In which Captain Lake Takes His Hat and Stick.

So the young people sitting in the little drawing-room of Redman’s farm pursued their dialogue; Rachel Lake had spoken last, and it was the captain’s turn to speak next.

‘Do you remember Miss Beauchamp, Radie?’ he asked rather suddenly, after a very long pause.

‘Miss Beauchamp? Oh! to be sure; you mean little Caroline; yes, she must be quite grown up by this time — five years — she promised to be pretty. What of her?’

Rachel, very flushed and agitated still, was now trying to speak as usual.

‘She is good-looking — a little coarse some people think,’ resumed the young man; ‘but handsome; black eyes — black hair — rather on a large scale, but certainly handsome. A style I admire rather, though it is not very refined, nor at all classic. But I like her, and I wish you’d advise me.’ He was talking, after his wont, to the carpet.

‘Oh?’ she exclaimed, with a gentle sort of derision.

‘You mean,’ he said, looking up for a moment, with a sudden stare, ‘she has got money. Of course she has; I could not afford to admire her if she had not; but I see you are not just now in a mood to trouble yourself about my nonsense — we can talk about it to-morrow; and tell me now, how do you get on with the Brandon people?’

Rachel was curious, and would, if she could, have recalled that sarcastic ‘oh’ which had postponed the story; but she was also a little angry, and with anger there was pride, which would not stoop to ask for the revelation which he chose to defer; so she said, ‘Dorcas and I are very good friends; but I don’t know very well what to make of her. Only I don’t think she’s quite so dull and apathetic as I at first supposed; but still I’m puzzled. She is either absolutely uninteresting, or very interesting indeed, and I can’t say which.’

‘Does she like you?’ he asked.

‘I really don’t know. She tolerates me, like everything else; and I don’t flatter her; and we see a good deal of one another upon those terms, and I have no complaint to make of her. She has some aversions, but no quarrels; and has a sort of laziness — mental, bodily, and moral — that is sublime, but provoking; and sometimes I admire her, and sometimes I despise her; and I do not yet know which feeling is the juster.’

‘Surely she is woman enough to be fussed a little about her marriage?’

‘Oh, dear, no! she takes the whole affair with a queenlike and supernatural indifference. She is either a fool or a very great philosopher, and there is something grand in the serene obscurity that envelopes her,’ and Rachel laughed a very little.

‘I must, I suppose, pay my respects; but to-morrow will be time enough. What pretty little tea-cups, Radie — quite charming — old cock china, isn’t it? These were Aunt Jemima’s, I think.’

‘Yes; they used to stand on the little marble table between the windows.’

Old Tamar had glided in while they here talking, and placed the little tea equipage on the table unnoticed, and the captain was sipping his cup of tea, and inspecting the pattern, while his sister amused him.

‘This place, I suppose, is confoundedly slow, is not it? Do they entertain the neighbours ever at Brandon?’

‘Sometimes, when old Lady Chelford and her son are staying there.’

‘But the neighbours can’t entertain them, I fancy, or you. What a dreary thing a dinner party made up of such people must be — like “Aesop’s Fables,” where the cows and sheep converse.’

‘And sometimes a wolf or a fox,’ she said.

‘Well, Radie, I know you mean me; but as you wish it, I’ll carry my fangs elsewhere; — and what has become of Will Wylder?’

‘Oh! he’s in the Church!’

‘Quite right — the only thing he was fit for;’ and Captain Lake laughed like a man who enjoys a joke slily. ‘And where is poor Billy quartered?’

‘Not quite half a mile away; he has got the vicar............