ejaculated the stranger with
energy. 'Go to them and say a gentleman, who has ridden far, and fasted
since seven this morning, requests permission to sit at their table. A
quarter of venison and a collop or two among four!' he continued, in a
tone of extreme disgust, 'It is intolerable! And advocates! Why, at that
rate, the King of France should eat a whole buck, and rise hungry! Don't
you agree with me, sir?' he continued, turning on me and putting the
question abruptly.

He was so comically and yet so seriously angry, and looked so closely at
me as he spoke, that I hastened to say I agreed with him perfectly.

'Yet you eat cheese, sir!' he retorted irritably.

I saw that, not withstanding the simplicity of his dress, he was a
gentleman, and so, forbearing to take offence, I told him plainly that
my purse being light I travelled rather as I could than as I would.

'Is it so?' he answered hastily. 'Had I known that, I would have joined
you in the cheese! After all, I would rather fast with a gentleman, than
feast with a churl. But it is too late now. Seeing you mix the fodder, I
thought your pockets were full.'

'The nag is tired, and has done its best,' I answered.

He looked at me curiously, and as though he would say more. But the
landlord returning at that moment, he turned to him instead.

'Well!' he said briskly. 'Is it all right?'

'I am sorry, your honour,' the man answered, reluctantly, and with a
very downcast air, 'but the gentlemen beg to be excused.'

'Zounds!' cried my companion roundly. 'They do, do they?'

'They say they have no more, sir,' the landlord continued, faltering,
'than enough for themselves and a little dog they have with them.'

A shout of laughter which issued at that moment from the other room
seemed to show that the quartette were making merry over my companion's
request. I saw his cheek redden, and looked for an explosion of anger on
his part; but instead he stood a moment in thought in the middle of the
floor, and then, much to the innkeeper's relief, pushed a stool towards
me, and called for a bottle of the best wine. He pleasantly begged
leave to eat a little of my cheese, which he said looked better than the
Lisieux, and, filling my glass with wine, fell to as merrily as if he
had never heard of the party in the other room.

I was more than a little surprised, I remember; for I had taken him to
be a passionate man, and not one to sit down under an affront. Still I
said n