line moved by her
sweet fingers. Get in; I'll not defile my rapier with beating of thee.
Thanks to the lady thou hast just left; her condescension so affecteth
my softer nature that I could not speak an angry word without weeping.
March, rascal, and come not into my presence until thou art bidden,
lest I make a thrust at thee with my weapon. O Katherine! my life--my
love,--'my polar star, my axle; where all desire, all thought, all
passions turn, and have their consequence!'"

Anthony had picked up this scrap from the players, with whom he had
smoked, and committed the usual delinquencies, not peculiar to that
age of folly and licentiousness.

"I'll go dream of thee where there be a bank of flowers. Here let me
lose myself in a delirium of sweets."

Choosing a fair position, he squatted down upon a ripe strawberry bed,
and great was the dismay with which he beheld the entire ruin of his
best puce-coloured breeches. So sudden was the dissipation of his
complacency, that he determined to beat Hodge forthwith; to which
thrifty employment we commend him, whilst we address ourselves to the
further development of our story.

Near to the lower extremity of the village dwelt a maiden whose bloom
had been wasted, and whose matchless hopes were always frustrated ere
their accomplishment. Many a simpering look had she cast towards the
goodly raiment of Master Anthony, and some incipient notion was
entertained that the indweller at the big house was not averse to a
peep, now and then, more tender than usual, at the window of Mrs
Bridget Allport. When a boy, Anthony had been a sort of spoiled pet of
the maiden, who was then opening into bloom, and the bud of promise
breaking forth in all its pride and loveliness. While Anthony's legs
were getting rounder, and his face and figure more plump and
capacious, the person of Mistress Bridget was, alas! proceeding,
unluckily, in a manner quite the reverse. Anthony's love had not
quickened into fruition with his growth: but the lady kept a quick
and wary eye upon his movements, and many a pang had his flattering
favours caused in her too susceptible heart.

Distantly related to the family, she sometimes visited Lostock Hall;
and at the period when our narrative begins she was located therein.

Kate had long been aware of her likings and mishaps, and was no
stranger to her predilection for Master Anthony Hardcastle.

The first overt act of mischief resulting from the plots of Kate an