could not quiz him--no, no more than Montrose himself. He is a strange
article! But he keeps one awake, which is more than most people do!'

Guy was indeed likely to keep every one awake just then; for Mr.
Edmonstone was going to take him out hunting for the first time, and he
was half wild about it. The day came, and half an hour before Mr.
Edmonstone was ready, Guy was walking about the hall, checking many an
incipient whistle, and telling every one that he was beforehand with
the world, for he had read one extra hour yesterday, and had got
through the others before breakfast. Laura thought it very true that,
as Philip said, he was only a boy, and moralized to Charlotte on his
being the same age as herself--very nearly eighteen. Mrs. Edmonstone
told Charles it was a treat to see any one so happy, and when he began
to chafe at the delay, did her best to beguile the time, but without
much success. Guy had ever learned to wait patiently, and had a custom
of marching up and down, and listening with his head thrown back, or,
as Charles used to call it, 'prancing in the hall.'

If Mrs. Edmonstone's patience was tried by the preparation for the hunt
in the morning, it was no less her lot to hear of it in the evening.
Guy came home in the highest spirits, pouring out his delight to every
one, with animation and power of description giving all he said a
charm. The pleasure did not lose by repetition; he was more engrossed
by it every time; and no one could be more pleased with his ardour than
Mr. Edmonstone, who, proud of him and his riding, gave a sigh to past
hopes of poor Charles, and promoted the hunting with far more glee that
he had promoted the reading.

The Redclyffe groom, William, whose surname of Robinson was entirely
forgotten in the appellation of William of Deloraine, was as proud of