d the woollen-draper, helping himself to an enormous
pinch of snuff with the air of a man who does not dislike to be rallied
about his gallantry,--"so she was. But those days are over--quite over.
Since her husband has laid me under such a weight of obligation, I
couldn't, in honour, continue--hem!" and he took another explanatory
pinch. "Added to which, she is neither so young as she was, nor, is her
temper by any means improved--hem!"

"Say no more on the subject, Sir," observed the stranger, gravely; "but
let us turn to a more agreeable one--her daughter."

"That is a far more agreeable one, I must confess," returned Kneebone,
with a self-sufficient smirk.

The stranger looked at him as if strongly disposed to chastise his
impertinence.

"Is she married?" he asked, after a brief pause.

"Married!--no--no," replied the woollen-draper. "Winifred Wood will
never marry, unless the grave can give up its dead. When a mere child
she fixed her affections upon a youth named Thames Darrell, whom her
father brought up, and who perished, it is supposed, about nine years
ago; and she has determined to remain faithful to his memory."

"You astonish me," said the stranger, in a voice full of emotion.

"Why it _is_ astonishing, certainly," remarked Kneebone, "to find any
woman constant--especially to a girlish attachment; but such is the
case. She has had offers innumerable; for where wealth and beauty are
combined, as in her instance, suitors are seldom wanting. But she was
not to be tempted."

"She is a matchless creature!" exclaimed the young man.

"So I think," replied Kneebone, again applying to the snuff-box, and by
that means escaping the angry glance levelled at him by his companion.

"I have one inquiry more to make of you, Sir," said the stranger, as
soon as he had conquered his displeasure, "and I will then trouble you
no further. You spoke just now of a youth whom Mr. Wood brought up. As
far as I recollect, there were two. What has become of the other?"

"Why, surely you don't mean Jack Sheppard?" cried the woollen-draper in
surprise.

"That was the lad's name," returned the stranger.

"I guessed from your dress and manner, Sir, that you must have been long
absent from your own country," said Kneebone; "and now I'm convinced of
it, or you wouldn't have asked that question. Jack Sheppard is the talk
and terror of the whole town. The ladies can't sleep in their beds for
him; and as to the men, they daren't g