nd. Anyways it was my duty to tell you my news immediate."

"Jordas, I always say that you are a model of a true retainer--a
character becoming almost extinct in this faithless and revolutionary
age. Very few men would have ridden into town through all those
dangerous unmade roads, in weather when even the Royal Mail is kept, by
the will of the Lord, in stable."

"Well, sir," said Jordas, with his brave soft smile, "the smooth and
the rough of it comes in and out, accordin'. Some days I does next to
nought; and some days I earns my keepin'. Any more commands for me,
Lawyer Jellicoose? Time cometh on rather late for starting."

"Jordas, you amaze me! You never mean to say that you dream of setting
forth again on such a night as this is? I will find you a bed; you shall
have a hot supper. What would your ladies think of me, if I let you go
forth among the snow again? Just look at the window-panes, while you and
I were talking! And the feathers of the ice shooting up inside, as long
as the last sheaf of quills I opened for them. Quills, quills, quills,
all day! And when I buy a goose unplucked, if his quills are any good,
his legs won't carve, and his gizzard is full of gravel-stones! Ah, the
world grows every day in roguery."

"All the world agrees to that, sir; ever since I were as high as your
table, never I hear two opinions about it; and it maketh a man seem to
condemn himself. Good-night, sir, and I hope we shall have good news
so soon as his Royal Majesty the king affordeth a pony as can lift his
legs."

Mr. Jellicorse vainly strove to keep the man in town that night. He even
called for his sensible wife and his excellent cook to argue, having no
clerk left to make scandal of the scene. The cook had a turn of mind for
Jordas, and did think that he would stop for her sake; and she took a
broom to show him what the depth of snow was upon the red tiles between
the brew-house and the kitchen. An icicle hung from the lip of the pump,
and new snow sparkled on the cook's white cap, and the dark curly hair
which she managed to let fall; the brew-house smelled nice, and the
kitchen still nicer; but it made no difference to Jordas. If he had told
them the reason of this hurry, they would have said hard things
about it, perhaps; Mrs. Jellicorse especially (being well read in the
Scriptures, and fond of quoting them against all people who had grouse
and sent her none) would have called to mind what David said, when the
thr