But when this happened repeatedly, the gamesters murmured
amongst themselves equally at the caution and the success of the young
Scotsman; and he became far from being a popular character among their
society.
It was no slight inducement to the continuance of this most evil
habit, when it was once in some degree acquired, that it seemed to
place Lord Glenvarloch, haughty as he naturally was, beyond the
necessity of subjecting himself to farther pecuniary obligations,
which his prolonged residence in London must otherwise have rendered
necessary. He had to solicit from the ministers certain forms of
office, which were to render his sign-manual effectually useful; and
these, though they could not be denied, were delayed in such a manner,
as to lead Nigel to believe there was some secret opposition, which
occasioned the demur in his business. His own impulse was, to have
appeared at Court a second time, with the king's sign-manual in his
pocket, and to have appealed to his Majesty himself, whether the delay
of the public officers ought to render his royal generosity
unavailing. But the Lord Huntinglen, that good old peer, who had so
frankly interfered in his behalf on a former occasion, and whom he
occasionally visited, greatly dissuaded him from a similar adventure,
and exhorted him quietly to await the deliverance of the ministers,
which should set him free from dancing attendance in London.
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