er fear!" answered Marmaduke; "though I see not why so
far, at least, we may not be companions."

"No, better as it is; after this day's work they will gossip about both
of us, and we shall meet many who know my long visage on the way back.
God keep thee; avise me how thou prosperest."

So saying, Nicholas Alwyn walked off, too delicate to propose to pay his
share of the reckoning with a superior; but when he had gone a few paces
he turned back, and accosting the Nevile, as the latter was rebuckling
his mantle, said,--

"I have been thinking, Master Nevile, that these gold nobles, which it
has been my luck to bear off, would be more useful in thy gipsire
than mine. I have sure gains and small expenses; but a gentleman gains
nothing, and his hand must be ever in his pouch, so--"

"Foster-brother," said Marmaduke, haughtily, "a gentleman never
borrows,--except of the Jews, and with due interest. Moreover, I too
have my calling; and as thy stall to thee, so to me my good sword.
Saints keep thee! Be sure I will serve thee when I can."

"The devil's in these young strips of the herald's tree," muttered
Alwyn, as he strode off; "as if it were dishonest to borrow a broad
piece without cutting a throat for it! Howbeit, money is a prolific
mother: and here is eno' to buy me a gold chain against I am alderman
of London. Hout, thus goes the world,--the knight's baubles become the
alderman's badges--so much the better!"

CHAPTER IV. ILL FARES THE COUNTRY MOUSE IN THE TRAPS OF TOWN.

We trust we shall not be deemed discourteous, either, on the one hand,
to those who value themselves on their powers of reflection, or, on the
other, to those who lay claim to what, in modern phrenological jargon,
is called the Organ of Locality, when we venture to surmise that the two
are rarely found in combination; nay, that it seems to us a very evident
truism, that in proportion to the general activity of the intellect
upon subjects of pith and weight, the mind will be indifferent to those
minute external objects by which a less contemplative understanding will
note, and map out, and impress upon the memory, the chart of the road
its owner has once taken. Master Marmaduke Nevile, a hardy and acute
forester from childhood, possessed to perfection the useful faculty
of looking well and closely before him as he walked the earth; and
ordinarily, therefore, the path he had once taken, however intricate
and obscure, he was tolerably sure to