Chapter 9
Containing little more than a few odd observations
Jones had been absent a full half-hour, when he returned into the
kitchen in a hurry, desiring the landlord to let him know that instant
what was to pay. And now the concern which Partridge felt at being
obliged to quit the warm chimney-corner, and a cup of excellent
liquor, was somewhat compensated by hearing that he was to proceed
no farther on foot, for Jones, by golden arguments, had prevailed with
the boy to attend him back to the inn whither he had before
conducted Sophia; but to this however the lad consented, upon
condition that the other guide would wait for him at the alehouse;
because, as the landlord at Upton was an intimate acquaintance of
the landlord at Gloucester, it might some time or other come to the
ears of the latter, that his horses had been let to more than one
person; and so the boy might be brought to account for money which
he wisely intended to put in his own pocket.
We were obliged to mention this circumstance, trifling as it may
seem, since it retarded Mr. Jones a considerable time in his setting
out; for the honesty of this latter boy was somewhat high- that is,
somewhat high-priced, and would indeed have cost Jones very dear,
had not Partridge, who, as we have said, was a very cunning fellow,
artfully thrown in half-a-crown to be spent at that very alehouse,
while the boy was waiting for his companion.
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