“Your last letter, my dear sir, contains a very fine
train of perhaps, and of so many pretty conjectures,
that it is not flattering you to say you excel in the art of tormenting
yourself. As it happens, you are quite wrong in all your suppositions. I have
been waiting for Lord D.’s answer to
your letter, to give a full answer to your very proper enquiries about my
family. Miss Nicolson says, that when
she did offer to give you some information, you refused it—and advises me now to wait for Lord
D.’s letter. Don’t believe I have been idle; I have
been writing very long letters to him, and all about you. How can you think
that I will give an answer about the house until I hear
278 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |