as if he were a disinterested spectator and not
himself), 'please God I'll pitch my nitch, and go across and speak to
en.'

'I knowed in a winking 'twas some great navigator that I see a standing
there,' said Haymoss. 'But whe'r 'twere a sort of nabob, or a diment-
digger, or a lion-hunter, I couldn't so much as guess till I heerd en
speak.'

'And what changes have come over Welland since I was last at home?' asked
Swithin.

'Well, Mr. San Cleeve,' Hezzy replied, 'when you've said that a few
stripling boys and maidens have busted into blooth, and a few married
women have plimmed and chimped (my lady among 'em), why, you've said
anighst all, Mr. San Cleeve.'

The conversation thus began was continued on divers matters till they
were all enveloped in total darkness, when his old acquaintances
shouldered their faggots again and proceeded on their way.

Now that he was actually within her coasts again Swithin felt a little
more strongly the influence of the past and Viviette than he had been
accustomed to do for the last two or three years. During the night he
felt half sorry that he had not marched off to the Great House to see
her, regardless of the time of day. If she really nourished for him any
particle of her old affection it had been the cruellest thing not to
call. A few questions that he put concerning her to his grandmother
elicited that Lady Constantine had no friends about her--not even her
brother--and that her health had not been so good since her return from
Melchester as formerly. Still, this proved nothing as to the state of
her heart, and as she had kept a dead silence since the Bishop's death it
was quite possible that she would meet him with that cold repressive tone
and manner which experienced women know so well how to put on when they
wish to intimate to the long-lost lover that old episodes are to be taken
as forgotten.

The next morning he prepared to call, if only on the ground of old
acquaintance, for Swithin was too straightforward to ascertain anything
indirectly. It was rather too early for this purpose when he went out
from his grandmother's garden-gate, after breakfast, and he waited in the
garden. While he lingered his eye fell on Rings-Hill Speer.

It appeared dark, for a moment, against the blue sky behind it; then the
fleeting cloud which shadowed it passed on, and the face of the column
brightened into such luminousness that the sky behind sank to the
complexion of a dark