out of the tale."

"Well," said he, "that's true. You had better consider that you have
got the cap of darkness, and are seeing everything, yourself
invisible."

That touched me on my weak side of not feeling sure of my position in
this beautiful new country; so in order not to make matters worse, I
held my tongue, and we all went into the garden and up to the house
together. I noticed by the way that Clara must really rather have
felt the contrast between herself as a town madam and this piece of
the summer country that we all admired so, for she had rather dressed
after Ellen that morning as to thinness and scantiness, and went
barefoot also, except for light sandals.

The old man greeted us kindly in the parlour, and said: "Well,
guests, so you have been looking about to search into the nakedness
of the land: I suppose your illusions of last night have given way a
bit before the morning light? Do you still like, it, eh?"

"Very much," said I, doggedly; "it is one of the prettiest places on
the lower Thames."

"Oho!" said he; "so you know the Thames, do you?"

I reddened, for I saw Dick and Clara looking at me, and scarcely knew
what to say. However, since I had said in our early intercourse with
my Hammersmith friends that I had known Epping Forest, I thought a
hasty generalisation might be better in avoiding complications than a
downright lie; so I said -