ersecution of a malicious destiny. He figured himself as
about to be deserted by every creature in human form; all men, under the
influence of a fatal enchantment, approving only what was sophisticated
and artificial, and holding the rude and genuine offspring of nature in
mortal antipathy. Impressed with these gloomy presages, he saw Miss
Melville with no sentiments but those of rancorous aversion; and,
accustomed as he was to the uncontrolled indulgence of his propensities,
he determined to wreak upon her a signal revenge.

CHAPTER VII.

Mr. Tyrrel consulted his old confident respecting the plan he should
pursue; who, sympathising as he did in the brutality and insolence of
his friend, had no idea that an insignificant girl, without either
wealth or beauty, ought to be allowed for a moment to stand in the way
of the gratifications of a man of Mr. Tyrrel's importance. The first
idea of her now unrelenting kinsman was to thrust her from his doors,
and leave her to seek her bread as she could. But he was conscious that
this proceeding would involve him in considerable obloquy; and he at
length fixed upon a scheme which, at the same time that he believed it
would sufficiently shelter his reputation, would much more certainly
secure her mortification and punishment.

For this purpose he fixed upon a young man of twenty, the son of one
Grimes, who occupied a small farm, the property of his confident. This
fellow he resolved to impose as a husband on Miss Melville, who, he
shrewdly suspected, guided by the tender sentiments she had
unfortunately conceived for Mr. Falkland, would listen with reluctance
to any matrimonial proposal. Grimes he selected as being in all respects
the diametrical reverse of Mr. Falkland. He was not precisely a lad of
vicious propensities, but in an inconceivable degree boorish and
uncouth. His complexion was scarcely human; his features were coarse,
and strangely discordant and disjointed from each other. His lips were
thick, and the tone of his voice broad and unmodulated. His legs were of
equal size from one end to the other, and his feet misshapen and clumsy.
He had nothing spiteful or malicious in his disposition, but he was a
total stranger to tenderness; he could not feel for those refinements in
others, of which he had no experience in himself. He was an expert
boxer: his inclination led him to such amusements as were most
boisterous; and he delighted in a sort of manual sarcasm, wh