as a Christian man
for the indescribable longing I felt from the first moment I saw that
rascal, to send a bullet through his head; and now you have perfectly
accounted for and justified this very laudable wish. I wonder my uncle,
with the powerful sense you describe him to be possessed of, does not
see through such a villain.'

'I believe he knows him to be capable of much evil,' answered
Lilias--'selfish, obdurate, brutal, and a man-hater. But then
he conceives him to possess the qualities most requisite for a
conspirator--undaunted courage, imperturbable coolness and address, and
inviolable fidelity. In the last particular he may be mistaken. I have
heard Nixon blamed for the manner in which our poor father was taken
after Culloden.'

'Another reason for my innate aversion,' said Darsie, but I will be on
my guard with him.'

'See, he observes us closely,' said Lilias. 'What a thing is conscience!
He knows we are now speaking of him, though he cannot have heard a word
that we have said.'

It seemed as if she had guessed truly; for Cristal Nixon at that moment
rode up to them, and said, with an affectation of jocularity, which sat
very ill on his sullen features, 'Come, young ladies, you have had time
enough for your chat this morning, and your tongues, I think, must
be tired. We are going to pass a village, and I must beg you to
separate--you, Miss Lilias, to ride a little behind--and you, Mrs.,
or Miss, or Master, whichever you choose to be called, to be jogging a
little before.'

Lilias checked her horse without speaking, but not until she had given
her brother an expressive look, recommending caution; to which he
replied by a signal indicating that he understood and would comply with
her request.

CHAPTER XIX

NARRATTVE OF DARSIE LATIMER, CONTINUED

Left to his solitary meditations, Darsie (for we will still term Sir
Arthur Darsie Redgauntlet of that Ilk by the name to which the reader
is habituated) was surprised not only at the alteration of his own state
and condition, but at the equanimity with which he felt himself disposed
to view all these vicissitudes.

His fever--fit of love had departed like a morning's dream, and left
nothing behind but a painful sense of shame, and a resolution to be more
cautious ere he again indulged in such romantic visions. His station
in society was changed from that of a wandering, unowned youth, in whom
none appeared to take an interest excepting the strangers