he used to go of a night to meet her after every one was in bed;
and when it all came out there was a regular cartload of bottles
found there. The squire had them all broken up, but the pieces
are there to this day.

"Yes," he again proceeded, "it hit Sir William very hard.
He's never been the same man since."

I am afraid that my sympathies were less with Sir William than
better regulated sympathies would have been. I confess that my
imagination was more occupied with that picture of the two lovers
making merry together in the moonlit dingle.

Is it not, indeed, a fascinating little story, with its piquant
contrasts and its wild love-at-all-costs? And how many such
stories are hidden about the country, lying carelessly in rustic
memories, if one only knew where to find them!

At this point my companion left me, and I--well, I confess that I
retraced my steps to the common and rambled up that green lane,
along which the romantic schoolmaster used to steal in the
moonlight to the warm arms of his love. How eagerly he had
trodden the very turf I was treading,--we never know at what
moment we are treading sacred earth! But for that old man, I had
passed along this path without a thrill. Had I not but an hour
ago stood upon this very common, vainly, so it seemed, invoking
the spirits of passion and romance, and the grim old common had
never made a sign. And now I stood in the very dingle where they
had so often and so wildly met; and it was all gone, quite gone
away for ever. The hours that had seemed so real, the kisses