another enclosure, containing the ivied gable
of St. Mary's Church, and the tall column-like Round Tower, both with the
same peculiar golden hoariness. The sight struck Lucilla with admiration
and wonder, but the next moment she heard the guide exhorting Rashe to
embrace the stem of the cross, telling her that if she could clasp her
arms round it, she would be sure of a handsome and rich husband within
the year.

Half superstitious, and always eager for fun, Horatia spread her arms in
the endeavour, but her hands could not have met without the aid of the
guide, who dragged them together, and celebrated the exploit with a
hurrah of congratulation, while she laughed triumphantly, and called on
her companion to try her luck. But Lucy was disgusted, and bluntly
refused, knowing her grasp to be far too small, unable to endure the
touch of the guide, and maybe shrinking from the failure of the augury.

'Ah! to be shure, an' it's not such a purty young lady as yourself that
need be taking the trouble,' did not fall pleasantly on her ears, and
still less Ratia's laugh and exclamation, 'You make too sure, do you?
Have a care. There were black looks at parting! But you need not be
afraid, if handsome be a part of the spell.'

There was no answer, and Horatia saw that the outspoken raillery that
Cilly had once courted now gave offence. She guessed that something was
amiss, but did not know that what had once been secure had been wilfully
imperilled, and that suspense was awakening new feelings of delicacy and
tenderness.

The light words and vulgar forecasting had, in spite of herself,
transported Lucilla from the rocky thicket where she was walking, even to
the cedar room at Woolstone-lane, and conjured up before her that grave,
massive brow, and the eye that would not meet her. She had hurried to
these wilds to escape that influence, and it was holding her tighter than
ever. To hasten home on account of Mr. Calthorp's pursuit would be the
most effectual vindication of the feminine dignity that she might have
impaired in Robert's eyes, but to do this on what Ratia insisted on
believing a false alarm would be the height of absurdity. She was
determined on extracting proofs sufficient to justify her return, and
every moment seemed an hour until she could feel herself free to set her
face homewards. A strange impatience seized her at every spot where the
guide stopped them to admire, and Ratia's encouragement of his witt