Page:Tales of my landlord (Volume 2).djvu/169

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OLD MORTALITY.
161
CHAPTER VIII.

The devil a puritan, or any thing else, he is, but a time-server.

Twelfth Night.

It was evening when Mr Harry Morton perceived an old woman, wrapped in her tartan plaid, supported by a stout, stupid-looking fellow, in hoddin-grey, approach the house of Milnwood. Old Mause made her courtesy, but Cuddie took the lead in addressing Morton. Indeed he had previously stipulated with his mother that he was to manage matters his own way; for though he readily allowed his general inferiority of understanding, and submitted to the guidance of his mother on most ordinary occasions, yet he