I do not inquire whether he is a laggard in his duty to you, but whether, mounted on a good hunter, he could get over twenty miles, in eight or ten hours, for instance ?" "I think Sir Wycherly would tell you that he could, sir." "He may be a Wychecombe, Sir Wycherly, but he is no Plantagenet, in the way of sailing.

Surely the young gentleman ought to have returned some hours since!" "It's quite surprising to me that he is not back before this," returned the kind-hearted baronet.

"He is active, and understands himself, and there is not a better horseman in the county--is there, Miss Mildred ?" Mildred did not think it necessary to reply to this direct appeal; but spite of the manner in which she had been endeavouring to school her feelings, since the accident on the cliff, she could not prevent the deadly paleness that dread of some accident had produced, or the rush of colour to her cheeks that followed from the unexpected question of Sir Wycherly.

Turning to conceal her confusion, she met the eye of Tom Wychecombe riveted on her face, with an expression so sinister, that it caused her to tremble.

Fortunately, at this moment, Sir Gervaise turned away, and drawing near his friend, on the other side of the large apartment, he said in an under tone-- "Luckily, Atwood has brought ashore a duplicate of my despatches, Bluewater, and if this dilatory gentleman does not return by the time we have dined, I will send off a second courier.