 or in earnest,« said Ravenswood, »I think I had a right to be in
the secret.«
    »Fie for shame, your honour!« replied Caleb; »it fits an auld carle like me
weel enough to tell lees for the credit of the family, but it wadna beseem the
like o' your honour's sell; besides, young folk are no judicious - they cannot
make the maist of a bit figment. Now this fire - for a fire it shall be, if I
suld burn the auld stable to make it mair feasible - this fire, besides that it
will be an excuse for asking onything we want through the country, or doun at
the haven - this fire will settle mony things on an honourable footing for the
family's credit, that cost me telling twenty daily lees to a wheen idle chap and
queans, and what's waur, without gaining credence.«
    »That was hard, indeed, Caleb; but I do not see how this fire should help
your veracity or your credit.«
    »There it is now!« said Caleb; »wasna I saying that young folk had a green
judgment? - How suld it help me, quotha? - it will be a creditable apology for
the honour of the family for this score of years to come, if it is weel guided.
Where's the family pictures? says ae meddling body - the great fire at Wolf's
Crag, answers I. Where's the family plate? says another - the great fire, says
I; wha was to think of plate, when life and limb were in danger? - Where's the
wardrobe and the linens? - where's the tapestries and the decorements? - beds of
state, twilts, pands, and testors, napery and broidered wark? -The fire - the
fire - the fire. Guide the fire weel, and it will serve ye for a' that ye suld
have and have not - and, in some sort, a gude excuse is better than the things
themselves; for they maun crack and wear out, and be consumed by time, whereas a
gude offcome, prudently and comfortably handled, may serve a nobleman and his
family, Lord kens how lang!«
    Ravenswood was too well acquainted with his butler's pertinacity and
self-opinion, to dispute the point with him any farther. Leaving Caleb,
therefore, to the enjoyment of his own successful ingenuity, he returned to the
hamlet, where he found the Marquis and the good woman of the mansion under some
anxiety
