I commend ye, Charles.' 'For,' said Darton, 'why should a woman dress up like a rope-dancer because she's going to do the most solemn deed of her life except dying ?' 'Faith, why?
But she will, because she will, I suppose,' said Dairyman Johns.
'H'm,' said Darton.
The lane they followed had been nearly straight for several miles, but it now took a turn, and winding uncertainly for some distance forked into two.

By night country roads are apt to reveal ungainly qualities which pass without observation during day; and though Darton had travelled this way before, he had not done so frequently, Sally having been wooed at the house of a relative near his own.

He never remembered seeing at this spot a pair of alternative ways looking so equally probable as these two did now.

Johns rode on a few steps.
'Don't be out of heart, sonny,' he cried.

'Here's a handpost.