ive feelings. He
seemed touched, as he replied emphatically--'I knows I has.'

'Then what can you want to do now?' said the old lady, gaining courage.

'I wants to make your flesh creep,' replied the boy.

This sounded like a very bloodthirsty mode of showing one's gratitude;
and as the old lady did not precisely understand the process by which
such a result was to be attained, all her former horrors returned.

'What do you think I see in this very arbour last night?' inquired the
boy.

'Bless us! What?' exclaimed the old lady, alarmed at the solemn manner
of the corpulent youth.

'The strange gentleman--him as had his arm hurt--a-kissin' and
huggin'--'

'Who, Joe? None of the servants, I hope.' 'Worser than that,' roared the
fat boy, in the old lady's ear.

'Not one of my grandda'aters?'

'Worser than that.'

'Worse than that, Joe!' said the old lady, who had thought this the
extreme limit of human atrocity. 'Who was it, Joe? I insist upon
knowing.'

The fat boy looked cautiously round, and having concluded his survey,
shouted in the old lady's ear--

'Miss Rachael.'

'What!' said the old lady, in a shrill tone. 'Speak louder.'

'Miss Rachael,' roared the fat boy.

'My da'ater!'

The train of nods which the fat boy gave by way of assent, communicated
a blanc-mange like motion to his fat cheeks.

'And she suffered him!' exclaimed the old lady. A grin stole over the
fat boy's features as he said--

'I see her a-kissin' of him agin.'

If Mr. Jingle, from his place of concealment, could have beheld the
expression which the old lady's face assumed at this communication, the
probability is that a sudden burst of laughter would have betrayed his
close vicinity to the summer-house. He listened attentively. Fragments
of angry sentences such as, 'Without my permission!'--'At her time of
life'--'Miserable old 'ooman like me'--'Might have waited till I was
dead,' and so forth, reached his ears; and then he heard the heels of
the fat boy's boots crunching the gravel, as he retired and left the old
lady alone.

It was a remarkable coincidence perhaps, but it was nevertheless a fact,
that Mr. Jingle within five minutes of his arrival at Manor Farm on the
preceding night, had inwardly resolved to lay siege to the heart of the
spinster aunt, without delay. He had observation enough to see, that his
off-hand manner was by no means disagreeable to the fair object of his
attack; and he had more than a strong su