ood for a
moment in dismay and consternation. But Matty gave him no time for
thought. She was again busy with his ear; and the next exhibition he
made was of an opposite character--a strange expression was upon his
face, and he slapped her upon the back in the extravagance of a feeling
that, whether betokening good-humour or not, seemed to have no bounds.
In a short time, the house was as quiet as Grimalkin himself could have
wished it, when bent on a hunting foray. All had apparently gone to bed,
and the stillness continued till considerably after midnight. A slow tap
at the kitchen-door showed that one individual at least was astir.

"Mary, Mary, are you awake?" said a voice, that at least was
uninterrupted by a cough.

The answer was a whisper from within. After some parley, the door was
opened, and a series of secret doings, among which the opening of the
outer door of the house, a recourse to the stable, the saddling of the
fleet horse, and other furtive preparations for a departure, were the
most important. During all this time, the figure of a female wrapped in
a cloak stood in the recess of the door. The horse was quietly walked to
the loan, and the mantled figure glided as secretly as a ghost, who
knows that the pimp Gallus will shortly awaken, to the starting-post.
One swing brought her to the pad, and another placed before her one whom
the light of the faint moon exhibited without a bend in his body or
beard on his chin. Away they set--

"On, on they rade, and farther on--
The steed gaed swifter than the wind--
Until they reach'd a desert wide,
And living land was left behind."

Not a word passed between the couple. The one was occupied spurring on
the steed, and the other clung to him, as if love had nerved her arms,
and made them as tenacious of the grasp of his waist as Lenora, of
German celebrity, was of the soulless body of her Wilhelm. Sometimes he
slackened his pace, to ascertain whether the guidman of Kelpiehaugh was
up and away in quest of runaway bride, like the Graemes after the heiress
of Netherby, over Cannobie-lee; and then, when he thought he heard the
clatter of a horse's hoof, he applied the spur again, and away they
went, over moss and muir, with such speed as love and fear in the rider
may alone impart to the obedient steed. At other times, the space of a
few minutes was devoted to soft whispers, and the gallant pressed the
encircling arms of his fair one, and sighed as he