he more reasonable--as he now
became aware that the women and children were left almost to their own
protection; for the house was in a lonely situation; and all the men of
the family were abroad, except an imbecile grey-beard whom one of the
young women addressed as her grandfather. All fears however, Bertram
flattered himself, should have been dispersed immediately by his
appearance and the gentleness of his demeanour: much therefore it
perplexed him to observe after the lapse of some time that the shyness
and something like displeasure, which had at first clouded the faces of
his fair friends, seemed in no degree to give way before his amiable
looks and manners. The children in particular, he remarked, regarded
him with eyes of dislike, and rejected all his advances. Happening to
follow them to the door for a moment, he there observed what threw some
light upon the case: the children were mourning over the body of a dog
which lay dead in the corner of a little garden: and, from the angry
glances which they directed at himself, he no longer doubted that they
regarded him as the destroyer of their favourite. To a young man of
sensibility and amiable disposition, and chiefly in search of the
picturesque, it was peculiarly unpleasant to find himself the object of
such a suspicion. To lie under the reproach of an act, which, unless it
were a necessary act, was a very savage and brutal one,--must naturally
be painful under any circumstances; much more so at a time when he was
indebted to the goodness of the family, whom he was supposed to have
thus wantonly injured, for the most hospitable attentions. At this
moment a sudden recollection darted into his mind of his nocturnal
companion in the barn, to whom he doubted not the death of the dog was
to be attributed. Unable however from his ignorance of the Welsh
language to explain this circumstance, or to make his own vindication,
he prepared to liberate himself from the uneasy and humiliating
situation, in which he now found himself placed, by taking his leave as
soon as possible.

At this moment an ill-looking fellow, who seemed to have some
acquaintance with the family, entered the cottage: he fixed his eyes
keenly upon Bertram; and, when the latter rose to depart, offered
himself as a guide to Machynleth. Bertram had noticed his scrutiny with
some uneasiness and displeasure; but having no ready excuse for
declining his offers, nor indeed seeing any use in doing so, he sai