tip so quietly
just now?"

"In course I was, why should I not be?"

"Done brown for once, by Jove!" muttered Lawless as he left the hall;
"a raw-boned old rogue, I'll be even with him some day, though----, we
shall see, eh?"

While Lawless was busily engaged in settling some of the harness which
had become disarranged the old footman came up to me and whispered,
"Make use of your eyes as you drive through the park, and mayhap you'll
spy some _game worth looking after_, young gentleman".

Surprised at this unexpected address, I turned to question him as to
its meaning, but in vain; for no sooner had he finished speaking than he
re-entered the hall and shut the door behind him.

What could he intend me to understand, thought I; he evidently wished
to imply something beyond the simple meaning of the words "game
worth looking after"; could he mean to----no! the thing is
impossible--"absurd!" exclaimed I, as a wild idea shot through my brain
and I felt myself colour like a girl.

~150~~"What's absurd?" exclaimed Lawless, gathering up the reins as
he spoke; "what are you talking about? why, you're ranting and staring
about you like a play-actor; what's the matter with you, eh, Frank?"

"Nothing," replied I, taking my seat; "don't drive too fast through the
park, I want to look at the view as we go along."

In obedience to the gaunt domestic's mysterious injunction I made the
best use of my eyes as we retraced our way through the park, and for my
pains had the satisfaction of beholding a solitary rabbit, half-hidden
under a dock-leaf, and sundry carrion crows.

CHAPTER XVIII -- THE GAME IN BARSTONE PARK

"The fringed curtains of thine eye advance and say what
thou see'st yond."
--_Tempest_.

"Accost, Sir Andrew, accost."
--_Twelfth Night_.

"Let us go thank him and encourage him.
My _Guardian's_ rough and envious disposition
Strikes me at heart--Sir you have well deserved."
--_As You Like It_.

WE had arrived within a quarter of a mile of the gate, and I had just
settled to my thorough dissatisfaction that the old footman must be a
humorist, and had diverted himself by making a kind of April-fool out
of season of me, when, through the trees, which at that spot stretched
their huge branches across the road so as to form a complete arch, I
fancied I perceived the flutter of a woman's dress; and, in another
moment, a