You will find us all of a piece, and, having been accustomed to eat in
saucers abroad, I am ashamed you should witness our larded capons, our
mountains of beef, and oceans of brewis, as large as Highland hills
and lochs; but you shall see better cheer to-morrow. Where lodge you?
I will call for you. I must be your guide through the peopled desert,
to certain enchanted lands, which you will scarce discover without
chart and pilot. Where lodge you?"
"I will meet you in Paul's," said Nigel, a good deal embarrassed, "at
any hour you please to name."
"O, you would be private," said the young lord; "nay, fear not me--I
will be no intruder. But we have attained this huge larder of flesh,
fowl, and fish. I marvel the oaken boards groan not under it."
They had indeed arrived in the dining-parlour of the mansion, where
the table was superabundantly loaded, and where the number of
attendants, to a certain extent, vindicated the sarcasms of the young
nobleman. The chaplain, and Sir Mungo Malagrowther, were of the party.
The latter complimented Lord Glenvarloch upon the impression he had
made at Court. "One would have thought ye had brought the apple of
discord in your pouch, my lord, or that you were the very firebrand of
whilk Althea was delivered, and that she had lain-in in a barrel of
gunpowder, for the king, and the prince, and the duke, have been by
the lugs about ye, and so have many more, that kendna before this
blessed day that there was such a man living on the face of the
earth.
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