vasively perhaps, that it was only one of the usual
stale conceits appropriate to the masque.

Nothing more was heard or seen of them; and it was now high time they
should accompany the bridegroom to his own dwelling at Foxholes--a
goodly house situate on a pretty knoll near the town of Rochdale, and
about two miles distant from Stubley.

Now was there mustering and hurrying to depart. An unwieldy coach was
drawn up, into which the bride and her female attendants were
forthwith introduced, the bridegroom and his company going on foot. On
arriving at Foxholes, the needful ceremonies were performed. Throwing
the stocking, a custom then universally practised, was not omitted;
which agreeable ceremony was performed as follows:--

The female friends and relations conducted the bride to her chamber,
and the men the bridegroom. The latter then took the bride's
stockings, and the females those of the bridegroom. Sitting at the
bottom of the bed, the stockings were thrown over their heads. When
one of the "hurlers" hit the owner, it was deemed an omen that the
party would shortly be married. Meanwhile the posset was got ready,
and given to the newly-married couple.[14]

It was past midnight, yet Alice sat, solitary and watchful, at her
little casement. One fair white arm supported her cheek, and she was
gazing listlessly on the silver clouds as they floated in liquid
brightness across the full round disc of the moon, then high in the
meridian. Her thoughts were not on the scene she beheld. The mellow
sound of the waterfalls, the murmur from the river, came on with the
breeze, rising and falling like the deep pathos of some wild and
mysterious music. Memory, that busy enchanter, was at work; and the
scenes she had lately witnessed, so full of disquietude and mystery,
mingled with the returning tide of past and almost forgotten emotions.
We have said that the prevailing bent or bias of her disposition was
that of romance; and this idol of the imagination, this love of
strange and enervating excitement, had not been repressed by the
occurrences of the last few hours; on the contrary, she felt as though
some wondrous event was impending--some adventure which she alone
should achieve--some power that her own arm should contend with and
subdue.

She took the billet from her bosom; the moonlight alone fell upon it;
but the words were so indeliby fixed upon her imagination that she
fancied she could trace every word on that mystic