224 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



mighty wrathful, you may be certain, at the outrage, the 

 meaning' of which was evident. 



" ' Do you thee thith whip ?' he shrieked, moving to- 

 wards me, who had not yet risen from my dozing posture. 



" It was an unfortunate occurrence. A week within a 

 day elapsed before he could be removed into the country, 

 and it cost me a lot of money for doctoring him, to say 

 nothing of that possible verdict of 'manslaughter,' which 

 haunted me morning, noon, and night. I must acknow- 

 ledge, as he did afterwards, that the thrashing did him 

 good ; it made him penitent, and during the penitence a fit 

 of communicativeness supervened. 



" It appeared (as learned counsel say to juries) that he 

 was a Graham too, a cousin of the young lady with the 

 nut-brown face, and — but you already guess it — engaged 

 to her almost from childhood, in accordance with the fond 

 parents' desires. That they cordially hated each other, 

 both the demands of truth and the requirements of fiction 

 compel me to declare. Only, Harold Graham was not 

 prepared to relinquish the hard cash which was to be his 

 when he married his Cousin Sarah. The day at Gar- 

 stanger Park was a crisis in their career. Mr. Graham 

 thought fit, after the tableau at the lodge, to remonstrate 

 with his affianced ; first, for using the expression ' Hooked 

 foul,' and next, for being what he impertinently charac- 

 terised unwomanly in her amusements. While my friend 

 and I were rattling through the lanes in happy content, 

 that youthful couple were having, in vulgar parlance, quite 

 a respectable row. Somehow I, the unknown stranger, was 

 introduced into the quarrel, and Mademoiselle indiscreetly 

 made comparisons. 



