t for the seasonable shelter of
your hospitable roof I know not what would have become of me. I am
unacquainted with the country, and having lost my way, I knew not where
to seek shelter, for the night was so dreadfully dark that unless by the
flashes of the lightning nothing could be seen."

"It was certainly an awful--a terrible night," observed his host;
"but come, its severity is now past; let me see you do justice to your
fare;--a little more ham?"

"Thank you, sir," replied the other; "if you please. Indeed, I cannot
complain of my appetite, which is at all times excellent"--and he
certainly corroborated the truth of his statement by a sharp and
vigorous attack upon the good things before him.

"Sir," said Mrs. Goodwin, "we feel happy to have had the satisfaction
of opening our doors to you last night; and there is only one other
circumstance which could complete our gratification."

"The gratification, madam," he replied, "as well as the gratitude, ought
to be all on my side, although I have no doubt, and can have none,
that the consciousness of your kindness and hospitality are equally
gratifying on yours. But may I ask to what you allude, madam?"

"You are evidently a gentleman, sir, and a stranger, and we would feel
obliged by knowing--"

"O, I beg your pardon, madam," he replied, interrupting her; "I presume
that you are good enough to flatter me by a wish to know the name of
the individual whom your kindness and hospitality have placed under such
agreeable obligations. For my part I have reason to bless the tempest I
which, I may say, brought me under your roof. 'It is an ill wind,' says
the proverb, 'that blows nobody good;' and it is a clear case, my very
kind hostess, that at this moment we are mutually ignorant of each
other. I assure you, then, madam, that I am not a knight-errant
travelling in disguise and in quest of adventure, but a plain gentleman,
by name Woodward, step-son to a neighbor of yours, Mr. Lindsay, of
Rathfillan House. I need scarcely say that I am Mrs. Lindsay's son by
her first husband. And now, madam, may I beg to know the name of the
family to whom I am indebted for so much kindness."

Mrs. Goodwin and her husband exchanged glances, and something like a
slight cloud appeared to overshadow for a moment the expression of their
countenances. At length Mr. Goodwin spoke.

"My name, sir," he proceeded, "is Goodwin; and until a recent melancholy
event, your family and mine were u