ut of him, and,
for want of a better seat, sat down on the stocks. All the female heads
in the neighbouring cottages peered, themselves unseen, through the
casements. What could the squire be about? What new mischief did he
meditate? Did he mean to fortify the stocks? Old Gaffer Solomons, who
had an indefinite idea of the lawful power of squires, and who had been
for the last ten minutes at watch on his threshold, shook his head and
said, "Them as a cut out the mon a hanging, as a put it in the squire's
head!"

"Put what?" asked his grand-daughter.

"The gallus!" answered Solomons,--"he be a going to have it hung from
the great elfin-tree. And the parson, good mon, is a quoting Scripter
agin it; you see he's a taking off his gloves, and a putting his two
han's together, as he do when he pray for the sick, Jeany."

That description of the parson's mien and manner, which with his usual
niceness of observation, Gaffer Solomons thus sketched off, will convey
to you some idea of the earnestness with which the parson pleaded the
cause he had undertaken to advocate. He dwelt much upon the sense of
propriety which the foreigner had evinced in requesting that the squire
might be consulted before any formal communication to his cousin; and
he repeated Mrs. Dale's assurance, that such were Riccabocca's high
standard of honour and belief in the sacred rights of hospitality, that,
if the squire withheld his consent to his proposals, the parson
was convinced that the Italian would instantly retract them. Now,
considering that Miss Hazeldean was, to say the least, come to years of
discretion, and the squire had long since placed her property entirely
at her own disposal, Mr. Hazeldean was forced to acquiesce in the
parson's corollary remark, "That this was a delicacy which could not be
expected from every English pretender to the lady's hand." Seeing that
he had so far cleared the ground, the parson went on to intimate, though
with great tact, that since Miss Jemima would probably marry sooner or
later (and, indeed, that the squire could not wish to prevent her), it
might be better for all parties concerned that it should be with some
one who, though a foreigner, was settled in the neighbourhood, and of
whose character what was known was certainly favourable, rather than
run the hazard of her being married for her money by some adventurer, or
Irish fortune-hunter, at the watering-places she yearly visited. Then he
touched lightly o