The Heart of Mid-Lothian - Penn State University

stances, rushed on Butler’s mind, unprepared as it was
by any previous course of reasoning, to deny that which
all of his time, country, and profession believed; but
common sense rejected these vain ideas as inconsistent,
if not with possibility, at least with the general rules by
which the universe is governed,—a deviation from which,
as Butler well argued with himself, ought not to be admitted
as probable, upon any but the plainest and most
incontrovertible evidence. An earthly lover, however, or
a young man, who, from whatever cause, had the right
of exercising such summary and unceremonious authority
over the object of his long-settled, and apparently
sincerely returned affection, was an object scarce less
appalling to his mind, than those which superstition
suggested.
His limbs exhausted with fatigue, his mind harassed
with anxiety, and with painful doubts and recollections,
Butler dragged himself up the ascent from the valley to
St. Leonard’s Crags, and presented himself at the door
of Deans’s habitation, with feelings much akin to the
miserable reflections and fears of its inhabitants.
The Heart of Mid-Lothian
152
CHAPTER ELEVENTH
Then she stretched out her lily hand,
And for to do her best;
“Hae back thy faith and troth, Willie,
God gie thy soul good rest!”
Old Ballad.
“COME IN,” answered the low and sweet-toned voice he
loved best to hear, as Butler tapped at the door of the
cottage. He lifted the latch, and found himself under
the roof of affliction. Jeanie was unable to trust herself
with more than one glance towards her lover, whom she
now met under circumstances so agonising to her feelings,
and at the same time so humbling to her honest
pride. It is well known, that much, both of what is good
and bad in the Scottish national character, arises out of