The Surgeon's Daughter

ated, when dinner, which claims a share of human thoughts even in the midst o

to set off without your dinner;-and I hope Mr. Lawford will take pot-luck with us, for it is just his own hour; a

d joined in his wife's hospitable reque

owl, judiciously replenished for the accommodation of the Doctor and his guest. Their conversation naturally turned

might have brewed a bitter browst to

w yonder fellow vapouring with his pistols among the woman-folk in my own house, the old Cam

the man of law, "this was a case where a little prude

ought when I sent to you, Cl

ifficult case," added Mrs. Gray, as she sat wit

ger and his warrant were just brought in to prevent any opposition. Ye saw how quietly he behaved after I had laid down the law-I'll never believe the lady is in any risk from him. But the father is a dour c

true, as I suspect, that both the father

eggs and bacon that Nurse Simson spoke about to her. But I thought Jews had aye had lang beards, and yon man's face is j

t they have a good hank in the money market-plenty of stock in the funds, Mrs. Gray, and, indeed, I think this poor young woman is better with her ain father, though he be a Jew and a dour chield into the bargain, than she would have

ot without reason. Now, this other man Tresham, if that be his name, was haughty to me, and I think something careless of the poor young woman, just at the tim

this wean yourself, Doctor? That

onourable and useful profession. It will be rather an amusement than a trouble to me, and I want to make some remarks on the child

been sae lang married yet.-Mrs. Gray, dinna let my daffing chase you away-we w

y to raise themselves. He discharged the duties of his profession with the same punctuality as ever, was easy, and even to appearance, cheerful in his intercourse with society; but the sunshine of existence was gone. Every morning he missed the affectionate charges which recommended to him to pay attention to his own health while he was labouring to restore that blessing to his patients. Every evening, as he returned from his weary round, it was without the consciousness of a kind and affectionate reception from one eager to tell, and interested to hear, all the little events of the day. His whistle, which used to arise clear and strong so soon as Middlemas steeple was in vi

sion, all the pieces of paper which the Moslem has preserved during his life, lest some holy thing being written upon them might be profaned, arrange themselves between his feet and the burn

gay and happy, which was much more frequently the case, these clouds were exchanged for the most frolicsome, mirthful expression, that ever dwelt on the laughing and thoughtless aspect of a child. He seemed to have a tact beyond his years in discovering and conforming to the peculiarities of human character. His nurse, one prime object of Richard's observance, was Nurse Jamieson, or, as she was more commonly called for brevity, and par

, was as much attached to Richard Middlemas, whom she had once nursed at her bosom, as if he had been

he right time and place, quiet as a lamb when his patron seemed inclined to study or to muse, active and assiduous to assist or divert

the pride and the leader of the boys of the place, over the most of whom his strength and activity gave him a decided superio

y, "but then he is sure; and it is impossible not to be pleas

s summoned forth by a hundred shrill voices to take the lead in hye-spye, or at foot-ball, if it was little Menie's pleasure that he should remain within, and build card-houses for her amusement. At other times he would take the charge of the little damsel entirely under his own care, and be

ood, and so interesting in person and disposition. He thought it his duty, therefore, to keep open the slender and oblique communication with the boy's maternal grandfather, as that which might, at some future period, lead to a closer connexion. Yet the correspondence could not, in other respects, be agreeable to a man of spirit like Mr. Gray. His own letters were as short as possible, merely rendering an account of his ward's expenses, including a moderate board to himself, attested by Mr. Lawford, his co-trustee; and intimat

additional expenses of this period of calamity; but Mr. Moncada had left the phrase unfinished, apparently in despair of turning it suitably into English. Gideon, without farther investigation, quietly added the sum to the account of his ward's little fortune, contrary to th

d. Richard, he observed, was arrived at the point where education, losing its original and general character, branches off into different paths of knowledge, suitable to particular professions, and when it was therefore become necessary to determine which of them it was

quainted with the infamous treatment I had received, could not understand the reasons that I have for acting as I have done. Deprived, sir, by the act of a villain, of my child, and she despoiled of honour, I cannot bring myself to think of beholding the creature, however innocent, whose look must always remind me of hatred and of shame. Keep the poor child by you-educate him to your own profession, but take heed that he looks no higher than to fill such a situation in life as you y

to learn if he had any choice among the professions thus opened to him; convinced at the same time,

o be entirely ignorant, simply because he himself had never communicated them, but had let the boy consider himself as the orphan child of a distant relation. But

her fingers, that could be compared to nothing but her own een, the fairness of her skin, and the colour of her silk rokelay, with much proper stuff to the same purpose. Then she expatiated on the arrival of his grandfather, and the awful man, armed with pistol, dirk, and claymore, (the last weapons existed only in Nurse's imagination,) the very Ogre of a fairy tale-then all the circumstances of the carrying off his mother, while bank-notes were flyi

his repentant grandfather, with his pockets stuffed out with banknotes, would come to atone for his past cruelty, by heaping his neglected grandchild with unexpected wealth. Sure was Nurse Jamieson, "that it wanted but a blink of her bairn's bonny ee to turn their hearts, as Scripture sayeth; and as strange things had been, as they should come a'thegither to the town at the same time, and make su

idents of his birth resembled those he found commemorated in the tales which he read or listened to; and there seemed no reason why his own adventures should not have a termination corresponding to those of such veracious histories. In a word, while good Doctor Gray imagined that his pupi

