Yet, if I fled, I were a paltroon and a boor.
I waited, and the minutes seemed hours while the boat came over.

There were four horses also in the boat, one laden with baggage, as for a journey.

Were they then leaving London for some distant home where I should never see her more?
Yet if so, why came they this way?
As they came to shore, I summoned up courage to advance.

She knew me in a moment, despite my travel-stained garb and unkempt look; and held out her hand with a smile of mingled surprise and welcome.
"My kind protector," she said.

"To think of meeting you in a place like this." "I am returning from a long journey," said I.
"And we are starting on a longer," said she.
"And a pretty prey we be," said the old nurse, "to all the bandits, and man slayers, and women eaters with which you English line your high roads.