you can't think how I enjoy these glimpses
of you and your work. You must give my love to Uncle Robert."

And so they bade each other adieu, lovingly, after the manner of
cousins, and Tom rode away with a very soft place in his heart
for his cousin Katie. It was not the least the same sort of
passionate feeling of worship with which he regarded Mary. The
two feelings could lie side by side in his heart with plenty of
room to spare. In fact, his heart had been getting so big in the
last few weeks that it seemed capable of taking in the whole of
mankind, not to mention woman, till, on the whole, it may be
safely asserted that, had matters been at all in a more forward
state, and could she have seen exactly what was passing in his
mind, Mary would probably have objected to the kind of affection
which he felt for his cousin at this particular time. The joke
about cousinly love is probably as old, and certainly as true, as
Solomon's proverbs. However, as matters stood, it could be no
concern of Mary's what his feelings were towards Katie, or any
other person.

Tom rode in at the lodge gate of the Grange soon after eleven
o'clock, and walked his horse slowly through the park, admiring
the splendid timber, and thinking how he should break his request
to the owner of the place. But his thoughts were interrupted by
the proceedings of the rabbits, which were out by hundreds all
along the sides of the plantations, and round the great trees. A
few of the nearest just deigned to notice him by scampering to
their holes under the roots of the antlered oaks, into which some
of them popped with a disdainful kick of their hind legs, while
others turned round, sat up, and looked at him. As he neared the
house he passed a keeper's cottage, and was saluted by the
barking of dogs from the neighboring kennel; and the young
pheasants ran about round some twenty hen-coops, which were
arranged along opposite the door where the keeper's children were
playing. The pleasure of watching the beasts and birds kept him
from arranging his thoughts, and he reached the hall door without
having formed the plan of his campaign.

A footman answered the bell, who doubted whether his master was
down, but thought he would see the gentleman if he would send in
his name. Whereupon Tom handed in his card, and, in a few minutes
a rakish-looking stable boy came round after his horse, and the
butler appeared with his master's compliments, and a request that
he