"
"And you did your best, I don't doubt!" rejoined his lordship with
a sneer. "But you know nothing is to be made of what a man says in
a fit."
"I have told your lordship I heard nothing."
"No matter; I don't sleep another night under your roof."
"That will be as it may, my lord."
"What do you mean?"
"Look at the weather, my lord.--Cosmo!"
The boy was still asleep, but at the sound of his name from his
father's lips, he started at once to his feet.
"Go and wake Grizzie," said the laird, "and tell her to get
breakfast ready as fast as she can. Then bring some peat for the
fire, and some hot water for his lordship."
Cosmo ran to obey. Grizzie had been up for more than an hour, and
was going about with the look of one absorbed in a tale of magic
and devilry. Her mouth was pursed up close, as if worlds should not
make her speak, but her eyes were wide and flashing, and now and
then she would nod her head, as for the Q. E. D. to some unheard
argument. Whatever Cosmo required, she attended to at once, but not
one solitary word did she utter.
He went back with the fuel, and they made up the fire. Lord
Mergwain was again lying back exhausted in his chair, with his eyes
closed.
"Why don't you give me my brandy--do you hear?" all at once he
cried. "--Oh, I thought it was my own rascal! Get me some brandy,
will you?"
"There is none in the house, my lord," said his host.
"What a miserable sort of public to keep! No brandy!"
"My lord, you are at Castle Warlock--not so good a place for your
lordship's needs.
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