All was now ready for
their departure; and one of the Lord Keeper's grooms having saddled the
Master's steed, they mounted in the courtyard.
Caleb had, with much toil, opened the double doors of the outward gate,
and thereat stationed himself, endeavouring, by the reverential, and at
the same time consequential, air which he assumed, to supply, by his
own gaunt, wasted, and thin person, the absence of a whole baronial
establishment of porters, warders, and liveried menials.
The Keeper returned his deep reverence with a cordial farewell, stooping
at the same time from his horse, and sliding into the butler's hand the
remuneration which in those days was always given by a departing guest
to the domestics of the family where he had been entertained. Lucy
smiled on the old man with her usual sweetness, bade him adieu, and
deposited her guerdon with a grace of action and a gentleness of accent
which could not have failed to have won the faithful retainer's heart,
but for Thomas the Rhymer, and the successful lawsuit against his
master. As it was, he might have adopted the language of the Duke in As
You Like It:
Thou wouldst have better pleased me with this deed, If thou hadst told
me of another father.
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