of succeeding with the ladies 'quire all those finniken,
nimini-pinimi's, flourishes, and maxims, and saws, which the Colonel,
my old master, and the great gentlefolks, as be knowing, call the art of
love--baugh! The whole science, Sir, consists in these two rules--'Ask
soon, and ask often.'"

"There seems no great difficulty in them, Bunting."

"Not to us who has gumption, Sir; but then there is summut in the manner
of axing--one can't be too hot--can't flatter too much--and, above
all, one must never take a refusal. There, Sir, now--if you
takes my advice--may break the peace of all the husbands in
Lunnun--bother--whaugh!"

"My uncle little knows what a praiseworthy tutor he has secured me in
you, Bunting," said Walter, laughing: "And now, while the road is so
good, let us make the most of it."

As they had set out late in the day, and the Corporal was fearful of
another attack from a hedge, he resolved, that about evening, one of the
horses should be seized with a sudden lameness, (which he effected by
slily inserting a stone between the shoe and the hoof,) that required
immediate attention and a night's rest; so that it was not till the
early noon of the next day that our travellers entered the village in
which Mr. Jonas Elmore resided.

It was a soft, tranquil day, though one of the very last in October; for
the reader will remember that Time had not stood still during Walter's
submission to the care of Mr. Pertinax Fillgrave, and his subsequent
journey and researches.

The sun-light rested on a broad patch of green heath, covered with
furze, and around it were scattered the cottages and farm-houses of the
little village. On the other side, as Walter descended the gentle hill
that led into this remote hamlet, wide and flat meadows, interspersed
with several fresh and shaded ponds, stretched away towards a belt of
rich woodland gorgeous with the melancholy pomp by which the "regal
year" seeks to veil its decay. Among these meadows you might now see
groups of cattle quietly grazing, or standing half hid in the still
and sheltered pools. Still farther, crossing to the woods, a solitary
sportsman walked careless on, surrounded by some half a dozen spaniels,
and the shrill small tongue of one younger straggler of the canine crew,
who had broke indecorously from the rest, and already entered the wood,
might be just heard, softened down by the distance, into a wild, cheery
sound, that animated, without disturbing,