Part 21 (1/2)

”Dr Sr, Yours faithy,

”Peter Grindlescrew Hales.

”P.S. You know perhs yt poor Jno Courtd, your uncle's mo intime friend, lives in..., the town in which your servt will drop ye bride. He is much alter'd,--poor Jno!”

”Altered! alteration then seems the fas.h.i.+on with my uncle's friends!”

thought Walter, as he rang for the Corporal, and consigned to his charge the unsightly parcel.

”It is to be carried twenty-one miles at the request of the gentleman we met last night,--a most sensible man, Bunting.”

”Augh--whaugh,--your honour!” grunted the Corporal, thrusting the bridle very discontentedly into his pocket, where it annoyed him the whole journey, by incessantly getting between his seat of leather and his seat of honour. It is a comfort to the inexperienced, when one man of the world smarts from the sagacity of another; we resign ourselves more willingly to our fate. Our travellers resumed their journey, and in a few minutes, from the cause we have before a.s.signed, the Corporal became thoroughly out of humour.

”Pray, Bunting,” said Walter, calling his attendant to his side, ”do you feel sure that the man we met yesterday at the alehouse, is the same you saw at Gra.s.sdale some months ago?”

”d.a.m.n it!” cried the Corporal quickly, and clapping his hand behind.

”How, Sir!”

”Beg pardon, your honour--slip tongue, but this confounded parcel!--augh--bother!”

”Why don't you carry it in your hand?”

”'Tis so ungainsome, and be d--d to it; and how can I hold parcel and pull in this beast, which requires two hands; his mouth's as hard as a brickbat,--augh!”

”You have not answered my question yet?”

”Beg pardon, your honour. Yes, certain sure the man's the same; phiz not to be mistaken.”

”It is strange,” said Walter, musing, ”that Aram should know a man, who, if not a highwayman as we suspected, is at least of rugged manner and disreputable appearance; it is strange too, that Aram always avoided recurring to the acquaintance, though he confessed it.” With this he broke into a trot, and the Corporal into an oath.

They arrived by noon, at the little town specified by Sir Peter, and in their way to the inn (for Walter resolved to rest there), pa.s.sed by the saddler's house. It so chanced that Master Holwell was an adept in his craft, and that a newly-invented hunting-saddle at the window caught Walter's notice. The artful saddler persuaded the young traveller to dismount and look at ”the most convenientest and handsomest saddle what ever was seed;” and the Corporal having lost no time in getting rid of his enc.u.mbrance, Walter dismissed him to the inn with the horses, and after purchasing the saddle, in exchange for his own, he sauntered into the shop to look at a new snaffle. A gentleman's servant was in the shop at the time, bargaining for a riding whip; and the s...o...b..y, among others, shewed him a large old-fas.h.i.+oned one, with a tarnished silver handle. Grooms have no taste for antiquity, and in spite of the silverhandle, the servant pushed it aside with some contempt. Some jest he uttered at the time, chanced to attract Walter's notice to the whip; he took it up carelessly, and perceived with great surprise that it bore his own crest, a bittern, on the handle. He examined it now with attention, and underneath the crest were the letters G. L., his father's initials.

”How long have you had this whip?” said he to the saddler, concealing the emotion, which this token of his lost parent naturally excited.

”Oh, a nation long time, Sir,” replied Mr. Holwell; ”it is a queer old thing, but really is not amiss, if the silver was scrubbed up a bit, and a new lash put on; you may have it a bargain, Sir, if so be you have taken a fancy to it.”

”Can you at all recollect how you came by it,” said Walter, earnestly; ”the fact is that I see by the crest and initials, that it belonged to a person whom I have some interest in discovering.”

”Why let me see,” said the saddler, scratching the tip of his right ear, ”'tis so long ago sin I had it, I quite forgets how I came by it.”

”Oh, is it that whip, John?” said the wife, who had been attracted from the back parlour by the sight of the handsome young stranger. ”Don't you remember, it's a many year ago, a gentleman who pa.s.sed a day with Squire Courtland, when he first come to settle here, called and left the whip to have a new thong put to it. But I fancies he forgot it, Sir, (turning to Walter,) for he never called for it again; and the Squire's people said as how he was a gone into Yorks.h.i.+re; so there the whip's been ever sin. I remembers it, Sir, 'cause I kept it in the little parlour nearly a year, to be in the way like.”

”Ah! I thinks I do remember it now,” said Master Holwell. ”I should think it's a matter of twelve yearn ago. I suppose I may sell it without fear of the gentleman's claiming it again.”

”Not more than twelve years!” said Walter, anxiously, for it was some seventeen years since his father had been last heard of by his family.

”Why it may be thirteen, Sir, or so, more or less, I can't say exactly.”