Chapter 14 - Page 2

with thee for thy folly, man--but I remember how thou hast stuck
to me in adversity."

"Adversity, my lord, should never have parted us," said Richie;
"methinks, had the warst come to warst, I could have starved as
gallantly as your lordship, or more so, being in some sort used to it;
for, though I was bred at a flasher's stall, I have not through my
life had a constant intimacy with collops."

"Now, what is the meaning of all this trash?" said Nigel; "or has it
no other end than to provoke my patience? You know well enough, that,
had I twenty serving-men, I would hold the faithful follower that
stood by me in my distress the most valued of them all. But it is
totally out of reason to plague me with your solemn capriccios."

"My lord," said Richie, "in declaring your trust in me, you have done
what is honourable to yourself, if I may with humility say so much,
and in no way undeserved on my side. Nevertheless, we must part."

"Body of me, man, why?" said Lord Nigel; "what reason can there be for
it, if we are mutually satisfied?"

"My lord," said Richie Moniplies, "your lordship's occupations are
such as I cannot own or countenance by my presence."

"How now, sirrah!" said his master, angrily.

"Under favour, my lord," replied his domestic, "it is unequal dealing
to be equally offended by my speech and by my silence. If you can hear
with patience the grounds of my departure, it may be, for aught I
know, the better for you here and hereafter--if not, let me have my
license of departure in silence, and so no more about it."

"Go to, sir!" said Nigel; "speak out your mind--only remember to whom
you speak it."

"Weel, weel, my lord--I speak it with humility;" (never did Richie
look with more starched dignity than when he uttered the word;) "but
do you think this dicing and card-shuffling, and haunting of taverns
and playhouses, suits your lordship--for I am sure it does not suit
me?"

"Why, you are not turned precisian or puritan, fool?" said Lord
Glenvarloch, laughing, though, betwixt resentment and shame, it cost
him some trouble to do so.

"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.