"When are you to meet him?"
"At ten to-morrow, in the Temple church," said the captain, dubiously. After a moment's silence, he added, "And to think that the fat of the land awaits you in Kent whenever you choose to take a wife to your father's house there! Well, well, it must come to your getting the better of that mad bashfulness—it must come to that in time."
"Why," quoth Holyday, surprised, "have you not assured me that women are vipers?"
"Ay, most of them, indeed—but not all; not all." The captain spoke thoughtfully.
"Well," said Holyday, after a pause, "I think I shall lodge in Cold Harbour first, ere I take one home to my father." Cold Harbour was a house in which vagabonds and debtors had sanctuary; but the two friends had so far steered clear of it, the captain not liking the company or the management thereof.
Leaving the Exchange, they found the streets alive with people; not only had the fine weather brought out the citizens, but the town was full of countryfolk up for the Trinity law term.
"'Odslid," a rustic esquire was overheard by the captain to say to another, "I looked to lie at the Bell to-night, but not a bed's to be had there. 'Twill go hard if all the inns—"
"Excellent," whispered Ravenshaw to the scholar. "We shall sleep dry of the dews to-night—else I'm a simple parish ass. Come."
They went at once to the sign of the Bell, where the captain applied, with an important air, for a chamber. On hearing that the house was full, he made a great ado, saying he and his friend wished to leave early in the morning in Hobson's wagon starting from that inn; being late risers by habit, they durst not trust themselves to sleep elsewhere, lest they miss the wagon. Finally, going into the inn yard, the captain stated his case to one of Hobson's men, and suggested that he and his companion might lie overnight in the tilt-wagon itself, so as to make sure of not being left behind in the morning. The carrier, glad to get two fares for the downward journey at a season when all the travel was up to town, thought the idea a good one. And so the two slept roomily that night on straw, well above ground, sheltered by the canvas cover of the huge wagon. In the morning, pretending they went for a bottle of wine, they did not return; and the carrier, whipping up his horses at the end of a vain wait of fifteen minutes, was provided with a subject of thought which lasted all the way to Edmonton.
Meanwhile, the captain and the scholar, postponing their breakfast, whiled away the time till ten o'clock. At that hour, having left his friend to loiter round Temple Bar, Ravenshaw stepped across the venerable threshold of the church of the Temple.