BY THE AUTHOR OF "WAVERLEY, KENILWORTH," &c. "If my readers should at any time remark that I am particularly dull, they IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. II. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO. EDINBURGH; AND HURST, ROBINSON, AND CO. LONDON. 1822. PEVERIL OF THE PEAK. CHAPTER I. Parents have flinty hearts! No tears can move them. OTWAY. W HEN Alice Bridgenorth entered, at length, the parlour where her anxious lover had so long expected her, it was with a slow step, and a composed manner. Her dress was arranged with an accurate attention to form, which at once enhanced the appearance of its puritanic simplicity, and struck Julian as a bad omen; for although the time bestowed upon the toilette may, in many cases, intimate the wish to appear advantageously at such an interview, yet a ceremonious arrangement of attire is very much allied with for |