now about the usual hour in which we took that meal, and he might be
there waiting for me. I had just gained the steps of this tavern when
a stagecoach came rattling along the pavement and drew up at an inn of
more pretensions than that which we favored, situated within a few doors
of the latter. As the coach stopped, my eye was caught by the Trevanion
livery, which was very peculiar. Thinking I must be deceived, I drew
near to the wearer of the livery, who had just descended from the roof,
and while he paid the coachman, gave his orders to a waiter who emerged
from the inn,--"Half-and-half, cold without!" The tone of the voice
struck me as familiar, and the man now looking up, I beheld the features
of Mr. Peacock. Yes, unquestionably it was he. The whiskers were shaved;
there were traces of powder in the hair or the wig; the livery of the
Trevanions (ay, the very livery,--crest-button and all) upon that portly
figure, which I had last seen in the more august robes of a beadle. But
Mr. Peacock it was,--Peacock travestied, but Peacock still. Before I had
recovered my amaze, a woman got out of a cabriolet that seemed to have
been in waiting for the arrival of the coach, and hurrying up to Mr.
Peacock, said, in the loud, impatient tone common to the fairest of the
fair sex, when in haste, "How late you are!--I was just going. I must
get back to Oxton to-night."

Oxton,--Miss Trevanion was staying at Oxton! I was now close behind the
pair; I listened with my heart in my ear.

"So you shall, my dear,--so you shall; just come in, will you?"

"No, no; I have only ten minutes to catch the coach. Have you any letter
for me from Mr. Gower? How can I be sure, if I don't see it under his
own hand, that--"

"Hush!" said Peacock, sinking his voice so low that I could only catch
the words, "no names. Letter, pooh! I'll tell you." He then drew her
apart and whispered to her for some moments. I watched the woman's face,
which was bent towards her companion's, and it seemed to show quick
intelligence. She nodded her head more than once, as if in impatient
assent to what was said, and after a shaking of hands, hurried off to
the cab; then, as if a thought struck her, she ran back, and said,--

"But in case my lady should not go,--if there's any change of plan?"

"There'll be no change, you may be sure. Positively tomorrow,--not too
early: you understand?"

"Yes, yes; good-by!" and the woman, who was dressed with a quiet
neatness th