OLD STABLES ON THE ROADS. 461 



The appearance of the daughter I thought rather a 

 relief, and I endeavoured to divert the conversation 

 from him ; but he kept cutting in with questions, and 

 seemed fearful that I should elicit from her some in- 

 formation, or that she would give some answers which 

 were undesirable, so I was almost compelled to 

 include him again, and when I did not succeed in 

 procuring a satisfactory reply from him, inake an 

 occasional appeal to the daughter. 



I, however, so far succeeded that I got him fairly 

 into conversation about the place, and the roads 

 running through it, especially as he found I had some 

 previous personal acquaintance with them ; but I soon 

 discovered that he was not much, if at all, better in- 

 formed than myself, and the daughter could not give 

 much help, so that his silencing her by his own 

 running commentaries and interruptions was im- 

 material. As he still seemed so suspicious as to the 

 motive of my inquiries, it occurred to me that I could 

 lose nothing, but might have some little fun out of 

 him, by being rather more mysterious. 



I discovered conclusively that as to anything relating 

 to the coaches his statements were quite incorrect — 

 I do not mean intentionally, but that, possibly from 

 imperfect recollection, he was not a reliable source of 

 information in any respect whatever. 



Although our interview had lasted for some time 



