Mrs Hall turned round in the coolest manner, and gazed about till she caught sight of her brother-in-law, who happened to have his back to the corner in which they were seated, and was watching two men play at dominoes while he waited for his cakes and ale. "Humph!" she said, turning back again. "Thomas Hall, I marvel if there be this even an hare in any turnip-field in Kent more 'feared of the hounds than you.--Well, Joan, thou hast ta'en thy time o'er these cakes." The last remark was addressed to the waitress, who replied with an amused smile-- "An't like you, Mistress, my name's Kate." "Well said, so thou bringest us some dainty cates [delicacies].--Now, Tom, help yourself, and pass that tankard." "Tabitha, he'll hear!" "Let him hear. I care not an almond if he hear every word I say. He'll hear o' t'other side his ears if he give us any trouble." Mr Benden had heard the harsh treble voice, and knew it. But he was as comically anxious as Thomas Hall himself that he and the fair Tabitha should not cross each other's path that evening. To run away he felt to be an undignified proceeding, and if Tabitha had set her mind on speaking to him, utterly useless. Accordingly, he kept his back carefully turned to her, and professed an absorbing interest in the dominoes. The cakes and ale having received due attention, Mr Hall paid the bill, and slunk out of the door, with the stealthy air and conscious face of a man engaged in the commission of a crime. Mrs Hall, on the contrary, took up her big basket with the open, leisurely aspect of virtue which had nothing to fear, and marched after her husband out of the Chequers. "Now then, Thomas Hall, whither reckon you to be a-going?" she inquired, before she was down the steps of the inn, in a voice which must have penetrated much further than to the ears of Mr Benden in the kitchen. "Not that way, numskull!--to the left." Poor Thomas, accustomed to these conjugal amenities, turned meekly round and trotted after his Tabitha, who with her big basket took the lead, and conducted him in a few minutes to the door of the gaol. "Good den, Master Porter! We be some'at late for visitors, but needs must. Pray you, may we have speech of Mistress Benden, within here?" The porter opened the wicket, and they stepped inside. "You're nigh on closing time," said he. "Only half-an-hour to spare." "I can do my business in half-an-hour, I thank you," replied Tabitha, marching across the courtyard. The porter, following them, unlocked the outer door, and locked it again after them. To the gaoler who now received them they repeated their errand, and he produced another key, wherewith he let them into the women's prison. Alice and Rachel were talking together in the corner of the room, and Tabitha set down herself and her basket by the side of her sister-in-law.