" As if he had ever been alive in all
his life, worth mentioning! There's the clerk, sir--wery drunk, as
usual.'
'I see him!' said Martin, laughing. 'But, my life, how wet you are,
Mark!'
'I am! What do you consider yourself, sir?'
'Oh, not half as bad,' said his fellow-traveller, with an air of great
vexation. 'I told you not to keep on the windy side, Mark, but to let us
change and change about. The rain has been beating on you ever since it
began.'
'You don't know how it pleases me, sir,' said Mark, after a short
silence, 'if I may make so bold as say so, to hear you a-going on in
that there uncommon considerate way of yours; which I don't mean to
attend to, never, but which, ever since that time when I was floored in
Eden, you have showed.'
'Ah, Mark!' sighed Martin, 'the less we say of that the better. Do I see
the light yonder?'
'That's the light!' cried Mark. 'Lord bless her, what briskness she
possesses! Now for it, sir. Neat wines, good beds, and first-rate
entertainment for man or beast.'
The kitchen fire burnt clear and red, the table was spread out, the
kettle boiled; the slippers were there, the boot-jack too, sheets of
ham were there, cooking on the gridiron; half-a-dozen eggs were there,
poaching in the frying-pan; a plethoric cherry-brandy bottle was there,
winking at a foaming jug of beer upon the table; rare provisions were
there, dangling from the rafters as if you had only to open your mouth,
and something exquisitely ripe and good would be glad of the excuse for
tumbling into it.
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