Now Lady Florimel had inherited her father's joy in teasing; and the
thought of carrying him such an overture was irresistibly delightful.
"I will take it," she said. "But what if he should be angry?"
"If her lord pe angry, Tuncan is angry too," answered the piper.
Malcolm followed Lady Florimel to the door.
"Put it as saft as ye can, my leddy," he whispered. "I canna bide
to anger fowk mair than maun be."
"I shall give the message precisely as your grandfather gave it to
me," said Florimel, and walked away.
While they sat at dinner the next evening, she told her father
from the head of the table, all about her visit to the piper, and
ended with the announcement of the condition--word for word--
on which the old man would consent to a reconciliation.
Could such a proposal have come from an equal whom he had insulted,
the marquis would hardly have waited for a challenge: to have done
a wrong was nothing; to confess it would be disgrace. But here the
offended party was of such ludicrously low condition, and the proposal
therefore so ridiculous, that it struck the marquis merely as a
yet more amusing prolongation of the joke. Hence his reception of
it was with uproarious laughter, in which all his visitors joined.
"Damn the old windbag!" said the marquis.
"Damn the knife that made the mischief," said Lady Florimel.
When the merriment had somewhat subsided, Lord Meikleham, the youth
of soldierly aspect, would have proposed whipping the highland
beggar, he said, were it not for the probability the old clothes
horse would fall to pieces; whereupon Lady Florimel recommended him
to try it on the young fisherman, who might possibly hold together;
whereat the young lord looked both mortified and spiteful.
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