t
walks and formal lawns of the garden, that I became fully aware of the
extremely awkward and embarrassing nature of the interview I was about
to seek. To force myself into the presence of a man more than double
my own age, and, from all I had seen or heard of him, one of the last
people in the world to take a liberty with, for the purpose of informing
hint that his nephew, the only creature on earth that he was supposed to
love, was a low swindler, the associate of gamblers and blacklegs, did
not appear a line of conduct exactly calculated to induce him, at my
request, to give up a scheme on which he had set his heart, or to look
with a favourable eye on my pretensions to the hand of his ward. Still,
there was no help for it; the happiness of her I loved was at stake,
and, had it been to face a fiend instead of a man, I should not have
hesitated.

My meditations were here interrupted by a cock-pheasant, which, alarmed
at my approach, rose immediately under my horse's nose; an unexpected
incident which caused that brute to shy violently, and turn short round,
thereby nearly unseating me. Having by this manoeuvre got his head
towards home, he not only refused to turn back again, but showed very
unmistakable symptoms of a desire to run away. Fortunately, however,
since the days of "Mad Bess," my arms had grown considerably stronger,
and, by dint of pulling and sawing the creature's apology for a mouth
with the bit, I was enabled to frustrate his benevolent intentions, and
even succeeded in turning him round again; but here my power ceased--for
in the direction of the Priory by no possibility could I induce him to
move a step. I whipped and spurred, but in vain; the only result was a
series of kicks and plunges, accompanied by a retrograde movement and
a shake of the head, as if he were saying, No! I next attempted the
soothing system, and lavished sundry caresses and endearing expressions
upon him, of which he was utterly undeserving; but my attentions were
quite thrown away, and might as well, for any good they produced, have
been bestowed upon a rocking-horse. At length, after a final struggle,
in which we were both within an ace of falling into a water-course which
crossed the park in that direction, I gave the matter up as hopeless;
and with a sigh (for I love not to be foiled in anything I have
attempted, and, moreover, I could not help looking upon it as an unlucky
omen) dismounted, ~285~~ and leading my rebellious