The landlord left her. But ere long he returned and made her another proposal. Would she be his wife, and landlady of the "White Hart?" "You do ill to mock me," said she sorrowfully. "Nay, sweetheart. I mock thee not. I am too old for sorry jests. Say you the word, and you are my partner for better for worse." She looked at him, and saw he was in earnest: on this she suddenly rained hard to the memory of "le pendard:" the tears came in a torrent being the last; and she gave her hand to the landlord of the "White Hart," and broke a gold crown with him in sign of plighted troth. "We will keep it dark till the house is quiet," said the landlord. "Ay," said she: "but meantime prithee give me linen to hem, or work to do: for the time hangs on me like lead." Her betrothed's eye brightened at this house-wifely request, and he brought her up two dozen flagons of various sizes to clean and polish. She gathered complacency as she reflected that by a strange turn of fortune all this bright pewter was to be hers. And this mighty furbishing up of pewter reminds me that justice requires me to do a stroke of the same work. Well then, the deposition, read out in the alderman's room as Manon's, was not so exact as such things ought to be. The alderman had condensed her evidence. Now there are in every great nation about three persons capable of condensing evidence without falsifying it: but this alderman was not one of that small band. In the first part of the deposition he left out as unimportant these words "my mother advised me to keep out of his way till his wrath should cool." Between the words "jealous of me" and "the reason" Manon had said "My master was aye at my heels: so I told my mistress, and said I would rather go than be cause of mischief." This the alderman suppressed as mere babel: whereas it was a worthy trait. He also let slip the word "afterwards" in the next sentence. Manon had said the reason they gave _afterwards_, _i. e._, "when I was no longer there to contradict them." And so on all through the deposition. Sometimes the deponent suffered as many a one does now-a-days, in the newspaper and other reports, by the mere suppression of the question. For instance this is what actually was said:-- _The Alderman._ "Come now, should you have interfered if this soldier had had no beard?" _Manon._ "How can I tell what I _should_ have done?" Now this was merely a sensible answer to a monstrous question no magistrate had a right to put. But, under the condensing process, behold her saddled with a volunteer statement of a very damaging character. Finally she had said, "I am sorry I told, if I am to be hanged for it." This the old boy condensed ut supra, p. 136, anticipating as far as possible the tuneful Sinclair.[A] Whilst Manon and I were cleaning, she her coming, I my parting, pewter, the landlord went down stairs and falling in with our friends drew them aside into the bar.