gs would probably settle themselves. Mr. Houston,
when he received no reply from his lady-love, would certainly be
quiescent, and Gertrude, without any assent from her lover, could
hardly arrange her journey to Ostend. Perhaps it might be well that
he should say a word of caution to his wife; but as to that he did
not at present quite make up his mind, as he was grievously disturbed
while he was considering the subject.

"If you please, Sir Thomas," said the coachman, hurrying into the
room almost without the ceremony of knocking,--"if you please,
Phoebe mare has been brought home with both her knees cut down to
the bone."

"What!" exclaimed Sir Thomas, who indulged himself in a taste for
horseflesh, and pretended to know one animal from another.

"Yes, indeed, Sir Thomas, down to the bone," said the coachman, who
entertained all that animosity against Mr. Traffick which domestics
feel for habitual guests who omit the ceremony of tipping. "Mr.
Traffick brought her down on Windover Hill, Sir Thomas, and she'll
never be worth a feed of oats again. I didn't think a man was
born who could throw that mare off her feet, Sir Thomas." Now Mr.
Traffick, when he had borrowed the phaeton and pair of horses that
morning to go into Hastings, had dispensed with the services of a
coachman, and had insisted on driving himself.

CHAPTER XXX.

AT MERLE PARK. NO. 2.

Has any irascible reader,--any reader who thoroughly enjoys the
pleasure of being in a rage,--encountered suddenly some grievance
which, heavy as it may be, has been more than compensated by the
privilege it has afforded of blowing-up the offender? Such was the
feeling of Sir Thomas as he quickly followed his coachman out of
the room. He had been very proud of his Phoebe mare, who could trot
with him from the station to the house at the rate of twelve miles
an hour. But in his present frame of mind he had liked the mare
less than he disliked his son-in-law. Mr. Traffick had done him
this injury, and he now had Mr. Traffick on the hip. There are some
injuries for which a host cannot abuse his guest. If your best
Venetian decanter be broken at table you are bound to look as though
you liked it. But if a horse be damaged a similar amount of courtesy
is hardly required. The well-nurtured gentleman, even in that case,
will only look unhappy and say not a word. Sir Thomas was hardly to
be called a well nurtured gentleman; and then it must be remembered
that the off