The next minute Cosmo entered, saying the horse was dead.
"What a beastly country!" growled his lordship.
But the wine that was presently gurgling from the short neck of the apoplectic magnum, soon began to console him.

He liked this bottle better than the last, and some composure returned to him.
The laird fetched a book of old ballads, and offered to read one or two to make the time pass.

Lord Mergwain gave a scornful grunt; but Lady Joan welcomed the proposal: the silent worship of the boy, again at her feet, was not enough to make her less than very weary.
For more than an hour, the laird read ballad after ballad; but nobody, not even himself, attended much--the old lord not at all.
But the time passed.

His lordship grew sleepy, began to nod, and seemed to forget his wine.

At length he fell asleep.