At length, starting up abruptly, I exclaimed: “This is utterly unbearable! I must have certainty, Peter; I must see her at once. How is that to be done?”
“You may well ask,” was his reply; “better wait till I can find an opportunity, and let you know.”
“Listen to me, old Peter,” continued I, laying my hand on his shoulder; “there is that within me this day which can overcome all obstacles—I tell you I must see her, and I WILL!”.
“Well, well, don't put yourself into a passion; the only chance as I knows of is to ketch Miss Clara out walking; and then ten to one Mr. Fleming will be with her.”
“Let him!” exclaimed I; “why should I avoid him? I have not injured him, though he may have done me foul and bitter wrong; it is for him to shrink from the encounter.”
“I know what the end of this will be,” returned Peter Barnett; “you'll quarrel; and then, instead of off coats and having it out like Britons, there'll be a purlite hinvitation given, as kind and civil as if you was a-hasking him to dinner, to meet as soon as it's light to-morrow morning, and do you the favour of putting a brace of bullets into you.”
“No, Peter, you do not understand my feeling on this subject; should you be right in your suspicions (and, although my faith in your young mistress is such that nothing but the evidence of my own senses can avail to shake it, I am fain to own circumstances appear fully to warrant them)—should these suspicions not prove unfounded, it is her falsehood alone that will darken the sunshine of my future life. Fleming, or any other coxcomb who had taken advantage of her fickleness, would be equally beneath my notice. But enough of this; where shall I be most likely to meet her?”
“You knows the seat in the shrubbery walk under the old beeches, where you saw Miss Clara the first time as ever you cum here?”
“Only too well,” answered I, as the recollection of that morning contrasted painfully with my present feelings.
“Well, you be near there about eleven o'clock; and if Miss Clara don't walk that way, I'll send down a boy with hinformation as to the henemy's movements. Keep out of sight as much as you can.”