The gentleman laughed lazily.
"All right. Tell him to put the other two-and-six in the poor-box."
The landlord laughed respectfully, and the young man, left alone, leaned back on the seat and drank his beer in indolent content. Presently the girl passed on the other side of the road.
"Hullo!—there she is again!" he said. "I wonder where she is going? I dare say she's thirsty. It's a pity she isn't a man, for I could ask her to have a drink. Do you know that young lady, landlord?" he asked.
The man shaded his eyes and looked after the girl.
"No, sir," he said. "No. The lady's a stranger to me, sir; a perfect stranger."
The young man smoked his cigar and watched the graceful figure going down the road in the twilight with a touch of interest on his handsome face. He seemed in no hurry to pursue his journey by any means; and when he rose, at length, he yawned and stretched himself.
"Could you give me a bed here to-night, landlord?" he asked.
The man eyed the ground doubtfully.
"We're plain people, sir——" he commenced.