eflection; and his whisky, sir, was undeniable.
Come, I have a fancy. Let us dismount, and, in heroic fashion,
spread our feast upon the turf; or, if the hoar-frost deter you, see,
here are boulders, and a running brook to dilute our cups; and, by my
life, a foot-bridge, to the rail of which we may tether our steeds."

Indeed, we had come to a hollow in the road, across which a tiny
beck, now swollen with the rains, was chattering bravely. Falling in
with my companion's humour, I dismounted, and, after his example,
hitched my mare's rein over the rail. There was a raciness about the
adventure that took my fancy. We chose two boulders from a heap of
lesser stones close beside the beck, and divided the sandwiches, for
though I protested I was not hungry, the old gentleman insisted on
our sharing alike. And now, as the liquor warmed his heart and the
sunshine smote upon his back, his eyes sparkled, and he launched on a
flood of the gayest talk--yet always of a world that I felt was
before my time. Indeed, as he rattled on, the feeling that this must
be some Rip Van Winkle restored from a thirty years' sleep grew
stronger and stronger upon me. He spoke of Bleakirk, and displayed a
knowledge of it sufficiently thorough--intimate even--yet of the old
friends for whom he inquired many names were unknown to me, many
familiar only through their epitaphs in the windy cemetery above the
cliff. Of the rest, the pretty girls he named were now grandmothers,
the young men long since bent and rheumatic; the youngest well over
fifty. This, however, seemed to depress him little. His eyes would
sadden for a moment, then laugh again. "Well, well," he said,
"wrinkles, bald heads, and the deafness of the tomb--we have our day
notwithstanding. Pluck the bloom of it--hey? a commonplace of the
poets."

"But, sir," I put in as politely as I might, "you have not yet told
me with whom I have the pleasure of lunching."

"Gently, young sir." He waved his hand towards the encircling moors.
"We have feasted _more Homerico_, and in Homer, you remember the host
allowed his guest fourteen days before asking that question.
Permit me to delay the answer only till I have poured libation on the
turf here. Ah! I perceive the whisky is exhausted: but water shall
suffice. May I trouble you--my joints are stiff--to fill your
drinking-cup from the brook at your feet?"

I took the cup from his hands and stooped over the water. As I did
so, he l