Gaffin, and well pleased that there would
be no difficulty about her attending the fete.

Jacob arrived in the evening at Downside with a basket of shells. May
could not help asking him whether he had seen young Gaffin, and again
entreated him not to interfere.

"I have not seen him, but I know where he is," answered Jacob; "and I
don't think he will show his nose outside the house without having me at
his heels."

Every day before going off for the night's fishing in the _Nancy_, Jacob
managed to find time to get up to Downside.

He would have been a bold man who would have ventured to encounter the
young fisherman with any intention of annoying Maiden May. Honest love,
when the object loved is to be benefited, wonderfully sharpens the wits.
Jacob, who would never have thought of such a thing under other
circumstances, had set a boy to watch the inn, and bring him word of
Miles's movements. When he was away, the lad was to inform his mother.

Miles, either in obedience to his father's directions, or because he had
found out that he was watched, kept himself a prisoner, and did not
venture beyond the precincts of the garden at the back of the house,
where he spent most of the day sauntering up and down, smoking his pipe,
and forming plans for winning the young lady in spite of the obstacles
in his way. Though unable to appreciate any higher qualities, he had
been really struck by her beauty, and was as much in love as it was in
his nature to be. He was thus perfectly ready to enter into any scheme
which his father might propose for gaining her, either by fair means or
foul.

"I would not hurt her feelings if I could help it," he said to himself;
"but I am pretty sure I have a rival in that young fellow Halliburt. I
guessed that when she took his arm and ran off from me. She knows well
enough that he is not her brother, though they have been brought up
together, and girls are generally apt to admire those big,
sturdy-looking chaps who have done them a service, more than
well-dressed, gentlemanly young men like myself," and Miles glanced
approvingly on his new and fashionable costume. "If she still turns a
cold eye upon me that worthy dad of mine must manage to get the young
fisherman out of the way--it won't do to have him interfering--and with
a clear stage I shall not have insuperable difficulties to overcome, I
flatter myself."

Still Miles had to remain inactive some days longer. At last he
received