sneer.

Again Mr. Dale bowed--bowed in part deprecatingly--in part with dignity.
It was a bow that said, "No offence, sir, but I _am_ a clergyman, and
I'm not ashamed of it."

"Going far?" asked the traveller.

_Parson._--"Not very."

_Traveller._--"In a chaise or fly? If so, and we are going the same
way--halves."

_Parson._--"Halves?"

_Traveller._--"Yes, I'll pay half the damage--pikes inclusive."

_Parson._--"You are very good, sir. But," (_spoken with pride_) "I am on
horseback."

_Traveller._--"On horseback! Well, I should not have guessed that! You
don't look like it. Where did you say you were going?"

"I did _not_ say where I was going, sir," said the Parson drily, for he
was much offended at that vague and ungrammatical remark applicable to
his horsemanship, that "he did not look like it."

"Close!" said the traveller laughing: "an old traveller, I reckon."

The Parson made no reply, but he took up his shovel-hat, and, with a bow
more majestic than the previous one, walked out to see if his pad had
finished her corn.

The animal had indeed finished all the corn afforded to her, which was
not much, and in a few minutes more Mr. Dale resumed his journey. He had
performed about three miles, when the sound of wheels behind made him
turn his head, and he perceived a chaise driven very fast, while out of
the windows thereof dangled strangely a pair of human legs. The pad
began to curvet as the post horses rattled behind, and the Parson had
only an indistinct vision of a human face supplanting these human legs.
The traveller peered out at him as he whirled by--saw Mr. Dale tossed up
and down on the saddle, and cried out, "How's the leather?"

"Leather!" soliloquised the Parson, as the pad recomposed herself. "What
does he mean by that? Leather! a very vulgar man. But I got rid of him
cleverly."

Mr. Dale arrived without farther adventure at Lansmere. He put up at the
principal inn--refreshed himself by a general ablution--and sate down
with a good appetite to his beef-steak and pint of port.

The Parson was a better judge of the physiognomy of man than that of the
horse; and after a satisfactory glance at the civil smirking landlord,
who removed the cover and set on the wine, he ventured on an attempt at
conversation. "Is my lord at the park?"

_Landlord_, still more civilly than before: "No, sir, his lordship and
my lady have gone to town to meet Lord L'Estrange."

"Lord L'Estrange! He is in En