o
up to the hall for succor; and she could not but fancy that for some
frolic, perhaps some jest, or some wild whim, he had been trespassing
upon the manor in pursuit of game. That he was an ordinary poacher she
could not suppose; his dress, his appearance forbade such a supposition.

But there was something more.

In the young man's face--more in its expression than its features
perhaps--more in certain marking lines and sudden glances than in the
general whole--there was something familiar to her--something that
seemed akin to her. He was handsomer than her father; of a more perfect
though less lofty character of beauty; and yet there was a strange
likeness, not constant, but flashing occasionally upon her brow, in
what, when, she could hardly determine.

It roused another sort of sympathy from any she had felt before; and
once more she asked him to go up to the hall.

"If you have been taking your sport," she said, "where perhaps you ought
not, I am sure my father will look over it without a word, when he sees
how you are hurt. Although people sometimes think he is stern and
severe, that is all a mistake. He is kind and gentle, I assure you, when
he does not feel that duty requires him to be rigid."

The stranger gave a quick start, and replied in a tone which would have
been haughty and fierce, had not weakness subdued it, "I have been
shooting only where I have a right to shoot. But I will not go up to the
hall, till--but I dare say I can get down to the cottage without help,
Mistress Emily. I have been accustomed to do without help in the world;"
and he withdrew his arm from that which supported him. The next moment,
however, he tottered, and seemed ready to fall, and Emily again hurried
to help him. There were no more words spoken. She thought his manner
somewhat uncivil; she would not leave him, and the necessity for her
kindness was soon apparent. Ere they were within a hundred yards of the
cottage, he sunk slowly down. His face grew pale and death-like, and his
eyes closed faintly as he lay upon the turf. Emily ran on like lightning
to the cottage, and called out the old man who lived there. The old man
called his son from the little garden, and with his and other help,
carried the fainting man in.

"Ay, master John, master John," exclaimed the old cottager, as he laid
him in his own bed; "one of your wild pranks, I warrant!"

His wife, his son, and he himself tended the young man with care; and a
youn