E waited till she had passed between the narrow walls of the maze, and then turned to each other.
'We will start on fair terms,' said I.
'Assuredly,' he answered gaily; 'but I am damnably lame of one foot. Well, if it may not be thus'—and he tapped his sword with an irritating smile of bravado—'any way will serve.'
'You pay a poor compliment to her decision,' I replied with a sneer. 'You may resolve yourself that she has already made her choice.'
'So I understand,' said he with a grin.
'Your leg'—said I: 'she has the eyes of a hawk.'
'And your wits'—said he: 'she has fathomed them at the outset.'
'If you would be insolent, sir' I cried.
'Gad!' he interrupted me, 'you've a pretty temper, and a most uncommon desire of her. 'Tis true, I've an elegant passion myself; but faith, would you spit yourself in your folly?' and he half-drew his weapon from the scabbard.
'This quarrel will keep,' I replied angrily, 'unless you would reduce me to your own halting gait ere we set forth.'
' ’Sdeath,' said he, purpling, 'you London popinjay, I'll have you to know, my visitation is for my own jests only.'
'I think,' said I coolly, 'that this were better at the back-end of our adventure. Let us patch a bargain, my fire-eater.'
'It is well said,' he answered quickly: 'on the sign we start'
'And separate,' said I.
'Faith, if you take one road, I'll another; and that's flat. I've no fancy for your company.'
'Excellent!' I replied; 'and he that shall arrive first at the central arbour'
'Shall ravish a kiss of her, by my body,' quoth he.
'And,' I added, 'be taken for her lover.'
A voice broke softly on our talk, and wheeling we saw a kerchief tossing in the air.
'That is our signal,' said I.
But he was already gone, and in a twinkling I was after him. I caught him at the first turning in the maze, whence two tracks started abruptly in opposite directions. Without a pause he whisked into the left. 'Her skirts,' thought I, 'flashed round this corner as she went,' and chuckling made off by the right. The privet hedges rose high, so that he disappeared from my view immediately; but, keeping the central ash in my eye, I ran on. The maze twisted marvellously, ran in astounding little circuits, and dodged hither and thither in an utterly preposterous fashion. I had no judgment by which to go, save my own vague discretion; and though at first I took my resolutions on the run, and with the easy confidence of novelty, soon—finding myself no nearer to the arbour, but somewhat hot and breathless with my speed—I began to choose more leisurely, and with an air of observation. Where each way branched I paused and meditated; reckoned up the chances; cast a few calculations in my mind; and drew what inference seemed likeliest. In the distance I could hear my rival tramping along, but it was not until I had been some ten minutes at my task that he came into my neighbourhood. He was separated from me by several fences, but, to my chagrin, was upon the inner side and evidently nearer to our common goal. I had regained some breath, and, happening at the moment upon what struck me as an admirable clew, I was spurred, at once by his seeming good fortune and my new hopes, into a quicker pace. Presently, rounding an arm of the hedge, I plumped into a stranger whose presence in the place I had not looked for. He was an old man, with large infantine eyes and a beard of venerable white, and he was ambling along with a paltry, nervous gait, resembling that of a perturbed child. So much embarrassed was I at the delay of this accident that I had forgot my manners, and with an expression of impatience was making off, when he clutched me by the coat.
'I pray you,' said he in a piping voice, 'I pray you, kindly direct me to the issues of this lamentable prison.'
'At your age,' said I, 'you should know better than to be at this ridiculous game;' and, thrusting him aside, I pushed on at a hot speed.