can, nor
can he make so grand a bow, nor does he put on evening dress for a late
dinner, and we never go to the opera nor to the theatre, and know
nothing of polite society, nor can we tell exactly whom our
great-great-grandfather sprang from. I tell you, there is a gulf between
us and that Englishman, wider than the one young Curtius leaped into."

Miss Laura was laughing merrily. "How funny that sounds, Harry. So he
despises you," and she glanced at her good-looking cousin, and his
handsome buggy and well-kept horse, and then burst into another merry
peal of laughter.

Mr. Harry laughed, too. "It does seem absurd. Sometimes when I pass him
jogging along to town in his rickety old cart, and look at his pale,
cruel face, and know that he is a broken-down gambler and man of the
world, and yet considers himself infinitely superior to me--a young man
in the prime of life, with a good constitution and happy prospects, it
makes me turn away to hide a smile."

By this time we had left the river and the meadows far behind us, and
were passing through a thick wood. The road was narrow and very broken,
and Fleetfoot was obliged to pick his way carefully. "Why does the
Englishman live in this out-of-the-way place, if he is so fond of city
life?" said Miss Laura.

"I don't know," said Mr. Harry. "Father is afraid that he has committed
some misdeed, and is in hiding; but we say nothing about it. We have not
seen him for some weeks, and to tell the truth, this trip is as much to
see what has become of him, as to make a demand upon him for the money.
As he lives alone, he might lie there ill, and no one would know
anything about it. The last time that we knew of his coming to the
village was to draw quite a sum of money from the bank. It annoyed
father, for he said he might take some of it to pay his debts. I think
his relatives in England supply him with funds. Here we are at the
entrance to the mansion of Penhollow. I must get out and open the gate
that will admit us to the winding avenue."

We had arrived in front of some bars which were laid across an opening
in the snake fence that ran along one side of the road. I sat down and
looked about. It was a strange, lonely place. The trees almost met
overhead, and it was very dim and quiet. The sun could only send little
straggling beams through the branches. There was a muddy pool of water
before the bars that Mr. Harry was letting down, and he got his feet wet
in it. "Confound