nied her; Oaklands strode to the window, and remained watching
the operation of harnessing the horse to the tax-cart. Wilford still
retained the same attitude, and neither spoke nor moved. Wentworth
having glanced towards him once or twice, as if to divine his wishes,
receiving no sign, lit a cigar, and leaning His back against the
chimney-piece began to smoke furiously, whilst I devoted myself to
the pages of an old sporting magazine. Thus passed five minutes, which
seemed as if they would never come to an end, at the expiration of which
time the tax-cart, driven by a stout country lad, drew up to the door,
and the two women making their appearance at the same moment, Oaklands
turned to leave the room. As he did so Wilford, for the first time,
raised his head, thereby disclosing a countenance which, pale as death,
was characterised by an expression of such intense malignity as one
might conceive would be discernible in that of a corpse reanimated by
some evil spirit. After regarding Oaklands fixedly for a moment, he
said, in a low, grating tone of voice, "You have foiled me once and
again--when next we meet, it wilt, be my turn!" Oaklands merely smiled
contemptuously, and quitted the house.

Having mounted our horses, we ordered the lad who drove the spring-cart
to proceed at his fastest pace, while we followed at a sufficient
distance to keep it in sight, so as to guard against any attempt which
might be made by Wilford to repossess himself of his victim, without
positively identifying ourselves with the party it contained. We rode in
silence for the first two or three miles; at length I could refrain
no longer, and, half uttering my thoughts aloud, half addressing my
companion, I exclaimed, "Oh, Harry, Harry, what is all this that you
have done?"

"Done!" replied Oaklands, with a heightened colour and flashing eyes,
"rescued an innocent girl from a villain who would have betrayed her,
and punished the scoundrel ~193~~about half so severely as he deserved;
but that was my misfortune, not my fault. Had not the whip broken----"

"You know that is not what I mean," returned I; "but this man will
challenge you, will--you are aware of his accursed skill--will murder
you. Oh! that fiendish look of his as you left the room--it will haunt
me to my dying day."

"And would you have had me leave the poor girl to her fate from a coward
fear of personal danger? You are strangely altered since you defied a
room full of men last