"It was a
good ending since it saved you from a scoundrel. Do not think too
harshly of the past. It has had more honesty in it than you would
imagine. For love of a woman I took to the road; for love of a woman the
road shall know me no more. Ah, landlord, the ale! To you, mistress, and
to you, Mr. Crosby. May God's blessing be with you to the end."
He drank, and tossing the empty tankard to the landlord, turned his
horse and galloped back along the road.
For half an hour or more the coach stood before the door of "The Jolly
Farmers," and then, with fresh horses, started briskly on its journey to
Southampton. At the inn the landlord had waited upon his guests so
attentively that they could say little to each other, but in the coach
they were alone, shut away with their happiness from all the prying
world. With her golden head upon his shoulder, Barbara told Crosby all
that she had feared, all her doubts. There were so many things to make
her certain that he was "Galloping Hermit."
"I know," he answered. "It has suited my purpose sometimes while I have
been helping men to escape out of the West Country to let my enemies
suppose that I was; but it never occurred to me that you would think so.
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