book_id int64 19 72.2k | title stringlengths 2 416 | sentence string |
|---|---|---|
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Dost t'ou ken what t'ou's saying?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | But Walter, without attending to the question, repeated, with an accent of tenderness still more simple and touching,-- 'My Betty Bodle's dead! |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | She's awa up aboon the skies, yon'er, and left me a wee wee baby;' in saying which, he again burst into tears, and rising hastily from the bench, ran wildly back towards the Divethill House, whither he was followed by the old man, where the disastrous intelligence was confirmed, that she had died in giving birth to a daughter. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Deep and secret as Claud kept his feelings from the eyes of the world, this was a misfortune which he was ill prepared to withstand. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | For although in the first shock he betrayed no emotion, it was soon evident that it had shattered some of the firmest intents and purposes of his mind. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | That he regretted the premature death of a beautiful young woman in such interesting circumstances, was natural to him as a man; but he felt the event more as a personal disappointment, and thought it was accompanied with something so like retribution, that he inwardly trembled as if he had been chastised by some visible arm of Providence. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | For he could not disguise to himself that a female heir was a contingency he had not contemplated; that, by the catastrophe which had happened to the mother, the excambio of the Plealands for the Divethill would be rendered of no avail; and that, unless Walter married again, and had a son, the re-united Kittlestonheugh property must again be disjoined, as the Divethill would necessarily become the inheritance of the daughter. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The vexation of this was, however, alleviated, when he reflected on the pliancy of Walter's character, and he comforted himself with the idea that, as soon as a reasonable sacrifice of time had been made to decorum, he would be able to induce the natural to marry again. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Shall we venture to say, it also occurred in the cogitations of his sordid ambition, that, as the infant was prematurely born, and was feeble and infirm, he entertained some hope it might die, and not interfere with the entailed destination of the general estate? |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | But if, in hazarding this harsh supposition, we do him any injustice, it is certain that he began to think there was something in the current of human affairs over which he could acquire no control, and that, although, in pursuing so steadily the single purpose of recovering his family inheritance, his endeavours had, till this period, proved eminently successful, he yet saw, with dismay, that, from the moment other interests came to be blended with those which he considered so peculiarly his own, other causes also came into operation, and turned, in spite of all his hedging and prudence, the whole issue of his labours awry. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | He perceived that human power was set at naught by the natural course of things, and nothing produced a more painful conviction of the wrong he had committed against his first-born, than the frustration of his wishes by the misfortune which had befallen Walter. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | His reflections were also embittered from another source; by his parsimony he foresaw that, in the course of a few years, he would have been able, from his own funds, to have redeemed the Divethill without having had recourse to the excambio; and that the whole of the Kittlestonheugh might thus have been his own conquest, and, as such, without violating any of the usages of society, he might have commenced the entail with Charles. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | In a word, the death of Walter's wife and the birth of the daughter disturbed all his schemes, and rent from roof to foundation the castles which he had been so long and so arduously building. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | But it is necessary that we should return to poor Walter, on whom the loss of his beloved Betty Bodle acted with the incitement of a new impulse, and produced a change of character that rendered him a far less tractable instrument than his father expected to find. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | CHAPTER XXXV The sorrow of Walter, after he had returned home, assumed the appearance of a calm and settled melancholy. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | He sat beside the corpse with his hands folded and his head drooping. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | He made no answer to any question; but as often as he heard the infant's cry, he looked towards the bed, and said, with an accent of indescribable sadness, 'My Betty Bodle!' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | When the coffin arrived, his mother wished him to leave the room, apprehensive, from the profound grief in which he was plunged, that he might break out into some extravagance of passion, but he refused; and, when it was brought in, he assisted with singular tranquillity in the ceremonial of the coffining. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | But when the lid was lifted and placed over the body, and the carpenter was preparing to fasten it down for ever, he shuddered for a moment from head to foot; and, raising it with his left hand, he took a last look of the face, removing the veil with his right, and touching the sunken cheek as if he had hoped still to feel some ember of life; but it was cold and stiff. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'She's clay noo,' said he.--'There's nane o' my Betty Bodle here.