e old man, who made another remark about the state of the
country and so on, to which the reddleman again abstractedly replied,
and then again they would lapse into silence. The silence conveyed to
neither any sense of awkwardness; in these lonely places wayfarers,
after a first greeting, frequently plod on for miles without speech;
contiguity amounts to a tacit conversation where, otherwise than in
cities, such contiguity can be put an end to on the merest inclination,
and where not to put an end to it is intercourse in itself.

Possibly these two might not have spoken again till their parting, had
it not been for the reddleman's visits to his van. When he returned
from his fifth time of looking in the old man said, "You have something
inside there besides your load?"

"Yes."

"Somebody who wants looking after?"

"Yes."

Not long after this a faint cry sounded from the interior. The reddleman
hastened to the back, looked in, and came away again.

"You have a child there, my man?"

"No, sir, I have a woman."

"The deuce you have! Why did she cry out?"

"Oh, she has fallen asleep, and not being used to traveling, she's
uneasy, and keeps dreaming."

"A young woman?"

"Yes, a young woman."

"That would have interested me forty years ago. Perhaps she's your
wife?"

"My wife!" said the other bitterly. "She's above mating with such as I.
But there's no reason why I should tell you about that."

"That's true. And there's no reason why you should not. What harm can I
do to you or to her?"

The reddleman looked in the old man's face. "Well, sir," he said at
last, "I knew her before today, though perhaps it would have been better
if I had not. But she's nothing to me, and I am nothing to her; and she
wouldn't have been in my van if any better carriage had been there to
take her."

"Where, may I ask?"

"At Anglebury."

"I know the town well. What was she doing there?"

"Oh, not much--to gossip about. However, she's tired to death now, and
not at all well, and that's what makes her so restless. She dropped off
into a nap about an hour ago, and 'twill do her good."

"A nice-looking girl, no doubt?"

"You would say so."

The other traveller turned his eyes with interest towards the van
window, and, without withdrawing them, said, "I presume I might look in
upon her?"

"No," said the reddleman abruptly. "It is getting too dark for you to
see much of her; and, more than that, I have no right to allow yo