ood friends. He had
hoped "my ankle did not pain me," and I had trusted "his arms did not
ache." He had even gone the length of "vowing" that he would have shot
his clumsy retriever for being the cause of the accident, only he let
him off because "if it hadn't been for the dog----" and here, seeing
Cousin Amelia's eye fixed upon us, my companion stopped dead short,
and concealed his blushes in a glass of champagne. Taking courage from
that well-iced stimulant, he reverted to our railway journey in
company.

"I knew you again this morning, Miss Coventry, I assure you, a long
way off; in fact, I was going the other way, only, seeing you walking
in that lonely part of the down, I feared you might be frightened" (he
was getting bright scarlet again), "and I determined to watch you at a
little distance, and be ready to assist you if you were alarmed by
tramps or sheep-dogs or----"

I thought he was getting on too fast, so I stopped him at once by
replying,--

"I am well able to take care of myself, Mr. Haycock, I assure you, and
I like best walking _quite_ alone;" after which I turned my shoulder a
little towards him, and completely discomfited him for the rest of
dinner. One great advantage of diffidence in a man is that one can so
easily reduce him to the lowest depths of despondency; but then, on
the other hand, he is apt to think one means to be more cruel than one
does, and one is obliged to be kind in proportion to previous
coldness, or the stupid creature breaks away altogether. When the
ladies got up to leave the dining-room, I dropped my handkerchief well
under the table, and when it was returned to me by the Squire, I gave
him such a look of gratitude as I knew would bring him back to me in
the evening. Nobody hates flirting so much as myself, but what is one
to do shut up in a country-house, with no earthly thing to occupy or
amuse one?

Tea and coffee served but little to produce cordiality amongst the
female portion of the guests after their flight to the drawing-room.
Lady Horsingham and Lady Banneret talked apart on a sofa; they were
deep in the merits of their respective preachers and the failings of
their respective maids. Mrs. Marmaduke and Mrs. Marygold, having had a
"Book-Club" feud, did not speak to each other, but communicated
through the medium of Miss Finch, whose deafness rendered this a
somewhat unsatisfactory process. Aunt Deborah went to sleep as usual;
and I tried the two Miss Bannerets con