MY DESTINY.
A WAYSIDE ROMANCE.
By C. K. Burrow.
Illustrated by Fred Pegram.
I was travelling southward in no particularly contented mood—at least, it pleased me to think that I was going against my will, and solely out of respect to my father's brother, who had summoned me to his house on a matter which might have stirred my blood a little had I chosen to give my fancy range.
But youth is the most uncertain thing in the world, and, since the affair was none of my doing, I chose to assume that I had no interest in it.
And yet, when half my journey was done, I began to feel some uneasiness, some excitement even. This was partly due, no doubt, to the fact that I had never travelled before in my own chaise; it was an experience that made equal appeal to my pride and to my sense of responsibility. I was proud of my new importance, and at the same time a little fearful of making some mistake that should betray me as a novice to the vigilant eyes of innkeepers or hostlers.
I had recently, by the death of my father, come into a moderate fortune. I was the only child, and my mother had died long before, so that, apart from a few legacies, I was sole heir. As I have said, I was young, being no more than two and twenty, perhaps too young to have unchecked licence in the use of lands and money. You may be sure that life shone before me; it seemed to me a field for high adventure, a thing stuffed with romance. From the empty pockets of a boy I had suddenly risen to the full purse of a man of substance; and, to be honest, I think it was somewhat to my honour that I made no evil use of my new power. I had many faults then, pride being the chief; but since those days I have learnt wisdom. With the turn of the century many changes came to me; but I am now only writing of a single episode that occurred before this century was born.
Well, then, some three-fourths of the way between Worcester, from which I started, and Dorking, in Surrey, to which I was journeying, I stopped to change horses, and for my own and my servants' refreshment. During the last hour I had been thinking a good deal of what awaited me at my uncle's, and my pulse began to have the better of my will. In a word, I was going to see the girl whom I was destined to marry.
"I STOPPED TO CHANGE HORSES, AND SAW THE LANDLORD STANDING AT THE DOOR."