The suit of black, too, made him look thinner and even taller than he really was; and on his first entrance into the room, Wilton certainly did not know him.

“You have come before your time,” he said, “though perhaps it is as well, for I must go out as soon as it is dusk;” and as he spoke he cast himself into a chair, fixed his eyes upon some scanty embers which were smouldering in the grate, and fell into a deep and apparently painful fit of thought.  His broad but heavy brow was knitted with a wrinkled frown; the muscles of his face worked from time to time; and Wilton could see the sinews of his large powerful hand, as it lay upon his knee, standing out like cords, though he uttered not a word.

After pausing for a moment or two, his companion thought it time to recall this strange acquaintance to the subject of his coming, and said, “You told me I might see some of my old friends here, Mr. Green.  Let me remind you it grows late.”

“Don’t be impatient, my good boy,” replied the other, abstractedly, at the same time rising and drinking a deep draught of the ale—­“you shall see some of your old friends!  Don’t you see me?”

“Yes,” replied Wilton, “you are an acquaintance, certainly, of some months, but nothing more that I know of.”

“Well, well, do not be impatient, I say,” answered Green “you shall see some one else, if I don’t satisfy you.  But you are before your time, as I said.”

He had scarcely spoken, when the door of the little room opened once more, and a woman apparently of no very high class, and considerably advanced in years, so as to be somewhat decrepit, came in.  She was dressed in a large grey cloak of common serge, with a stick in her hand, and mittens on her hands, while over her head was a large black wimple or hood, which covered a great part of her face.

The moment Green saw her, he crossed over, and said in a low but not inaudible voice, “Not a word, till all this business is over!  They will ruin the cause and themselves, and all that are engaged with them, by committing all sorts of crimes.  It will plunge him into the greatest dangers, if you say a word.”

Much of what he said was heard by Brown; and in the meantime Green aided the woman to disembarrass herself of her hood and cloak, taking the staff out of her hand, and at the same time turning the key of the door.  The moment that he did so, his female companion drew herself up; the appearance of bowed decrepitude vanished; and she stood before Brown a tall graceful woman, apparently scarcely forty years of age, with a countenance still beautiful, and a demeanour which left no doubt of the society with which at one time she must have mingled.

Of Wilton himself the lady had as yet had but once glance, as she first entered the room; for, ever since, Green had stood between them so that she could not see.  When she did behold him fully, however, she gazed upon him earnestly, clasping her hands, and exclaiming, “Is it—­is it possible?”