-the hour of explanation was at length come. He listened to the narrative of Gideon Gray, which, the reader may believe, being altogether divested of the gilding which Nurse Jamieson's imagination had bestowed upon it, and reduced to what mercantile men termed the needful, exhibited little more than the tale of a child of shame, deserted by its father and mother, and brought up on the reluctant charity of a more distant relation, who regarded him as the living though unconscious evidence of the disgrace of his family, and would

er leaves you the choice of three honourable professions, by any of which, well and wisely prosecuted, you may become

looking boldly at his guardian. "I am a free-born En

one can know better than I do, in the blue room of Stevenlaw's Land, in

te been a great friend and adviser of young Middlemas-"Tom Hillary says t

arents?-But what has your being an Engl

so hard as you do. The Scots are too moral, and too prudent, and too robust, for a poor pudding-eat

s Tom Hillary will turn your brain. W

the people, the lawyer by their distresses, and the d

wcastle! If I hear him talking so, I'll teach him to speak with more reverence of the learned professions. Let me hear no more of Tom Hil

, "Tell him that my soul revolts at the obscure lot he recommends to me. I am determined to enter my father's profes

. Gray; "a thing extremely likely to happen, no doubt, considering the way in which h

onging to me; and since it is consigned to you for my use, I demand you should make the necessary advances to procure a comm

nds for your behoof. But I am bound to dispose of it according to the will of the donor; and at any rate, you are not entitled to call for it until you come to years of discretion; a period from which you are six years distant, according to law, and which, in one sense, you will never reach at all, unless you alter your present unreasonable crotchets. But come, Dick, t

ng way to a burst of uncontrolled passion. "You

teful boy?" said Gray, whose c

ages as they drove off, and have let them trample on the

hind him with great violence, leaving his guardian astonis

isappointed in some follies which that Tom Hillary has put into his he

ew doll, of which she had made the acquisition. No one, generally, was more interested in Menie's amusements than Richard; but at present, Richard, like his celebrated namesake, was not i'the vein. He threw off the little

o guide Miss Menie that gate.-Haud your tongue,

er attention to Menie Gray's distresses, especially as she did not weep aloud, and her attention became fixed on the altered countenance, red eyes, and swoln features of her darling foster-child. She instantly commenced an inv

's son. I am an outcast from my family, and bel

ertie, your father was a better man than ever stood on the Doctor's shanks-a hand

w exactly how much money his grandfather had left with Dr. Gray for his maintenance. "She could not say-didna ken-an awfu' sum it was to pass out of ae man's hand-She was sure it wasna less than ae hundred pounds, and it might weel be twa." In short, she knew nothi

nds, and heard the exact state of the money in his guardian's hands, which corresponded with the information he had already received. He next sounded the worthy scribe on the possibility of his going into the army; but received a second confirmation of the intelligence Mr. Gray had given him; being informed that no part of the money could be placed at his disposal till he was of age; and then not without the especial consent of both his guardians, and particularly that of his master. He therefore took leave of

ed to consider his kind offer, in case he should d

in Scotland, and was recommended to the Town-clerk of Middlemas, by the accuracy and beauty with which he transcribed the records of the burgh. It is not improbable that the reports concerning the singular circumstances of Richard Middlemas's birth, and the knowledge that he was actually possessed of a considerable sum of money, induced Hillary, though so much his senior, to admit the lad to his company, and enrich his youthful mind with some branches of information, which in that

ade the amende honorable; and a much smaller propitiation than the new doll with which he presented her would have been accepted as an atonement for a much greater offence. Menie was one of those pure spirits, to

ents, into an idle conviction that he was one day to share them. The letter of his grandfather, which condemned him to banishment and obscurity for life, was, he acknowledged, a very severe blow; and it was with deep sorrow that he reflected, that the irritation of his disappointment had led him to express himself in a manner far short of the respect and reverence of one who owed Mr. Gray the duty and af

d even offered to take him into his own office. But if his father and benefactor would permit him to study, under his instructions, the noble art in which he himself enjoyed such a deserved reputation, the mere hope that he might by-and-by be of some use to Mr. Gray in his b

ember of his family, Dr. Gray informed Mr. Moncada of the lad's determination; who, to testify his approbation, remitted to

t at the small club of the burgh, their joint them

, that I could not get him to accept a place in my office, for fear he shou

d that he kept too much company with that Tam Hillary of your