While he stood and talked I was able to take note of his aspect, and I
thought he looked a very homely youth indeed, after Mr. Dacre, though he
was taller and of a better shape, and I believe a better face too;
though burnt with the sun, and ruddy like a country-man, he had
well-cut features and a full mild eye, with a right pleasant smile. But
his garb was so ordinary, being of some dark cloth, and cut very
plainly, and his hat with no feather in it, that though I had little
cause to love Mr. Dacre, yet I wished our new friend was more like him
outwardly, and thought I should then have been prouder to ride in his
company. And Mrs. Golding praising him to us, and saying how good he
was, and wise beyond his years, I thought it was pity such good people
as he and she did not go handsomer; so little I knew of what belonged to
goodness.




CHAPTER II.


HOW WE JOURNEYED UP TO YORKSHIRE; AND HOW WE WERE WELCOMED THERE.

Though I remember so plainly what passed on our last day in Milthorpe
Manor-house, I am not very clear about our journey up to Yorkshire,
which was tedious enough. We kept to the king's highway, and yet were
sometimes put in much fear of thieves, but happily we fell in with none;
the only notable thing that befell us was in leaving a little market
town, I cannot call to mind its name, where we had stopped to dine. We
had ridden but a little way forth of the town when we heard a great din