y will make you
comfortable. Love, they say, major," added Henry, sportively, "is meat
and drink, and a blanket to boot; but for all that, Mrs. Dimock's will
not be amiss--especially for Horse Shoe, who, I take it, will have the
roughest time of the party. If love is a blanket, Mr. Robinson," Henry
continued, addressing himself to that worthy, "it doesn't cover two, you
know."

"To my thinking, young sir," replied Horse Shoe, with a laugh, "it
wouldn't fold so cleverly in a knapsack."

"Now that I have given my orders," said Henry, "and done my duty, I must
leave you, for my road lies across the ford here. Where are my hounds?
Hylas, Bell, Blanche, you puppies, where are you?"

Here Henry blew another note, which was immediately responded to by the
hounds; and, plunging into the rapid and narrow stream, followed by the
dogs, who swam close behind him, he was seen, the next moment, through
the twilight, galloping up the opposite hill, as he called out his "good
night" to his friends.

As soon as Henry had disappeared, the other two pricked their steeds
forward at a faster pace. The rapid flow of the river, as they advanced
along its bank, began to change into a more quiet current, as if some
obstruction below had dammed up the water, rendering it deep and still.
Upon this tranquil mirror the pale crescent of the moon and the faintly
peeping stars were reflected; and the flight of the fire-fly was traced,
by his own light and its redoubled image, upon the same surface.

The high toppling cliff of the Fawn's Tower, that jutted forth like a
parapet above the road, soon arrested the attention of Butler; and at
its base the great chestnut flung abroad his "vast magnificence of
leaves," almost in emulation of the aspiring crag.

"We have reached our appointed ground," said Butler. "I shall want my
cloak, Galbraith; the dews begin to chill my limbs."

They dismounted, and Butler threw his cloak around his shoulders. Then,
in a thoughtful, musing state of mind, he strolled slowly along the bank
of the river, till he was temporarily lost to view in the thick shades
and sombre scenery around him. Robinson, having secured the horses, sat
himself down at the foot of the chestnut, unwilling to interrupt, by
conversation, the anxious state of feeling which he had the shrewdness
to perceive predominated in Butler's mind.

CHAPTER IV.

A MEETING OF LOVERS----SOME INSIGHT INTO THE FUTURE.

The twilight had subsided an