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | And he turned away with a careless air, as if he had no further interest in the scene. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | From that moment his artless affections took another direction; he immediately quitted the death-room, and, going to the nursery where the infant lay asleep in the nurse's lap, he contemplated it for some time, and then, with a cheerful and happy look and tone, said,--'It's a wee Betty Bodle; and it's my Betty Bodle noo.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | And all his time and thoughts were thenceforth devoted to this darling object, in so much that, when the hour of the funeral was near, and he was requested to dress himself to perform the husband's customary part in the solemnity, he refused, not only to quit the child, but to have any thing to do with the burial. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'I canna understand,' said he, 'what for a' this fykerie's |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | about a lump o' yird? |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Sho'elt intil a hole, and no fash me.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'It's your wife, my lad,' replied his mother; 'ye'll surely never refuse to carry her head in a gudemanlike manner to the kirk-yard.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Na, na, mother, Betty Bodle's my wife, yon clod in the black kist is but her auld bodice; and when she flang't off, she put on this bonny wee new cleiding o' clay,' said he, pointing to the baby. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The Leddy, after some further remonstrance, was disconcerted by the pertinacity with which he continued to adhere to his resolution, and went to beg her husband to interfere. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Ye'll hae to gang ben, gudeman,' said she, 'and speak to Watty.--I wis the poor thing hasna gane by itsel wi' a broken heart. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | He threeps that the body is no his wife's, and ca's it a hateral o' clay and stones, and says we may fling't, Gude guide us, ayont the midden for him.--We'll just be affrontit if he'll no carry the head.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Claud, who had dressed himself in the morning for the funeral, was sitting in the elbow-chair, on the right side of the chimney-place, with his cheek resting on his hand, and his eyelids dropped, but not entirely shut, and on being thus addressed, he instantly rose, and went to the nursery. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'What's t'ou doing there like a hussy-fellow?' said he. ' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Rise and get on thy mournings, and behave wiselike, and leave the bairn to the women.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'It's my bairn,' replied Watty, 'and ye hae naething, father, to do wi't.--Will |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | I no tak care o' my ain baby--my bonny wee Betty Bodle?' 'Do as I bid thee, or I'll maybe gar thee fin' the weight o' my staff,' cried the old man sharply, expecting immediate obedience to his commands, such as he always found, however positively Walter, on other occasions, at first refused; but in this instance he was disappointed; for the widower looked him steadily in the face, and said,-- 'I'm a father noo; it would be an awfu' thing for a decent grey-headed man like you, father, to strike the head o' a motherless family.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Claud was so strangely affected by the look and accent with which this was expressed, that he stood for some time at a loss what to say, but soon recovering his self-possession, he replied, in a mild and persuasive manner,-- 'The frien's expek, Watty, that ye'll attend the burial, and carry the head, as the use and wont is in every weel-doing family.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'It's a thriftless custom, father, and what care I for burial-bread and services o' wine? |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | They cost siller, father, and I'll no wrang Betty Bodle for ony sic outlay on her auld yirden garment. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Ye may gang, for fashion's cause, wi' your weepers and your mourning strings, and lay the black kist i' the kirk-yard hole, but I'll no mudge the ba' o' my muckle tae in ony sic road.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'T'ou's past remede, I fear,' replied his father thoughtfully; 'but, Watty, I hope in this t'ou'll oblige thy mother and me, and put on thy new black claes;--t'ou kens they're in a braw fasson,--and come ben and receive the guests in a douce and sober manner. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The minister, I'm thinking, will soon be here, and t'ou should be in the way when he comes.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'No,' said Watty, 'no, do as ye like, and come wha may, it's a' ane to me: I'm positeeve.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The old man, losing all self-command at this extraordinary opposition, exclaimed,-- 'There's a judgment in this; and, if there's power in the law o' Scotland, I'll gar thee rue sic dourness. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Get up, I say, and put on thy mournings, or I'll hae thee cognost, and sent to bedlam.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'I'm sure I look for nae mair at your hands, father,' replied Walter simply; 'for my mither has often telt me, when ye hae been sitting sour and sulky in the nook, that ye would na begrudge crowns and pounds to make me _compos mentis_ for the benefit of Charlie.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Every pulse in the veins of Claud stood still at this stroke, and he staggered, overwhelmed with shame, remorse, and indignation, into a seat. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Eh!' said the Leddy, returning into the room at this juncture, 'what's come o'er you, gudeman? |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Pity me, will he no do your bidding?