len into a reverie, and rode
very slowly. They passed the park gates; they took their way down the
lane by the church and near the parsonage. Here Sir Philip pulled in his
horse suddenly, and ordered the man to ride on and announce that he
would be at Mrs. Hazleton's soon after. He then fastened his horse to a
large hook, put up for the express purpose on most country houses of
that day in England, and walked up to the door. It was ajar, and without
ceremony he walked in, as he was often accustomed to do, and entered the
little study of the rector.

The clergyman himself was not there; but there were two persons in the
room, one a young and somewhat dashing-looking man, one or two and
twenty years of age, exceedingly handsome both in face and figure; the
other personage past the middle age, thin, pale, eager and keen-looking,
in whom Sir Philip instantly recognized a well known, but not very well
reputed attorney, of a country town about twenty miles distant. They had
one of the large parish books before them, and were both bending over it
with great appearance of earnestness.

The step of Sir Philip Hastings roused them, and turning round, the
attorney bowed low, saying, "I give you good day, Sir Philip. I hope I
have the honor of seeing you well."

"Quite so," was the brief reply, and it was followed by an inquiry for
the pastor, who it seemed had gone into another room for some papers
which were required.

In the mean time the younger of the two previous occupants of the room
had been gazing at Sir Philip Hastings with a rude, familiar stare,
which the object of it did not remark; and in another moment the
clergyman himself appeared, carrying a bundle of old letters in his
hand.

He was a heavy, somewhat timid man, the reverse of his predecessor in
all things, but a very good sort of person upon the whole. On seeing the
baronet there, however, something seemed strangely to affect him--a sort
of confused surprise, which, after various stammering efforts, burst
forth as soon as the usual salutation was over, in the words, "Pray, Sir
Philip, did you come by appointment?"

Sir Philip Hastings, as the reader already knows, was a somewhat
unobservant man of what was passing around him in the world. He had his
own deep, stern trains of thought, which he pursued with a passionate
earnestness almost amounting to monomania. The actions, words, and even
looks of those few in whom he took an interest, he could sometimes w