Lord bless you, there is not a name more talked on in the whole county than Eugene Aram." "What!" cried the Traveller, his countenance changing as he sprung from his seat; "what!--Aram!--did you say Aram?
Great God! how strange!" Peter, not a little startled by the abruptness and vehemence of his guest, stared at him with open mouth, and even the Corporal took his pipe involuntarily from his lips.
"What!" said the former, "you know him, do you?
you've heard of him, eh ?" The Stranger did not reply, he seemed lost in a reverie; he muttered inaudible words between his teeth; now he strode two steps forward, clenching his hands; now smiled grimly; and then returning to his seat, threw himself on it, still in silence.

The soldier and the clerk exchanged looks, and now outspake the Corporal.
"Rum tantrums! What the devil, did the man eat your grandmother ?" Roused perhaps by so pertinent and sensible a question, the Stranger lifted his head from his breast, and said with a forced smile, "You have done me, without knowing it, a great kindness, my friend.

Eugene Aram was an early and intimate acquaintance of mine: we have not met for many years.

I never guessed that he lived in these parts: indeed I did not know where he resided.

I am truly glad to think I have lighted upon him thus unexpectedly." "What! you did not know where he lived?
Well! I thought all the world knew that! Why, men from the univarsities have come all the way, merely to look at the spot." "Very likely," returned the Stranger; "but I am not a learned man myself, and what is celebrity in one set is obscurity in another.
Besides, I have never been in this part of the world before!" Peter was about to reply, when he heard the shrill voice of his wife behind.
"Why don't you rise, Mr.Lazyboots?
Where are your eyes?
Don't you see the young ladies." Dealtry's hat was off in an instant,--the stiff Corporal rose like a musquet; the Stranger would have kept his seat, but Dealtry gave him an admonitory tug by the collar; accordingly he rose, muttering a hasty oath, which certainly died on his lips when he saw the cause which had thus constrained him into courtesy.
Through a little gate close by Peter's house Madeline and her sister had just passed on their evening walk, and with the kind familiarity for which they were both noted, they had stopped to salute the landlady of the Spotted Dog, as she now, her labours done, sat by the threshold, within hearing of the convivial group, and plaiting straw.