"Hast been long away?"
"Aye, six weeks to the day."
"It do take a deal of silver to travel thus."
"Aye, aye." He condescended to smile. "But there are few of the clergy in England can better afford a journey to the Isle o' Wight than the good Dr. Marsham, and he is one who grudges nought when his lady hath been ill. 'Tis wonderful what travel will do for the ailing. Aye, he hath visited in many great houses and I have seen good company while we have been on the road."
Phil had looked up. "Where is this Doctor Marsham's home?" he asked.
All frowned at the rash young man's temerity in thus familiarly accosting the powerful personage in livery, and none more accusingly than the personage himself; but with a scornful lift of his brows he replied in a manner to tell all who were present that such as he were above mere arrogance. "Why, young man, he comes from a place you doubtless never heard of, keeping as you doubtless do, so close at home: from Little Grimsby."
Martin glanced at Phil. "The name, it seems, is thine own. Hast ever been at Little Grimsby?"
"Never."
And with that they forgot Philip Marsham, or at all events treated him as if he had never existed.
"'Tis few o' the clergy ride in their own coaches," someone said, with an obsequiousness that went far to conciliate the magnificent coachman.