The knight forthwith framed his grim features to a ghastly smile, and,
after a preliminary and patronising nod to George Heriot, accompanied
with an aristocratic wave of the hand, which intimated at once
superiority and protection, he laid aside altogether the honest
citizen, to whom he owed many a dinner, to attach himself exclusively
to the young lord, although he suspected he might be occasionally in
the predicament of needing one as much as himself. And even the notice
of this original, singular and unamiable as he was, was not entirely
indifferent to Lord Glenvarloch, since the absolute and somewhat
constrained silence of his good friend Heriot, which left him at
liberty to retire painfully to his own agitating reflections, was now
relieved; while, on the other hand, he could not help feeling interest
in the sharp and sarcastic information poured upon him by an
observant, though discontented courtier, to whom a patient auditor,
and he a man of title and rank, was as much a prize, as his acute and
communicative disposition rendered him an entertaining companion to
Nigel Olifaunt. Heriot, in the meantime, neglected by Sir Mungo, and
avoiding every attempt by which the grateful politeness of Lord
Glenvarloch strove to bring him into the conversation, stood by, with
a kind of half smile on his countenance; but whether excited by Sir
Mungo's wit, or arising at his expense, did not exactly appear.
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