“’Tis making a mighty matter, indeed, out of a jest; I but plagued the woman for mine amusement.”
“Kept you the woman’s pig for amusement?”
The man answered sharply —
“Nought else, good sir — I tell thee ’twas but a jest.”
“I do begin to believe thee,” said Hendon, with a perplexing mixture of mockery and half-conviction in his tone; “but tarry thou here a moment whilst I run and ask his worship — for nathless, he being a man experienced in law, in jests, in — ”
He was moving away, still talking; the constable hesitated, fidgeted, spat out an oath or two, then cried out —