A Gentleman Player

better place: but travellers m

ore the inn, ere the party dismounted from the tired ones; dinner and a room were bespoken; and all possible charges were forestalled by advance payment. Anne imitated this whole arrangement precisely, causing no little wonder on the part of the inn people, that she should give her ord

Bottle soon rode off, with two led horses. Perceiving the object of this movement, Anne dismissed the captain from her observation, that she might concentrate it upon the supposed Sir Valentine. As

ere she went to hers. Deducing this from his actions-for no speech passed between them while they tarried before the inn-and being indeed well-nigh too exhausted

spoke a few words in a low tone. The fellow glanced toward the inn porch in which Hal was standing, and nodded obedience. Hal inferred that she was engaging to be n

vant appeared with a bench, and placed it outside this door. On reaching his own room, in the same passage, Hal noticed that this bench, on which Fran

n the country towns were better than those in London. Hosts took pride in their tapestry, furniture, bedding, plate, and glasses. Some of the inns in the greater towns and roads had room for three hundred guests with their horses and servants. Noblemen travelled with great retinues, and carried furniture with them. It was a golden age of inns,-though, to be sure, the servants were in many cases in league with highway robbers, to whom the

His appreciation was soon evinced by a loud snoring, whose sturdy nasality seemed of a piece with his canting, rebuking manner of speech when he allowed himself to be lured into conversation. There was in his snore a rhythmic wrestling and protesting, as of Jacob with the angel, or a prea

awoke with a start, therefore, and yet heard no such hallooing as Anthony had given at Catworth, he supposed that Kit must have summoned him by

anything?"

et meseems in my sleep there was a lou

," said Hal. "It must have been a sound of omen, to have

he had not locked it before sleeping. He had noticed the key for its great size and rustiness. But no

s robbed us of our key, and used

eking to find that some one," gro

superciliously now, for he was beginning to like a fellow who could toil forward so uncomplainingly through fatigue and danger, yet make such full use of comforts when they

es were still there. As soon as Anthony was beside him, Hal stepped into the entrance-passage. At the stair-foot stood Mis

that his face wore an involuntary quizzical smile, she caught her breat

, ere he thought. "I need it to unlock my door

without a word, she glided past him, and out to her horses. He saw in her look a new sense of t

ing her and Francis to the yard. "Her ne

follow their example. With courtesy, Hal held back his horses for her to precede him out to the road. A minute after

a chilly business, too, for March had begun to turn out very January-like, and was steadily becoming more so. The look of dogged endurance that mingled on her face with the new res

pity is ever akin to love, it is certainly so when united to admiration. Her determination had not the mannish mien, nor her dislike the acrid, ill-bred aspect that would have repelled; they were of the womanly and high-born character that made them rather pique and allure. Partly to provoke her feelings to some change of phase, partly to elicit relief from the

Underhill to himself, as if he smelled it. Of the country through which they passed, the most was open, only the pasture-land and the grounds pertaining immediately to gentlemen's houses being fenced. Enclosures were a new thing in those days, defended by the raisers of sheep and cattle, bewailed by the farmers who till

shire, a burst of yokelish laughter struck their ears from among some trees, like a sudden ray of light and warmth in a cold, dead world. It came from some yeomen's sons

y weariness, they came to a halt before a little, low, wobbly-looking wood-and-