He looked up and
down the mean street, and then surveyed the house before which they
stood. It was a small, dark edifice of two stories, the second of
which projected over the lower floor; and the front apartment had
the aspect of a shop for petty commodities.
"Now truly I am in luck," replied Robin, cunningly, "and so
indeed is my kinsman, the major, in having so pretty a housekeeper.
But I prithee trouble him to step to the door; I will deliver him a
message from his friends in the country, and then go back to my
lodgings at the inn."
"Nay, the major has been a-bed this hour or more," said the lady of
the scarlet petticoat; "and it would be to little purpose to disturb
him tonight, seeing his evening draught was of the strongest. But he
is a kind-hearted man, and it would be as much as my life's worth to
let a kinsman of his turn away from the door. You are the good old
gentleman's very picture, and I could swear that was his rainy-weather
hat. Also he has garments very much resembling those leather
small-clothes. But come in, I pray, for I bid you hearty welcome in
his name."
So saying, the fair and hospitable dame took our hero by the
hand; and the touch was light, and the force was gentleness, and
though Robin read in her eyes what he did not hear in her words, yet
the slender-waisted woman in the scarlet petticoat proved stronger
than the athletic country youth.
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