"There is truth in what he said," replied Lambourne, as if speaking to
himself--"my brain has played me its old dog's trick. But corragio--let
him approach!--I have not rolled about in the world for many a day to
fear Tony Foster, be I drunk or sober.--Bring me a flagon of cold water
to christen my sack withal."
While Lambourne, whom the approach of Foster seemed to have recalled to
a sense of his own condition, was busied in preparing to receive him,
Giles Gosling stole up to the apartment of the pedlar, whom he found
traversing the room in much agitation.
"You withdrew yourself suddenly from the company," said the landlord to
the guest.
"It was time, when the devil became one among you," replied the pedlar.
"It is not courteous in you to term my nephew by such a name," said
Gosling, "nor is it kindly in me to reply to it; and yet, in some sort,
Mike may be considered as a limb of Satan."
"Pooh--I talk not of the swaggering ruffian," replied the pedlar; "it is
of the other, who, for aught I know--But when go they? or wherefore come
they?"
"Marry, these are questions I cannot answer," replied the host.
"But look you, sir, you have brought me a token from worthy Master
Tressilian--a pretty stone it is." He took out the ring, and looked at
it, adding, as he put it into his purse again, that it was too rich a
guerdon for anything he could do for the worthy donor. He was, he said,
in the public line, and it ill became him to be too inquisitive into
other folk's concerns. He had already said that he could hear nothing
but that the lady lived still at Cumnor Place in the closest seclusion,
and, to such as by chance had a view of her, seemed pensive and
discontented with her solitude. "But here," he said, "if you are
desirous to gratify your master, is the rarest chance that hath occurred
for this many a day. Tony Foster is coming down hither, and it is but
letting Mike Lambourne smell another wine-flask, and the Queen's command
would not move him from the ale-bench. So they are fast for an hour or
so. Now, if you will don your pack, which will be your best excuse, you
may, perchance, win the ear of the old servant, being assured of the
master's absence, to let you try to get some custom of the lady; and
then you may learn more of her condition than I or any other can tell
you."