gh to do so, before the hour appointed for the provost's
dinner. Upon the road, he congratulated himself on having obtained one
point of almost certain information. The person who had in a manner
forced himself upon his father's hospitality, and had appeared desirous
to induce Darsie Latimer to visit England, against whom, too, a sort of
warning had been received from an individual connected with and residing
in his own family, proved to be a promoter of the disturbance in which
Darsie had disappeared.

What could be the cause of such an attempt on the liberty of an
inoffensive and amiable man? It was impossible it could be merely owing
to Redgauntlet's mistaking Darsie for a spy; for though that was the
solution which Fairford had offered to the provost, he well knew that,
in point of fact, he himself had been warned by his singular visitor of
some danger to which his friend was exposed, before such suspicion could
have been entertained; and the injunctions received by Latimer from his
guardian, or him who acted as such, Mr. Griffiths of London, pointed to
the same thing. He was rather glad, however, that he had not let Provost
Crosbie into his secret further than was absolutely necessary; since it
was plain that the connexion of his wife with the suspected party was
likely to affect his impartiality as a magistrate.

When Alan Fairford arrived at Mount Sharon, Rachel Geddes hastened to
meet him, almost before the servant could open the door. She drew back
in disappointment when she beheld a stranger, and said, to excuse her
precipitation, that 'she had thought it was her brother Joshua returned
from Cumberland.'

'Mr. Geddes is then absent from home?' said Fairford, much disappointed
in his turn.

'He hath been gone since yesterday, friend,' answered Rachel, once more
composed to the quietude which characterizes her sect, but her pale
cheek and red eye giving contradiction to her assumed equanimity.

'I am,' said Fairford, hastily, 'the particular friend of a young man
not unknown to you, Miss Geddes--the friend of Darsie Latimer--and
am come hither in the utmost anxiety, having understood from Provost
Crosbie, that he had disappeared in the night when a destructive attack
was made upon the fishing-station of Mr. Geddes.'

'Thou dost afflict me, friend, by thy inquiries,' said Rachel, more
affected than before; 'for although the youth was like those of the
worldly generation, wise in his own conceit, and lightly