“Two of us, and our horses.”
“What will you pay?”
Mr. Pepys gave John Gore a shocked and indignant nudge.
“The foul clod, bargaining with our starvation! A gold carolus, my friend.”
“Say five,” quoth the voice, laconically.
“Five! Why it’s sheer robbery!”
“Stay outside, then; it’s no business of mine.”
“Five be it, then,” said Mr. Pepys, in disgust.
The man went off, saying that he would chain the dog up, because the beast was fierce. They heard him call to some one, and then the sound of voices haggling together and the rattle of a chain. Presently the slow and heavy footsteps came back across the court-yard, with the lighter, quicker tread of a woman following. She had brought a lantern with her, and the light from it played under the gate.
“You can sleep in the barn,” said the man’s voice. “My woman won’t take strangers into the kitchen.”