"Do you mean then seriously to contemplate——?"
"Burton! pray do not look so dismal; I tell you it's a long look out; I do not know what I shall do."
"You'll go over to A—— in spite of my warning?"
"Oh, I must; I promised Miss Vernon; believe me, I am the only one likely to suffer from my imprudence; and then I will return no more till I have seen Egerton; or—in short, let us just cross the country here, the corn seems all cut, and it will break in the horses for the hunting."
In accordance with my determination, I seized the first interval in a rather professional conversation between Colonel Dashwood and a retired General he had invited to dinner, to tell him of my accidental meeting with his old acquaintance; sinking the fact, however, of his having a grand-daughter.
"What, old D'Arcy Vernon, of Dungar," he exclaimed; "how curious! and so he is living there, is he? I am sorry to hear it, he must have left Dungar then in toto?"
"Or Dungar left him," sneered Hauton. "It was en route, if I am not much mistaken, when we were there."
"The first day I can, I'll go over to A——, and bring back the old Colonel with me," said our good natured Commander. "I owe him a vast amount of hospitality, and shall be too glad to show him I have not forgotten it; poor fellow! at his age; he must be more than seventy-five!"
"He looks remarkably well," I said, "just the same as ever."
"The Irish have such happy temperaments," said Dashwood, turning to the General.