Nigel's eyes were scarce turned from the window, when his new landlord
entering, presented to him a slip of paper, carefully bound round with
a string of flox-silk and sealed---it had been given in, he said, by a
woman, who did not stop an instant. The contents harped upon the same
string which Richie Moniplies had already jarred. The epistle was in
the following words:
For the Right Honourable hands of Lord Glenvarloch,
"These, from a friend unknown:--
"MY LORD,
"You are trusting to an unhonest friend, and diminishing an honest
reputation. An unknown but real friend of your lordship will speak in
one word what you would not learn from flatterers in so many days, as
should suffice for your utter ruin. He whom you think most true--I say
your friend Lord Dalgarno--is utterly false to you, and doth but seek,
under pretence of friendship, to mar your fortune, and diminish the
good name by which you might mend it. The kind countenance which he
shows to you, is more dangerous than the Prince's frown; even as to
gain at Beaujeu's ordinary is more discreditable than to lose. Beware
of both.--And this is all from your true but nameless friend,
IGNOTO."
Lord Glenvarloch paused for an instant, and crushed the paper
together--then again unfolded and read it with attention--bent his
brows--mused for a moment, and then tearing it to fragments,
exclaimed--"Begone for a vile calumny! But I will watch--I will
observe--"
Thought after thought rushed on him; but, upon the whole, Lord
Glenvarloch was so little satisfied with the result of his own
reflections, that he resolved to dissipate them by a walk in the Park,
and, taking his cloak and beaver, went thither accordingly.
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