Chapter III
Of the Lady’s Chamber; of how I tres-
passed and of how I was so
oddly entertained
For the pother that fell in the “Blue Boar,” I was myself much in default. I had little business, indeed, to be there at all, and specially at that time; for the place was in ill-favour with the officers, who were used to skip in and skip out as familiar as pigeons in a dovecote. But most of all was I to blame for hobanobbing with Old Irons, as notorious for cribs as he was upon the road, through whose foul-mouthed folly by this double disadvantage the misadventure came about. I take shame on myself to have kept his company for more than the exchange of a civil greeting, for I never could away with a shabby trade like his. But the fact was I was rolling on a full tide of liquor, having that evening made Town from Winchester, with a heavy
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