"Ah!" said the goblin, "I know how it is. Rum feeling, when you're not accustomed to it. But come; finish that glass, for we must be off. We've got a precious deal to do before morning, I can tell you. Are you ready?"
"All right," said the baron. "I'm just in the humor to make a night of it."
"Come along, then," said the goblin.
They proceeded for a short time in silence along the corridors of the old castle. They carried no candle, but the baron noticed that everything seemed perfectly light wherever they stood, but relapsed into darkness as soon as they had passed by. The goblin spoke first.
"I say, baron, you've been an uncommon old brute in your time, now, haven't you?"
"H'm," said the baron, reflectively; "I don't know. Well, yes, I rather think I have."
"How jolly miserable you've been making those two young people, you old sinner! You know who I mean."
"Eh, what? You know that, too?" said the baron.
"Know it; of course I do. Why, bless your heart, I know everything, my dear boy. But you have made yourself an old tyrant in that quarter, considerably. Ar'n't you blushing, you hard-hearted old monster?"
"Don't know, I'm sure," said the baron, scratching his nose, as if that was where he expected to feel it. "I believe I have treated them badly, though, now I come to think of it."