-morrow early."

"Nay, leave me to-night, sir, before to-morrow comes," said he landlord.
"I never prayed for a guest's arrival more eagerly than I do to have
you safely gone, My kinsman's destiny is most like to be hanged for
something, but I would not that the cause were the murder of an honoured
guest of mine. 'Better ride safe in the dark,' says the proverb, 'than
in daylight with a cut-throat at your elbow.' Come, sir, I move you for
your own safety. Your horse and all is ready, and here is your score."

"It is somewhat under a noble," said Tressilian, giving one to the host;
"give the balance to pretty Cicely, your daughter, and the servants of
the house."

"They shall taste of your bounty, sir," said Gosling, "and you should
taste of my daughter's lips in grateful acknowledgment, but at this hour
she cannot grace the porch to greet your departure."

"Do not trust your daughter too far with your guests, my good landlord,"
said Tressilian.

"Oh, sir, we will keep measure; but I wonder not that you are jealous
of them all.--May I crave to know with what aspect the fair lady at the
Place yesterday received you?"

"I own," said Tressilian, "it was angry as well as confused, and affords
me little hope that she is yet awakened from her unhappy delusion."

"In that case, sir, I see not why you should play the champion of a
wench that will none of you, and incur the resentment of a favourite's
favourite, as dangerous a monster as ever a knight adventurer
encountered in the old story books."

"You do me wrong in the supposition, mine host--gross wrong," said
Tressilian; "I do not desire that Amy should ever turn thought upon me
more. Let me but see her restored to her father, and all I have to do in
Europe--perhaps in the world--is over and ended."

"A wiser resolution were to drink a cup of sack, and forget her," said
the landlord. "But five-and-twenty and fifty look on those matters with
different eyes, especially when one cast of peepers is set in the skull
of a young gallant, and the other in that of an old publican. I pity
you, Master Tressilian, but I see not how I can aid you in the matter."

"Only thus far, mine host," replied Tressilian--"keep a watch on the
motions of those at the Place, which thou canst easily learn without
suspicion, as all men's news fly to the ale-bench; and be pleased to
communicate the tidings in writing to such person, and to no other,
who shall bring you this ring as a special