“And the devil's dam, my lord,” answered Richie; “they are all three busy in London.—And, besides, Lutin and his master laughed at you, my lord, for letting it be thought that—I shame to speak it—that ye were over well with the wife of the decent honest man whose house you but now left, as not sufficient for your new bravery, whereas they said, the licentious scoffers, that you pretended to such favour when you had not courage enough for so fair a quarrel, and that the sparrow-hawk was too craven-crested to fly at the wife of a cheesemonger.”—He stopped a moment, and looked fixedly in his master's face, which was inflamed with shame and anger, and then proceeded. “My lord, I did you justice in my thought, and myself too; for, thought I, he would have been as deep in that sort of profligacy as in others, if it hadna been Richie's four quarters.”
“What new nonsense have you got to plague me with?” said Lord Nigel. “But go on, since it is the last time I am to be tormented with your impertinence,—go on, and make the most of your time.”
“In troth,” said Richie, “and so will I even do. And as Heaven has bestowed on me a tongue to speak and to advise——”
“Which talent you can by no means be accused of suffering to remain idle,” said Lord Glenvarloch, interrupting him.
“True, my lord,” said Richie, again waving his hand, as if to bespeak his master's silence and attention; “so, I trust, you will think some time hereafter. And, as I am about to leave your service, it is proper that ye suld know the truth, that ye may consider the snares to which your youth and innocence may be exposed, when aulder and doucer heads are withdrawn from beside you.—There has been a lusty, good-looking kimmer, of some forty, or bygane, making mony speerings about you, my lord.”
“Well, sir, what did she want with me?” said Lord Nigel.
“At first, my lord,” replied his sapient follower, “as she seemed to be a well-fashioned woman, and to take pleasure in sensible company, I was no way reluctant to admit her to my conversation.”
“I dare say not,” said Lord Nigel; “nor unwilling to tell her about my private affairs.”
“Not I, truly, my lord,” said the attendant;—“for, though she asked me mony questions about your fame, your fortune, your business here, and such like, I did not think it proper to tell her altogether the truth thereanent.”
“I see no call on you whatever,” said Lord Nigel, “to tell the woman either truth or lies upon what she had nothing to do with.”