第46章

Robin replied to the courteous innkeeper, with such an assumptionof confidence as befitted the major's relative. "My honest friend," hesaid, "I shall make it a point to patronize your house on someoccasion when"- here he could not help lowering his voice- "when I mayhave more than a parchment three-pence in my pocket. My presentbusiness," continued he, speaking with lofty confidence, "is merely toinquire my way to the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux."There was a sudden and general movement in the room, which Robininterpreted as expressing the eagerness of each individual to becomehis guide. But the innkeeper turned his eyes to a written paper on thewall, which he read, or seemed to read, with occasional recurrences tothe young man's figure.

"What have we here?" said he, breaking his speech into little dryfragments. "'Left the house of the subscriber, bounden servant,Hezekiah Mudge- had on, when he went away, gray coat, leatherbreeches, master's third-best hat. One pound currency reward towhosoever shall lodge him in any jail of the province.' Better trudge,boy, better trudge!"Robin had begun to draw his hand towards the lighter end of the oakcudgel, but a strange hostility in every countenance induced him torelinquish his purpose of breaking the courteous innkeeper's head.

As he turned to leave the room, he encountered a sneering glancefrom the bold-featured personage whom he had before noticed; and nosooner was he beyond the door, than he heard a general laugh, in whichthe innkeeper's voice might be distinguished, like the dropping ofsmall stones into a kettle.

"Now, is it not strange," thought Robin, with his usual shrewdness,"is it not strange, that the confession of an empty pocket shouldoutweigh the name of my kinsman, Major Molineux? O, if I had one ofthose grinning rascals in the woods, where I and my oak sapling grewup together, I would teach him that my arm is heavy, though my pursebe light!"On turning the corner of the narrow lane, Robin found himself ina spacious street, with an unbroken line of lofty houses on each side,and a steepled building at the upper end, whence the ringing of a bellannounced the hour of nine. The light of the moon, and the lampsfrom the numerous shop windows, discovered people promenading on thepavement, and amongst them Robin hoped to recognize his hithertoinscrutable relative. The result of his former inquiries made himunwilling to hazard another, in a scene of such publicity, and hedetermined to walk slowly and silently up the street, thrusting hisface close to that of every elderly gentleman, in search of themajor's lineaments. In his progress, Robin encountered many gay andgallant figures. Embroidered garments of showy colors, enormousperiwigs, gold-laced hats, and silver-hilted swords, glided pasthim, and dazzled his optics. Travelled youth, imitators of theEuropean fine gentlemen of the period, trod jauntily along,half-dancing to the fashionable tunes which they hummed, and makingpoor Robin ashamed of his quiet and natural gait. At length, aftermany pauses to examine the gorgeous display of goods in the shopwindows, and after suffering some rebukes for the impertinence ofhis scrutiny into people's faces, the major's kinsman found himselfnear the steepled building, still unsuccessful in his search. Asyet, however, he had seen only one side of the thronged street, soRobin crossed, and continued the same sort of inquisition down theopposite pavement, with stronger hopes than the philosopher seeking anhonest man, but with no better fortune. He had arrived about midwaytowards the lower end, from which his course began, when heoverheard the approach of someone, who struck down a cane on theflagstones at every step, uttering, at regular intervals, twosepulchral hems.

"Mercy on us!" quoth Robin, recognizing the sound.

Turning a corner, which chanced to be close at his right hand, hehastened to pursue his researches in some other part of the town.

His patience now was wearing low, and he seemed to feel more fatiguefrom his rambles since he crossed the ferry, than from his journeyof several days on the other side. Hunger also pleaded loudly withinhim, and Robin began to balance the propriety of demanding, violently,and with lifted cudgel, the necessary guidance from the first solitarypassenger whom he should meet. While a resolution to this effect wasgaining strength, he entered a street of mean appearance, on eitherside of which a row of ill-built houses was straggling towards theharbor. The moonlight fell upon no passenger along the whole extent,but in the third domicile which Robin passed there was a half-openeddoor, and his keen glance detected a woman's garment within.

"My luck may be better here," said he to himself.

Accordingly, he approached the door, and beheld it shut closer ashe did so; yet an open space remained, sufficing for the fair occupantto observe the stranger, without a corresponding display on herpart. All that Robin could discern was a strip of scarlet petticoat,and the occasional sparkle of an eye, as if the moonbeams weretrembling on some bright thing.

"Pretty mistress," for I may call her so with a good conscience,thought the shrewd youth, since I know nothing to the contrary- "mysweet pretty mistress, will you be kind enough to tell mewhereabouts I must seek the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux?"Robin's voice was plaintive and winning, and the female, seeingnothing to be shunned in the handsome country youth, thrust open thedoor, and came forth into the moonlight. She was a dainty littlefigure, with a white neck, round arms, and a slender waist, at theextremity of which her scarlet petticoat jutted out over a hoop, as ifshe were standing in a balloon. Moreover, her face was oval andpretty, her hair dark beneath the little cap, and her bright eyespossessed a sly freedom, which triumphed over those of Robin.

"Major Molineux dwells here," said this fair woman.