They were hailed successively, as a grocer's wife upon a
party of pleasure with her eldest apprentice--as an old woman carrying
her grandson to school--and as a young strapping Irishman, conveying
an ancient maiden to Dr. Rigmarole's, at Redriffe, who buckles beggars
for a tester and a dram of Geneva. All this abuse was retorted in a
similar strain of humour by Greenjacket and his companion, who
maintained the war of wit with the same alacrity with which they were
assailed.
Meanwhile, Lord Glenvarloch asked his desolate companion if she had
thought on any place where she could remain in safety with her
property. She confessed, in more detail than formerly, that her
father's character had left her no friends; and that, from the time he
had betaken himself to Whitefriars, to escape certain legal
consequences of his eager pursuit of gain, she had lived a life of
total seclusion; not associating with the society which the place
afforded, and, by her residence there, as well as her father's
parsimony, effectually cut off from all other company. What she now
wished, was, in the first place, to obtain the shelter of a decent
lodging, and the countenance of honest people, however low in life,
until she should obtain legal advice as to the mode of obtaining
justice on her father's murderer. She had no hesitation to charge the
guilt upon Colepepper, (commonly called Peppercull,) whom she knew to
be as capable of any act of treacherous cruelty, as he was cowardly,
where actual manhood was required.
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