he ultimately fell
prostrate on the ground, close by the side of the innocent yet moving
cause of his misadventure, and with such force, as to bury the whole of
his countenance in the soft heavings of a similar hillock to the one he
had so inadvertently tripped over.

Luckily for him, the place his physiognomy alighted upon was of so soft
and yielding a nature, that though he stamped a perfect model of his
features in the clay, the features themselves were unimpaired, otherwise
than by the earthy colouring communicated to them by so pressing a
contact, which perfectly satisfied the fair equestrians (who had the
kindness to pull up and express their hopes that he was not seriously
hurt) that the actual damage sustained was of a very superficial nature.

"And I suppose you intend to say that this is all for the best?"
observed Vernon in rather a rueful tone, as, the ladies having ridden
on, he was attempting to rub off the dirt from his face with his pocket
handkerchief--the first wipe of which was sufficient to show him how
much the effects of his tumble had changed the natural hue of his
complexion.

"To be sure I do," answered Frank "and any man less unreasonable than
yourself would say so too."

"What! say it was all for the best for him, like an awkward booby, to
fall sprawling in the dirt, thereby making himself a laughing-stock to
that beautiful, angelic creature? Oh! only look, my dear Frank, only
look--see her--see both of them! Why, as I live, they are almost ready
to fall off the very backs of their horses from the laughter my
blundering awkwardness has excited. Oh, it's really dreadful--I must
turn my head another way. I can bear the sight of it no longer!"

"But only think how much worse it would have been if your phiz, instead
of the soft earth, had encountered one of the hard spar-stones that are
so plentifully strewed about here?"

"And supposing it had--wouldn't it have been better, at the cost of
little pain and suffering, to have excited the compassion, instead of
the laughter of that heavenly creature?"

"But hardly at the sacrifice of your nose, I should say," rejoined
Frank, "which, from the deep impression it has made in the clay, must
have been smashed flat as a pancake had it battled out the matter with
the stones."

The young poet had a great regard for his nose, and his companion's
remarks upon the subject were so palpable, that he was not only silenced
but convinced.

"I say here,