but that was so vested as to preclude it from immediate use, and I even
doubted whether it would not be found better ultimately to resign it,
than, by claiming it, to risk the furnishing a clew to what I most of
all dreaded, the persecution of Mr. Falkland. There was nothing I so
ardently desired as the annihilation of all future intercourse between
us, that he should not know there was such a person on the earth as
myself, and that I should never more hear the repetition of a name which
had been so fatal to my peace.

Thus circumstanced, I conceived frugality to be an object by no means
unworthy of my attention, unable as I was to prognosticate what
discouragements and delays might present themselves to the
accomplishment of my wishes, after my arrival in London. For this and
other reasons, I determined to adhere to my design of travelling by the
stage; it only remaining for me to consider in what manner I should
prevent the eventful delay of twenty-four hours from becoming, by any
untoward event, a source of new calamity. It was by no means advisable
to remain in the village where I now was during this interval; nor did I
even think proper to employ it, in proceeding on foot along the great
road. I therefore decided upon making a circuit, the direction of which
should seem at first extremely wide of my intended route, and then,
suddenly taking a different inclination, should enable me to arrive by
the close of day at a market-town twelve miles nearer to the metropolis.

Having fixed the economy of the day, and persuaded myself that it was
the best which, under the circumstances, could be adopted, I dismissed,
for the most part, all further anxieties from my mind, and eagerly
yielded myself up to the different amusements that arose. I rested and
went forward at the impulse of the moment. At one time I reclined upon a
bank immersed in contemplation, and at another exerted myself to analyse