in soliloquy,
following them with angry eyes and slow footsteps. "I must wait till he
comes back--and be shot to both of 'em!"

Tynn left Miss West at her own door, declining the invitation to go in
and take a bit of supper with the maids, or a glass of beer. He was
trudging back again, his arms behind his back, and wishing himself at
home, for Tynn, fat and of short breath, did not like much walking,
when, in a lonely part of the road, he came upon a man sitting astride
upon a gate.

"Hollo! is that you, Mr. Tynn? Who'd ha' thought of seeing you out
to-night?"

For it was Mr. Roy's wish, from private motives of his own, that Tynn
should not know he had been looked for, but should believe the
encounter to be accidental. Tynn turned off the road, and leaned his
elbow upon the gate, rather glad of the opportunity to stand a minute
and get his breath. It was somewhat up-hill to Verner's Pride, the whole
of the way from Deerham.

"Are you sitting here for pleasure?" asked he of Roy.

"I'm sitting here for grief," returned Roy; and Tynn was not sharp
enough to detect the hollow falseness of his tone. "I had to go up the
road to-night on a matter of business, and, walking back by Verner's
Pride, it so overcame me that I was glad to bring myself to a anchor."

"How should walking by Verner's Pride overcome you?" demanded Tynn.

"Well," said Roy, "it was the thoughts of poor Mr. and Mrs. Verner did
it. He didn't behave to me over liberal in turning me from the place I'd
held so long under his uncle, but I've overgot that smart; it's past and
gone. My heart bleeds for him now, and that's the truth."

For Roy's heart to "bleed" for any fellow-creature was a marvel that
even Tynn, unsuspicious as he was, could not take in. Mrs. Tynn
repeatedly assured him that he had been born into the world with one
sole quality--credulity. Certainly Tynn was unusually inclined to put
faith in fair outsides. Not that Roy could boast much of the latter
advantage.

"What's the matter with Mr. Verner?" he asked of Roy.

Roy groaned dismally. "It's a thing that is come to my knowledge," said
he--"a awful misfortin that is a-going to drop upon him. I'd not say a
word to another soul but you, Mr. Tynn; but you be his friend if anybody
be, and I feel that I must either speak or bust."

Tynn peered at Roy's face. As much as he could see of it, for the night
was not a very clear one.

"It seems quite a providence that I happened to meet yo