"Do you know this young man?" asked he.
"Certainly," replied Mr. Marshall, with some surprise; "he is an old friend of mine."
"Wall, Square," said Asa Cutting, "I told you you'd better take care what you was about. I kinder thought all along the young man didn't look like a thief."
"That's complimentary," said Miss Marshall. "You seem to have been in some trouble. I am glad we came in time to relieve you from such suspicions."
Frederick could not echo her expressions of pleasure. A week or two in jail, or even a temporary confinement in the landlord's cellar, would have been a light trouble compared with the mortification of being seen by Miss Marshall in such a position. He explained, with an attempt at indifference, the circumstances which had conspired against him, and Adelaide found them highly amusing. She laughed heartily over the advertisement, dwelling with malicious pleasure over each unflattering epithet. She listened to Asa Cutting's circumstantial account of the whole affair with an interest that led him insensibly to make it as long as possible; and, when he came to the landlord's suggestion of confining the suspected man in the cellar, she seemed so very much amused that Frederick could hardly endure it with becoming patience. Even after they were alone, she recurred again and again to the same theme, and always contrived to hit upon the very points that jarred most on Frederick's sensitive nature. When her mother and sister arrived, Miss Marshall repeated the story to them, dwelling and expatiating upon it until Frederick could no longer conceal his annoyance.
He declined coldly the invitation urged upon him by the whole family to join them in their tour—an invitation he would gladly have accepted a few days before; and it was with real pleasure that he saw the cavalcade set out the next morning to continue their journey, Miss Marshall looking back, after she had said "Good-by," to "hope that Mr. James Wilson would enjoy the solitary fishing excursions he seemed to like so well."
The long-looked-for letter came that day; some accident had delayed it on the road. With the remittance it contained he paid his bill, and left the village of Hillsdale with no very pleasant feelings. He was somewhat puzzled what course to take. His liking for travelling on foot had not stood the test of experience, and just then he would have directed his course to any other part of the Union more willingly than to the White Mountains. He wisely decided to return to New York, and, by taking the speediest conveyances, he managed to reach his uncle's house just two weeks after he had left it.
He was warmly welcomed by his aunt and cousins, and Bessie Graham's bright face looked brighter as she greeted him.
"You have come just in time, Fred," said Emily; "we are going to Lake George to-morrow. But how did you happen to get back so soon? I am afraid your 'predestinarian tower,' as that old lady out West called it, has not been so delightful as you expected."
Frederick acknowledged that it had not; and, after tea, he told the whole story to an audience more sympathizing than the former one had been.