"Oh ho!"

"He thought it unsafe for me to come alone under William's
charge."

"Ah ha!"

No more was said on the subject of his coming home with me. Aunt
Eliza had several fits of musing in the course of the evening while
I read aloud to her, which had no connection with the subject of
the book. As I put it down she said that it would be well for me to
go to church the next day. I acquiesced, but remarked that my piety
would not require the carriage, and that I preferred to walk.
Besides, it would be well for William and James to attend divine
service. She could not spare James, and thought William had better
clean the harness, by way of penance.

The morning proved to be warm and sunny. I donned a muslin dress
of home manufacture and my own bonnet, and started for church. I
had walked but a few paces when the consciousness of being *free*
and *alone* struck me. I halted, looked about me, and concluded
that I would not go to church, but walk into the fields. I had no
knowledge of the whereabouts of the fields; but I walked straight
forward, and after a while came upon some barren fields, cropping
with coarse rocks, along which ran a narrow road. I turned into it,
and soon saw beyond the rough coast the blue ring of the ocean--
vast, silent, and splendid in the sunshine. I found a seat on the
ruins of an old stone-wall, among some tangled bushes and briers.
There being no Aunt Eliza to pull through the surf, and no animated