Explore "Micah Clarke" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The inn was very full of company, being occupied not only by many / Government agents and couriers on their way to and from the seat of / the rising, but also by all the local gossips, who gathered there to / exchange news and consume Dame Hobson the landlady's home-brewed. In / spite, however, of this stress of custom and the consequent uproar, the / hostess conducted us into her own private room, where we could consume / her excellent cheer in peace and quietness. This favour was due, I / think, to a little sly manoeuvring and a few whispered words from Saxon, / who amongst other accomplishments which he had picked up during his / chequered career had a pleasing knack of establishing friendly relations / with the fair sex, irrespective of age, size, or character. Gentle / and simple, Church and Dissent, Whig and Tory, if they did but wear a / petticoat our comrade never failed, in spite of his fifty years, to make / his way into their good graces by the help of his voluble tongue mid / assured manner.
'We are your grateful servants, mistress,' said he, when the smoking / joint and the batter pudding had been placed upon the table. 'We have / robbed you of your room. Will you not honour us so far as to sit down / with us and share our repast?'