fully in the
depth of winter than with us in the height of summer), he flung it out
of the door with a curse for an unchristian thing to have in the house
on such a day.

As soon as the year had turned, we began to count the days to our
departure, and thenceforth we could think of nought but what we would do
with our fortune when we got it; and, the evenings being long, we would
set the bag of wine betwixt us after our supper of dates, and sit there
for hours discussing our several projects. Moll being with us (for in
these parts no womankind may be abroad after sundown), she would take
part in these debates with as much gusto as we. For though she was not
wearied of her life here as we were, yet she was possessed of a very
stirring spirit of adventure, and her quick imagination furnished
endless visions of lively pleasures and sumptuous living. We agreed that
we would live together, and share everything in common as one family,
but not in such an outlandish spot as Chislehurst. That estate we would
have nothing to do with; but, selling it at once, have in its place two
houses,--one city house in the Cheap, and a country house not further
from town than Bednal Green, or Clerkenwell at the outside, to the end
that when we were fatigued with the pleasures of the town, we might, by
an easy journey, resort to the tranquillity of rural life, Dawson
declaring what wines he would have laid down in our cellars, I what
books should furnish our library, and Moll what dresses she would wear
(not less than one for every month of the year), what coaches and horses
we should keep, what liveries our servants should wear, what
entertainments we would give, and so forth. Don Sanchez was not excluded
from our deliberations; indeed, he encouraged us greatly by approving of
all our plans, only stipulating that we would guard one room for him in
each of our houses, that he might feel at home in our society whenever
he chanced to be in our neighbourhood. In all these arguments, there was
never one word of question from any of us as to the honesty of our
design. We had settled that, once and for all, before starting on this
expedition; and since then, little by little, we had come to regard the
Godwin estate as a natural gift, as freely to be taken as a blackberry
from the hedge. Nay, I believe Dawson and I would have contested our
right to it by reason of the pains we were taking to possess it.

And now, being in the month of June, and our