries, received such intelligence as left no room to doubt that he should speedily overtake them; but by the time he reached Perth, he was too much fatigued to pursue the journey on horseback. He therefore was obliged to order a chaise; and as soon as it could be got ready, proceeded by Dunkeld to Blair, and from Blair onward all the way to Inverness. There, at the door of the head inn, he saw the three carriages, whose route he had so diligently traced; but