hand on his shoulder;
"there is that within me this day which can overcome all obstacles--I
tell you I must see her, and I WILL!".

"Well, well, don't put yourself into a passion; the only chance as I
knows of is to ketch Miss Clara out walking; and then ten to one Mr.
Fleming will be with her."

"Let him!" exclaimed I; "why should I avoid him? I have not injured
him, though he may have done me foul and bitter wrong; it is for him to
shrink from the encounter."

~395~~ "I know what the end of this will be," returned Peter Barnett;
"you'll quarrel; and then, instead of off coats and having it out like
Britons, there'll be a purlite hinvitation given, as kind and civil
as if you was a-hasking him to dinner, to meet as soon as it's light
to-morrow morning, and do you the favour of putting a brace of bullets
into you."

"No, Peter, you do not understand my feeling on this subject; should
you be right in your suspicions (and, although my faith in your young
mistress is such that nothing but the evidence of my own senses can
avail to shake it, I am fain to own circumstances appear fully to
warrant them)--should these suspicions not prove unfounded, it is
_her_ falsehood alone that will darken the sunshine of my future life.
Fleming, or any other coxcomb who had taken advantage of her fickleness,
would be equally beneath my notice. But enough of this; where shall I be
most likely to meet her?"

"You knows the seat in the shrubbery walk under the old beeches, where
you saw Miss Clara the first time as ever you cum here?"

"Only too well," answered I, as the recollection of that morning
contrasted painfully with my present feelings.

"Well, you be near there about eleven o'clock; and if Miss Clara don't
walk that way, I'll send down a boy with hinformation as to the henemy's
movements. Keep out of sight as much as you can."

"It shall be done," replied I.

Old Peter paused for a moment; then, raising his hand to his forehead
with a military salute, turned away and left me.

Eight o'clock struck; a girl brought me in breakfast; nine and ten
sounded from an old clock in the bar, but the viands remained untasted.
At a quarter past ten I rang the bell, and asked for a glass of water,
drained it, and, pressing my hat over my brow, sallied forth. The
morning had been misty when I first started, but during my sojourn at
the inn the vapours had cleared away, and as, by the assistance of
an old tree, I climbed over the palin