a
magisterial and authoritative tone.--"If he did not like bacon--(bacon
from their own hutch, well fed on pease and bran)--if he did not like
bacon and eggs--(new-laid eggs, which she had brought in from the
hen-roost with her own hands)--why so put case--it was the worse for his
honour, and the better for those who did."

"The better for those who like them?" answered the guest; "that is as
much as to say I am to have a companion, good woman."

"Do not good woman me, sir," replied the miller's wife, "till I call you
good man; and, I promise you, many would scruple to do that to one who
does not love eggs and bacon of a Friday."

"Nay, my good lady," said her guest, "do not fix any misconstruction
upon me--I dare say the eggs and the bacon are excellent; only they are
rather a dish too heavy for my stomach."

"Ay, or your conscience perhaps, sir," answered the hostess. "And now, I
bethink me, you must needs have your fish fried with oil, instead of
the good drippings I was going to put to them. I would I could spell
the meaning of all this now; but I warrant John Bigstaff, the constable,
could conjure something out of it."

There was a pause here; but Julian, somewhat alarmed at the tone which
the conversation assumed, became interested in watching the dumb show
which succeeded. By bringing his head a little towards the left, but
without turning round, or quitting the projecting latticed window where
he had taken his station, he could observe that the stranger, secured,
as he seemed to think himself, from observation, had sidled close up to
the landlady, and, as he conceived, had put a piece of money into her
hand. The altered tone of the miller's moiety corresponded very much
with this supposition.

"Nay, indeed, and forsooth," she said, "her house was Liberty Hall; and
so should every publican's be. What was it to her what gentlefolks ate
or drank, providing they paid for it honestly? There were many honest
gentlemen, whose stomachs could not abide bacon, grease, or dripping,
especially on a Friday; and what was that to her, or any one in her
line, so gentlefolks paid honestly for the trouble? Only, she would say,
that her bacon and eggs could not be mended betwixt this and Liverpool,
and that she would live and die upon."

"I shall hardly dispute it," said the stranger; and turning towards
Julian, he added, "I wish this gentleman, who I suppose is my
trencher-companion, much joy of the dainties which I canno