e of
a destitute woman in the next village, who was then lying in what was
considered to be a hopeless state. The proctor himself, while he exacted
with a heartless and rapacious hand the last penny due to him, was yet
too good a tactician to discountenance these spontaneous effusions of
benevolence on the part of his wife and daughters. With a good deal
of ostentation, and that peculiar swagger for which many shrewd and
hard-hearted men of the world are remarkable, he actually got the
medicine himself for the helpless invalid in question, not forgetting at
the same time to make the bystanders in the apothecary's shop acquainted
with the extent of his own private charity and that of his family
besides. The girls had proceeded a part of the way on their charitable
errand, when it occurred to them that the medicine, which their father
had procured on the preceding day, had been forgotten, and as the sick
woman was to commence taking it at a certain hour that evening, it was
necessary that either one or both should return for it.

"You needn't come back, Julia," said Mary; "I will myself run home and
fetch it. And accordingly her sister went back at a quick step towards
her father's house. The spot where Julia stood to await the return, of
her sister was within a few yards of a large white-thorn double ditch,
on each side of which grew a close hedge of thorns, that could easily
afford room for two or three men to walk abreast between them. Here
she had not remained more than a minute or two, when, issuing from
the cover of the thorns, and approaching her with something of a stage
strut, our friend, Buck English, made his appearance.

"Miss Joolia," he exclaimed, with what was intended for a polite bow,
"I hope you will pardon me for this third liberty I teek in offering to
spake to you. I see," he proceeded, observing her rising indignation,
"that you are not inclined to hear me, but I kim here to give you a bit
of advice as a friend--listen to my proposals, if you're wise--and don't
make me the enemy of yourself or your family, for so sure as you reject
me, so certainly will you bring ruin upon both yourself and them. I
say this as a friend, and merk me, the day may come when you will oll
remember my words too late."

There was a vehemence in his language, which could admit of no mistake
as to the fixed determination of his purpose; his lips were compressed,
his eyebrows severely knit, and his unfeeling, hyena eye scint