"It's got to be done!" said she, "and there's an end of it! The
clothes won't be dry until morning, and it won't do to put them too
near the stove, or they'll shrink so he can't get them on. And he
can't go away to hunt up lodgings wearing the Duke's dressing-gown and
them yellow breeches!"

"Orders is orders," said the man, "and unless I get special leave, it
can't be done."

"Well, then, go and get special leave," said she, "and don't stand
there talking about it!"

There was no doubt that my lodging that night was the subject of this
conversation, but I had no desire to interfere with the good
intentions of my hostess. I must stay somewhere until my clothes were
dry, and I should be glad to stop in my present comfortable quarters.

So I sat still and smoked, and very soon I heard the big shoes of the
little man grating upon the gravel as he walked rapidly away from the
house. Now came the good woman out upon the piazza to ask me if I had
found my tobacco dry. "Because if it's damp," said she, "my man has
some very good 'baccy in his jar."

I assured her that my pouch had kept dry; and then, as she seemed
inclined to talk, I begged her to sit down if she did not mind the
pipe. Down she sat, and steadily she talked. She congratulated herself
on her happy thought to light the hall lamp, or I might never have
noticed the house in the darkness, and she would have been sorry
enough if I had had to keep on the road for another half-hour in that