it was dashed again at once. The young gentlewoman once turned
out to be the Squire's fat lady, and another time was actually pursued
into a troop of strolling players, attiring themselves in a barn, whence
she came with cheeks freshly rouged with blood taken from a cat's tail.

The young baronet had meanwhile become very dear to the Major and his
daughter. He had inherited his mother's indescribable attractiveness,
and he was so frank, so affectionate, so unspoilt, so grateful for the
little attentions demanded by his maimed condition, so considerate of
the Major, and so regardless of himself, and, above all, so passionately
devoted to his dearest life, as he called Aurelia, that it was
impossible not to take him into their hearts, and let him be, as he
entreated, a son and a brother.

The travellers decided on first repairing to Bowstead, thinking it
probable that the truant might have returned thither, or that Mr.
Belamour might have found her in some one of the cottages around. Hopes
began to rise, and Major Delavie scolded Sir Amyas in quite a paternal
manner whenever he began to despond, though the parts were reversed
whenever the young people's expectations began to soar beyond his own
spirits at the moment.

"Is yonder Hargrave? No, it is almost like my father!" exclaimed Sir
Amyas, in amazement, as the coach lumbered slowly up the approach, and
a very remarkable figure was before them. The long white beard was gone,
the hair was brushed back, tied up, and the ends disposed of in a square
black silk bag, hanging down behind; and the dark grey coat, with collar
and deep cuffs of black velvet, was such as would be the ordinary wear
of an elderly man of good position; but the face, a fine aquiline one,
as to feature, was of perfectly absolute whiteness, scarcely relieved by
the thin pale lips, or the eyes, which, naturally of a light-grey, had
become almost as colourless as the rest of the face, and Betty felt a
shock as if she had seen a marble statue clothed and animated, bowing
and speaking.

The anxious inquiry and the mournful negative had been mutually
exchanged before the carriage door was opened, and all were standing
together in the avenue.

"I have, however, found a clue, or what may so prove," said Mr.
Belamour, when the greetings had passed. "I have discovered how our
fugitive passed the early part of the Sunday;" and he related how he had
elicited from the Mistresses Treforth that they had seen he