They showed me his very footprints. Now palter no more; for look you, holy sir, an’ thou produce him not — Where is the boy?”

“O good sir, peradventure you mean the ragged regal vagrant that tarried here the night. If such as you take an interest in such as he, know, then, that I have sent him of an errand. He will be back anon.”

“How soon? How soon? Come, waste not the time — cannot I overtake him? How soon will he be back?”

“Thou need’st not stir; he will return quickly.”

“So be it, then. I will try to wait. But stop! — you sent him of an errand? — you! Verily this is a lie — he would not go.

He would pull thy old beard, an’