w,
and throughout all this he comported himself with such firm and hopeless
dignity that, with the respect due to suffering, I was moved to witness
the struggle, at length, with silent commiseration. Once, having kept his
seat for a longer time than usual, Lovell said:--

"I'll give you a riddle, Miss Hungerford, _I_ will. Ahem! 'Why--why does
a hen go around the road,' Miss Hungerford?"

I posed my head in an attitude of deep thought.

"Because," Lovell hastened to say; "because she can't go across--no, that
wasn't right--why--ahem! why does a hen go _across_ the road, Miss
Hungerford?" and the next instant he was wallowing in the straw at my
feet.

My soul was filled with unutterable compassion for him.

"Because," I ventured, when Lovell reappeared again, affecting a tone of
lively inspiration: "because she can't go around it?"

"You--you've heard of it before!" gravely protested Lovell.

"I confess," said I, "that I have. It used to be my favorite riddle."

"It--it used to be mine, too," said Lovell. "It _used_ to be, Miss
Hungerford--ahem! It _used_ to be--You--you couldn't tell what I was
thinking of when I--ahem--when I started from home to-night, now, could
you, Miss Hungerford?" said Lovell, at length.

"I'm sure I couldn't, Mr. Barlow," said I: "but I hope it was something
very agreeable."

"But it wasn't," said Lovell; "that is, not very, Miss Hungerford; ahem!
not very. I was--I was--ahem! I was thinking of it, you know, of--of such
a thing as getting married, you know."

"I hope," said I, cheerfully, after a pause; "that as you consider the
subject longer, it will be a less painful one to you."

"I hope so, Miss Hungerford," said Lovell. "Ahem! I hope so, certainly;"
but there was little of that sanguine quality expressed in his tones.

The great white horse made another plunge forward, and Lovell recovered
himself with a desperate effort.

"What should you think now, Miss Hungerford," he continued, moistening
his parched lips; "if I should do such a thing as to--ahem!--as to speak
of such a thing as--ahem!--as something of that sort to you, now, Miss
Hungerford? Now, what should you think of such a thing? now, really?"

"I should think you were very inconsiderate," I said, "and would probably
regret your rashness afterwards."

"_I_ think so," said Lovell; "ahem! _I_ think so, Miss Hungerford; _I_
do, certainly."

After this it seemed as though a weight had been lifted from Lovell's
min