forbear!"--Her maiden name? Faith, I don't know the woman's
maiden name, though she said to me, "Good evening, John;" but I had no
memory of ever seeing her afore--no, no more than the dead inside church-
hatch--where I shall soon be likewise--I had not. "Ay, my nabs," I think
to myself, "more know Tom Fool than Tom Fool knows."'

'More know Tom Fool--what rambling old canticle is it you say, hostler?'
inquired the milkman, lifting his ear. 'Let's have it again--a good
saying well spit out is a Christmas fire to my withered heart. More know
Tom Fool--'

'Than Tom Fool knows,' said the hostler.

'Ah! That's the very feeling I've feeled over and over again, hostler,
but not in such gifted language. 'Tis a thought I've had in me for
years, and never could lick into shape!--O-ho-ho-ho! Splendid! Say it
again, hostler, say it again! To hear my own poor notion that had no
name brought into form like that--I wouldn't ha' lost it for the world!
More know Tom Fool than--than--h-ho-ho-ho-ho!'

'Don't let your sense o' vitness break out in such uproar, for heaven's
sake, or folk will surely think you've been laughing at the lady and
gentleman. Well, here's at it again--Night t'ee, Michael.' And the
hostler went on with his sweeping.

'Night t'ee, hostler, I must move too,' said the milkman, shouldering his
yoke, and walking off; and there reached the inn in a gradual diminuendo,
as he receded up the street, shaking his head convulsively, 'More
know--Tom Fool--than Tom Fool--ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!'

The 'Red Lion,' as the inn or hotel was called which of late years had
become the fashion among tourists, because of the absence from its
precincts of all that was fashionable and new, stood near the middle of
the town, and formed a corner where in winter the winds whistled and
assembled their forces previous to plunging helter-skelter along the
streets. In summer it was a fresh and pleasant spot, convenient for such
quiet characters as sojourned there to study the geology and beautiful
natural features of the country round.

The lady whose appearance had asserted a difference between herself and
the Anglebury people, without too clearly showing what that difference
was, passed out of the town in a few moments and, following the highway
across meadows fed by the Froom, she crossed the railway and soon got
into a lonely heath. She had been watching the base of a cloud as it
closed down upon the line of a distant ridge, like