to the exhortation, they fell upon a face only too well remembered.

In Sir Mark Colston, in the new baronet of the Hall, he beheld the hateful stranger of Warling Wood!

CHAPTER IX.

High and inscrutable the old man stood,
Calm in his voice, and calm within his eye:
Not always signs in man of calmest mood.

BYRON.

That evening, John Downing, who for years had not approached the Hall,-never, in fact, since the sense of his unworthiness of the bounties of the old baronet weighed upon his mind, took his staff into his hand, and walked steadily across Hartington green, and up the old avenue. He had waited till evening, not so much to conceal from vulgar observation the emotions that blanched his shrivelled face, as for the greater certainty of finding Sir Mark Colston alone.

He was answered by the single servant superadded to the old establishment, that, at such an hour, he could not be admitted; that

Sir Mark was writing in his study, and not to be disturbed. But for this the old man was prepared.

"Tell him, sir, it is the parish clerk of Hartington who wants to see him on pressing business," said he, " and I warrant your master will not refuse."

To the evident surprise of the butler, the old man's prediction was verified.

"Show him in immediately," was the reply. And a moment afterwards, old Downing, having left his hat and staff in the servants' hall, was ushered into a room, where, beside a bureau, lighted by a shaded library lamp, sat the man he came to upbraid.

"I expected this visit, Mr. Downing," said he, the moment the servant, after receiving orders that Sir Mark was not to be disturbed till he rang, had quitted the room. "I expected this visit, and am prepared for it. You are not a man of sufficient strength of mind to discern that it is as essential to your welfare as to mine that we should not be suspected of having met before."

VOL. I.

I

"It is not the care of either your welfare or mine that has brought me to this house," replied Downing, the firmness with which he had entered the gates of the old place already somewhat shaken by the stern self-possession of him he had expected to find anxious and wavering. "I am come for the sake of the innocent, who have been despoiled of their inheritance. I am come to see justice done to those who have been wronged."

"If you manage to effect that, my good friend," replied the new baronet, with a contemptuous smile, "you will be a greater man than the Lord Chancellor himself. You have been reciting for the last fifty years the verse that promises the seed of the righteous man they shall not be forsaken, and of the virtuous, that they shall not be seen begging their bread, till you fancy that, in redressing grievances, you are sure of the strong arm on your side. Had you lived in the stress of the world, Master Downing, instead of in your lonely cottage by the Hams of Hartington, you would know better. But sit down, sit down. We

have much to talk about. I have not the slightest wish to hurry the homilies and menaces with which I see you are about to favour me."

"I am about to favour you with nothing of the kind, sir; for I know they'd be thrown away!" replied the old man, sinking into the chair pushed towards him, not in accordance with the invitation of his host, but because he was scarcely able to support himself. "The man who'd act as you have done, must be not only a villain, but a desperate one. Bad as your actions have been, you'd have doubtless done worse, had your occasions required it. And if I come here boldly, (though knowing how glad you'd be to put me out of the way altogether) it is because, as your servants have seen me come safe into your presence, it is necessary to your character they should see me safe out of it again."

66

Ay, ay? Have

Have you found tongue at last, old gentleman?" retorted Sir Mark, a little amazed at this self-assumption on the part of one he had previously found so meek.

"You