"

The rider, gaining the bridge, was there detained at the toll-bar by
some carts and waggons, and the two gentlemen passed him on the bridge,
looking with some attention at his gloomy, unobservant countenance, and
the powerful fraune, in which, despite coarse garments and the change
wrought by years of intemperate excess, was still visible the trace of
that felicitous symmetry once so admirably combining herculean strength
with elastic elegance. Entering the town, the rider turned into the yard
of the near est inn. George Morley and Hartopp, followed at a little
distance by Morley's travelling companion, Merle, passed on towards the
other extremity of the town, and, after one or two inquiries for
"Widow Halse, Prospect Row," they came to a few detached cottages, very
prettily situated on a gentle hill, commanding in front the roofs of
the city and the gleaming windows of the great cathedral, with somewhat
large gardens in the rear. Mrs. Halse's dwelling was at the extreme
end of this Row. The house, however, was shut up; and a woman, who
was standing at the door of the neighbouring cottage, plaiting straw,
informed the visitors that Mrs. Halse was gone out "charing" for the
day, and that her lodger, who had his own key, seldom returned before
dark, but that at that hour he was pretty sure to be found in the
Cornmarket or the streets in its vicinity, and offered to send her
little boy to discover and "fetch" him.

George consulted apart with Merle, and decided on despatching the
cobbler, with the boy for his guide, in quest of the pedlar, Merle being
of course instructed not to let out by whom he was accompanied, lest
Waife, in his obstinacy, should rather abscond than encounter the
friends from whom he had fled. Merle, and a curly-headed urchin, who
seemed delighted at the idea of hunting up Sir Isaac and Sir Isaac's
master, set forth, and were soon out of sight. Hartopp and George
opened the little garden-gate, and strolled into the garden at the back
of the cottage, to seat themselves patiently on a bench beneath an old
appletree. Here they waited and conversed some minutes, till George
observed that one of the casements on that side of the cottage was left
open, and, involuntarily rising, he looked in; surveying with interest
the room, which he felt sure, at the first glance, must be that occupied
by his self-exiled friend; a neat pleasant little room-a bullfinch in
a wicker cage on a ledge within the casement-a f