“I have for some time been aware of your return to your native land, having heard of you from mutual friends. Pray, when your avocations will allow of your leaving London, endeavour to visit my retirement. I have a small room in my cottage at your service, and shall enjoy great pleasure, in some respects a sorrowful one, in meeting you again, and in reviving old recollections of those days when first we became acquainted. I will reserve all further communications till we meet; in the meantime am,
“My dear Captain Gernon,
“Yours most truly,
“A. Belfield.”
“To Brev. Capt. Gernon,
“5, Peppercorn-buildings,
“Pimlico.”
I was not long in finding out Miss Belfield’s retreat. The Highflyer coach dropped me at the Bull, a foaming, rampant fellow, the only thing evincing any signs of life and animation in the small sleepy village of Swines-Norton, in ——shire. A few smock-frocked clowns, a bandy-legged ostler, and a recruiting-sergeant, who seemed wofully out of his element, loitered in front of the little inn as I descended.
“What luggage had you, sir?”
“Nothing but a small carpet-bag.”