Thus it was that I did nothing; and upon the same rea-
sons, I am still strong to justify my course. We lived
meanwhile in Albany, but though alone together in a
strange place, had little traffic beyond formal salutations.
My lord had carried with him several introductions to chief
people of the town and neighborhood; others he had before
encountered in New York; with this consequence, that he
went much abroad, and I am sorry to say was altogether too
convivial in his habits. I was often in bed, but never
asleep, when he returned; and there was scarce a night
when he did not betray the influence of liquor. By day he
would still lay upon me endless tasks, which he showed con-
siderable ingenuity to fish up and to renew, in the manner of
Penelope's web. I never refused, as I say, for I was hired
to do his bidding ; but I took no pains to keep my penetra-
tion under a bushel, and would sometimes smile in his face.
"I think I must be the devil, and you Michael Scott," I
said to him one day. "I have bridged Tweed and split the
Eildons; and now you set me to the rope of sand."

He looked at me with shining eyes and looked away
again, his jaw chewing; but without words.
"Well, well, my lord," said I, "your will is my pleasure.
