10 THE BANK ACCOUNTANT. 



requisition, to describe to Miss Eraser what occurred on 

 the evening passed with Sir Thomas. 



' Linlithgow, December. 



'.I do not know that I have anything more amusing 

 to communicate to you, my Lydia, than what passed 

 during the evening I spent at Sir Thomas's. But I am 

 afraid you will find me no Boswell. I would fain be a 

 faithful chronicler ; but, in attempting to record dialogue, 

 the words always slip away, and only the ideas remain. 

 My invitation was for six o'clock, the fashionable hour 

 for dinner here ; but, by missing the road in the dark- 

 ness, I was, unluckily, rather late. The Grange House 

 is built in the style of two centuries ago, with a number 

 of narrow serrated gables, that break the light into fan- 

 tastic masses, by their outjets and indentation ; here a 

 pointed turret, there coped with stone, and bearing the 

 family crest atop ; yonder an antique balustrade ; and, 

 directly in front of the iron-studded door, there are two 

 time-worn columns with a huge dragon sprawling on 

 each. The garden is in quite the same ancient style, 

 planted by some old-world mason, with flights of stairs, 

 cross walls, and arches. The first thing that caught my 

 eye on entering the lobby was a huge, carved settle of 

 dark-coloured oak, with the bust of a mitred prelate 

 frowning from the wainscoting over it ; there were spears, 

 too, resting against the wall, and in the antique staircase 

 a host of old paintings of ladies, in strange, uncouth 

 dresses, who were loved and married three centuries ago ; 

 and of their lovers and husbands, grim-looking fellows, 

 with long beards and coats of mail. I was ushered into 

 the parlour, a splendid apartment, as lofty as any two of 

 our Cromarty rooms placed over each other, and more ca- 

 pacious than any four, with a carved oak roof, panelled 

 sides, antique wainscot furniture, and an immense pro- 



