Chapter 14

Nay, let me have the friends who eat my victuals,
As various as my dishes.--The feast's naught,
Where one huge plate predominates. John Plaintext,
He shall be mighty beef, our English staple;
The worthy Alderman, a butter'd dumpling;
Yon pair of whisker'd Cornets, ruffs and rees:
Their friend the Dandy, a green goose in sippets.
And so the hoard is spread at once and fill'd
On the same principle--Variety.
NEW PLAY.

"And what brave lass is this?" said Hob Miller, as Mary Avenel entered
the apartment to supply the absence of Dame Elspeth Glendinning.

"The young Lady of Avenel, father," said the Maid of the Mill,
dropping as low a curtsy as her rustic manners enabled her to make.
The Miller, her father, doffed his bonnet, and made his reverence, not
altogether so low perhaps as if the young lady had appeared in the
pride of rank and riches, yet so as to give high birth the due homage
which the Scotch for a length of time scrupulously rendered to it.

Indeed, from having had her mother's example before her for so many
years, and from a native sense of propriety and even of dignity, Mary
Avenel had acquired a demeanour, which marked her title to
consideration, and effectually checked any attempt at familiarity on
the part of those who might be her associates in her present
situation, but could not be well termed her equals. She was by nature
mild, pensive, and contemplative, gentle in disposition, and most
placable when accidentally offended; but still she was of a retired
and reserved habit, and shunned to mix in ordinary sports, even--when
the rare occurrence of a fair or wake gave her an opportunity of
mingling with companions of her own age. If at such scenes she was
seen for an instant, she appeared to behold them with the composed
indifference of one to whom their gaiety was a matter of no interest,
and who seemed only desirous to glide away from the scene as soon as
she possibly could.

Something also had transpired concerning her being born on All-hallow
Eve, and the powers with which that circumstance was supposed to
invest her over the invisible world. And from all-these particulars
combined, the young men and women of the Halidome used to distinguish
Mary among themselves by the name of the Spirit of Avenel, as if the
fair but fragile form, the beautiful but rather colourless cheek, the
dark blue eye, and the shady hair, had belonged rather to the
immaterial than the substantial world. The general tradition of the
White Lady, who was supposed to wait on the fortunes of the family of
Avenel, gave a sort of zest to this piece of rural wit. It gave great
offence, however, to the two sons of Simon Glendinning; and when the
expression