Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 1 - 1819.djvu/258

248 a'thegither, to bring lords and leddies, and a host of folks 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