It is natural that he should wish for his son what his son so well deserves--the advantage of a wiser and steadier companion than I seem to him.

And yet I am sure I have often laboured hard enough to acquire that decency of demeanour which can no more be suspected of breaking bounds, than an owl of catching a butterfly.
But it was in vain that I have knitted my brows till I had the headache, in order to acquire the reputation of a grave, solid, and well-judging youth.

Your father always has discovered, or thought that he discovered, a hare-brained eccentricity lying folded among the wrinkles of my forehead, which rendered me a perilous associate for the future counsellor and ultimate judge.

Well, Corporal Nym's philosophy must be my comfort--'Things must be as they may.'-- I cannot come to your father's house, where he wishes not to see me; and as to your coming hither,--by all that is dear to me, I vow that if you are guilty of such a piece of reckless folly--not to say undutiful cruelty, considering your father's thoughts and wishes--I will never speak to you again as long as I live! I am perfectly serious.

And besides, your father, while he in a manner prohibits me from returning to Edinburgh, gives me the strongest reasons for continuing a little while longer in this country, by holding out the hope that I may receive from your old friend, Mr.
Herries of Birrenswork, some particulars concerning my origin, with which that ancient recusant seems to be acquainted.
That gentleman mentioned the name of a family in Westmoreland, with which he supposes me connected.