t
once, Emily; mount my horse, and ride over to Hartwell before it be
dark."

"What is your object there?" asked Emily.

"To unravel one part of this mystery," replied her lover. "I will
ascertain, by some means, from whom, or in what way, this young man
obtained sufficient money to commence and carry on a very expensive suit
at law. That he had it not himself, I am certain. That his chances were
not sufficiently good, when first he commenced, to induce any lawyer to
take the risk, I am equally certain. He must have had it from some one,
and my suspicions point to Mrs. Hazleton. Her bankers are mine, and I
will find means to know. So, now, farewell, my love; I will see you
again early to-morrow."

He lingered yet for a moment or two, and then left her.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Marlow was soon on horseback, and riding on to the country town. But he
had lingered longer with Emily than he imagined, and the day declined
visibly as he rode along.

"The business hours are over," he thought; "bankers and lawyers will
have abandoned the money-getting and mischief-making toils of the day;
and I must stay at the inn till to-morrow."

He had been riding fast; but he now drew in his rein, and suffered his
horse to walk. The sun was setting gloriously, and the rich, rosy light,
diffused through the air, gave every thing an aspect of warmth, and
richness, and cheerfulness. But Marlow's heart was any thing but gay.
Whether it was that the scenes which he had passed through in London,
his visits to a prison, his dealings with hard official men, the
toiling, moiling crowds that had surrounded him; the wearisome, eternal,
yet ever-changing struggle of life displayed in the streets and houses
of a capital, the infinite varieties of selfishness, and folly, and
vice, and crime, had depressed his spirits, or that his health had
somewhat suffered in consequence of anxious waiting for events in the
foul air of the metropolis, I cannot tell. But certain, he was sadder
than was usual with him. His was a spirit strong and active, naturally
disposed to bright views and happy hopes, too firm to be easily
depressed, too elastic to be long kept down. But yet, as he rode along,
there was a sort of feeling of apprehension upon his mind that oppressed
him mightily. He revolved all that had lately passed. He compared the
state of Mr. Hastings' family, as it actually was, with what it had been
when he first knew it, and there seemed to be a strange myst