"I think I ought to know you."

"Yes, please you, Mr Harry; and maybe you remember the trip you took in the _Nancy_ with my good man here."

"Ah, how fares it with you, my friend?" he said, shaking Adam by the hand. "I remember the trip right well."

"You have pretty nigh grown out of remembrance, but I am right glad to see you, Mr Harry," answered Adam.

"Maybe you recollect, sir, saving our Maiden May from a wild bull?" said the dame, looking towards May, who blushed as she spoke, for Harry glanced up, and her eyes met his fixed on her lovely countenance with an unmistakable expression of admiration.

"I was very glad, I know, to have been of service, though I suspect I ran very little personal risk in performing the exploit," said Harry, still looking at May, and wondering at the delicate beauty and refined manner of the fisherman's daughter.

"I suspect that I was too young to have thanked you for the service you rendered me as I ought to have done," she said, "for my mother has since told me that had it not been for you I might have been killed by the fierce creature."

"All I did I remember was to throw your red cloak at the animal, and that required no great exertion of courage or strength," answered Harry, smiling. "I then ran off with you, and lifted you over the gate. I can only feel thankful, now you bring the circ.u.mstance to my recollection, that I came up at the moment to save you," answered Harry. "But are you not going to join the dancers?"

"I promised some kind friends with whom I live to avoid mixing with the crowd," answered May; "and they would especially object to my dancing.

Indeed, I confess that I have never danced in my life."

"Very strange," said Harry. "Who are they, may I ask?"

"The Miss Pembertons," answered May. "You surely, Mr Castleton, remember them, and they desired mother and me to express their great wish to see you again."

"Oh, yes, my good cousins, of course I do. Pray tell them that I will call upon them to-morrow, or the first day I possibly can. I am not surprised that they do not quite approve of dancing; but have they actually prohibited you? We shall form some fresh sets shortly nearer the house, which my sister and other ladies will join, and can you not be tempted to come too? You would have no difficulty, as the figures are not intricate, and you need only move through them as you see others do."

May smiled, but shook her head.

"No," she said, "the Miss Pembertons made no exception with respect to those with whom I might dance, and I fear that they would object as much to my dancing in a quiet set as they would to my joining those who are rushing up and down so energetically out there;" and May looked towards the spot where a country dance of rustics was going on, the swains dragging their partners along at no small risk of pulling off their arms, though sometimes the case was reversed, and the damsels were engaged in hauling on their more awkward partners. "I must say that I have no reason to regret not being among them," she added, with her eyes full of laughter as she watched the vehement movements of the dancers to which she had called Harry's attention.

"Oh, but we shall move much more quietly in the dance I ask you to join, and I am sure it will suit your taste better," he said.

Still May declined firmly, though gently. Harry was convinced that she was not to be persuaded. Had he consulted his own inclination he would have stopped and talked to her as long as she remained, but he remembered that he had numerous duties to perform.

"Are you likely to be walking about the grounds, or do you intend to remain where you are?" he asked.

May turned to the dame for the answer.

"While this sort of fun goes on I do not think we can be better off than where we are," answered the dame.

"I will see you again," said Harry, who admired the manner in which she obeyed her friends' wishes, and hesitated to repeat his request.

"Perhaps my sister would like to send a message to our cousins. Pray tell them that she regards them with the same feeling she has always done."

"I will gladly carry the message to the Miss Pembertons," said May.

"Thank you," said Harry. "I will try to get my sister to give it you herself," and he tore himself away.

"What a lovely creature that little girl with the blue eyes has grown into," Harry thought to himself. "I remember she was a sweet child, and now she is as near perfection as I can fancy any human being. I wonder if I should think so if I saw her dressed as a young lady in a ball room. Yes, I am sure of it--any dress would become her. I must get Julia to see her. And yet I do not know, she might possibly say something I should not like. Maiden May, what a pretty name. She spoke, too, of living with our cousins. Can she be their servant? Yet she does not speak or look like one. Her manner and tone of voice is perfectly that of a young lady. But I must not think too much about her, or I shall forget what I have to do."

Harry hurried on, trying to collect his thoughts, which the vision of Maiden May had scattered.

He had now to set a troop of boys running races, now to arrange another rustic dance.

