Chapter 21

Marall: Sir, the man of honour's come,
Newly alighted----Overreach: In without reply,
And do as I command....
Is the loud music I gave order for
Ready to receive him?

New Way to pay Old Debts.

SIR WILLIAM ASHTON, although a man of sense, legal information, and
great practical knowledge of the world, had yet some points of character
which corresponded better with the timidity of his disposition and the
supple arts by which he had risen in the world, than to the degree
of eminence which he had attained; as they tended to show an original
mediocrity of understanding, however highly it had been cultivated, and
a native meanness of disposition, however carefully veiled. He loved the
ostentatious display of his wealth, less as a man to whom habit has
made it necessary, than as one to whom it is still delightful from its
novelty. The most trivial details did not escape him; and Lucy soon
learned to watch the flush of scorn which crossed Ravenswood's cheek,
when he heard her father gravely arguing with Lockhard, nay, even with
the old housekeeper, upon circumstances which, in families of rank,
are left uncared for, because it is supposed impossible they can be
neglected.

"I could pardon Sir William," said Ravenswood, one evening after he
had left the room, "some general anxiety upon this occasion, for the
Marquis's visit is an honour, and should be received as such; but I am
worn out by these miserable minutiae of the buttery, and the larder,
and the very hencoop--they drive me beyond my patience; I would rather
endure the poverty of Wolf's Crag than be pestered with the wealth of
Ravenswood Castle."

"And yet," said Lucy, "it was by attention to these minutiae that my
father acquired the property----"

"Which my ancestors sold for lack of it," replied Ravenswood. "Be it so;
a porter still bears but a burden, though the burden be of gold."

Lucy sighed; she perceived too plainly that her lover held in scorn the
manners and habits of a father to whom she had long looked up as her
best and most partial friend, whose fondness had often consoled her for
her mother's contemptuous harshness.

The lovers soon discovered that they differed upon other and no less
important topics. Religion, the mother of peace, was, in those days of
discord, so much misconstrued and mistaken, that her rules and forms
were the subject of the most opposite opinions and the most hostile
animosities. The Lord Keeper, being a Whig, was, of course, a
Presbyterian, and had found it convenient, at different periods, to
express greater zeal for the kirk than perhaps he really felt. His
family, equally of course, were trained under the same