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Girzy Hypel,' was the hoarse and emphatic reply, 'Girzy Hypel, t'ou's the curse o' my life; the folly in thee has altered to idiotical depravity in him, and the wrong I did against my ain nature in marrying thee, I maun noo, in my auld age, reap the fruits o' in sorrow, and shame, and sin.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Here's composity for a burial!' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | exclaimed the Leddy. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'What's the matter, Watty Walkinshaw?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'My father's in a passion.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Claud started from his seat, and, with fury in his eyes, and his hands clenched, rushed across the room towards the spot where Walter was sitting, watching the infant in the nurse's lap. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | In the same moment, the affectionate natural also sprang forward, and placed himself in an attitude to protect the child. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The fierce old man was confounded, and turning round hastily, quitted the room, wringing his hands, unable any longer to master the conflicting feelings which warred so wildly in his bosom. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'This is a pretty-like house o' mourning,' said the Leddy; 'a father and a son fighting, and a dead body waiting to be ta'en to the kirk-yard. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | O Watty Walkinshaw! |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Watty Walkinshaw! |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | many a sore heart ye hae gi'en your parents,--will ye ne'er divaul till ye hae brought our grey hairs wi' sorrow to the grave? |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | There's your poor father flown demented, and a' the comfort in his cup and mine gane like water spilt on the ground. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Many a happy day we hae had, till this condumacity o' thine grew to sic a head. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | But tak your ain way o't. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Do as ye like. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Let strangers carry your wife to the kirk-yard, and see what ye'll mak o't.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | But notwithstanding all these, and many more equally persuasive and commanding arguments, Walter was not to be moved, and the funeral, in consequence, was obliged to be performed without him. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Yet still, though thus tortured in his feelings, the stern old man inflexibly adhered to his purpose. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The entail which he had executed was still with him held irrevocable; and, indeed, it had been so framed, that, unless he rendered himself insolvent, it could not be set aside. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | CHAPTER XXXVI |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | For some time after the funeral of Mrs. Walter Walkinshaw, the affairs of the Grippy family ran in a straight and even current. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The estrangement of the old man from his first-born suffered no describable increase, but Charles felt that it was increasing. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The old Leddy, in the meanwhile, had a world of cares upon her hands in breaking up the establishment which had been formed for Walter at the house on the Divethill, and in removing him back with the infant and the nurse to Grippy. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | And scarcely had she accomplished these, when a letter from her daughter, Mrs. Milrookit, informed her that the preparations for an addition to the 'sma' family' of Dirdumwhamle were complete, and that she hoped her mother could be present on the occasion, which was expected to come to pass in the course of a few weeks from the date. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Nothing was more congenial to the mind and habits of the Leddy, than a business of this sort, or, indeed, any epochal domestic event, such as, in her own phraseology, was entitled to the epithet of a handling. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | But when she mentioned the subject to her husband, he objected, saying,-- 'It's no possible, Girzy, for ye ken Mr. and Mrs. Givan are to be here next week with their dochter, Miss Peggy, and I would fain hae them to see an ony thing could be brought to a head between her and our Geordie. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | He's noo o' a time o' life when I would like he were settled in the world, and amang a' our frien's there's no a family I would be mair content to see him connected wi' than the Givans, who are come o' the best blood, and are, moreover, o' great wealth and property.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Weel, if e'er there was the like o' you, gudeman,' replied the Leddy, delighted with the news; 'an ye were to set your mind on a purpose o' marriage between a goose and a grumphie, I dinna think but ye would make it a' come to pass. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | For wha would hae thought o' this plot on the Givans, who, to be sure, are a most creditable family, and Miss Peggy, their dochter, is a vera genty creature, although it's my notion she's no o' a capacity to do meikle in the way o' throughgality. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Howsever, she's a bonny playock, and noo that the stipend ye alloo't to Watty is at an end, by reason of that heavy loss which we all met wi' in his wife, ye'll can weel afford to help Geordie to keep her out in a station o' life; for times, gudeman, are no noo as when you and me cam thegither. