94 ' Hunting in the Golden Days. 



my love is requited. I know that you have so long led 

 a secluded life that you are naturally inclined to be 

 retiring in matters like these. You have nothing to 

 fear, your freedom will be as great as ever, and, per- 

 chance, should you meet with an accident you would 

 have loving hands to tend you in your illness. Say, 

 then, when shall be the happy day r " 



Goodbery thus driven into a corner begins to think 

 what sort of an answer he must make to this terrible 

 virgin. It flashes through his brain that he would not 

 only give his best hunter in his stable to have avoided 

 that fatal kiss, but the whole of his stud and his 

 house thrown in. He then falls to thinking what 

 punishment is adequate to mete out to Oldwig for 

 having incited him to that foolish bit of gallantry, for he 

 now looks upon his friend's action as one of the most 

 hideous offences that could have been perpetrated by 

 any human being. For a moment he contemplates 

 calling that gentleman out to mortal combat,and as the 

 thought matures in his mind it grows stronger. 

 Unfortunately, he cannot shift the burden on to the 

 shoulders of a married man like Oldwig ; otherwise he 

 would cunningly have suggested that that poor, un- 

 offending man had been madly in love with Aliss Janet 

 for years. 



While these thoughts are flashing rapidly through 

 his brain. Miss Janet, who considers she has not, 

 perhaps, sufficiently enlarged upon the occasion wildly 

 throws her arms about our hero's neck. Just at this 

 moment the amorous maid and her unwilling swain 

 are startled by a loud peal of laughter, for Sir John 

 and Charley Yaverton have noiselessly entered the 

 gallery, and have witnessed this poetic embrace. Under 

 the circumstances there is nothing to do but for Good- 



