random delight. "How did you manage the
dogs though?"

"Oh--I--locked Buffer in the stables, ever so far off--and Bang--indeed
_he_ is so savage I was obliged to take him a field away, to the
potatoe-house;" and Katey felt her cheek blush, until she feared it would
light the gloom.

"High-souled, devoted being! how am I rewarded for all I have gone
through! You are indeed worthy to share the existence of one like me,
whose hopes have been ruined in the holiest cause that----but there is not
a single minute to lose--I have horses ready beyond the avenue gate--oh,
come, my Katey--'fly from a world'--etcetera. You know the song."

"Fly!--dear friend--you rave--do you not know how ill I have been? Can you
not see what a wretched thin fright I have become."

"Nonsense, my love, you look--(for dark as it is I can see that)--a
thousand times more interesting with that pale sweet face. My own life,
this is no time to trifle--who could suppose you were so undecided, you so
lofty-spirited, so _heroine_-like.--Oh, Katey"----

"Believe me, Hewitt, I have not strength even to mount, much less to sit a
horse at present."

"Then, why this meeting, my love?"

"Why--why--I scarce can tell; surely it is a pleasure to meet for once,
even in this way, after all we have suffered."

"Decidedly"--said her lover with an abstracted air. "I'll tell you what,"
he added eagerly, as if struck by some sudden thought, "there is fearful
danger of our being separated if we do not act quickly, and for ever.
Suppose--suppose, my beloved one--you now here, in this blest spot, give
me a _legal_ claim to your hand, we may not again have such an
opportunity?"

"What--how do you mean?" asked Katey bewilderingly.

"Why, you see the truth is this--I _did_ dread your health might have
interfered with active flight--might not have been such as seconded our
wishes--and I came prepared--the fact is, I have brought a Reverend Friend
with me--you understand?--he is now not far away--indeed, he is just
outside."

"Hewitt!--are you mad!" exclaimed the overwhelmed girl, shrinking away. "I
cannot--indeed, I cannot, think of such a thing."

"Folly--stuff! I see, my beloved one, I must act for you in this
matter"----

To go to the window--give a gentle tap--summon a low corpulent little man
before it--to seize him by the neck and drag him softly into the room, as
though the unwieldy individual were unable to accomplish the feat
himself--was but the work of