-room.
    »Let me show you the way,« said Miss Wardour, who apparently dreaded a
continuation of her tête-à-tête with Lovel, and she conducted the Antiquary
accordingly to her father's apartment.
    Sir Arthur, his legs swathed in flannel, was stretched on the couch.
»Welcome, Mr. Oldbuck,« he said; »I trust you have come better off than I have
done from the inclemency of yesterday evening?«
    »Truly, Sir Arthur, I was not so much exposed to it - I kept terra firma -
you fairly committed yourself to the cold night-air in the most literal of all
senses. But such adventures become a gallant knight better than a humble
esquire, - to rise on the wings of the night-wind - to dive into the bowels of
the earth. What news from our subterranean Good Hope! - the terra incognita of
Glen-Withershins?«
    »Nothing good as yet,« said the Baronet, turning himself hastily, as if
stung by a pang of the gout; »but Dousterswivel does not despair.«
    »Does he not?« quoth Oldbuck; »I do though, under his favour. Why, old Dr.
H--n10 told me, when I was in Edinburgh, that we should never find copper
enough, judging from the specimens I showed him, to make a pair of sixpenny
knee-buckles - and I cannot see that those samples on the table below differ
much in quality.«
    »The learned doctor is not infallible, I presume?«
    »No; but he is one of our first chemists; and this tramping philosopher of
yours - this Dousterswivel - is, I have a notion, one of those learned
adventurers described by Kirchner, Artem habent sine arte, partem sine parte,
quorum medium est mentiri, vita eorum mendicatum ire; that is to say, Miss
Wardour« -
    »It is unnecessary to translate,« said Miss Wardour - »I comprehend your
general meaning; but I hope Mr. Dousterswivel will turn out a more trustworthy
character.«
    »I doubt it not a little,« said the Antiquary, - »and we are a foul way out
if we cannot discover this infernal vein that he has prophesied about these two
years.«
    »You have no great interest in the matter, Mr. Oldbuck,« said the Baronet.
    »Too much, too much, Sir Arthur; and yet, for the sake of my fair foe here,
I would consent to lose it all so you had no more on the venture.
