"My lord," replied the follower, "I ken the purport of your query. I
am, it may be, a little of a precisian, and I wish to Heaven I was
mair worthy of the name; but let that be a pass-over.--I have
stretched the duties of a serving-man as far as my northern conscience
will permit. I can give my gude word to my master, or to my native
country, when I am in a foreign land, even though I should leave
downright truth a wee bit behind me. Ay, and I will take or give a
slash with ony man that speaks to the derogation of either. But this
chambering, dicing, and play-haunting, is not my element--I cannot
draw breath in it--and when I hear of your lordship winning the siller
that some poor creature may full sairly miss--by my saul, if it wad
serve your necessity, rather than you gained it from him, I wad take a
jump over the hedge with your lordship, and cry 'Stand!' to the first
grazier we met that was coming from Smithfield with the price of his
Essex calves in his leathern pouch!"
"You are a simpleton," said Nigel, who felt, however, much conscience-
struck; "I never play but for small sums."
"Ay, my lord," replied the unyielding domestic, "and--still with
reverence--it is even sae much the waur. If you played with your
equals, there might be like sin, but there wad be mair warldly honour
in it. Your lordship kens, or may ken, by experience of your ain,
whilk is not as yet mony weeks auld, that small sums can ill be missed
by those that have nane larger; and I maun e'en be plain with you,
that men notice it of your lordship, that ye play wi' nane but the
misguided creatures that can but afford to lose bare stakes.
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