onest and wise came to him to be carried out with judgment;
and he knew that the best way to carry them out is to act with discreet
candor. For the slug shall be known by his slime; and the spider who
shams death shall receive it.

Now here, upon a very sad November afternoon, when the Northern day
was narrowing in; and the Ouse, which is usually of a ginger-color,
was nearly as dark as a nutmeg; and the bridge, and the staith, and the
houses, and the people, resembled one another in tint and tone; while
between the Minster and the Clifford Tower there was not much difference
of outline--here and now Master Geoffrey Mordacks was sitting in
the little room where strangers were received. The live part of his
household consisted of his daughter, and a very young Geoffrey, who did
more harm than good, and a thoroughly hard-working country maid, whose
slowness was gradually giving way to pressure.

The weather was enough to make anybody dull, and the sap of every human
thing insipid; and the time of day suggested tea, hot cakes, and the
crossing of comfortable legs. Mordacks could well afford all these good
things, and he never was hard upon his family; but every day he liked
to feel that he had earned the bread of it, and this day he had labored
without seeming to earn anything. For after all the ordinary business of
the morning, he had been devoting several hours to the diligent revisal
of his premises and data, in a matter which he was resolved to carry
through, both for his credit and his interest. And this was the matter
which had cost him two days' ride, from York to Flamborough, and three
days on the road home, as was natural after such a dinner as he made
in little Denmark. But all that trouble he would not have minded,
especially after his enjoyment of the place, if it had only borne good
fruit. He had felt quite certain that it must do this, and that he would
have to pay another visit to the Head, and eat another duck, and have a
flirt with Widow Precious.

But up to the present time nothing had come of it, and so far as he
could see he might just as well have spared himself that long rough
ride. Three months had passed, and that surely was enough for even
Flamborough folk to do something, if they ever meant to do it. It was
plain that he had been misled for once, that what he suspected had
not come to pass, and that he must seek elsewhere the light which
had gleamed upon him vainly from the Danish town. To this