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GUY MANNERING.
289

me, without thinking worse of the presbyterian forms, because they do not affect me with the same associations." And with this remark they parted until dinner-time.

From the awkward access to the lawyer's mansion, Mannering was induced to form very moderate expectations of the entertainment which he was to receive. The approach looked even more dismal by day-light than on the preceding evening. The houses on each side of the lane were so close, that the neighbours might have shaken hands with each other from the different sides, and occasionally the space between was traversed by wooden galleries, and thus entirely closed up. The stair—the scale-stair, was not well cleaned, and upon entering the house, Mannering was struck with the narrowness and meanness of the wainscotted passage. Bat the library, into which he was shewn by an elderly respectable-looking man-servant, was a complete contrast to these unpromising appearances. It was a well-propor-