'
Waverley listened with great composure until the end of this
exhortation, when, springing from his seat, with an energy he had not
yet displayed, he replied, 'Major Melville, since that is your name,
I have hitherto answered your questions with candour, or declined them
with temper, because their import concerned myself alone; but as you
presume to esteem me mean enough to commence informer against others,
who received me, whatever may be their public misconduct, as a guest and
friend,--I declare to you that I consider your questions as an insult
infinitely more offensive than your calumnious suspicions; and that,
since my hard fortune permits me no other mode of resenting them than by
verbal defiance, you should sooner have my heart out of my bosom, than
a single syllable of information on subjects which I could only become
acquainted with in the full confidence of unsuspecting hospitality.'
Mr. Morton and the Major looked at each other; and the former, who, in
the course of the examination, had been repeatedly troubled with a sorry
rheum, had recourse to his snuff-box and his handkerchief.
'Mr. Waverley,' said the Major, 'my present situation prohibits me alike
from giving or receiving offence, and I will not protract a discussion
which approaches to either.
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