in short stages and with great difficulty--arising from her being
tall and his being short, and perhaps in some degree from that peculiar
physical conformation on which he had already remarked--carried her
upstairs, and planting her, in the same umbrella and walking-stick
fashion, just inside her own door, left her to her repose.

'He may be as cool as he likes,' said Miss Miggs, recovering as soon
as she was left alone; 'but I'm in his confidence and he can't help
himself, nor couldn't if he was twenty Simmunses!'

Chapter 10

It was on one of those mornings, common in early spring, when the year,
fickle and changeable in its youth like all other created things, is
undecided whether to step backward into winter or forward into summer,
and in its uncertainty inclines now to the one and now to the other, and
now to both at once--wooing summer in the sunshine, and lingering still
with winter in the shade--it was, in short, on one of those mornings,
when it is hot and cold, wet and dry, bright and lowering, sad and
cheerful, withering and genial, in the compass of one short hour, that
old John Willet, who was dropping asleep over the copper boiler, was
roused by the sound of a horse's feet, and glancing out at window,
beheld a traveller of goodly promise, checking his bridle at the Maypole
door.

He was none of your flippant young fellows, who would call for a tankard
of mulled ale, and make themselves as much at home as if they had
ordered a hogshead of wine; none of your audacious young swaggerers, who
would even penetrate into the bar--that solemn sanctuary--and, smiting
old John upon the back, inquire if there was never a pretty girl in the
house, and where he hid his little chambermaids, with a hundred other
impertinences of that nature; none of your free-and-easy companions, who
would scrape their boots upon the firedogs in the common room, and
be not at all particular on the subject of spittoons; none of your
unconscionable blades, requiring impossible chops, and taking unheard-of
pickles for granted. He was a staid, grave, placid gentleman, something
past the prime of life, yet upright in his carriage, for all that, and
slim as a greyhound. He was well-mounted upon a sturdy chestnut cob, and
had the graceful seat of an experienced horseman; while his riding gear,
though free from such fopperies as were then in vogue, was handsome and
well chosen. He wore a riding-coat of a somewhat brighter green than
mig