Brown to himself; and he glanced fearfully behind him as he
added, "What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!"

His head being turned back, he passed a crook of the road, and,
looking forward again, beheld the figure of a man, in grave and
decent attire, seated at the foot of an old tree. He arose at
Goodman Brown's approach and walked onward side by side with him.

"You are late, Goodman Brown," said he. "The clock of the Old
South was striking as I came through Boston, and that is full
fifteen minutes agone."

"Faith kept me back a while," replied the young man, with a
tremor in his voice, caused by the sudden appearance of his
companion, though not wholly unexpected.

It was now deep dusk in the forest, and deepest in that part of
it where these two were journeying. As nearly as could be
discerned, the second traveller was about fifty years old,
apparently in the same rank of life as Goodman Brown, and bearing
a considerable resemblance to him, though perhaps more in
expression than features. Still they might have been taken for
father and son. And yet, though the elder person was as simply
clad as the younger, and as simple in manner too, he had an
indescribable air of one who knew the world, and who would not
have felt abashed at the governor's dinner table or in King
William's court, were it possible that his affairs should call
him thither. But the only thing about him that could be fixed
upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a
great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be