Never was drawbridge more promptly made passable. The creaking of a windlass; with a rattling of chains, and it was down in its place. The wicket was at the same time drawn open, and the cadger party passed over and in. "Lor, Win!" said Rob, drawing the great woman aside under the shadow of the guard-house wall, and saluting her with a kiss, "where be yees from?" "Glo'ster east," she responded, soon as her lips were released from the osculation. "An' what ha' brought ye to Bristol?" "Business o' diff'rent kinds." "But ye don't appear to ha' any ladin' on the donkey?" "Us may goin' back--hope to." The cadgeress was prevaricating. No commercial speculation was the cause of their being there; and if in passing through Gloucester they had picked up a commission, it was quite a windfall, having nought to do with the original object of their extended excursion. Neither on leaving Ruardean, nor up to that moment, was Jerky himself aware of its purpose, Winny having been its projector. But he could trust her, and she, in her usual way, insisting upon the tramp, he had no alternative but to undertake it. He knew now, why his sister had brought him to Bristol, and that Rob Wilde was the lure which had attracted her thither. Rob had some thought of this himself, or at least hoped it so; the unburdened donkey helping him in his hope. "But ye bean't goin' back, surely?" he said. "Why not?" "The danger o' the roads now. If I'd a known you war on them, Win, dear, I should ha' been feelin' a bit uneasy." Her game of false pretence was now nearly up. It had all been due to a fear which had suddenly come over her on seeing him again. Months had elapsed since they last met, and the rough Forester, erst in coarse common attire, his locks shaggy and unkempt, was now a man of military bearing, hair and whiskers neatly trimmed, in a well-fitting uniform resplendent with the glitter of gold. He was only a sergeant; but in her eyes no commanding officer of troop or regiment, not even the generalissimo of the army, could have looked either so grand or so handsome. But it was just that, with the thought of the long interval since they had last stood side by side, that now held her reticent. How knew she but that with such change outwardly, there might also have come change within his heart, and towards herself? A soldier too, now; one of a calling proverbial for gallantry as fickleness, living in a great city where, as she supposed, the eyes of many a syren would be turned luringly upon her grand Rob. Had he yielded to their lures or resisted them? So she mentally and apprehensively interrogated. But only for a short while; the "Win, dear," in his old voice, with its old affectionate tone, and his solicitude for her safety, told he was still true. Doubting it no longer, she threw aside the reserve that was beginning to perplex him, at the same time flinging her arms round his neck, and in turn kissing _him_.