"
"Go, then," said his master, "and get out of my sight."
"Aweel I wot that is sune done," said Moniplies, retiring slowly; "I
did not come without I had been ca'd for--and I wad have been away
half an hour since with my gude will, only Maister George keepit me to
answer his interrogation, forsooth, and that has made a' this stir."
And so he made his grumbling exit, with the tone much rather of one
who has sustained an injury, than who has done wrong.
"There never was a man so plagued as I am with a malapert knave!--The
fellow is shrewd, and I have found him faithful--I believe he loves
me, too, and he has given proofs of it--but then he is so uplifted in
his own conceit, so self-willed, and so self-opinioned, that he seems
to become the master and I the man; and whatever blunder he commits,
he is sure to make as loud complaints, as if the whole error lay with
me, and in no degree with himself."
"Cherish him, and maintain him, nevertheless," said the citizen; "for
believe my grey hairs, that affection and fidelity are now rarer
qualities in a servitor, than when the world was younger. Yet, trust
him, my good lord, with no commission above his birth or breeding, for
you see yourself how it may chance to fall."
"It is but too evident, Master Heriot," said the young nobleman; "and
I am sorry I have done injustice to my sovereign, and your master.
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