ould not stir from her post lest the movement
should awaken her sister, was yet prevented from closing her eyes in a
similar repose; ever and anon she breathlessly and gently raised herself
to steal a glimpse of that solitary light afar; and ever, as she looked,
the ray greeted her eyes with an unswerving and melancholy stillness,
till the dawn crept greyly over the heavens, and that speck of light,
holier to her than the stars, faded also with them beneath the broader
lustre of the day.

The next week was passed in preparations for Walter's departure. At
that time, and in that distant part of the country, it was greatly the
fashion among the younger travellers to perform their excursions on
horseback, and it was this method of conveyance that Walter preferred.
The best steed in the squire's stables was therefore appropriated to his
service, and a strong black horse with a Roman nose and a long tail, was
consigned to the mastery of Corporal Bunting. The Squire was delighted
that his nephew had secured such an attendant. For the soldier, though
odd and selfish, was a man of some sense and experience, and Lester
thought such qualities might not be without their use to a young master,
new to the common frauds and daily usages of the world he was about to
enter.

As for Bunting himself, he covered his secret exultation at the prospect
of change, and board-wages, with the cool semblance of a man sacrificing
his wishes to his affections. He made it his peculiar study to impress
upon the Squire's mind the extent of the sacrifice he was about to make.
The bit cot had been just white-washed, the pet cat just lain in; then
too, who would dig, and gather seeds, in the garden, defend the plants,
(plants! the Corporal could scarce count a dozen, and nine out of them
were cabbages!) from the impending frosts? It was exactly, too, the time
of year when the rheumatism paid flying visits to the bones and loins
of the worthy Corporal; and to think of his "galavanting about the
country," when he ought to be guarding against that sly foe the lumbago,
in the fortress of his chimney corner!

To all these murmurs and insinuations the good Lester seriously
inclined, not with the less sympathy, in that they invariably ended
in the Corporal's slapping his manly thigh, and swearing that he loved
Master Walter like gunpowder, and that were it twenty times as much, he
would cheerfully do it for the sake of his handsome young honour. Ever
at this