They dare not bring me to my trial, and in the meanwhile I am held naked in my prison.

I could have wished it was your cousin I had met, or his brother Baith himself.

Either would, I know, have been rejoiced to help me; while a comparative stranger like yourself--" I would be ashamed to set down all he poured out to me in this beggarly vein, or the very short and grudging answers that I made to him.

There were times when I was tempted to stop his mouth with some small change; but whether it was from shame or pride--whether it was for my own sake or Catriona's--whether it was because I thought him no fit father for his daughter, or because I resented that grossness of immediate falsity that clung about the man himself--the thing was clean beyond me.

And I was still being wheedled and preached to, and still being marched to and fro, three steps and a turn, in that small chamber, and had already, by some very short replies, highly incensed, although not finally discouraged, my beggar, when Prestongrange appeared in the doorway and bade me eagerly into his big chamber.
"I have a moment's engagement," said he; "and that you may not sit empty-handed I am going to present you to my three braw daughters, of whom perhaps you may have heard, for I think they are more famous than papa.