THE SMUGGLER. 19 



but it excited, in some degree, his curiosity; and the manners 

 of his two companions had, to say the truth, pleased him, 

 though he was one of those men who, with very benevolent 

 feelings at the bottom, are but little inclined to acknowledge 

 that they are well pleased with any thing or with any body. 

 For a moment or two all parties were silent ; but the elderly 

 gentleman was the first to begin, saying in a more placable 

 and complimentary tone than he was in general accustomed to 

 use, " I hope I am to have the pleasure of your society, gen- 

 tlemen to the end of my journey." 



" I rather think we shall be your companions as far as you 

 go,'' replied the gayer of the two young men, " for we are 

 wending down to the far, wild parts of Kent ; and it is pro- 

 bable you will not go beyond Folkestone, unless, indeed, you 

 are about to cross the seas." 



"Not I," exclaimed the old gentleman: "I have crossed 

 the seas enough in my day, and never intend to set my foot 

 out of my own country again, till four stout fellows carry me 

 to the churchyard. No, no ; you'll journey beyond me, a long 

 way, for I am only going to a little place called Harbourne, 

 some distance on the Sussex side of Folkestone ; a place quite 

 out of the world, with no bigger a town near it than Cran- 

 brook, and where we see the face of a human creature above 

 the rank of a farmer, or a smuggler, about once in the year, 

 always excepting the parson of the parish." 



"Then you turn off from Maidstone?'' said the graver 

 traveller, looking stedfastly in his face. 



" No, I don't," replied the other. " Never, my dear sir, 

 come to conclusions where you don't know the premises. I 

 go, on the contrary, to Ashford, where I intend to sleep. I 

 am there to be joined by a worthy brother of mine, and then 

 we return together to Cranbrook. You are quite right, indeed, 

 that my best and straightest road would be, as you say, from 

 Maidstone; but we can't always take the straightest road in 

 this world, though young men think they can, and old men 

 only learn too late that they cannot." 



" I have good reason to know the fact," said the gayer of 

 his two fellow-travellers ; " I myself am going to the very 

 same part of the country you mention, but have to proceed still 

 farther out of my way ; for I must visit Hythe and Folkestone 

 first." 



