erver could penetrate. There were times when I could
believe that she was inwardly restless and unhappy; but she was too well
versed in the arts of concealment, to suffer such an appearance to be
more than momentary.

I must own that I consoled myself very easily for my want, in this
particular instance, of that usual good fortune which attends me aupres
des dames; the fact was, that I had another object in pursuit. All the
men at Sir Lionel Garrett's were keen sportsmen. Now, shooting is an
amusement I was never particularly partial to. I was first disgusted
with that species of rational recreation at a battue, where, instead of
bagging anything, I was nearly bagged, having been inserted, like wine
in an ice pail, in a wet ditch for three hours, during which time my hat
had been twice shot at for a pheasant, and my leather gaiters once for a
hare; and to crown all, when these several mistakes were discovered, my
intended exterminators, instead of apologizing for having shot at me,
were quite disappointed at having missed.

Seriously, that same shooting is a most barbarous amusement, only fit
for majors in the army, and royal dukes, and that sort of people; the
mere walking is bad enough, but embarrassing one's arms moreover, with
a gun, and one's legs with turnip tops, exposing oneself to the mercy of
bad shots and the atrocity of good, seems to me only a state of painful
fatigue, enlivened by the probability of being killed.

This digression is meant to signify, that I never joined the single
men and double Mantons that went in and off among Sir Lionel Garrett's
preserves. I used, instead, to take long walks by myself, and found,
like virtue, my own reward, in the additional health and strength these
diurnal exertions produced me.

One morning, chance threw into my way une bonne fortune, which I took
care to improve. From that time the family of a farmer Sinclair, (one
of Sir Lionel's tenants) was alarmed by strange and supernatural noises:
one apartment in especial, occupied by a female member of the household,
was allowed, even by the clerk of the parish, a very bold man, and a bit
of a sceptic, to be haunted; the windows of that chamber were wont to
open and shut, thin airy voices confabulate therein, and dark shapes
hover thereout, long after the fair occupant had, with the rest of the
family, retired to repose. But the most unaccountable thing was the
fatality which attended me, and seemed to mark me out, nole