She had drawn his half-willing
footsteps nearly to the threshold, when the opening of a door in the
neighborhood startled the major's housekeeper, and, leaving the
major's kinsman, she vanished speedily into her own domicile. A
heavy yawn preceded the appearance of a man, who, like the Moonshine
of Pyramus and Thisbe, carried a lantern, needlessly aiding his sister
luminary in the heavens. As he walked sleepily up the street, he
turned his broad, dull face on Robin, and displayed a long staff,
spiked at the end.
"Home, vagabond, home!" said the watchman, in accents that seemed
to fall asleep as soon as they were uttered. "Home, or we'll set you
in the stocks, by peep of day!"
"This is the second hint of the kind," thought Robin. "I wish
they would end my difficulties, by setting me there tonight."
Nevertheless, the youth felt an instinctive antipathy towards the
guardian of midnight order, which at first prevented him from asking
his usual question. But just when the man was about to vanish behind
the corner, Robin resolved not to lose the opportunity, and shouted
lustily after him- "I say, friend! will you guide me to the house of
my kinsman, Major Molineux?"
The watchman made no reply, but turned the corner and was gone; yet
Robin seemed to hear the sound of drowsy laughter stealing along the
solitary street.
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