going by Pooley Bridge instead of Dallmaine."

"Pray don't do anything of the kind; I can find the road." Whereupon
Hampstead shook hands cordially with the Master, bade Mr. Patterson
good-bye with a kindly smile, and trotted on beyond the hounds as
quickly as he could.

But Crocker was not to be shaken off. The flea-bitten roan was as
good at the end of a day as he was at the beginning, and trotted
on gallantly. When they had gone some quarter of a mile Hampstead
acknowledged to himself that it was beyond his power to shake off his
foe. By that time Crocker had made good his position close alongside
of the lord, with his horse's head even with that of the other.
"There is a word, my lord, I want to say to you." This Crocker
muttered somewhat piteously, so that Hampstead's heart was for the
moment softened towards him. He checked his horse and prepared
himself to listen. "I hope I haven't given any offence. I can assure
you, my lord, I haven't intended it. I have so much respect for your
lordship that I wouldn't do it for the world."

What was he to do? He had been offended. He had intended to show that
he was offended. And yet he did not like to declare as much openly.
His object had been to stop the man from talking, and to do so if
possible without making any reference himself to the subject in
question. Were he now to declare himself offended he could hardly do
so without making some allusion to his sister. But he had determined
that he would make no such allusion. Now as the man appealed to him,
asking as it were forgiveness for some fault of which he was not
himself conscious, it was impossible to refrain from making him some
answer. "All right," he said; "I'm sure you didn't mean anything. Let
us drop it, and there will be an end of it."

"Oh, certainly;--and I'm sure I'm very much obliged to your lordship.
But I don't quite know what it is that ought to be dropped. As I am
so intimate with Roden, sitting at the same desk with him every day
of my life, it did seem natural to speak to your lordship about him."

This was true. As it had happened that Crocker, who as well as Roden
was a Post Office Clerk, had appeared as a guest at Castle Hautboy,
it had been natural that he should speak of his office companion to
a man who was notoriously that companion's friend. Hampstead did not
quite believe in the pretended intimacy, having heard Roden declare
that he had not as yet formed any peculiar friendship at the Of