"Speak you of oaths and words of honor? There was some talk of oaths two days ago, before the constable of Clown!"
Hal sighed. He did not notice that, in drawing him further into conversation, she had drawn him further from the coach, which was indeed now hidden behind a slight turn of the road.
"Well," quoth he, resignedly, "time shall clear me; and show, too, why I have had to put so admired a lady to so irksome a constraint."
"Say, rather, time shall give your prisoner revenge for all constraint. Think not you have put me to much distress! What says the play? Women can endure mewing up, so that you tie not their tongues!"
"I thank heaven you have not given me cause to tie your tongue!"
"Given you cause,—how?" she asked, looking full at him.
"Why, suppose, in the towns we passed, you had cried out from the coach to people, and I had found the closed curtain of no avail."
"What would you have done then?"
"Bound with a silken kerchief the shapeliest mouth in England! Ay, with these very hands of mine!"
"Ere that were done, I should have made stir enough to draw a concourse. Were I hard put to it, be sure I would attract questioners to whom you'd have to give account."