 his mental
amusement of cursing Dr. Doubleit's favourite constellation of Ursa Major, as
the cause of all the mischief which had already happened, and was likely to
ensue. At once he started, and his colour heightened, as, looking toward the
window, he beheld the Baron and young Balmawhapple pass arm in arm, apparently
in deep conversation; and he hastily asked, »Did Mr. Falconer sleep here last
night?« Rose, not much pleased with the abruptness of the first question which
the young stranger had addressed to her, answered dryly in the negative, and the
conversation again sunk into silence.
    At this moment Mr. Saunderson appeared, with a message from his master
requesting to speak with Captain Waverley in another apartment. With a heart
which beat a little quicker, not indeed from fear, but from uncertainty and
anxiety, Edward obeyed the summons. He found the two gentlemen standing
together, an air of complacent dignity on the brow of the Baron, while something
like sullenness, or shame, or both, blanked the bold visage of Balmawhapple. The
former slipped his arm through that of the latter, and thus seeming to walk with
him, while in reality he led him, advanced to meet Waverley, and, stopping in
the midst of the apartment, made in great state the following oration: »Captain
Waverley, - my young and esteemed friend, Mr. Falconer of Balmawhapple, has
craved of my age and experience, as of one not wholly unskilled in the
dependencies and punctilios of the duello or monomachia, to be his interlocutor
in expressing to you the regret with which he calls to remembrance certain
passages of our symposion last night, which could not but be highly displeasing
to you, as serving for the time under this present existing government. He
craves you, sir, to drown in oblivion the memory of such solecisms against the
laws of politeness, as being what his better reason disavows, and to receive the
hand which he offers you in amity; and I must needs assure you, that nothing
less than a sense of being dans son tort, as a gallant French chevalier, Mons.
Le Bretailleur, once said to me on such an occasion, and an opinion also of your
peculiar merit, could have extorted such concessions; for he and all his family
are, and have been time out of mind, Mavortia pectora, as Buchanan saith, a bold
and warlike sept, or people.«
    Edward immediately, and with natural politeness, accepted the hand which
Balmawhapple, or rather the Baron in his character of mediator, extended towards
him. »It
