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After replying to the oldhe showed no inclination to continue in talk, although they still walked side by side, for the elder traveller seemed to desire co wind upon the stretch of tawny herbage around the wheels, the tread of the y ponies which drew the van They were small, hardy animals, of a breed between Galloway and Exmoor, and were known as "heath-croppers" here

Now, as they thus pursued their way, the reddle behind the van, looked into its interior through a smallThe look was always anxious He would then return to the old man, who made another remark about the state of the country and so on, to which the reddleain they would lapse into silence The silence conveyed to neither any sense of aardness; in these lonely places wayfarers, after a first greeting, frequently plod on for uity amounts to a tacit conversation where, otherwise than in cities, such contiguity can be put an end to on the merest inclination, and where not to put an end to it is intercourse in itself

Possibly these two , had it not been for the reddleman's visits to his van When he returned fro in the oldinside there besides your load?"

"Yes"

"So after this a faint cry sounded from the interior The reddleain

"You have a child there, my man?"

"No, sir, I have a woman"

"The deuce you have! Why did she cry out?"

"Oh, she has fallen asleep, and not being used to traveling, she's uneasy, and keeps drea woo Perhaps she's your wife?"

"My wife!" said the other bitterly "She's abovewith such as I But there's no reason why I should tell you about that"

"That's true And there's no reason why you should not What harm can I do to you or to her?"

The reddleman looked in the old man's face "Well, sir," he said at last, "I knew her before today, though perhaps it would have been better if I had not But she's nothing toto her; and she wouldn't have been in e had been there to take her"