ake my way thither into
the glamour and the mystery of the world.

Then all at once, as I stood there and gazed, I was aware of the sound
of a horse's hoofs coming over the wet grass, and turned and saw my
cousin riding towards me on his black mare and waving his whip to me
as he came.

I had a great affection for my cousin in those days, mingled with a
sort of dreadful admiration for the character he bore. He was my elder
by nearly ten years, and had been, in my eyes, a man ever since I was
a child, so that I looked up to him with reverence, and thought
nothing so delightful as to have him come down, bringing the air and
rumour of the outside world into our quiet homestead. Indeed, he
seemed to be of a superior order to us, and might almost be reckoned
as one of the gentry, for his father came of the Gurneys of Lynn, and
had set up a great brewery of ale there, by which he enriched himself
past all counting. How such a man had come to marry my aunt I never
knew, for my father kept silence on the subject, and Rupert himself
could tell me nothing of his mother, who had died when he was but an
infant. Nor was there much intercourse between our families, except
that twice a year, at Lady-day and Christmas, Mr. Gurney would send
us a barrel of his best brewing; and once a year, on the 1st of
January--for he would give no countenance to the feasts of the
Church--my father despatched a pair of fine turkeys to Lynn.

Cousin Rupert always showed a friendship for us, and I believe would
have given us his company more often but for my father's disapproval
of his manner of life; for he was already known as a wild companion,
and one who set little store by religion and respectability. There was
even a scandalous report that he had been fined by the Aldermen of
Yarmouth under the new statute made against profane swearing. They had
fixed his fine, so it was said, at two shillings, being the penalty
for common persons above the degree of a day labourer; but my cousin
Rupert, taking out his purse with a great air, demanded to have his
oath assessed like a gentleman's, and paid down a silver crown upon
the table.

Since then he had been away beyond seas, nor had I set eyes on him for
the best part of three years. It was thought that he had been taking
some part in the wars which then raged all over Europe; and difficult
enough it was to understand what they were all about, and whom we were
fighting; for at one time we were on the s