t the same time I struck him with my full force,
and, catching him on the upper part of the nose, dashed him to the
ground, where he lay motionless, and apparently stunned, with the blood
gushing from his mouth and nostrils.~399~~

CHAPTER XLIX -- MR. FRAMPTON MAKES A DISCOVERY

"In a tandem I see nothing to induce the leader to keep his
course straightforward, but an address on the part of the
charioteer as nearly as can be supernatural.... And, for my
own part, I think leaders of tandems are particularly apt to
turn short round. And the impudence with which they do it,
in some instances, is past all description, staring all the
while full in the faces of those in the carriage, as much as
to say, 'I must have a peep at the fools behind that are
pretending to manage me'."
--_Thinks I to Myself_.

"But he grew rich, and with his riches grew so
Keen the desire to see his home again,
He thought himself in duty bound to do so.
Lonely he felt at times as Robin Crusoe."
--_Beppo_.

ALL that passed immediately after the events I have described left but
a succession of vague and confused images on my memory. I have some dim
recollection of seeing them raise Cumberland from the ground, and of
his showing symptoms of returning animation; but I remember nothing
distinctly till I again found myself a tenant of the little sanded
parlour in the village inn. My first act was to ring for a basin of cold
water and a towel, with which I well bathed my face and head; in some
degree refreshed by this process, I sat down and endeavoured to collect
my scattered senses.

I had succeeded in my immediate object, and suspense was at an end. I
had obtained certain proof of Clara's falsehood; with her own lips I
had heard her declare that she repented her engagement, and wished to
be freed from it; and the person to whom she had confided this was a
man whose attentions to her were so marked that even the very servants
considered him an acknowledged suitor. What encouragement could be more
direct than this? Well, then, she was faithless, and the dream of my
life had departed. But this was not all; my faith in human nature was
shaken--nay, destroyed at a blow. If _she_ could prove false, whom could
I ever trust again? Alas! the grief--the bitter, crushing grief--when
the consciousness is forced upon us that one with whom we have held
sweet interchange of thought