Barrington

along his road with all the speed he could summon. The way, which for some miles led along the river-s

ylton jumped out and drew nigh the litt

od of Manchester, Major? We are just ord

he, crankily. "Look here,"-and he pointed to some fresh-

ellows in the North are growi

sulkily. "I'd care more about a blight in the

easant nook like this can well afford to smile at the busy ambitions of

be I'm not," sai

I hinted to you t'other e

d the oth

t basketful of greenery, and a large bouquet on the top of it,-are not these significant signs of a projected campaign? You are wrong, Major, u

ut w

ck's shoulder, he halt whispered in his ear; "It is a good thing,-a deuced good thing! and I promise you, if I were a marrying man, you 'd

now, or what

d of it, and not a little uneasy lest it should come before the public, perhaps before the Parliament. Old Barrington has made all negotiation difficult by the extravagant pretensions he puts for

make a marrying man of you,

bjection, if you must know,"

a wife already! I

I quite certain I 'd tell it if I had. However, you know enough for all practical

ng so freely together, there's no harm in mentioning it. It 's onl

en I was down

ard of each o

knowledge,

It wasn't anything in my appearance, I 'm sure, nor my manner; and as to what you 'd

worth nothing, and so I said to myself, 'If it ever occurs to me to chance upon a good opportunity of which I cannot from circumstances avail myself, there's my man. I'll go to him and say, "M'Cormick, that's open to you, there's a safe thing!" And when in return he 'd say, "Stapylton, what can I do for

nse cunning. "Not a bad bargain for you, anyhow. It is

as a gift, but I 'm quite ready to reassure all your fears on that

ning with a sense of shame he had not felt for many a year. "I may be as sti

mpact. There is no need of another word on the matter. I shall be curious, however, to know how your project speeds. Write to me,-you

nk work; indeed, I haven't much

ecipitate; hazard nothing by a rash step; secure your way by intimacy, mere intimacy: avoid particular attentions strictly; be a

the old fellow, with a grin. "I wish I was as

assurance as to require corroboration. Come, I must say good-bye; I meant to

could n't I offer you anything?

e several assaults upon me while I ate, I managed to secure two cutlets

nd I'll take her down a peg ye

sure to get scratched at last, and nobody thanks them for their pains. Regard h

sometimes g

f it must be; for, trust m

old fellow, as he waved his adieux, and

ted to his adversary pushing him en tierce while he attacked him en quarte, he was expressing a great social want, applicable to those people who in conversation w

eal attack, and I will make use of him, besides, to learn whatever goes on in my absence. How the old fellow swallowed the bait! What self-esteem there must be in such a rugged nature, to make him imagine he could be successful in a cause like this! He is, after all, a clumsy agent to trust one

he scrutinized the post-horses as they were led out, and apportioned the rewards to the postilions as though no heavier care lay on his heart than the road and its belongings. While he r

gest an implement of torture. At a short distance off sat Withering, with pen, ink, and paper before him, as if to set down any det

over to Brown's Barn for the tulip-roots, and I have told Darby that if any visitors came

ing; "it is a case befo

hear?" asked Barrington,

te conversation with Major Stapylton; given, as nearly as your memory wil

"minute of interview between P. B. and Major S. Taken on the same

y without lifting her head. "And avoid, so far as poss

notes in shorthand of what w

in your memory a conversation that took pla

cumstantially and clea

disappoint you, but I can

you had no interview with

orgotten all about

e taken a pledge of se

ion of what I said myself, and what he said afterwards, I could no more pretend to

ustration, Peter Barrington? I ask you, Mr. Withering,

in the witness-box to make su

using the most formidable of all penalties to her brother's imagination

cross-examination, at all e

what do you want with me?"

by the father's side, what by the mother's; what are his means, and where; who knows him,

there too," a

ad taken me with him!"

ithering, with a well-affected gravity, "we had

she, gathering up her worsted and her n

nducting such an inquiry as you committed to my hands. Fancy how, at every attempt to obtain information, his own boldness, I might call it r

daughter's fate and less of your own feelings." And with this she flounced out of the roo

s right, Tom," said Pete

, and what his fortune? Did you

t; but you never made a hound true to the scent by flogging him, Tom,-is n't that a fact, eh?" And conso