e himself the chance. He would
attend the girl wherever she went, dog her, watch her, hang on her
skirts; so, if the thing happened, he would be at hand, and if he had
the courage, would save her.

'It should--it should stand me in a thousand!' he muttered, wiping his
damp brow, 'and that would put me on my legs.'

He put her gratitude at that; and it was a great sum, a rich bribe. He
thought of the money lovingly, and of the feat with trembling, and took
his hat and unlocked his door and went downstairs. He spied about him
cautiously until he learned that Mr. Dunborough had departed; then he
went boldly to the stables, and inquired and found that the gentleman
had started for Bristol in a post-chaise. 'In a middling black temper,'
the ostler added, 'saving your reverence's presence.'

That ascertained, the tutor needed no more. He knew that Dunborough, on
his way to foreign service, had lain ten days in Bristol, whistling for
a wind; that he had landed there also on his return, and made--on his
own authority--some queer friends there. Bristol, too, was the port for
the plantations; a slave-mart under the rose, with the roughest of all
the English seatown populations. There were houses at Bristol where
crimping was the least of the crimes committed; in the docks, where the
great ships, laden with sugar and tobacco, sailed in and out in their
seasons, lay sloops and skippers, ready to carry all comers, criminal
and victim alike, beyond the reach of the law. The very name gave Mr.
Thomasson pause; he could have done with Gretna--which Lord Hardwicke's
Marriage Act had lately raised to importance--or Berwick, or Harwich, or
Dover. But Bristol had a grisly sound. From Marlborough it lay no more
than forty miles away by the Chippenham and Marshfield road; a
post-chaise and four stout horses might cover the distance in
four hours.

He felt, as he sneaked into the house, that the die was cast. The other
intended to do it then. And that meant--'Oh, Lord,' he muttered, wiping
his brow, 'I shall never dare! If he is there himself, I shall never
dare!' As he crawled upstairs he went hot one moment and shivered the
next; and did not know whether he was glad or sorry that the chance
would be his to take.

Fortunately, on reaching the first floor he remembered that Lady
Dunborough had requested him to convey her compliments to Dr. Addington,
with an inquiry how Lord Chatham did. The tutor felt that a commonplace
interview of th