'He was a good man, poor soul, though in very truth and between friends he did at last become as broad and as thick as one of his own puncheons.

All well, the heart is the thing! Marry come up! if a woman were ever to wait until her own fancy came her way, there would be more maids than mothers in the land.' 'Prythee, good dame, how runs your own fancy ?' asked Reuben mischievously.
'Not in the direction of fat, young man,' she answered smartly, with a merry glance at our plump companion.
'She has hit you there, Reuben,' said I.
'I would have no pert young springald,' she continued, 'but one who hath knowledge of the world, and ripe experience.

Tall he should be, and of sinewy build, free of speech that he might lighten the weary hours, and help entertain the gentles when they crack a flagon of wine.

Of business habits he must be, too, forsooth, for is there not a busy hostel and two hundred good pounds a year to pass through his fingers?
If Jane Hobson is to be led to the altar again it must be by such a man as this.' Saxon had listened with much attention to the widow's words, and had just opened his mouth to make some reply to her when a clattering and bustle outside announced the arrival of some traveller.

Our hostess drank off her wine and pricked up her ears, but when a loud authoritative voice was heard in the passage, demanding a private room and a draught of sack, her call to duty overcame her private concerns, and she bustled off with a few words of apology to take the measure of the new-comer.
'Body o' me, lads!' quoth Decimus Saxon the moment that she disappeared, 'ye can see how the land lies.