During the first few miles he could discover no trace of Sim.

This troubled him a little, until he reflected that it was late at night when Sim started away, and that consequently the tailor would pass the little wayside villages unobserved.

After nine or ten miles had been covered, Robbie met with persons who had encountered Sim.

The accounts given of him were as painful as they were in harmony with his character.

Sim had shrunk from the salutations of those who knew him, and avoided with equal timidity the gaze of those by whom he was not known.