Geoffrey Hamlyn

New F

e, waiting for candles to resume his reading. He was now but little over sixty, yet his hair was snowy white, and his face looked worn and aged. Anyone who wat

ss in that play had set him thinking. The book had fallen on his knees, and he sat pondering till he had fallen asleep

L. and a like sum to his daughter Mary. And his sister, Miss Thornton, a quiet good old maid, who had been a governess all her life, had come to live with him, so that he was

s she gave a stitch or two; but then followed a long gaze out of the window, across the damp gravel and plushy lawn, towards the white gate under the leafless larches. Again with an impatient sigh sh

ly in his sleep, but unnoticed by her, for she stands back in the shadow of the curtain, and eagerly watches the new comer in his approach. Her father sit

e new comer at the door, and, carryin

eorge

head of curling black hair I ever saw, could make him handsome, handsome he was without doubt. And yet the more you looked at him the less you liked him, and the more inclined you felt to pick a quarrel with him. The thin lips, the everlasting smile, the quick suspicious glance, so rapidly shot out from under the overhanging eyebrows, and as quickly withdrawn, were fearfully repulsive, as well as a trick he had of always clearing his throat before he spoke, as if to gain time to frame a lie. But, perhaps, th

ducation, but had lived shut up with his father in the lonely old farm-house. And strange stories were in circulation among the villages about that house, not much to the credit of

d him; but she, with a strange perversity, loved him as it seldom f

st last night has sent them down off the moor as thick as bees, and this warm rain will soon send

they were in old times, and I don't shoot so well either as I used to do. My

ge Hawker, in an offhand sort of way. But Mary slipped rou

and with a sigh, and soon the lovers were whisper

rst open the hall-door, and, without shutting it, dashes into the parlour, accompanied by a to

t the new

p by a pair of merry blue eyes. His forehead was, I think, the finest I ever saw; so high, so broad, and so uprigh

g, and without "Good-even," or s

t the new

though? How did you get him? Are you sure it is not a y

casions in the meadow below Reel's mill; and you each time threw your jacksnipe theory in my face. To-day I marked him down in the bare ground outside Haveldon wood, then ran at full speed up to the jager, and offered him five shillings if he would come down and shoot the bird I showed him. He came, killed the bir

honoured by such a distinguished stranger as the new snipe. But come in to the fire, and smoke your pipe, while you show me y

or, standing staring at him open-eyed for

deuce i

m the Woodlands. I should have

g to take a liberty. I am a phrenologist." He advanced across the room to where George sat, laid his hand on his forehead, and drawing it lightly an

ul little brown-mottled snipe, which now bears the name of Colonel Sabine, and having lit his pipe, set to work with a tiny penknife and a pot of arsenical soap, all of which were disinterred fr

ierce angry glances at him from under his lowered eyebrows, talking but little to Mary. But now he grows more

he orange alley in the New World, between the crimson snow and the blazing west; or treading lightly across the wet ground at black midnight, when the cattle are restless, or

ualities. She liked him in a sort of way; nay, it might even be said that she was fond of him. But what she liked better than him was to gratify her vanity, by showing her power over the finest young fellow in the village, and to use him as a foil to aggravate George Hawker. My aunt B

him with a royal salute, of about twenty-one short words; but he got rather a cool reception from the lovers in the window. Mary gave him a quiet good

ect for the Doctor's learning, and old John and he were as father and son; so a better matched trio

warm, kindly rain after t

rain, sir,"

legs and working forward, is infinitely superior. Yet that ass at Crediton, after I had condescen

s looking, Jim?" says t

will, you know, in these wet clays. But I p

race Hamlyn?"

He and I have been out

James, my boy. Young men like you and he, who have come to be their own masters so young, ought to be more careful

us so rich as some

ou see, and, therefore, ought to be in

"All this about Hamlyn'

uption; "but FOUR TIMES is rather too much. And Hamlyn has been out four da

him a real good wigging. He'll mind you. But catch him soon, sir, or you

uth Seas. Jerry Shaw begged the judge to hang him instead of sending

g up and going there," said Jim. "Do

ense to land and make use of it - the new country of Australasia. The land with millions of acres of fertile soil, under a splendid climate, calling aloud for some one to come and cultivate them. T

p" at James' announcement, and now,

acres of the best land in Devon, and go and live among the convicts. And who i

ther unwilling or unable to give it. Yet I think that the real cause was standin

ed, coming quickly towards him. "Wh

nt from down Plymouth way, and who is making a fortune; and besides, I have got tired of the old place somehow, lately. I have nothing to keep me

yes filled with tears, "I sh

rowded for men to live in without a hard push, and depend on it, when poor men are afraid to marry for fear of having children which they can't support, it is time to move somewhere. The hive is too hot, and the bees must swarm, so those that go will both better themselves, and better those they leave beh

it, James, my boy

ation to go blundering about the world like buffaloes in search of fresh pasture. You have founded already two or thr

lyn too, wherever you go. Are

always half jealous of him, though without the slightest cause, and to-night he was more so than ever, for Mary, since she had heard of James' intended

re. Ha! ha! Well, I wish you every sort of good luck. My dear friend, Hamlyn, too. What a loss he'll be to our little society, so sociable and affable as he always is t

r he had the satisfaction to hear James' clear honest laugh mingling with the Vic

young man has go a s

who had left the room with George. The Vicar lo

wish he was goin

lony, I'll be bound

ames and the Doctor stood outside the door,

, I believ

. I me

om

o'clock, these two arrived at my house, and sat before the fire till half-past three in the morning; and in that time the Doctor ha