at my ease, 'I suppose I ought to introduce myself. My
name is Hamilton.'

I bowed. I certainly did not think it necessary that I should tell him
that I was aware of that fact.

'We met yesterday, when you were good enough to put up with Nap's
company. I was half disposed to introduce myself then: only I feared you
would be shocked at such a piece of unconventionality; young ladies have
such strict ideas of decorum.'

'And very properly so, too,' I put in severely, for my irritation was
getting the better of my nervousness. I could not bear the tone in which
he said 'young ladies.' I felt convinced he had an antipathy to the whole
sex.

'Our skies were very uncivil in their welcome,' he went on, quite
disregarding my remark: 'it was the wettest night we have had for an age.
I was quite savage when I found the horses had been taken out of their
warm stables: the coachman was an ass, as I told him.'

'You scolded him somewhat severely.'

'Ah! did you hear me?' smiling a little at that, as though he were
amused. 'I am afraid I speak my mind pretty freely, in spite of
bystanders. Well, Miss Garston, so I hear you have come down as a sort of
female Quixote among us. Heathfield is to be the scene of your mission.'

I was so angry at the tone in which he said this that I made no reply.
What right had a perfect stranger to meddle in my business? It was all
Uncle Max's fault; if he had only held his tongue.

'Cunliffe was up at Gladwyn the other night,' he continued in the same
off-hand way, 'and he told us all about it.'

'I am sorry to hear it,' very stiffly.

'Sorry! Why? Good deeds ought to be talked about, ought they not, _pro
bono publico_, eh? Why not, Miss Garston?'

'Good intentions are not deeds.'

'True; you have me there. I suppose you think you must not reckon on your
chickens before they are hatched; the _pro bono publico_ scheme is not
properly hatched yet, except in theory. I am afraid I shall make you
angry if I tell you I was rather amused at the whole thing.'

'I am glad to afford you amusement, Mr. Hamilton.'

'Ah, I see you are deeply offended; what a pity, and in five minutes too!
That comes of my unfortunate habit of speaking my mind. Let me follow
this out. I am afraid Cunliffe has been a traitor; that fellow is not
reliable: no parsons are. Let me hear what you have against me, Miss
Garston. I have spoken against your pet theory, and you are aggrieved in
consequence,'

He spoke in a ha