, I am taking a turn upon the King's
Highway, which has become far more fashionable now-a-days than the
Park, the puppet-show, or even Constitution Hill."
"Nay, nay, Henry!" exclaimed his wife, interrupting him, "I will not
hear you malign yourself in that way. He is not taking a turn upon
the King's Highway, sir, for here he sits, bodily, I trust, beside
his wife; and if the spirit have anything to do with the adventure
that he talks of, the motive is a noble one--the object is not what
he says."
"Hush, hush, Caroline," replied Lord Sherbrooke; "you will make
Wilton believe, first, that I am sane; next, that I am virtuous; and,
lastly, that I love any woman sufficiently to submit to her
contradicting me; things which I have been labouring hard for months
to make him think impossible."
"He knows, sir," said Green, interrupting him, "that you are
generous, and that you are kind, though he does not yet know to what
extent."
"I believe he knows me better than any man now living," replied Lord
Sherbrooke; "but it happens somewhat inopportunely that he should be
here to-night.--Hark, Colonel! There is even now the galloping of a
horse round to the back of the house. Let you and I go into the other
room, and see what booty our comrade has brought back."
He spoke with one of his gay but uncertain smiles, while Green's eyes
sparkled with some of the brightness of former times, as he listened
eagerly, to make sure that Lord Sherbrooke's ear had not deceived
him.
"You are right, you are right, sir," he said; "and then, I hear
Byerly's voice speaking to the old woman."
But before he could proceed to put Lord Sherbrooke's suggestion in
execution, Byerly was in the room, holding up a large leathern bag,
and exclaiming, "Here it is! here it is!"
"Alas!" said Caroline--"I fear dangerously obtained."
"Not in the least, madam," replied Byerly: "if the man dies, let it
be remarked, he dies of fright, and nothing else; not a finger has
been laid, in the way of violence, upon his person; but he would have
given up anything to any one who asked him. We made him promise and
vow that he would ride back to the town he came from; and tying his
feet under his horse's belly, we sent him off as hard as he could go.
I, indeed, kept at a distance watching all, but the others gave me
the bag as soon as it was obtained, and then scattered over the moor,
every man his own way. I am back to London with all speed, and not a
point of this will be ever known."
"Come hither, then, c