noon
The boy turned , and disappeared as suddenly as he had entered . `` You see , '' said Lord Dalgarno , `` that , in choosing my household , the best regard I can pay to gentle blood is to exclude it from my service -- that very gallows -- bird were enough to corrupt a whole antechamber of pages , though they were descended from kings and kaisers . '' `` I can scarce think that a nobleman should need the offices of such an attendant as your goblin , '' said Nigel ; `` you are but jesting with my inexperience . '' `` Time will show whether I jest or not , my dear Nigel , '' replied Dalgarno ; `` in the meantime , I have to propose to you to take the advantage of the flood-tide , to run up the river for pastime ; and at noon I trust you will dine with me . '' Nigel acquiesced in a plan which promised so much amusement ; and his new friend and he , attended by Lutin and Moniplies , who greatly resembled , when thus associated , the conjunction of a bear and a monkey , took possession of Lord Dalgarno 's wherry , which , with its badged watermen , bearing his lordship 's crest on their arms , lay in readiness to receive them . The air was delightful upon the river ; and the lively conversation of Lord Dalgarno added zest to the pleasures of the little voyage . He could not only give an account of the various public buildings and noblemen 's houses which they passed in ascending the Thames , but knew how to season his information with abundance of anecdote , political innuendo , and personal scandal ; if he had not very much wit , he was at least completely master of the fashionable tone , which in that time , as in ours , more than amply supplies any deficiency of the kind .