a flapping of wings.

Mr. Winkle closed his eyes and fired; there was a scream from an
individual, not a rook. Mr. Tupman had saved the lives of innumerable
birds by receiving a portion of the charge in his left arm. Though it
was a very slight wound, Mr. Tupman made a great fuss about it and
everyone was horror-stricken. He was partly carried to the house. The
unmarried aunt uttered a piercing scream, burst into an hysterical
laugh and fell backwards into the arms of her nieces. She recovered,
screamed again, laughed again and fainted again.

"Calm yourself," said Mr. Tupman, affected almost to tears by this
expression of sympathy. "Dear, dear Madam, calm yourself."

"You are not dead?" exclaimed the hysterical lady. "Say you are not
dead!"

"Don't be a fool, Rachel," said Mr. Winkle. "What the mischief is the
use of his saying he isn't dead?"

"No! No! I am not," said Mr. Tupman. "I require no assistance but yours.
Let me lean on your arm," he added in a whisper. Miss Rachel advanced
and offered her arm. They turned into the breakfast parlor. Mr. Tupman
gently pressed her hands to his lips and sunk upon the sofa. Presently
the others left him to her tender mercies. That afternoon Mr. Tupman,
much affected by the extreme tenderness of Miss Rachel, suggested that
as he was feeling much better they take a short stroll in the garden.
There was a bower at the farther end, all honeysuckles and creeping
plants, and somehow they unconsciously wandered in its direction and sat
down on a bench within.

"Miss Wardle," said Mr. Tupman, "you are an angel." Miss Rachel blushed
very becomingly. Much more conversation of this nature followed until
finally Mr. Tupman proceeded to do what his enthusiastic emotions
prompted and what were, (for all we know, for we are but little
acquainted with such matters) what people in such circumstances always
do. She started, and he, throwing his arms around her neck imprinted
upon her lips numerous kisses, which, after a proper show of struggling
and resistance, she received so passively that there is no telling how
many more Mr. Tupman might have bestowed if the lady had not given a
very unaffected start and exclaimed: "Mr. Tupman, we are observed! We
are discovered!"

Mr. Tupman looked around. There was the fat boy perfectly motionless,
with his large, circular eyes staring into the arbor, but without the
slightest expression on his face. Mr. Tupman gazed at the fat boy and
the fat boy