ght a substantial cloaked figure, he drew up
and asked if he were in the way to a well-known hostel. Fortune had
favoured him, for a voice demanded in return, "Do I hear the voice of
good Captain Talbot? At your service."

"Yea, it is I--Richard Talbot. Is it you, good Master Heatherthwayte?"

"It is verily, sir. Well do I remember you, good trusty Captain, and
the goodly lady your wife. Do I see her here?" returned the clergyman,
who had heartily grasped Richard's hand.

"No, sir, this is my daughter, for whose sake I would ask you to direct
me to some lodging for the night."

"Nay, if the young lady will put up with my humble chambers, and my
little daughter for her bedfellow, I would not have so old an
acquaintance go farther."

Richard accepted the offer gladly, and Mr. Heatherthwayte walked close
to the horses, using his lantern to direct them, and sending flashes of
light over the gabled ends of the old houses and the muffled
passengers, till they came to a long flagged passage, when he asked
them to dismount, bidding the servants and horses to await his return,
and giving his hand to conduct the young lady along the narrow slippery
alley, which seemed to have either broken walls or houses on either
aide.

He explained to Richard, by the way, that he had married the godly
widow of a ship chandler, but that it had pleased Heaven to take her
from him at the end of five years, leaving him two young children, but
that her ancient nurse had the care of the house and the little ones.

Curates were not sumptuously lodged in those days. The cells which had
been sufficient for monks commissioned by monasteries were no homes for
men with families; and where means were to be had, a few rooms had been
added without much grace, or old cottages adapted--for indeed the
requirements of the clergy of the day did not soar above those of the
farmer or petty dealer. Master Heatherthwayte pulled a string
depending from a hole in a door, the place of which he seemed to know
by instinct, and admitted the newcomers into a narrow paved entry,
where he called aloud, "Here, Oil! Dust! Goody! Bring a light! Here
are guests!"

A door was opened instantly into a large kitchen or keeping room,
bright with a fire and small lamp. A girl of nine or ten sprang
forward, but hung back at the sight of strangers; a boy of twelve rose
awkwardly from conning his lessons by the low, unglazed lamp; an old
woman showed herself from some