phries, as had been agreed upon between them. The lieutenant was in waiting at the time appointed, and came forward to meet his superoir.
"Ride aside, Major Singleton, if you please. The brush is best for us just now. There are strange birds on our road that we must sheer from."
"What mean you, Humphries—what birds?"
"British officers! Major Proctor, himself, and another have just gone by; and if I mistake not, on a visit to 'The Oaks.' They say he looks hard upon your cousin, sir, the beautiful Miss Katharine."
"Ha! do they say that?" responded Major Singleton, with something like a start—"and she?" he continued, inquiringly.
"They say nothing of her, whether she likes it or not; but young ladies will be young ladies, major; and a smart officer, with a king's commission in his pocket, and a showy red coat on his back, is no small danger to an easy heart."
"No, indeed!" replied the other, in a tone which seemed to have found nothing consolatory in his companion's reflection, and in which there may have been something of latent bitterness—"no, indeed!—such attractions are at all times sweet with the sex, and seldom utterly unsuccessful. They love the conquest, always, even when they may despise the game. 'Tis with most of them after this fashion, and the goodly outside is a fair offset to worth and good manners. But how shall we know, of a certainty, the destination of Proctor?"
"Only by dogging his footsteps, major. We may do that with some safety, however, as I happen to know the back track which hugs the river, and is seldom travelled. This brings us close on the park, yet gives us a good shelter all the way along the copse. We shall take our watch, and yet be all the time hidden; and where I shall carry you shall give us a fair peep at all the grounds as well as the river."
"That is well. And now of Dorchester; what stirs in the village? and what of Huck? Do they know yet of the affair of the swamp, or are they ever like to know?"
"They know not yet, certainly; but Huck musters strong, and
