victor, was considerably beaten. His
bruises, in conjunction with his pecuniary loss, which amounted to about
seven pounds, were the cause of his being much out of humour; before
night, however, he had returned to his usual philosophic frame of mind,
and, coming up to me as I was walking about, apologized for his behaviour
on the preceding day, and assured me that he was determined, from that
time forward, never to quarrel with a friend for giving him good advice.

Two more days passed, and still Isopel Berners did not return. Gloomy
thoughts and forebodings filled my mind. During the day I wandered about
the neighbouring roads in the hopes of catching an early glimpse of her
and her returning vehicle; and at night lay awake, tossing about on my
hard couch, listening to the rustle of every leaf, and occasionally
thinking that I heard the sound of her wheels upon the distant road.
Once at midnight, just as I was about to fall into unconsciousness, I
suddenly started up, for I was convinced that I heard the sound of
wheels. I listened most anxiously, and the sound of wheels striking
against stones was certainly plain enough. 'She comes at last,' thought
I, and for a few moments I felt as if a mountain had been removed from my
breast;--'here she comes at last, now, how shall I receive her? Oh,'
thought I, 'I will receive her rather coolly, just as if I was not
particularly anxious about her--that's the way to manage these women.'
The next moment the sound became very loud, rather too loud, I thought,
to proceed from her wheels, and then by degrees became fainter. Rushing
out of my tent, I hurried up the path to the top of the dingle, where I
heard the sound distinctly enough, but it was going from me, and
evidently proceeded from something much larger than the cart of Isopel.
I could, moreover, hear the stamping of a horse's hoof at a lumbering
trot. Those only whose hopes have been wrought up to a high pitch, and
then suddenly dashed down, can imagine what I felt at that moment; and
yet when I returned to my lonely tent, and lay down on my hard pallet,
the voice of conscience told me that the misery I was then undergoing, I
had fully merited, from the unkind manner in which I had intended to
receive her, when for a brief minute I supposed that she had returned.

It was on the morning after this affair, and the fourth, if I forget not,
from the time of Isopel's departure, that, as I was seated on my stone at
the bo