of sea-coal blazed in the
chimney. Three of the travellers, who arrived on horseback, having seen
their cattle properly accommodated in the stable, agreed to pass the
time, until the weather should clear up, over a bowl of rumbo, which was
accordingly prepared. But the fourth, refusing to join their company,
took his station at the opposite side of the chimney, and called for a
pint of twopenny, with which he indulged himself apart. At a little
distance, on his left hand, there was another group, consisting of the
landlady, a decent widow, her two daughters, the elder of whom seemed to
be about the age of fifteen, and a country lad, who served both as waiter
and ostler.

The social triumvirate was composed of Mr. Fillet, a country practitioner
in surgery and midwifery, Captain Crowe, and his nephew Mr. Thomas
Clarke, an attorney. Fillet was a man of some education, and a great
deal of experience, shrewd, sly, and sensible. Captain Crowe had
commanded a merchant ship in the Mediterranean trade for many years, and
saved some money by dint of frugality and traffic. He was an excellent
seaman, brave, active, friendly in his way, and scrupulously honest; but
as little acquainted with the world as a sucking child; whimsical,
impatient, and so impetuous, that he could not help breaking in upon the
conversation, whatever it might be, with repeated interruptions, that
seemed to burst from him by involuntary impulse. When he himself
attempted to speak he never finished his period; but made such a number
of abrupt transitions, that his discourse seemed to be an unconnected
series of unfinished sentences, the meaning of which it was not easy to
decipher.

His nephew, Tom Clarke, was a young fellow, whose goodness of
heart even the exercise of his profession had not been able to corrupt.
Before strangers he never owned himself an attorney without blushing,
though he had no reason to blush for his own practice, for he constantly
refused to engage in the cause of any client whose character was
equivocal, and was never known to act with such industry as when
concerned for the widow and orphan, or any other object that sued in
forma pauperis. Indeed, he was so replete with human kindness, that as
often as an affecting story or circumstance was told in his hearing, it
overflowed at his eyes. Being of a warm complexion, he was very
susceptible of passion, and somewhat libertine in his amours. In other
respects, he piqued himse