that she hoped,
with God's favour, to be able to take her own part, and to give to
perverse customers as good as they might bring. She had a dauntless
heart, that same Belle. Such was the staple of Belle's conversation. As
for mine, I would endeavour to entertain her with strange dreams of
adventure, in which I figured in opaque forests, strangling wild beasts,
or discovering and plundering the hordes of dragons; and sometimes I
would narrate to her other things far more genuine--how I had tamed
savage mares, wrestled with Satan, and had dealings with ferocious
publishers. Belle had a kind heart, and would weep at the accounts I
gave her of my early wrestlings with the dark Monarch. She would sigh,
too, as I recounted the many slights and degradations I had received at
the hands of ferocious publishers; but she had the curiosity of a woman;
and once, when I talked to her of the triumphs which I had achieved over
unbroken mares, she lifted up her head and questioned me as to the secret
of the virtue which I possessed over the aforesaid animals; whereupon I
sternly reprimanded, and forthwith commanded her to repeat the Armenian
numerals; and, on her demurring, I made use of words, to escape which she
was glad to comply, saying the Armenian numerals from one to a hundred,
which numerals, as a punishment for her curiosity, I made her repeat
three times, loading her with the bitterest reproaches whenever she
committed the slightest error, either in accent or pronunciation, which
reproaches she appeared to bear with the greatest patience. And now I
have given a very fair account of the manner in which Isopel Berners and
myself passed our time in the dingle.

CHAPTER XCII

The Landlord--Rather Too Old--Without a Shilling--Reputation--A Fortnight
Ago--Liquids--The Main Chance--Respectability--Irrational
Beings--Parliament Cove--My Brewer.

Amongst other excursions, I went several times to the public-house to
which I introduced the reader in a former chapter. I had experienced
such beneficial effects from the ale I had drunk on that occasion, that I
wished to put its virtue to a frequent test; nor did the ale on
subsequent trials belie the good opinion which I had at first formed of
it. After each visit which I made to the public-house, I found my frame
stronger and my mind more cheerful than they had previously been. The
landlord appeared at all times glad to see me, and insisted that I should
sit within th