which lent its aid to the delusion.

Gregory could not withstand so apparently supernatural an occurrence. He
took to his heels, driven fairly off the field; nor did he look behind
him until safely entrenched before a blazing fire in the kitchen at
Waddington Hall.

"Out, ill-favoured hound!" said a serving wench, who was stirring a
blubbering mess of porridge for supper. But Gregory was not in the
humour to reply: he sat with one long lean hand under his chin, the
other hung down listlessly to his heels, which were drawn securely under
the stool on which he sat. His thoughts were not on the victuals, though
by long use and instinct his eyes were turned in that direction.

"Thee art ever hankering after the brose, thou greedy churl!" continued
the wench, wishful to goad him on to some intemperate reply.

But Gregory was still silent. At this unwonted lack of discourse, Janet,
who generally contrived to bring his long tongue into exercise, was not
a little astonished. It needed no great wit, any time, to set him
a-grumbling; for neither kind word nor civil speech had he for kith or
kin, for man or maid.

Looking steadfastly towards him, she struck her dark broad fists upon
her hips, and, in a loud and contemptuous laugh, abruptly startled the
cynic from his studies. He eyed her with a grin of malice and vexation.

"Thou she-ape, I wonder what first ye'arn made for; the plague o' both
man and beast,--the worst plague that e'er Pharaoh waur punished wi'.
Screech on; I'll ha' my think out, spite o' thy caterwauling."

"Thou art a precious wonder, Master Crab. Squirt thy verjuice, when thou
art roasting, some other way. I wonder what man-ape thy mother watch'd
i' the breeding. She had been special fond o' children, I bethink me."

"And what knowest thou o' my dame's humours, thou curl-crop vixen?" said
Gregory, unwarily drawn forth again from his taciturnity. "How should
her inclinations be subject to thy knowledge?"

"She rear'd thee!" was the reply.

Two other hinds belonging to the household, who were watching the issue
of the contest, here joined in a loud clamour at the victory; and
Gregory, dogged with baiting, became silent, scowling defiance at his
foe.

Waddington Hall was at that period a building of great antiquity.
Crooks, or great heavy arched timbers, ascending from the ground to the
roof, formed the principal framework of the edifice, not unlike the
inverted hull of some stately ship. The whole dw