r. Griffith Gaunt; _he_ has found a paragon, where wiser
people see a wayward, capricious girl."

"Then _he_ is the man for you. Don't you see that, Mistress?"

"No, I don't quite see that," said the lady, dryly.

This cavalier reply caused a dismay the speaker never intended. The fact
is, Mr. George Neville, young, handsome, and rich, had lately settled in
the neighborhood, and had been greatly smitten with Kate. The county was
talking about it, and Griffith had been secretly on thorns for some days
past. And now he could hide his uneasiness no longer; he cried out, in a
sharp, trembling voice,--

"Why, Kate, my dear Kate! what! could you love any man but me? Could you
be so cruel? could you? There, let me get off my horse, and lie down on
this stubble, and you ride over me, and trample me to death. I would
rather have you trample on my ribs than on my heart, with loving any one
but me."

"Why, what now?" said Catharine, drawing herself up; "I must scold you
handsomely"; and she drew rein and turned full upon him; but by this
means she saw his face was full of real distress; so, instead of
reprimanding him, she said, gently, "Why, Griffith, what is to do? Are
you not my servant? Do not I send you word, whenever I dine from home?"

"Yes, dearest; and then I call at that house, and stick there till they
guess what I would be at, and ask me, too."

Catharine smiled, and proceeded to remind him that thrice a week she
permitted him to ride over from Bolton, (a distance of fifteen miles,)
to see her.

"Yes," replied Griffith, "and I must say you always come, wet or dry, to
the shrubbery-gate, and put your hand in mine a minute. And, Kate," said
he, piteously, "at the bare thought of your putting that same dear hand
in another man's, my heart turns sick within me, and my skin burns and
trembles on me."

"But you have no cause," said Catharine, soothingly. "Nobody, except
yourself, doubts my affection for you. You are often thrown in my teeth,
Griffith,--and" (clenching her own) "I like you all the better, of
course."

Griffith replied with a burst of gratitude; and then, as men will,
proceeded to encroach.

"Ah," said he, "if you would but pluck up courage, and take the
matrimonial fence with me at once."

Miss Peyton sighed at that, and drooped a little upon her saddle. After
a pause, she enumerated the "just impediments." She reminded him that
neither of them had means to marry on.

He made light of that; h