"
They were interrupted by the unceremonious entrance of the same
footman who had brought the invitation. He carried a magnificent
set of ebony pipes, with silver mountings.
"A present from my lord, the marquis," he said bumptiously, almost
rudely, and laid them on the table.
"Dinna lay them there; tak them frae that, or I'll fling them yer
poothered wig," said Malcolm. "--It's a stan' o' pipes," he added,
"an' that a gran' ane, daddy."
"Take tem away!" cried the old man, in a voice too feeble to support
the load of indignation it bore. "She'll pe taking no presents from
marquis or tuke tat would pe teceifing old Tuncan, and making him
trink with ta cursed Clenlyon. Tell ta marquis he 'll pe sending
her cray hairs with sorrow to ta crafe; for she 'll pe tishonoured
for efer and henceforth."
Probably pleased to be the bearer of a message fraught with so much
amusement, the man departed in silence with the pipes.
The marquis, although the joke had threatened, and indeed so far
taken a serious turn, had yet been thoroughly satisfied with its
success. The rage of the old man had been to his eyes ludicrous
in the extreme, and the anger of the young one so manly as to be
even picturesque. He had even made a resolve, half dreamy and of
altogether improbable execution, to do something for the fisher
fellow.
The pipes which he had sent as a solatium to Duncan, were a set
that belonged to the house--ancient, and in the eyes of either
connoisseur or antiquarian, exceedingly valuable; but the marquis
was neither the one nor the other, and did not in the least mind
parting with them.
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