have a strange way with you; at my years still to assert your old ascendancy over me, is not what I expected. I am not used to be tutored, and have a great mind to resist, like farmer Ryecroft himself, if only to shew I can resist. However, I will do as you please."

A frank and gracious manner in saying this, so as peculiarly to strike Georgina, who had sat a silent listener till now, induced her to lighten up at this concession to her father's activity.

"It will do you both a great deal of good to ride," said she.

"And you, Miss Evelyn?"

"Oh! Papa seldom rides without me; but, perhaps, upon business like this I may be de trop."

"If yon are," said her father, "we'll send you to take a lesson from old Mrs. Ryecroft, on the best mode of rearing spring turkeys. You know how you failed there."

"Miss Evelyn rear turkeys!" exclaimed Tremaine."

"No! she does not rear them," answered the doctor, "to the very great disappointment of my palate; and I do not like her to be inferior to Mrs. Ryecroft."

Tremaine could not help expressing something like surprise at this; which the doctor perceiving added,—“ She is a country girl, and therefore ought

to know country business. But if I were ever so rich, I know not a thing more amusing, I had almost said interesting, than a basse cour.”

Tremaine hinted his opinion, that it was beneath the notice of the wise, the well-educated, and the elegant.

"I would rather say," replied Evelyn, “the fashionable, the fastidious, and the vacant. But even the Cardinal de Retz was amused with pigeons, when separated from the world; and I need not tell you all the fine things that Addison was able to say on a hen and chickens."

"I would read them in Addison," said Tremaine, "but not plague myself with what, after all, a higler's wife would understand better."

"I don't know that," said the doctor, "if we were not idle; but the study of nature, in whatever shape, must always please, if only as a study; and in this instance the utility is so palpable, that it adds to the interest."

"You would turn Miss Evelyn, then, into a poulterer," said Tremaine, laughing.

"No more than I would turn myself into a winecooper, because I keep the keys of my cellar."

"But what does Miss Evelyn say to it herself?"

"Why, that if I were to lose my poultry-yard, I should lose one of my greatest pleasures."

"And yet the girl makes a very good courtesy, reads Guarini, and plays the harp," said Evelyn.

The horses coming to the door, saved Tremaine a reply. They mounted, and proceeded through a very pretty country to Velvet Mead House.

CHAP. XVIII.

AN ENGLISH YEOMAN.

"Where is your yeoinan?
"Yeoman?

Is it a lusty
Will'a stand to't?"-

SHAKSPEARE.

Ir was a large stone mansion, which had been an old manorial residence, and consequently was more spacious than necessary for a man who lived by farming his estate with his own hands. This inconvenience, bearable in itself, was rendered more so from its owner having applied one or two of the rooms to the purposes of a granary. In the hall stood a sack of flower; what had been the great eating-room was converted into an excellent kitchen, in which bright pewter and burnished brass were resplendent; and a smaller room was consecrated to

the care of the farmer's saddle, silver-bitted bridle, and Mrs. Ryecroft's well-stuffed pad, flounced with green serge. A parlour on one side the hall constituted the only dwelling-room, where eating, conversation, and work were alternately carried on. A door led from it to a green walk, flanking the kitchen garden, at the end of which was an arbour of honeysuckle.

It was after dinner when the visitors arrived, and in this arbour, at his afternoon's pipe, the farmer was seated. At the sight of his Rector he rose up, as well as sixteen stone would permit, and pulled off his hat with a civility which was evidently sincere : hoped he and Miss were as well as they looked; and staring rather at Tremaine, and afterwards at Evelyn, seemed to inquire who he was.

"I have brought my friend and neighbour, Mr. Tremaine, to see you," said Dr. Evelyn.

The farmer instantly put on his hat, and sat down again, saying coldly, as he returned to his pipe, "I am glad to see you, Sir." At this he gave a whiff or two, with rather more energy than usual; but, perceiving it annoyed the young lady, he immediately knocked out the ashes, observing that he should be sorry to incommode Miss.

"She is an old friend," said her father.

"Aye!" returned he, "I have known her sin' that high, and my mistress be as fond of her as I."

During all this, he took not the least notice of Tremaine, who was evidently annoyed. Thinking, however, it was incumbent upon him to be civil, he observed upon the pleasant situation and goodness of his house.

"Why this house you see," said Ryecroft, "was bought by my father of your grandfather, before you was born: and many's the time both he and I. have been up at the Hall, and were always welcome; but I don't know how it is you don't live among us, Squire."

Tremaine protested it was not from want of inclination, but that he had been so occupied by attending Parliament, that he never yet had had time.

"And what hand did you make of it in Parliament?" asked Ryecroft.

This was a short question, which evidently gave no pleasure.

"I mean," he continued, before there was time for reply, "which side did you take ?”

"Oh! as to that," answered Tremaine, with a little contempt, "I suppose I am right, for I was for the country."

"So we are all, I hope," said Ryecroft.

"I mean," explained the Squire, "that I was of your side; for I was always against the Governent."

"Then you was not o' my side; and, with submis