[Waverley, Or ’Tis Sixty Years Hence Complete by Sir Walter Scott]@TWC D-Link bookWaverley, Or ’Tis Sixty Years Hence Complete CHAPTER X 2/8
She came from another part of the garden to receive Captain Waverley, with a manner that hovered between bashfulness and courtesy. The first greetings past, Edward learned from her that the dark hag, which had somewhat puzzled him in the butler's account of his master's avocations, had nothing to do either with a black cat or a broomstick, but was simply a portion of oak copse which was to be felled that day. She offered, with diffident civility, to show the stranger the way to the spot, which, it seems, was not far distant; but they were prevented by the appearance of the Baron of Bradwardine in person, who, summoned by David Gellatley, now appeared, 'on hospitable thoughts intent,' clearing the ground at a prodigious rate with swift and long strides, which reminded Waverley of the seven-league boots of the nursery fable.
He was a tall, thin, athletic figure, old indeed and grey-haired, but with every muscle rendered as tough as whip-cord by constant exercise.
He was dressed carelessly, and more like a Frenchman than an Englishman of the period, while, from his hard features and perpendicular rigidity of stature, he bore some resemblance to a Swiss officer of the guards, who had resided some time at Paris, and caught the costume, but not the ease or manner, of its inhabitants.
The truth was, that his language and habits were as heterogeneous as his external appearance. Owing to his natural disposition to study, or perhaps to a very general Scottish fashion of giving young men of rank a legal education, he had been bred with a view to the bar.
But the politics of his family precluding the hope of his rising in that profession, Mr.Bradwardine travelled with high reputation for several years, and made some campaigns in foreign service.
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