as
sitting and full of business, to clear off the arrears of work, before
the lawyers' holiday. As I was waiting in the hall for a good occasion,
a man with horsehair on his head, and a long blue bag in his left hand,
touched me gently on the arm, and led me into a quiet place. I followed
him very gladly, being confident that he came to me with a message from
the Justiciaries. But after taking pains to be sure that none could
overhear us, he turned on me suddenly, and asked,--

"Now, John, how is your dear mother?"

"Worshipful sir" I answered him, after recovering from my surprise at
his knowledge of our affairs, and kindly interest in them, "it is two
months now since I have seen her. Would to God that I only knew how she
is faring now, and how the business of the farm goes!"

"Sir, I respect and admire you," the old gentleman replied, with a
bow very low and genteel; "few young court-gallants of our time are so
reverent and dutiful. Oh, how I did love my mother!" Here he turned up
his eyes to heaven, in a manner that made me feel for him and yet with a
kind of wonder.

"I am very sorry for you, sir," I answered most respectfully, not
meaning to trespass on his grief, yet wondering at his mother's age; for
he seemed to be at least threescore; "but I am no court-gallant, sir; I
am only a farmer's son, and learning how to farm a little."

"Enough, John; quite enough," he cried, "I can read it in thy
countenance. Honesty is written there, and courage and simplicity. But I
fear that, in this town of London, thou art apt to be taken in by people
of no principle. Ah me! Ah me! The world is bad, and I am too old to
improve it."

Then finding him so good and kind, and anxious to improve the age, I
told him almost everything; how much I paid the fellmonger, and all the
things I had been to see; and how I longed to get away, before the corn
was ripening; yet how (despite of these desires) I felt myself bound to
walk up and down, being under a thing called "recognisance." In short,
I told him everything; except the nature of my summons (which I had no
right to tell), and that I was out of money.

My tale was told in a little archway, apart from other lawyers; and the
other lawyers seemed to me to shift themselves, and to look askew, like
sheep through a hurdle, when the rest are feeding.

"What! Good God!" my lawyer cried, smiting his breast indignantly with a
roll of something learned; "in what country do we live? Unde