"
Nigel for some time could not help believing that he was still in a
dream, so improbable did it seem that his domestic, whom he supposed
to be in Scotland, should have found him out, and obtained access to
him, in his present circumstances. Looking through the curtains,
however, he became well assured of the fact, when he beheld the stiff
and bony length of Richie, with a visage charged with nearly double
its ordinary degree of importance, employed sedulously in brushing his
master's cloak, and refreshing himself with whistling or humming, from
interval to interval, some snatch of an old melancholy Scottish
ballad-tune. Although sufficiently convinced of the identity of the
party, Lord Glenvarloch could not help expressing his surprise in the
superfluous question--"In the name of Heaven, Richie, is this you?"
"And wha else suld it be, my lord?" answered Richie; "I dreamna that
your lordship's levee in this place is like to be attended by ony that
are not bounded thereto by duty."
"I am rather surprised," answered Nigel, "that it should be attended
by any one at all--especially by you, Richie; for you know that we
parted, and I thought you had reached Scotland long since."
"I crave your lordship's pardon, but we have not parted yet, nor are
soon likely so to do; for there gang twa folk's votes to the unmaking
of a bargain, as to the making of ane.
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