n boldly; and
it may be you will drop through into bliss."

"You, to talk of another world!" he snapped.

"And why not, Mr. Trask? Once upon a time you killed me."

He turned his grey horse impatiently. "I whipped ye," was his parting
shot. "If 'twarn't too late, I'd take pleasure to whip ye again!"

Chapter IV.

THE BRIDEGROOM.

Mr. Trask had not concluded the bargain for his winter fodder.
Just a week later he rode over from Port Nassau, to clinch it, and had
almost reached the foot of the descent to the river meadows when a
better mounted rider overtook him.

"Ah!" said the stranger, checking his horse's stride as he passed.
"Good-morning, Mr. Trask! But possibly you do not remember me?"

"I remember you perfectly," answered Mr. Trask. "You are Sir Oliver
Vyell."

"Whom, once on a time, you sentenced to the stocks. You recall our last
conversation? Well, I bear you no malice; and, to prove it, will ask
leave to ride to the ferry with you. You will oblige me? I like
companionship, and my one fellow-traveller--a poor horseman--I have left
some way behind on the road."

"I have no wish to ride with you, Sir Oliver," said Mr. Trask stiffly.
"Forbye that I consider ye a son of Belial, I have a particular quarrel
with you. At the time you condescend to mention, I took it upon me to
give you some honest advice--not wholly for your own sake. You flouted
it, and 'that's nothing to me' you'll say; but every step we take
worsens that very sin against which I warned ye, and therefore I want
none of your company."

"Honest Mr. Trask," Sir Oliver answered with a laugh. "I put it to you
that, having fallen in together thus agreeably, we shall make ourselves
but a pair of fools if one rides ahead of the other in dudgeon. Add to
this that the ferry-man, spying us, will wait to tide us over together;
and add also, if you will, that I have the better mount and it lies in
my will that you shall neither lag behind nor outstrip me. Moreover,
you are mistaken."

"I am not mistaken. This day week I met Ruth Josselin and had speech
with her."

"Satisfactory, I hope?"

"It was not satisfactory; and if I must ride with you, Sir Oliver,
you'll understand it to be under protest. You are a lewd man. You have
taken this child--"

Here Mr. Trask choked upon speech. Recovering, he said the most
unexpected thing in the world.

"I am not as a rule a judge of good looks; and no doubt 'tis unreason in
me