CHAPTER XXXV
A SUDDEN RESOLVE

ICK and Cicely were sitting on a bench in the sun

beside the tap-room door, munching a savory mutton-
pie which Tommy Webster had bought for them Beside
them over the window-sill the tapster twirled his spigot
cheerfully, and in the door the carrier was bidding the
serving-maids good-by.

Around the inn-yard stood a row of heavy, canvas-
covered wains and lumbering two-wheeled carts, each sur-
mounted by a well-armed guard, and drawn by six strong
horses with harness stout as cannon-leathers. The hostlers
stood at the horses’ heads, chewing at wisps of barley-straw
as though their other fare was scant, which, from their
sleek rotundity, was difficult to believe. The stable-boy,
with a pot of slush, and a head of hair like a last year’s
haycock, was hastily greasing a forgotten wheel; while,
out of the room where the servants ate, the drivers came
stumbling down the steps with a mighty smell of onions
and brawn. The weekly train from London into the north

was ready to be off.
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