the cashier had not yet met,
and, in that case, all he would have to do would be to remunerate the
young woman and her husband--for she had informed him that she intended
to combine this business with a wedding tour--and send them off
immediately. He could then have his conference with Keswick there as
well as at the Springs. If any mischief had already been done, he did
not know what course he might have to pursue, but it was highly
necessary for him to be on the spot as soon as possible. He greatly
disliked to leave the neighborhood of Roberta March, but his absence
would only be temporary.

After an early dinner, he mounted the horse which he had hired from his
host of the Springs, and, with a valise strapped behind him, set out for
Howlett's. He had made careful inquiries in regard to the road, and
after a ride somewhat tiresome to a man not used to such protracted
horseback exercise, arrived at his destination about sundown. When he
reached the scattered houses which formed, as he supposed, the outskirts
of the village, for such he had been told it was, he rode on, but soon
found that he had left Howlett's behind him, and that those supposed
outskirts were the place itself. Hewlett's was nothing, in fact, but a
collection of eight or ten houses quite widely separated from each
other, and the only one of them which exhibited any public character
whatever, was the store, a large frame building standing a little back
from the road. Turning his horse, Lawrence rode up to the store and
inquired if there was any house in the neighborhood where he could get
lodging for the night.

The storekeeper, who came out to him, was a very little man whose
appearance recalled to Croft the fact that he had noticed, in this part
of the State, a great many men who were extremely tall, and a great many
who were extremely small, which peculiarity, he thought, might assist a
physiologist in discovering the different effects of hot bread upon
different organizations. He was quite as cordial, however, as the
biggest, burliest, and jolliest host who ever welcomed a guest to his
inn, as he informed Mr Croft that there was no house in the village
which made a business of entertaining strangers, but if he chose to stop
with him he would keep him and his horse for the night, and do what he
could to make him comfortable.

Lawrence ate supper that night with the storekeeper, his wife, and five
of his children; but as he was very hungry, and the