Chapter 29 - Page 2

tear him to pieces, or the hunters would cut his throat; and I
had pity on the gallant stag, and though I was of a different kind
from him, and though I was somewhat afraid of him, I thought I would
venture something to free so stately a creature; and I pulled out my
knife, and just as I was beginning to cut the meshes of the net, the
animal started up in my face in the likeness of a tiger, much larger
and fiercer than any you may have seen in the ward of the wild beasts
yonder, and was just about to tear me limb from limb, when you awaked
me."

"Methinks," said Nigel, "I deserve more thanks than I have got, for
rescuing you from such a danger by waking you. But, my pretty master,
methinks all this tale of a tiger and a stag has little to do with
your change of temper towards me."

"I know not whether it has or no," said the lad; "but I will not tell
you who I am."

"You will keep your secret to yourself then, peevish boy," said Nigel,
turning from him, and resuming his walk through the room; then
stopping suddenly, he said--"And yet you shall not escape from me
without knowing that I penetrate your mystery."

"My mystery!" said the youth, at once alarmed and irritated--"what
mean you, my lord?"

"Only that I can read your dream without the assistance of a Chaldean
interpreter, and my exposition is--that my fair companion does not
wear the dress of her sex."

"And if I do not, my lord," said his companion, hastily starting up,
and folding her cloak tight around her, "my dress, such as it is,
covers one who will not disgrace it."

"Many would call that speech a fair challenge," said Lord Glenvarloch,
looking on her fixedly; "women do not masquerade in men's clothes, to
make use of men's weapons."

"I have no such purpose," said the seeming boy; "I have other means of
protection, and powerful--but I would first know what is _your_
purpose."

"An honourable and a most respectful one," said Lord Glenvarloch;
"whatever you are--whatever motive may have brought you into this
ambiguous situation, I am sensible--every look, word, and action of
yours, makes me sensible, that you are no proper subject of
importunity, far less of ill usage. What circumstances can have forced
you into so doubtful a situation, I know not; but I feel assured there
is, and can be, nothing in them of premeditated wrong, which should
expose you to cold-blooded insult. From me you have nothing to dread."

"I expected nothing less from your nobleness, my lord," answered the
female; "my adventure, though I feel