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Then a bein house, and a snod but and ben, was a' that was lookit for; but sin genteelity came into fashion, lads and lasses hae grown leddies and gentlemen, and a Glasgow wife saullying to the kirk wi' her muff and her mantle, looks as puckered wi' pride as my lord's leddy.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Claud, who knew well that his helpmate was able to continue her desultory consultations, as long as she could keep herself awake, here endeavoured to turn the speat of her clatter into a new channel, by observing, that hitherto they had not enjoyed any great degree of comfort in the marriages of their family. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Watty's,' said he, 'ye see, has in a manner been waur than nane; for a' we hae gotten by't is that weakly lassie bairn; and the sumph himsel is sae ta'en up wi't, that he's a perfect obdooracy to every wis o' mine, that he would tak another wife to raise a male-heir to the family.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'I'm sure,' replied the Leddy, 'it's just a sport to hear you, gudeman, and your male-heirs. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | What for can ye no be content wi' Charlie's son?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The countenance of Grippy was instantaneously clouded, but in a moment the gloom passed, and he said,-- 'Girzy Hypel, t'ou kens naething about it. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Will na Watty's dochter inherit the Divethill by right o' her father, for the Plealands, and so rive the heart again out o' the Kittlestonheugh, and mak a' my ettling fruitless? |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Noo, what I wis is, that Geordie should tak a wife to himsel as soon as a possibility will alloo, and if he has a son, by course o' nature, it might be wised in time to marry Watty's dochter, and so keep the property frae ganging out o' the family.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Noo, gudeman, thole wi' me, and no be angry,' replied the Leddy; 'for I canna but say it's a thing past ordinar that ye never seem to refleck, that Charlie's laddie might just as weel be wised to marry Watty's dochter, as ony son that Geordie's like to get; and over and moreover, the wean's in the world already, gudeman, but a' Geordie's are as trouts in the water; so I redde you to consider weel what ye're doing, and gut nae fish till ye catch them.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | During this speech, Claud's face was again overcast; the harsh and agonizing discord of his bosom rudely jangled through all the depths of his conscience, and reminded him how futile his wishes and devices might be rendered either by the failure of issue, or the birth of daughters. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Every thing seemed arranged by Providence, to keep the afflicting sense of the wrong he had done his first-born constantly galled. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | But it had not before occurred to him, that even a marriage between the son of Charles and Walter's daughter could not remedy the fault he had committed. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The heirs-male of George had a preference in the entail; and such a marriage would, in no degree, tend to prevent the Kittlestonheugh from being again disjoined. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | In one sentence, the ambitious old man was miserable; but rather than yet consent to retrace any step he had taken, he persevered in his original course, as if the fire in his heart could be subdued by adding fresh piles of the same fuel. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The match which he had formed for George was accordingly brought to what he deemed a favourable issue; for George, possessing but little innate delicacy, and only eager to become rich, had no scruple in proposing himself, at his father's suggestion, to Miss Peggy Givan; and the young lady being entirely under the control of her mother, who regarded a union with her relations, the Grippy family, as one of the most desirable, peaceably acquiesced in the arrangement. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Prior, however, to the marriage taking place, Mr. Givan, a shrewd and worldly man, conceiving, that, as George was a younger son, his elder brother married, and Walter's daughter standing between him and the succession to the estate,--he stipulated that the bridegroom should be settled as a principal in business. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | A short delay in consequence occurred between the arrangement and the solemnization; but the difficulty was overcome, by the old man advancing nearly the whole of his ready money as a proportion of the capital which was required by the house that received George into partnership. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Perhaps he might have been spared this sacrifice, for as such he felt it, could he have brought himself to divulge to Mr. Givan the nature of the entail which he had executed; but the shame of that transaction had by this time sunk so deep, that he often wished and tried to consider the deed as having no existence. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Meanwhile, Mrs. Milrookit had become the mother of a son; the only occurrence which, for some time, had given Claud any unalloyed satisfaction. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | But it also was soon converted into a new source of vexation and of punishment; for Leddy Grippy, ever dotingly fond of Walter, determined, from the first hour in which she heard of the birth of Walkinshaw Milrookit, as the child was called, to match him with her favourite's Betty; and the mere possibility of such an event taking place filled her husband with anxiety and fear; the expressions of which, and the peevish and bitter accents that he used in checking her loquacity on the subject, only served to make her wonderment at his prejudices the more and more tormenting. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.