Mrs. Frost and Louis were very merry over the result of Lady Conway's
stratagems, and sat up indulging in bright anticipations until so
late an hour, that Louis was compelled to relinquish his purpose of
going home that night, but he persisted in walking to Ormersfield
before breakfast, that he might satisfy himself whether there were
any letters.

It was a brisk October morning, the sportsman's gun and whistle re-
echoing from the hill sides; where here and there appeared the dogs
careering along over green turnip-fields or across amber stubble.
The Little Northwold trees, in dark, sober tints of brown and purple,
hung over the grey wall, tinted by hoary lichen; and as Louis entered
the Ormersfield field paths, and plunged into his own Ferny dell, the
long grass and brackens hung over the path, weighed down with silvery
dew, and the large cavernous web of the autumnal spider was all one
thick flake of wet.

If he could not enter the ravine without thankfulness for his past
escape, neither could he forget gratitude to her who had come to his
relief from hopeless agony! He quickened his pace, in the earnest
longing for tidings, which had seized him, even to heart sickness.

It was the reaction of the ardour and excitement that had so long
possessed him. The victory had been gained--he had been obliged to
leave James to work in his own cause, and would be no longer wanted
in the same manner by his cousin. The sense of loneliness, and of
the want of an object, came strongly upon him as he walked through
the prim old solitary garden, and looked up at the dreary windows of