"Are you not afraid, Mr. Molyneux," interrupted Sir John, suddenly rising and pointing to the windows, darkened, like his own countenance, by a gathering storm,-" of being overtaken by rain before you can get home?—The glass has fallen considerably since morning."

"And Walkingham informed me just now, like an almanack, that we were to expect much rain about this time," added Janetta, anxiously.

"I'm afraid, then, I must lose no time in asking for your answer to my grandmother's letter?" said Edgar, snatching up his huntingcap, and preparing for immediate departure, lest he should be still more explicitly dismissed by his uncle.

"My daughter will write to Lady Dinton. I will take care to send over her reply to the Castle," said the county member, having already rung for "Mr. Molyneux's horse," and evincing no intention of resuming his seat, till after Mr. Molyneux's departure; which was at last so precipitately made, that he managed to

clear the court-yard before a tremendous burst of rain came down, to render disagreeably apparent to the eyes of the whole household, the monstrous inhospitality of Sir John.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE road winding through the park towards the village of Harrals, so as to amplify half a mile's distance into three times the length, afforded time to poor Edgar to get wet to the skin, before he reached the steep descent into its narrow plashy highway; midway in which, it became necessary to moderate his slapping pace. A brood of unhappy-looking village children were paddling their way, like very dirty little ducks, out of the school-house: where, after the rational lessons of the day were done, they had been undergoing vocal tuition, with the aid of a

pitch-pipe; at the hands of a broken-down organist, too old and too deaf for any thing, except to teach little children to psalmodise, out of time and tune.

Having shouted to them, almost furiously, to stand aside, for Edgar was sadly out of sorts just then with the world and its miry ways,-his ill-humour was aggravated by the sauciness of one of the callow choristers, who pointed to his horse's foot, in token that the animal had cast a shoe ; a species of chaff so familiar to the Queen's highway, that Edgar's first impulse was to lay his hunting-whip across the boy's shoulders, and extract other notes from him than those of the singing-loft.

Another moment afforded disagreeable proof that the warning was honestly given. But the glow of a blacksmith's shop, shining through the rain like a gold fish through its globe of turbid water, made him congratulate himself that the mischief had occurred before he lost sight of the village.

Speedily dismounting, he gave his hasty instructions to the Mulciber, who, but that he plied

his bellows in a hunting county, might have been more astonished at the sight of so fine a gentleman and so fine a bit of blood.

Half-an-hour,for a suitable shoe had to be forged, (the cart-horse custom of the operator supplying none fit for the purpose,)-was the shortest delay promised. And still, the rain came pelting, pouring down; as it does on a June afternoon in London, when reviews, flower-shows, or déjeuners are in prospect.-Between the foul air of the sooty smithy, and the currents of water in the muddy road, Edgar had a sorry choice.

"Can you tell me, sir, of any inn or publichouse in the village, where I could dry my clothes while my horse is being shod?" he inquired, seizing by the arm a man who was hurrying past the pent-house under which he was sheltered, of whom nothing was visible but a pair of dirty

reeking cotton umbrella and a

gaiters.