"I wish you a good appetite to it, Sergeant," I said. "My appetite is

gone. I'll wait and see you served, and then I'll ask you to excuse me,

if I go away, and try to get the better of this by myself."

I saw him served with the best of everything--and I shouldn't have been

sorry if the best of everything had choked him. The head gardener (Mr.

Begbie) came in at the same time, with his weekly account. The Sergeant

got on the subject of roses and the merits of grass walks and gravel

walks immediately. I left the two together, and went out with a heavy

heart. This was the first trouble I remember for many a long year which

wasn't to be blown off by a whiff of tobacco, and which was even beyond

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the reach of ROBINSON CRUSOE.

Being restless and miserable, and having no particular room to go to, I

took a turn on the terrace, and thought it over in peace and quietness

by myself. It doesn't much matter what my thoughts were. I felt

wretchedly old, and worn out, and unfit for my place--and began to

wonder, for the first time in my life, when it would please God to take

me. With all this, I held firm, notwithstanding, to my belief in Miss

Rachel. If Sergeant Cuff had been Solomon in all his glory, and had told

me that my young lady had mixed herself up in a mean and guilty plot, I

should have had but one answer for Solomon, wise as he was, "You don't

know her; and I do."

My meditations were interrupted by Samuel. He brought me a written

message from my mistress.

Going into the house to get a light to read it by, Samuel remarked

that there seemed a change coming in the weather. My troubled mind had

prevented me from noticing it before. But, now my attention was roused,

I heard the dogs uneasy, and the wind moaning low. Looking up at the

sky, I saw the rack of clouds getting blacker and blacker, and hurrying

faster and faster over a watery moon. Wild weather coming--Samuel was

right, wild weather coming.

The message from my lady informed me, that the magistrate at Frizinghall

had written to remind her about the three Indians. Early in the coming

week, the rogues must needs be released, and left free to follow their

own devices. If we had any more questions to ask them, there was no

time to lose. Having forgotten to mention this, when she had last seen

Sergeant Cuff, my mistress now desired me to supply the omission. The

Indians had gone clean out of my head (as they have, no doubt, gone

clean out of yours). I didn't see much use in stirring that subject

again. However, I obeyed my orders on the spot, as a matter of course.




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