Next morning, I bethought me, I, too, had business at L--; so I mounted my horse, and set forth on the expedition soon after breakfast.

It was a dull, drizzly day; but that was no matter: it was all the more suitable to my frame of mind.

It was likely to be a lonely journey; for it was no market-day, and the road I traversed was little frequented at any other time; but that suited me all the better too.
As I trotted along, however, chewing the cud of--bitter fancies, I heard another horse at no great distance behind me; but I never conjectured who the rider might be, or troubled my head about him, till, on slackening my pace to ascend a gentle acclivity, or rather, suffering my horse to slacken his pace into a lazy walk--for, rapt in my own reflections, I was letting it jog on as leisurely as it thought proper--I lost ground, and my fellow-traveller overtook me.

He accosted me by name, for it was no stranger--it was Mr.Lawrence! Instinctively the fingers of my whip-hand tingled, and grasped their charge with convulsive energy; but I restrained the impulse, and answering his salutation with a nod, attempted to push on; but he pushed on beside me, and began to talk about the weather and the crops.

I gave the briefest possible answers to his queries and observations, and fell back.