As they rode
towards the theatre, Lord Dalgarno endeavoured to discover his
friend's opinion of the company to which he had introduced him, and to
combat the exceptions which he might suppose him to have taken. "And
wherefore lookest thou sad," he said, "my pensive neophyte? Sage son
of the Alma Mater of Low-Dutch learning, what aileth thee? Is the leaf
of the living world which we have turned over in company, less fairly
written than thou hadst been taught to expect? Be comforted, and pass
over one little blot or two; thou wilt be doomed to read through many
a page, as black as Infamy, with her sooty pinion, can make them.
Remember, most immaculate Nigel, that we are in London, not Leyden--
that we are studying life, not lore. Stand buff against the reproach
of thine over-tender conscience, man, and when thou summest up, like a
good arithmetician, the actions of the day, before you balance the
account on your pillow, tell the accusing spirit, to his brimstone
beard, that if thine ears have heard the clatter of the devil's bones,
thy hand hath not trowled them--that if thine eye hath seen the
brawling of two angry boys, thy blade hath not been bared in their
fray."
"Now, all this may be wise and witty," replied Nigel; "yet I own I
cannot think but that your lordship, and other men of good quality
with whom we dined, might have chosen a place of meeting free from the
intrusion of bullies, and a better master of your ceremonial than
yonder foreign adventurer.
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