are a little damp, and Dr. Easyman will never forgive me if I do not hurry in as fast as I can.'
'Your feet damp?—I hope not: I do hope not,' said he, with a look of the greatest solicitude.
'Oh! it's nothing to signify; but it's well to be prudent, you know. Good morning, Mr. Moffat.'
'Miss Dunstable!'
'Eh—yes!' and Miss Dunstable stopped in the grand path. 'I won't let you return with me, Mr. Moffat, because I know you were not coming in so soon.'
'Miss Dunstable; I shall be leaving this to-morrow.'
'Yes; and I go myself the day after.'
'I know it. I am going to town and you are going abroad. It may be long—very long—before we meet again.'
'About Easter,' said Miss Dunstable; 'that is, if the doctor doesn't knock up on the road.'
'And I had, had wished to say something before we part for so long a time. Miss Dunstable—'
'Stop!—Mr. Moffat. Let me ask you one question. I'll hear anything that you have got to say, but on one condition: that is, that Miss Augusta Gresham shall be by while you say it. Will you consent to that?'
'Miss Augusta Gresham,' said he, 'has no right to listen to my private conversation.'
'Has she not, Mr. Moffat? then I think she should have. I, at any rate, will not so far interfere with what I look on as her undoubted privileges as to be a party to any secret in which she may not participate.'
'But, Miss Dunstable—'
'And to tell you fairly, Mr. Moffat, any secret that you do tell me, I shall most undoubtedly repeat to her before dinner. Good morning, Mr. Moffat; my feet are certainly a little damp, and if I stay a moment longer, Dr. Easyman will put off my foreign trip for at least a week.' And so she left him standing alone in the middle of the gravel-walk.
For a moment or two Mr. Moffat consoled himself in his misfortune by thinking how he might best avenge himself on Miss Dunstable. Soon, however, such futile ideas left his brain. Why should he give over the chase because the rich galleon had escaped him on this, his first cruise in pursuit of her? Such prizes were not to be won so easily. Her present objection clearly consisted in his engagement to Miss Gresham, and in that only. Let that engagement be at an end, notoriously and publicly broken off, and this objection would fall to the ground. Yes; ships so richly freighted were not to be run down in one
