Page:Guy Mannering Vol 2.djvu/307

among the pall-bearers little cards, assigning their respective situations in attendance upon the coffin. As this precedence is supposed to be regulated by propinquity to the defunct, the undertaker, however skilful a master of these lugubrious ceremonies, did not escape giving some offence. To be related to Mrs Bertram was to be of kin to the lands of Singleside, and was a propinquity of which each relative present at that moment was particularly jealous. Some murmurs there were upon the occasion, and our friend Dinmont gave more open offence, being unable either to repress his discontent, or to utter it in the key properly modulated to the solemnity. "I think ye might ha e at least given me a leg o' her to carry," he exclaimed, in a voice considerably louder than propriety admitted; "God! an it had nae been for the rigs o' land, I would hae got her a' to carry mysell, for as mony gentles as are here."_A score of frowning and reproving brows were bent upon the un-