is belief as to the contracting parties, a knowledge of the
mistake would be cheaply purchased by the journey. Should he not, he
would send up to Ethelberta the strong note of expostulation which was
already written, and waiting in his pocket. To intrude upon her at such
a time was unseemly; and to despatch a letter by a messenger before
evidence of its necessity had been received was most undesirable. The
whole proceeding at best was clumsy; yet earnestness is mostly clumsy;
and how could he let the event pass without a protest? Before daylight
on that autumn morning he had risen, told Faith of his intention, and
started off.

As soon as the vehicle was ready, Christopher hastened to the door and
stepped up. The little stable-boy led the horse a few paces on the way
before relinquishing his hold; at the same moment a respectably dressed
man on foot, with a small black bag in his hand, came up from the
opposite direction, along the street leading from the railway. He was a
thin, elderly man, with grey hair; that a great anxiety pervaded him was
as plainly visible as were his features. Without entering the inn, he
came up at once to old John.

'Have you anything going to Knollsea this morning that I can get a lift
in?' said the pedestrian--no other than Ethelberta's father.

'Nothing empty, that I know of.'

'Or carrier?'

'No.'

'A matter of fifteen shillings, then, I suppose?'

'Yes--no doubt. But yond there's a young man just now starting; he might
not take it ill if ye were to ask him for a seat, and go halves in the
hire of the trap. Shall I call out?'

'Ah, do.'

The hostler bawled to the stable-boy, who put the question to
Christopher. There was room for two in the dogcart, and Julian had no
objection to save the shillings of a fellow-traveller who was evidently
not rich. When Chickerel mounted to his seat, Christopher paused to look
at him as we pause in some enactment that seems to have been already
before us in a dream long ago. Ethelberta's face was there, as the
landscape is in the map, the romance in the history, the aim in the deed:
denuded, rayless, and sorry, but discernible.

For the moment, however, this did not occur to Julian. He took the whip,
the boy loosed his hold upon the horse, and they proceeded on their way.

'What slap-dash jinks may there be going on at Knollsea, then, my sonny?'
said the hostler to the lad, as the dogcart and the backs of the two men
diminished on