That'll greatly help your design upon my
lady, for he dressed up in them all more than once just to please
her."
"Thank you," said Lenorme very heartily; "that will be of immense
advantage. Write at once."
"I will, sir.--Only I'm a bigger man than my--late master, and
you must mind that."
"I'll see to it. You get the clothes, and all the rest
of the accoutrements--rich with barbaric gems and gold, and--"
"Neither gems nor gold, sir;--honest Scotch cairngorms and plain
silver," said Malcolm.
"I only quoted Milton," returned Lenorme.
"Then you should have quoted correctly, sir.--'Showers on her kings
barbaric pearl and gold,'--that's the line, and you can't better
it. Mr Graham always pulled me up if I didn't quote correctly.--
By the bye, sir, some say it's kings barbaric, but there's barbaric
gold in Virgil."
"I dare say you are right," said Lenorme. "But you're far too
learned for me."
"Don't make game of me, sir. I know two or three books pretty well,
and when I get a chance I can't help talking about them. It's so
seldom now I can get a mouthful of Milton. There's no cave here to
go into, and roll the mimic thunder in your mouth. If the people
here heard me reading loud out, they would call me mad. It's a mercy
in this London, if a working man get loneliness enough to say his
prayers in!"
"You do say your prayers then?" asked Lenorme, looking at him
curiously.
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