"If you have," returned the follower, wisely reserving
himself for any favourable contingency that might occur,
"we must make up for it next time, that's all."

"We are not a heavy load, George?"

"That's always what the ladies say," replied the man,
looking a long way round, as if he were appealing to Nature
in general against such monstrous propositions. "If you
see a woman a driving, you'll always perceive that she never
will keep her whip still; the horse can't go fast enough for
her. If cattle have got their proper load, you never can
persuade a woman that they'll not bear something more.
What is the cause of this here?"

"Would these two travellers make much difference to
the horses, if we took them with us?" asked his mistress,
offering no reply to the philosophical inquiry, and pointing
to Nell and the old man, who were painfully preparing to
resume their journey on foot.

"They'd make a difference in course," said George
doggedly.

"Would they make much difference?" repeated his
mistress. "They can't be very heavy."

"The weight o' the pair, mum," said George, eyeing
them with the look of a man who was calculating within
half an ounce or so, "would be a trifle under that of Oliver
Cromwell."

Nell was very much surprised that the man should be so
accurately acquainted with the weight of one whom she
had read of in books as having lived considerably before
their time, but speedily forgot the subject in the joy of
hearing that they were to go forward in the caravan, for
which she thanked its lady with unaffected earnestness.
She helped with great readiness and alacrity to put away the
tea-things and other matters that were lying about, and,
the horses being by that time harnessed, mounted into the
vehicle, followed by her delighted grandfather. Their
patroness then shut the door and sat herself down by her
drum at an open window; and, the steps being struck by
George and stowed under the carriage, away they went,
with a great noise of flapping and creaking and straining,
and the bright brass knocker, which nobody ever knocked
at, knocking one perpetual double knock of its own accord
as they jolted heavily along.

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