I think the lock of your casket be
indifferent good; if not, I can serve you at an easy rate with one
that has held thousands;--it was the good old Sir Faithful Frugal's;--
his spendthrift son sold the shell when he had eaten the kernel--and
there is the end of a city-fortune."
"I hope yours will make a better termination, Master Heriot," said the
Lord Nigel.
"I hope it will, my lord," said the old man, with a smile; "but," to
use honest John Bunyan's phrase--'therewithal the water stood in his
eyes,' "it has pleased God to try me with the loss of two children;
and for one adopted shild who ives--Ah! woe is me! and well-a-day!--
But I am patient and thankful; and for the wealth God has sent me,
it shall not want inheritors while there are orphan lads in Auld
Reekie.--I wish you good-morrow, my lord."
"One orphan has cause to thank you already," said Nigel, as he
attended him to the door of his chamber, where, resisting further
escort, the old citizen made his escape.
As, in going downstairs, he passed the shop where Dame Christie stood
becking, he made civil inquiries after her husband. The dame of course
regretted his absence; but he was down, she said, at Deptford, to
settle with a Dutch ship-master.
"Our way of business, sir," she said, "takes him much from home, and
my husband must be the slave of every tarry jacket that wants but a
pound of oakum.
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