rectilinear he might have passed for the fourth stump. Walter awaited the
arrival of the foe, but in a spirit which has seldom conducted men to
conquest and glory, for if the English infantry had deviated so far from
their insular habits as to admire the Spaniards, you may be sure that
Gibraltar rock at this day would be a part of the Continent, and not a
detached fragment of Great Britain. In a word, Walter, at sight of the
lovers, was suddenly seized with sentimental sympathy; they both seemed
to him so beautiful in their way. The man was small, but his heart was
not; he stuck to the woman like a man, and poured hot love into her ears,
and almost lost the impediment in his speech. The woman pretended to be
cooler, but she half turned her head toward him, and her half-closed eyes
and heightened color showed she was drinking every word. Her very gayety,
though it affected nonchalance, revealed happiness to such as can read
below the surface of her sex. The Colonel's treacherous ally, after
gazing at them with marked approval, and saying, "I couldn't do it better
myself," which was surely a great admission for a lover to make, slipped
quietly into Hope's workshop not to spoil sport--a juvenile idea which we
recommend to older persons, and to such old maids as have turned sour.
The great majority of old maids are match-makers, whatever cant may keep
saying and writing to the contrary.

"No wonder at all," said Percy, who was evidently in the middle of some
amorous speech; "you are the goddess of my idolatry."

"What ardent expressions you do use!" said Julia, smiling.

"Of c-course I do; I'm over head and ears in love."

Julia surveyed his proportions, and said, "That's not very deep."

But Percy had got used to this kind of wit, and did not mind it now.
He replied with dignity: "It's as deep--as the ocean, and as
imp-per-t-t-tur-bable. Confound it! there's your cousin."

"You are not jealous of him, Mr. Imperturbable, are you?" asked
Julia, slyly.

"Jealous?" said Percy, changing color rather suspiciously; "certainly
not. Hang him!"

Walter, finding he was discovered, and feeling himself in the way, came
out at the back behind them, and said, "Never mind me, you two; far be it
from me to deprive the young of their innocent amusements."

Whilst making this little speech he was going off on the points of his
toes, intending to slip off to Clifford Hall, and tell his father that
both cutting out and untying had pr