\"in spain. he\"s liable to be arrested the moment he sets foot on englishground. poor fellow! he will grieve at not being able to attend hisfather\"s funeral. we must be content with captain lennox; for i don\"tknow of any other relation to summon.\"

\"i hope i may be allowed to go?\"

\"certainly; thankfully. you\"re a good fellow, after all, thornton. haleliked you. he spoke to me, only the other day, about you at oxford. heregretted he had seen so little of you lately. i am obliged to you forwishing to show him respect.\"

\"but about frederick. does he never e to england?\"

\"never.\"

\"he was not over here about the time of mrs. hale\"s death?\"

\"no. why, i was here then. i hadn\"t seen hale for years and years and, ifyou remember, i came-- no, it was some time after that that i came. butpoor frederick hale was not here then. what made you think he was?\"

\"i saw a young man walking with miss hale one day,\" replied mr.

thornton, \"and i think it was about that time.\"

\"oh, that would be this young lennox, the captain\"s brother. he\"s alawyer, and they were in pretty constant correspondence with him; and iremember mr. hale told me he thought he would e down. do youknow,\" said mr. bell, wheeling round, and shutting one eye, the better tobring the forces of the other to bear with keen scrutiny on mr.

thornton\"s face, \"that i once fancied you had a little tenderness formargaret?\"

no answer. no change of countenance.

\"and so did poor hale. not at first, and not till i had put it into his head.\"

\"i admired miss hale. every one must do so. she is a beautiful creature,\"

said mr. thornton, driven to bay by mr. bell\"s pertinacious questioning.

\"is that all! you can speak of her in that measured way, as simply abeautiful creature\"--only something to catch the eye. i did hope you hadhad nobleness enough in you to make you pay her the homage of theheart. though i believe--in fact i know, she would hāve rejected you,still to hāve loved her without return would hāve lifted you higher thanall those, be they who they may, that hāve never known her to love.

\"beautiful creature\" indeed! do you speak of her as you would of ahorse or a dog?\"

mr. thornton\"s eyes glowed like red embers.

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