Cosmo, to see that man drink, makes me ashamed of my
tumbler of toddy. And now I think of it, I don't believe it does me
any good; and, just to make sure that I am in earnest, from this
hour I will take no more.--"Then," he added, after a short pause,
"I shall be pretty sure you will not take it."
"Oh, papa!" cried Cosmo, "take your toddy all the same: I promise
you--and a Warlock will not break his word--never to taste strong
drink while I live."
"I should prefer the word of a man to that of a Warlock," said his
father. "A Warlock is nothing except he be a man. Some Warlocks
have been men."
From that day, I may here mention, the laird drank nothing but
water, much to the pleasure of Peter Simon, who was from choice a
water-drinker.
"What a howling night it is, Cosmo!" he resumed. "If that poor old
drinker had tried to get on to Howglen, he would have been frozen
to death; when the drink is out of the drunkard, he has nothing to
resist with."
By this time Lord Mergwain had had his supper, and had begun to
drink again. Grizzie wanted to get rid of him, that she might "redd
up" her kitchen. But he would not move. He was quite comfortable
where he was, he said, and though it was the kitchen! he wouldn't
stir a peg till he had finished the magnum. My lady might go when
she pleased; the magnum was better company than the whole houseful!
Grizzie was on the point of losing her temper with him altogether,
when the laird returned to the kitchen.
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