Mr. Dale moved on; but as he passed Captain Barnabas, the benignant character of his countenance changed sadly.
"The cruelest trump, Captain Higginbotham!" said he sternly, and stalked by--majestic.
The night was so fine that the Parson and his wife, as they walked home, made a little _detour_ through the shrubbery.
MRS. DALE.--"I think I have done a good piece of work to-night."
PARSON, rousing himself from a reverie.--"Have you, Carry?--it will be a very pretty handkerchief."
MRS. DALE.--"Handkerchief--nonsense, dear. Don't you think it would be a very happy thing for both, if Jemima and Signor Riccabocca could be brought together?"
MRS. DALE.--"You do snap one up so, my dear--I mean if I could make a match of it."
PARSON.--"I think Riccabocca is a match already, not only for Jemima, but yourself into the bargain."
MRS. DALE, smiling loftily.--"Well, we shall see. Was not Jemima's fortune about £4000?"
PARSON dreamily, for he is relapsing fast into his interrupted reverie: "Ay--ay--I daresay."
MRS. DALE.--"And she must have saved! I dare say it is nearly £6000 by this time; eh! Charles dear, you really are so--good gracious, what's that!"
As Mrs. Dale made this exclamation they had just emerged from the shrubbery, into the village green.
MRS. DALE, pinching her husband's arm very nippingly.--"That thing--there--there."
PARSON.--"Only the new stocks, Carry; I don't wonder they frighten you, for you are a very sensible woman. I only wish they would frighten the Squire."
_Supposed to be a Letter from Mrs. Hazeldean to ---- Riccabocca, Esq., The Casino; but edited, and indeed composed, by Miss Jemima Hazeldean._
"DEAR SIR--To a feeling heart it must always be painful to give pain to another, and (though I am sure unconsciously) you have given the _greatest_ pain to poor Mr. Hazeldean and myself, indeed to _all_ our little circle, in so cruelly refusing our attempts to become better acquainted with a gentleman we so highly ESTEEM. Do, pray, dear sir, make us the _amende honorable_, and give us the _pleasure_ of your company for a few days at the Hall! May we expect you Saturday next?--our dinner-hour is six o'clock.
"With the best compliments of Mr. and Miss Jemima Hazeldean.
Miss Jemima having carefully sealed this note, which Mrs. Hazeldean had very willingly deputed her to write, took it herself into the stable-yard, in order to give the groom proper instructions to wait for an answer. But while she was speaking to the man, Frank, equipped for riding with more than his usual dandyism, came also into the yard, calling for his pony in a loud voice, and singling out the very groom whom Miss Jemima was addressing--for, indeed, he was the smartest of all in the Squire's stables--told him to saddle the gray pad, and accompany the pony.