66 66 "Aye," returned Mary, why should we wish that?" "Haven't you heard the proverb," added John, with one of the deepest winks, he fervently believed, mortal ever gave: "Old gossips say, when the cat's asleep the mice will play." "Old gossips talk a very great deal of nonsense," said Mary. 66 A very great great deal of nonsense,” repeated our hero. "Upon my word," rejoined John, "you support each other to the echo." "And may they continue to do so to the latest hour of their lives!" said the Squire, joining in the conversation. 66 Amen," responded the Rector, in a whisper just audible. "Amen, with all my heart," added John, in a tone which could not be mistaken for the sincerity of its source. Between the folds of the heavy curtains drawn across the windows, the bright moon beams streamed; and, rising from her chair, Mary threw them still further back, and was observing something about the beauty of the night, when she gave a stifled exclamation of fright, and hastily receded from the spot. "What is the matter?" was the simultaneous question from everybody present. "I know not," replied Mary faintly, as she was supported to a chair, “ whether I am right, but I thought I saw a face pressed closely against one of the lower panes of the window." "You must be mistaken, I think, my dear," rejoined the Squire, soothingly; we have no eavesdroppers or watchers here." 66 "The light deceived you, Mary," returned her father. "Perhaps it did," added she; "and if not, it was very foolish to be so unnecessarily frightened." "It might have been some booby or other," observed John Hardy, indulging in a little curiosity. "If so," added our hero, with a resolute air, "his ears shall suffer for their owner's impertinence ;" and, with this determination of inflicting condign punishment, he hastily quitted the room. Mary Baldwin was not one of those mincing young ladies who, having unwittingly been the cause of a sensation, was desirous of maintaining it by the maudlin and sickening art of affectation. In a few minutes every trace of her disturbance was expunged, and her former cheerfulness regained, albeit the prolonged absence of our hero made its completion a matter of no trifling effort. "Tom is away longer than I expected he would be," remarked John Hardy, with a fidgetty shake of the shoulders. 66 "If occupied in tugging the ears of the in truder all this time," said the Rector, laughing, 66 they must tingle most unenviably by this time." 66 "In sooth they must," replied the Squire; "and I would prefer their belonging to the head of anybody else than my own." "I'm not quite certain whether that's not a selfish sentiment, Harry Lawrence," remarked John. "Selfish I've no doubt it is," rejoined his friend; "but I'm quite positive of its truth." "Ha!" returned John, with well-feigned solemnity; "what a world it is we live in! we'd prefer having anybody's nose or ears pulled to our own." The Rector seemed to relish this sly joke of John's amazingly, if the heartiness of his laugh was any proof of his enjoyment. Minutes, and then an hour, fled; and then another was added to the quicksand of engulfing time. "What can make Tom loiter so?" said John Hardy, with palpable anxiety and restlessness of mind. No one returned any answer; but Mary Baldwin had become little less blanched than chalk-stone. 66 "Perhaps," she at length faltered out perhaps What, my dear?" interposed the Squire, as she hesitated to complete the sentence. "I scarcely know," rejoined Mary, drawing her fingers across her brow, confusedly; " but I fear something must have happened—some accident, perhaps." "We'll institute an inquiry," returned the Squire, gingling the hand-bell on the table. In a few seconds the summons was answered; for it was an unexceptionable rule with old Robert, the gray-headed butler, to allow of barely possible time to elapse between making his appearance and the knowledge of its being required. "Did you see your young master quit the house?" asked the Squire. "Yes, Sir," replied Robert, "somewhere about two hours since." |