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. WHEN 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 |