Having notified to my good friend Sir Roger that I should set out for London the next day, his horses were ready at the appointed hour in the evening; and attended by one of his grooms, I arrived at the county town at twilight, in order to be ready for the stage-coach the day (174: 5) following. As soon as we arrived at the inn, the servant who waited upon me inquired of the chamberlain, in my hearing, what company he had for the coach. The fellow answered, "Mrs. Betty Arable, the great fortune, and the widow, her mother; a recruiting officer,--who took a (10) place because they were to go; young Squire Quickset, her cousin,--that her mother wished her to be married to; Ephraim, the Quaker, her guardian; and a gentleman that had studied himself dumb from Sir Roger de Coverley's." I observed, by what he said of myself, that (15) according to his office, he dealt much in intelligence; and doubted not but there was some foundation for his reports of the rest of the company, as well as for the whimsical account he gave of me. The next morning at daybreak we were all called; and I, who know my own natural shyness, and endeavour to be as little liable to be disputed with as possible, dressed immediately, that I might make no one wait. The first preparation for our setting out was, that the captain's (175: 5) half-pike was placed near the coachman, and a drum behind the coach. In the meantime the drummer, the captain's equipage,[124] was very loud that none of the captain's things should be placed so as to be spoiled; upon which his cloak bag was fixed in the seat[125] of the coach; (10) and the captain himself, according to a frequent though invidious[126] behaviour of military men, ordered his man to look sharp that none but one of the ladies should have the place he had taken fronting to the coach-box. [124] Humorously used of the captain's one attendant, the drummer. [125] _I.e_. in the box under the seat. [126] Presuming, offensive because presuming.