sition
down the opposite pavement, with stronger hopes than the philosopher
seeking an honest man, but with no better fortune. He had arrived about
midway towards the lower end, from which his course began, when he
overheard the approach of some one who struck down a cane on the
flag-stones at every step, uttering at regular intervals, two
sepulchral hems.

"Mercy on us!" quoth Robin, recognizing the sound.

Turning a corner, which chanced to be close at his right hand, he
hastened to pursue his researches in some other part of the town. His
patience now was wearing low, and he seemed to feel more fatigue from
his rambles since he crossed the ferry, than from his journey of
several days on the other side. Hunger also pleaded loudly within him,
and Robin began to balance the propriety of demanding, violently, and
with lifted cudgel, the necessary guidance from the first solitary
passenger whom he should meet. While a resolution to this effect was
gaining strength, he entered a street of mean appearance, on either
side of which a row of ill-built houses was straggling towards the
harbor. The moonlight fell upon no passenger along the whole extent,
but in the third domicile which Robin passed there was a half-opened
door, and his keen glance detected a woman's garment within.

"My luck may be better here," said he to himself.

Accordingly, he approached the doors and beheld it shut closer as he
did so; yet an open space remained, sufficing for the fair occupant to
observe the stranger, without a corresponding display on her part. All
that Robin could discern was a strip of scarlet petticoat, and the
occasional sparkle of an eye, as if the moonbeams were trembling on
some bright thing.

"Pretty mistress," for I may call her so with a good conscience thought
the shrewd youth, since I know nothing to the contrary,--"my sweet
pretty mistress, will you be kind enough to tell me whereabouts I must
seek the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux?"

Robin's voice was plaintive and winning, and the female, seeing nothing
to be shunned in the handsome country youth, thrust open the door, and
came forth into the moonlight. She was a dainty little figure with a
white neck, round arms, and a slender waist, at the extremity of which
her scarlet petticoat jutted out over a hoop, as if she were standing
in a balloon. Moreover, her face was oval and pretty, her hair dark
beneath the little cap, and her bright eyes possessed a sly fr