ell, man, what of that?" replied the driver; "yon two men will have
to sleep to-night, I reckon; and they'll put up to a sartenty
somewhear, and that's how we'll come abreast on 'em. It's no use
tearan like a crazy thing."

The driver had no misgivings; his conjecture seemed reasonable, and
whether his plan were feasible or not, it was the only one available.
So Robbie had to make a virtue of a necessity, as happens to many a
man of more resource.

He was perhaps in his secret heart the better reconciled to a few
hours' delay in his present quarters, because he fancied that the
little chambermaid had exhibited some sly symptoms of partiality for
his society in the few passages of conversation which he had exchanged
with her.

She was a bright, pert young thing, with just that dash of freedom in
her manners which usually comes of the pursuit of her public calling;
and it is only fair to Robbie's modesty to say that he had not
deceived himself very grossly in his estimate of the interest he had
suddenly excited in her eyes. It was probably a grievous dereliction
of duty to think of a love encounter, however blameless, at a juncture
like this--not to speak of the gravity of the offence of forgetting
the absent Liza. But Robbie was undergoing a forced interlude in the
march; the lady who dominated his affections was unhappily too far
away to appease them, and he was not the sort of young fellow who
could resist the assault of a pair of coquettish black eyes.

Returning from the taproom to announce his intention of waiting for
the coach, Robbie was invited to the fire in the kitchen,--a privilege
for which the extreme coldness of the day was understood to account.
Here he lit a pipe, and discoursed on the route that would probably be
pursued by his friends.

It was obvious that Ralph and Sim had not taken the direct road home
to Wythburn, for if they had done so he must have met them as he came
from Staveley. There was the bare possibility that he had missed them
by going round the fields to the old woman's cottage; but this seemed
unlikely.

"Are you quite sure it's an _old man_ you're after?" said the girl,
with a dig of emphasis that was meant to insinuate a doubt of Robbie's
eagerness to take so much trouble in running after anything less
enticing than one of another sex who might not be old.

Robbie protested on his honor that _he_ was never known to run after
young women,--a statement which did not appear to f