He that had once eat pease-bannocks, drank
sour wine, and slept in the secret chamber at Wolf's Crag, would, he
said, prize good cheer and a soft bed as long as he lived, and take
special care never to need such hospitality again.
Craigengelt, therefore, found himself disappointed in the first hopes
he had entertained of making a good hand of the Laird of Bucklaw. Still,
however, he reaped many advantages from his friend's good fortune.
Bucklaw, who had never been at all scrupulous in choosing his
companions, was accustomed to, and entertained by, a fellow whom he
could either laugh with or laugh at as he had a mind, who would take,
according to Scottish phrase, "the bit and the buffet," understood all
sports, whether within or without doors, and, when the laird had a mind
for a bottle of wine (no infrequent circumstance), was always ready to
save him from the scandal of getting drunk by himself. Upon these terms,
Craigengelt was the frequent, almost the constant, inmate of the house
of Girnington.
In no time, and under no possibility of circumstances, could good have
been derived from such an intimacy, however its bad consequences might
be qualified by the thorough knowledge which Bucklaw possessed of his
dependant's character, and the high contempt in which he held it.
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