222 M CHAPTER XIII. "But had I wist, before I kissed, That love had been sae ill to win, And pinned it with a siller pin." Anon. ABEL had slept off much of her trouble; yet, next morning, her faithful attendant kept hinting, with some uneasiness, that she was not yet "quite herself." Mab tried to satisfy her care-taker; declaring that a bad dream was the principal cause-" A horrible dream, that I was following a funeral. What does that signify, Agnes ?" Hitchcocks was at once interested. If she possessed one gift without the shadow of doubt above her fellows, she was pre-eminently oneirocritical. So she employed herself in demonstrating that, by all known laws of dream-lore, a funeral signified a wedding, and begged earnestly for further particulars. But her little mistress was now silent. She could not tell how she and a certain tall, handsome man had been dream-riding wildly over shadowy fields, till, slackening ever, they had found themselves slowly following a hearse; nor of how she had awakened sobbing heavily, despite the great oppression of sleep, because that black funeral-car held the remains of Walter Huntley her only friend two days ago, when she felt still a child-now one whose name, even in thought, made her cheek hot, and troubled her with doubts and misgivings hateful to her nature. But she had resolved to keep up a stout heart to-day, and try to face, without cowardly terrors, whatever good or evil might be in store for her. Hey! how reviving to feel brave and fearless again! Suddenly, to her surprise, Hitchcocks coughed ominously, and began, with reluctance and solemnity— “Excuse my takin' a liberty, Miss Mabel; but as there isn't no one else to give you advice—seeing I take no account of them that only knows nasty foreign ways,-from what a certain person let slip, haccidentally-like, about the gentleman he is with -though very nice, but wild-like-and had another name-the which he only changed when he'd run through his fortune, and got another from old Mrs. Cust's husband, as is below stairs (leastways, she's below stairs, but the poor old gentleman is below the ground). "In the name of all that is mysterious, Agnes, whom do you mean ?" "Just Colonel Cust, m'm," gravely answered her monitress; with the consciousness of satisfactorily fulfilling what she considered a momentous duty. "Which is a liberty, in warning you that he had another name, and played-so they do say, though a real gentleman that, had Mrs. Lester been here" "I know I know. Well, my good Agnes, she soon will be here, so make your mind easy. Till then, I won't play cards. with him. Now I must go." But Hitchcocks followed her hastily, drawing a well-thumbed little book from her pocket, and running her finger down the index. "To dream of Milk! Cherries! Flying!no, of Hanging!" (in a joyful tone). "You didn't never dream of hanging, Miss Mabel, dear ?" "No-never," answered the little mistress, in a tone of thanksgiving, as she escaped from the room. "For that signifies elevation above your present pursuits "Rather more than would be pleasant," VOL. I. came, in answer, from half-way down the stairs. "By marriage !" finished the Sibylline Agnes, leaning over the balusters to deliver this parting information down the wellstaircase to the second landing. Then, returning to arrange her smart cap before Mabel's glass, she reflected, with calm self-approbation, that it was but right some person of experience should guard over her young lady's interests-who fitter than herself, that had carried her as a baby? And she gave a little sigh at her secret heroism in telling Mr. Bennet at home twice lately that she could not marry him (nor set up at the "Apple-Tree "), to leave her charge alone, exposed to Madame's tender mercies, till after-the Death! She shook her jaunty head mournfully over the event which prescience told her was impending. Maybe after that the poor dear might live with Mrs. Lester, and be happy. Meantime, she had promised Mrs. |