And
yet I trust to do something for my vassals as my ancestors before me,
and to teach my children, as I have myself been taught, to make some
personal sacrifices, if they be necessary, in order to maintain with
dignity the situation in which they are placed by Providence."
Lord Dalgarno, after having once or twice stifled his laughter during
this speech, at length broke out into a fit of mirth, so hearty and so
resistless, that, angry as he was, the call of sympathy swept Nigel
along with him, and despite of himself, he could not forbear to join
in a burst of laughter, which he thought not only causeless, but
almost impertinent.
He soon recollected himself, however, and said, in a tone qualified to
allay Lord Dalgarno's extreme mirth: "This is all well, my lord; but
how am I to understand your merriment?" Lord Dalgarno only answered
him with redoubled peals of laughter, and at length held by Lord
Glenvarloch's cloak, as if to prevent his falling down on the ground,
in the extremity of his convulsion.
At length, while Nigel stood half abashed, half angry, at becoming
thus the subject of his new acquaintance's ridicule, and was only
restrained from expressing his resentment against the son, by a sense
of the obligations he owed the father, Lord Dalgarno recovered
himself, and spoke in a half-broken voice, his eyes still running with
tears: "I crave your pardon, my dear Lord Glenvarloch--ten thousand
times do I crave your pardon.
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