But the days are long now, and it wants
some hours before sundown, when the traveller leaps from his horse
and stands under the broad eaves of the porch, where the creepers
are growing luxuriantly and are full of fair white flowers.
The traveller is a good horseman, though he has passed the heyday
of his youth. It is not for some three minutes afterward that his
man-servant, hot and blown and powdered thick with dust, comes up
on horseback after him and takes charge of his master's steed. The
master is a man of forty years or more, and looking somewhat older
than his years, his hair being very gray. He stoops a little between
the shoulders too when off his guard, though he can look straight
and stalwart enough when put to it. He is very dark,--a fiercer
sun than that which shines on England has burned him a copper
colour,--and he has a moustache that Munchausen might have envied.
He knocks at the door, and asks if Master Reuben Pemberthy can be
seen at a moment's notice. The maid-servant looks surprised, but
says, "My mistress is within, sir."
"Reuben Pemberthy's wife, that is," he mutters, pulling thoughtfully
at his long moustache; "ah, well, perhaps she will see me.
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