men, more considerate and courteous
in their forward and backward fashion than many a fine gentleman of the
time, clambered up, and coiled themselves into corners, leaving a
respectful void between them and the original occupants of the waggon.

Tranquillity settled down on the travellers--a tranquillity only broken
by the drowsy rumble of the waggon-wheels, and the perennial whistle of
the stooping, grizzled waggoner. Dulcie was just thinking that they
might have been Turks, they were so silent, when Mistress Cambridge
stirred the still atmosphere by the inquiry--

"Pray, sirs, have you happened to fall in with any stubble chickens in
your walk; I think you said you had been walking hereabouts?" affording
Clarissa an opportunity of complaining afterwards, in the retirement of
the little inn's private room, that these young fellows would judge them
a set of gluttons or farmers' daughters abroad for a holiday, aping
gentlewomen, instead of being duchesses in disguise.

Although the girls never lifted their eyes, yet, by a magic only known
to such philosophers, they had taken as complete an inventory of the
young men, beginning at their wardrobes, as if they had looked at them
coolly from head to foot for a whole half-hour. They were aware that
the fellows were in plain suits, though one of them was not without the
air of being fine on occasions. Their coats were cloth, not brocade or
velvet; their ruffles were cambric, not lace; their shoe-buckles were
only silver; their hats were trimmed with braid, and neither with gold
nor silver edging. They were not my lords; they were not in regimentals;
they did not rap out oaths; they had not the university air; they showed
no parson's bands; they were not plain country bumpkins--what were they?

After all, it was scarcely worth inquiry whether the newcomers belonged
to law or physic; for the young women in their pride and petulance felt
bound not to consider the investigation worth the trouble. The lad who
was the leader, and who was unquestionably of gentle enough nurture, was
a plain little fellow, sallow and homely-featured, although a
good-natured person might suppose from his smiling sagacity that in
animated conversation it would be quite possible to forget his face in
his countenance. The other was ruddy, with a face as sharply cut as a
girl's, and delicate features not fitting his long limbs--clearly he was
no better than a nincompoop. Yes, the girls were perfectly jus