At length all went off, and
we were quiet. I thought, however, Mr. Scott will now shut himself up
among his books and papers, for he has to make up for lost time; it
won't do for me to ask him now to sit for his picture. Laidlaw, who
managed his estate, came in, and Scott turned to him, as I supposed, to
consult about business. 'Laidlaw,' said he, 'to-morrow morning we'll go
across the water and take the dogs with us--there's a place where I
think we shall be able to find a hare.'
"In short," added Wilkie, "I found that instead of business, he was
thinking only of amusement, as if he had nothing in the world to occupy
him; so I no longer feared to intrude upon him."
The conversation of Scott was frank, hearty, picturesque, and dramatic.
During the time of my visit he inclined to the comic rather than the
grave, in his anecdotes and stories, and such, I was told, was his
general inclination. He relished a joke, or a trait of humor in social
intercourse, and laughed with right good will. He talked not for effect
nor display, but from the flow of his spirits, the stores of his
memory, and the vigor of his imagination. He had a natural turn for
narration, and his narratives and descriptions were without effort, yet
wonderfully graphic.
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