 of both horse and man.
    The frown which had gathered around the handsome, open, and manly brow of
Heyward, gradually relaxed, and his lips curled into a slight smile, as he
regarded the stranger. Alice made no very powerful effort to control her
merriment; and even the dark, thoughtful eye of Cora, lighted with a humour
that, it would seem, the habit, rather than the nature of its mistress,
repressed.
    »Seek you any here?« demanded Heyward, when the other had arrived
sufficiently nigh to abate his speed; »I trust you are no messenger of evil
tidings.«
    »Even so,« replied the stranger, making diligent use of his triangular
castor, to produce a circulation in the close air of the woods, and leaving his
hearers in doubt, to which of the young man's questions he responded; when,
however, he had cooled his face, and recovered his breath, he continued, »I hear
you are riding to William Henry; as I am journeying thitherward myself, I
concluded good company would seem consistent to the wishes of both parties.«
    »You appear to possess the privilege of a casting vote,« returned Heyward:
»we are three, whilst you have consulted no one but yourself.«
    »Even so. The first point to be obtained is to know one's own mind. Once
sure of that, and where women are concerned it is not easy, the next is, to act
up to the decision. I have endeavoured to do both, and here I am.«
    »If you journey to the lake, you have mistaken your route,« said Heyward,
haughtily; »the highway thither is at least half-a-mile behind you.«
    »Even so,« returned the stranger, nothing daunted by this cold reception; »I
have tarried at Edward a week, and I should be dumb, not to have inquired the
road I was to journey; and if dumb, there would be an end to my calling.« After
simpering in a small way, like one whose modesty prohibited a more open
expression of his admiration of a witticism, that was perfectly unintelligible
to his hearers, he continued, »It is not prudent for one of my profession to be
too familiar with those he has to instruct; for which reason, I follow not the
line of the army: besides which, I conclude that a gentleman of your character,
has the best judgment in matters of way-faring; I have therefore decided to join
company, in order that
