the rods
and landing-nets which they listlessly carried went to show, plying the
gentle, but in this case not altogether solitary craft of the fisherman.
One of those persons was a tall and singularly handsome young man, whose
dark hair and complexion might almost have belonged to a Spaniard,
as might also the proud but melancholy expression which gave to his
countenance a character which contrasts sadly, but not uninterestingly,
with extreme youth; his air, as he spoke with his companion, was marked
by that careless familiarity which denotes a conscious superiority of
one kind or other, or which may be construed into a species of contempt;
his comrade afforded to him in every respect a striking contrast. He
was rather low in stature--a defect which was enhanced by a broad and
square-built figure--his face was sallow, and his features had
that prominence and sharpness which frequently accompany personal
deformity--a remarkably wide mouth, with teeth white as the fangs of a
wolf, and a pair of quick, dark eyes, whose effect was heightened by the
shadow of a heavy black brow, gave to his face a power of expression,
particularly when sarcastic or malignant emotions were to be exhibited,
which features regularly handsome could scarcely have possessed.

'Well, sir,' said the latter personage, 'I have lived in hall and abbey,
town and country, here and abroad for forty years and more, and should
know a thing or two, and as I am a living man, I swear I think the girl
loves you.'

'You are a fool, Ned,' said the younger.

'I may be a fool,' replied the first speaker, 'in matters where my own
advantage is staked, but my eye is keen enough to see through the flimsy
disguise of a country damsel at a glance; and I tell you, as surely as I
hold this rod, the girl loves you.'

'Oh I this is downright headstrong folly,' replied the young fisherman.
'Why, Ned, you try to persuade me against my reason, that the event
which is most to be deprecated has actually occurred. She is, no doubt,
a pretty girl--a beautiful girl--but I have not lost my heart to her;
and why should I wish her to be in love with me? Tush, man, the days of
romance are gone, and a young gentleman may talk, and walk, and laugh
with a pretty country maiden, and never breathe aspirations, or vows,
or sighs about the matter; unequal matches are much oftener read of than
made, and the man who could, even in thought, conceive a wish against
the honour of an unsuspectin