"Is he daft?" he muttered to himself;--"is he clean daft
a'thegither, to bring lords and leddies, and a host of folk behint them,
and twal o'clock chappit?" Then approaching the Master, he craved pardon
for having permitted the rest of his people to go out to see the hunt,
observing, that "They wad never think of his lordship coming back till
mirk night, and that he dreaded they might play the truant."
"Silence, Balderstone!" said Ravenswood, sternly; "your folly is
unseasonable. Sir and madam," he said, turning to his guests, "this old
man, and a yet older and more imbecile female domestic, form my whole
retinue. Our means of refreshing you are more scanty than even so
miserable a retinue, and a dwelling so dilapidated, might seem to
promise you; but, such as they may chance to be, you may command them."
The elder stranger, struck with the ruined and even savage appearance of
the Tower, rendered still more disconsolate by the lowering and gloomy
sky, and perhaps not altogether unmoved by the grave and determined
voice in which their host addressed them, looked round him anxiously, as
if he half repented the readiness with which he had accepted the offered
hospitality.
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