the lad myself. Still, punching his
head would not have been a desirable thing."

"I am glad you don't like him," James said, warmly. "Somehow I made up
my mind that you were all sure to like him, and I don't suppose the
idea made me like him any the better. He was just the free-and-easy
sort of fellow to get along well, and I was quite sure that Aggie would
not want me, when she had him to go about with her. I saw him drive
through in the pony carriage with her, two or three times, and it was
easy to see how thoroughly she was enjoying herself."

"Well, it was your own fault, my boy. If you choose to sulk down here,
and never to go up to the Hall, you can't blame Aggie for letting
herself be amused by someone else."

"Oh! I don't blame her," James said hastily. "Of course, it is all
right that she should enjoy herself with her cousin. Only somehow, you
know, after being great friends with anyone, one doesn't like to see
someone else stepping into your place."

"But as I have told you, over and over again, during the last three
years, Jim, you have willfully stepped out of your place. You know how
often I have asked you to come up, and how seldom you have come. You
have never shown Aggie that you have any wish to continue on the
footing of friendship, on which you stood towards each other when she
was at your mother's, and as you have chosen to throw her over, I don't
see why she shouldn't take to anyone else who takes pains to make
himself pleasant to her."

"Oh! I don't blame her a bit, Mr. Wilks. How could you think such a
thing! I was very fond of little Aggie when she was at my mother's; but
of course, I was not ass enough to suppose that she was going trotting
about the country with me, when she once went up to the Hall as the
squire's granddaughter. Of course, the whole thing was changed.

"Ah! Here comes the rain."

As he spoke, a sudden splash of rain struck them. It might have been
noticed coming across the water in a white line. With it came a gust of
wind, to which that which had already been blowing was a trifle. There
was no more talking, for nothing less than a shout could have been
heard above the roaring of the wind. It was scarcely possible to stand
against the fury of the squall, and they were driven across the road,
and took shelter at the corner of some houses, where the fishermen had
already retired.

The squall lasted but a few minutes, but was soon succeeded by another,
almost equally f