then he laid his hand on her arm, and whilst closing the gate upon them both, attempted to draw her a little on one side where a thick screen of filberts concealed them from the house.

"Come here, my dear girl," said he in a tone of familiarity which affronted Emma; "I thought that old humbug was never going to leave us: it's too bad to be beset in that way."

"Have you anything to say to me, Mr. Morgan?" replied Emma in a freezing tone; "because I must beg, if you have no particular reason, that you will not detain me here."

"I beg your pardon—I quite forgot," returned he in a very different tone; "I am taking a liberty which nothing but my interest in you can excuse." He then withdrew his hand from her arm, but still stood in her path. "The fact is, my indignation at the slanderous tongues of our neighbours made me quite forget everything else; do you know the meaning of that note I showed you—the nature of the reports and their originator?"

"I know simply what I read there," returned Emma, "and unless the subject is one of immediate importance, I must decline to discuss now and here the cause of Lady Fanny's determination."

"Well, perhaps you are right, but I hardly expected that my warnings to you the other night would so soon be realised; they have not scrupled to make mischief of our meeting when out walking, and the report has reached Lady Fanny's ears."

"If that is the case, Mr. Morgan," replied Emma, her face flushing with indignation, and her voice almost uncontrollably trembling from emotion, "if you know that to be the case, I wonder that kindness, courtesy, nay, the common feelings of a gentleman, do not prompt you to avoid giving countenance to such reports, by forcing yourself on my privacy, and intruding even here on my home. I command you to let me pass this instant, and I desire that I may not again be disturbed by a similar encounter."

He did not dare dispute her command for a moment, as she stood with her slight and graceful figure drawn up, and her speaking face turned on him in indignation; he drew aside, and with a very low bow allowed her to pass, and follow Janetta, who had trotted up towards the house. He looked after her in an attitude of despair, but it was lost on Emma, who never turned her head, or cast one relenting glance behind, but walked straight into the house. In fact she felt very angry, and her anger increased the more she thought of what had passed: it seemed to her as if he sought to 

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