ay from M----to Heath-field, and
as Clara was too much overcome by all she had gone through to bear
any further agitation, we determined to proceed at once to my mother's
cottage, and despatched Peter Barnett to inform Mr. Vernor of the events
of the day, and communicate to him Mr. Frampton's resolution to leave
him in undisturbed possession of Barstone, for a period sufficiently
long to enable him to wind up all his affairs and seek another
residence.

The return to Heathfield Cottage I shall not attempt to describe.
Clara's tears, smiles and blushes--Fanny's tender and affectionate
solicitude--my mother's delighted, but somewhat fussy, hospitality--and
my own sensations, which were an agreeable compound of those of every
one else--each and all were perfect in their respective ways. But the
_creme de la creme_, the essence of the whole affair, that on which the
tongue of the poet and the pen of the romance-writer must alike rejoice
to expatiate, was the conduct of Mr. Frampton; how he was seized, at
one and the same moment, with two separate, irresistible, and apparently
incompatible manias, one for kissing everybody, and the other
for lifting and transporting (under the idea that he was thereby
facilitating the family arrangements) bulky and inappropriate articles
which no one required, all of which he deposited, with an air composed
of equal parts of cheerful alacrity and indomitable perseverance, in
the drawing-room, grunting the whole time as man never grunted before;
a wild and unlooked-for course of proceeding which reduced my mother
to the borders of insanity. Finding that argument was not of the least
avail in checking his rash career, I seized him by the arm, just as he
was about to establish on my sister's work-table a large carpet-bag and
an umbrella, which had accompanied him through the adventures of the
day, and, dragging him off to his own room, forced him to begin to
prepare for dinner, while I turned a deaf ear to his remonstrance, that
"It was quite absurd to--umph! umph!--prevent him from making himself
useful, when there was so much to be done in the house. Umph!" Having
promulgated this opinion, he shook me by the hand till my arm ached,
and, declaring that he was the happiest old man in the world, sat down
and cried like a child.

Worn out by the fatigues and anxieties of the day, we gladly followed
my mother's suggestion of going to bed in good time, although I did not
retire for the night till