A DINNER AT THE SQUIRE'S HALL.--A CONVERSATION BETWEEN TWO
RETIRED MEN WITH DIFFERENT OBJECTS IN RETIREMENT.--DISTURBANCE
FIRST INTRODUCED INTO A PEACEFUL FAMILY.

"Can he not be sociable?"
--Troilus and Cressida.


"Subit quippe etiam ipsius inertiae dulcedo;
et invisa primo desidia postremo amatur."
--Tacitus.

"How use doth breed a habit in a man!
This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods,
I better brook than flourishing people towns."
--Winter's Tale.

The next day, faithful to his appointment, Aram arrived at Lester's. The
good Squire received him with a warm cordiality, and Madeline with a
blush and a smile that ought to have been more grateful to him than
acknowledgements. She was still a prisoner to the sofa, but in compliment
to Aram, the sofa was wheeled into the hall where they dined, so that she
was not absent from the repast. It was a pleasant room, that old hall!
Though it was summer--more for cheerfulness than warmth, the log burnt on
the spacious hearth: but at the same time the latticed windows were
thrown open, and the fresh yet sunny air stole in, rich from the embrace
of the woodbine and clematis, which clung around the casement.

A few old pictures were pannelled in the oaken wainscot; and here and
there the horns of the mighty stag adorned the walls, and united with the