nd if he doesn't stand to
his promise (for he's only wrote once),--he knows I wear a sword, Harry.
Come along, and let's go see the cocking-match at Winchester.

"....But I say," he added laughing, after a pause, "I don't think 'Trix
will break her heart about him. Law bless you! Whenever she sees a man,
she makes eyes at him; and young Sir Wilmot Crawley of Queen's Crawley,
and Anthony Henley of Alresford, were at swords drawn about her, at the
Winchester Assembly, a month ago."

That night Mr. Harry's sleep was by no means so pleasant or sweet as it
had been on the first two evenings after his arrival at Walcote. "So the
bright eyes have been already shining on another," thought he, "and the
pretty lips, or the cheeks at any rate, have begun the work which they
were made for. Here's a girl not sixteen, and one young gentleman is
already whimpering over a lock of her hair, and two country squires are
ready to cut each other's throats that they may have the honour of a dance
with her. What a fool am I to be dallying about this passion, and singeing
my wings in this foolish flame. Wings!--why not say crutches? There is but
eight years' difference between us, to be sure; but in life I am thirty
years older. How could I ever hope to please such a sweet creature as
that, with my rough ways and glum face? Say that I have merit ever so
much, and won myself a name, could she ever listen to me? She must be my
lady marchioness, and I remain a nameless bastard. O my master, my
master!" (here he fell to thinking with a passionate grief of the vow
which he had made to his poor dying lord); "O my mistress, dearest and
kindest, will you be contented with the sacrifice which the poor orphan
makes for you, whom you love, and who so loves you?"

And then came a fiercer pang of temptation. "A word from me," Harry
thought, "a syllable of explanation, and all this might be changed; but
no, I swore it over the dying bed of my benefactor. For the sake of him
and his; for the sacred love and kindness of old days; I gave my promise
to him, and may kind Heaven enable me to keep my vow!"

The next day, although Esmond gave no sign of what was going on in his
mind, but strove to be more than ordinarily gay and cheerful when he met
his friends at the morning meal, his dear mistress, whose clear eyes it
seemed no emotion of his could escape, perceived that something troubled
him, for she looked anxiously towards him more than once during the
bre