When the service was
concluded, and each had remained, according to the decent and edifying
practice of the church, concentrated in mental devotion for a short
space, the mysterious visitant arose ere any other person stirred; and
Nigel remarked that none of the domestics left their places, oreven
moved, until she had first kneeled on one knee to Heriot, who seemed
to bless her with his hand laid on her head, and a melancholy
solemnity of look and action. She then bended her body, but without
kneeling, to Mrs. Judith, and having performed these two acts of
reverence, she left the room; yet just in the act of her departure,
she once more turned her penetrating eyes on Nigel with a fixed look,
which compelled him to turn his own aside. When he looked towards her
again, he saw only the skirt of her white mantle as she left the
apartment.
The domestics then rose and dispersed themselves--wine, and fruit, and
spices, were offered to Lord Nigel and to the clergyman, and the
latter took his leave. The young lord would fain have accompanied him,
in hope to get some explanation of the apparition which he had beheld,
but he was stopped by his host, who requested to speak with him in his
compting-room.
"I hope, my lord," said the citizen, "that your preparations for
attending Court are in such forwardness that you can go thither the
day after to-morrow. It is, perhaps, the last day, for some time, that
his Majesty will hold open Court for all who have pretensions by
birth, rank, or office to attend upon him.
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