It was some time before he made his way back to the house, where his friend Headland had got before him, and was now engaged with Julia and other friends in arranging the sets to be formed by ladies and gentlemen, and in which some of the daughters of the upper cla.s.s of tenantry and shopkeepers would take their place.

Harry excused himself from leading out a partner on the plea that he had so many duties to perform, and before long he again found himself approaching the spot where Adam and his wife were standing. As he did so he saw a man come up to them and make a low bow, beginning to speak to May, at which she turned away with a look of annoyance, not unmingled with scorn, while she put her arm into that of the dame.

So Harry interpreted the expression of her countenance. Had it not been for this Harry would have hesitated to approach.

"I am sure, Miss, I do not wish to offend you, and I have a thousand pardons to ask," he heard the stranger say. "It's all a mistake to suppose that I intended to be otherwise than polite and respectful."

The dame, as she drew May nearer to her, looked up at her husband, and was going to speak. Adam made a step or two towards the young man, and looking him firmly in the face, said--

"This is not the place where I can treat you as you deserve; but there is only one thing I have to say, that is to take yourself off, and don't come near our Maiden May if you wish to keep a whole skin on your back."

Young Miles, for it was he, knowing that he was perfectly safe from personal violence in Texford Park, putting on a swaggering look, was about to reply, when he saw Harry coming up, and observed an angry frown on the young officer's brow.

"I'll make you pay dearly for this, old fellow," he muttered between his teeth, and turning round, slunk away towards the nearest group of persons, among whom he soon concealed himself.

"Who was that young man?" asked Harry, glancing in the direction Miles had gone. "He seems to have caused you some annoyance," and he looked at May, who however did not reply.

The dame spoke for her.

"He is an audacious young fellow, who came to Hurlston a few days ago, and has had the impertinence to speak to our Maiden May when she was alone out walking; and if it had not been for our Jacob, I don't know what she would have done. He is the son of the miller at Hurlston, and we have reason to think he would speak to her again if he had the chance, so she has had to keep inside the grounds at Downside ever since, till she came out with my husband and me, and we little thought he would have been here; but it only shows what he is capable of."

"What, did that fellow dare to speak to you against your wish?"

exclaimed Harry, indignantly. "I must take measures to prevent his doing so again. If the miller cannot keep him in order, I must beg Mr Grooc.o.c.k to desire him to send the fellow away again. You say he only came here lately," he added, turning to the dame.

"Yes, Mr Harry, he only came to Hurlston lately, though he was born and bred in the place. He was sent away after his mother's death some four years ago, and has not been back that I know of till lately."

"Depend on it he shall not cause you any further annoyance," said Harry, again addressing May, "and pray do not let the matter trouble you further. I scarcely dare ask whether you are still resolved not to dance?"

"Quite as resolved as at first," answered May. "Even if I greatly wished to do so, I could not break my promise to my kind friends."

Harry took notice of her reply.

"Surely she would not speak of them as her kind friends if she was in their service," he thought, and he longed to ascertain the position she held in his cousins' family. Her costume gave him no clue, but her manner, her tone of voice, and her mode of expressing herself, showed him that she was a person of education. He was greatly puzzled. He longed to ask her more questions, but was afraid of appearing inquisitive.

"When the people begin to get tired of their present amus.e.m.e.nts, we are going to have some boat racing on the lake, and as soon as it grows dark there are to be fireworks, which will have a pretty effect on the water.

I hope that you will remain to see them," he said.

"I regret that we cannot do so," answered May. "Neither of the ladies are well, and I never like to be absent, especially from Miss Mary, long at a time, as Miss Jane having a cold there is no one else to read to her."

"Are you fond of reading?" asked Harry.

"Yes. Indeed, it is the chief source of amus.e.m.e.nt I have," answered May. "I have read, I believe, every book the Miss Pembertons possess, and with their usual kindness they have procured a good many fresh ones for me. Though Miss Jane is not an admirer of the French, she allowed me to study their language, so that I can read it with ease, though I fear that I should find myself greatly at a loss were I to attempt to speak it."

"When you have the opportunity of hearing it spoken, I am sure you will soon get over that difficulty," observed Harry.

"I hope to do so if I am ever able to mix with French people, or to obtain a French master."