ween
Helen's rank and mine; of all that she had passed through since our
parting; of her long, unbroken silence; and, above all, of her cool,
cautious aunt, whose counsels she would doubtless be careful not to
slight again. These considerations made my heart flutter with anxiety,
and my chest heave with impatience to get the crisis over; but they could
not dim her image in my mind, or mar the vivid recollection of what had
been said and felt between us, or destroy the keen anticipation of what
was to be: in fact, I could not realise their terrors now. Towards the
close of the journey, however, a couple of my fellow-passengers kindly
came to my assistance, and brought me low enough.

'Fine land this,' said one of them, pointing with his umbrella to the
wide fields on the right, conspicuous for their compact hedgerows, deep,
well-cut ditches, and fine timber-trees, growing sometimes on the
borders, sometimes in the midst of the enclosure: 'very fine land, if you
saw it in the summer or spring.'

'Ay,' responded the other, a gruff elderly man, with a drab greatcoat
buttoned up to the chin, and a cotton umbrella between his knees. 'It's
old Maxwell's, I suppose.'

'It was his, sir; but he's dead now, you're aware, and has left it all to
his niece.'

'All?'

'Every rood of it, and the mansion-house and all! every hatom of his
worldly goods, except just a trifle, by way of remembrance, to his nephew
down in --shire, and an annuity to his wife.'

'It's strange, sir!'

'It is, sir; and she wasn't his own niece neither. But he had no near
relations of his own--none but a nephew he'd quarrelled with; and he
always had a partiality for this one. And then his wife advised him to
it, they say: she'd brought most of the property, and it was her wish
that this lady should have it.'

'Humph! She'll be a fine catch for somebody.'

'She will so. She's a widow, but quite young yet, and uncommon handsome:
a fortune of her own, besides, and only one child, and she's nursing a
fine estate for him in --. There'll be lots to speak for her! 'fraid
there's no chance for uz'--(facetiously jogging me with his elbow, as
well as his companion)--'ha, ha, ha! No offence, sir, I hope?'--(to me).
'Ahem! I should think she'll marry none but a nobleman myself. Look ye,
sir,' resumed he, turning to his other neighbour, and pointing past me
with his umbrella, 'that's the Hall: grand park, you see, and all them
woods--plenty of timber