Nigel replied, he had
paid the money, and had no desire to receive it again.
"Do as you will with it, then," replied his hostess, "for there it
lies, and shall lie for me. If you are fool enough to pay more than is
reason, my father shall not be knave enough to take it."
"But your father, mistress," said Nigel, "your father told me--"
"Oh, my father, my father," said she, interrupting him,--"my father
managed these affairs while he was able--I manage them now, and that
may in the long run be as well for both of us."
She then looked on the table, and observed the weapons.
"You have arms, I see," she said; "do you know how to use them?"
"I should do so mistress," replied Nigel, "for it has been my
occupation."
"You are a soldier, then?" she demanded.
"No farther as yet, than as every gentleman of my country is a
soldier."
"Ay, that is your point of honour--to cut the throats of the poor--a
proper gentlemanlike occupation for those who should protect them!"
"I do not deal in cutting throats, mistress," replied Nigel; "but I
carry arms to defend myself, and my country if it needs me."
"Ay," replied Martha, "it is fairly worded; but men say you are as
prompt as others in petty brawls, where neither your safety nor your
country is in hazard; and that had it not been so, you would not have
been in the Sanctuary to-day."
"Mistress," returned Nigel, "I should labour in vain to make you
understand that a man's honour, which is, or should be, dearer to him
than his life, may often call on and compel us to hazard our own
lives, or those of others, on what would otherwise seem trifling
contingencies.
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