Aram did not mention to Lester, or even Madeline, the above conversation.
The whole of the next day he shut himself up at home; and when he again
appeared at the Manor-house, he heard with evident satisfaction that the
Earl had been suddenly summoned on state affairs to London.

There was an unaccountable soreness in Aram's mind, which made him feel a
resentment--a suspicion against all who sought to lure him from his
retreat. "Thank Heaven!" thought he, when he heard of the Earl's
departure; "we shall not meet for another year!" He was mistaken.--
Another year!




CHAPTER V.

IN WHICH THE STORY RETURNS TO WALTER AND THE CORPORAL.--THE
RENCONTRE WITH A STRANGER, AND HOW THE STRANGER PROVES TO BE
NOT ALTOGETHER A STRANGER.

Being got out of town in the road to Penaflor, master of my own
action, and forty good ducats; the first thing I did was to
give my mule her head, and to go at what pace she pleased.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
I left them in the inn, and continued my journey; I was hardly
got half-a-mile farther, when I met a cavalier very genteel,
--Gil Blas.

It was broad and sunny noon on the second day of their journey, as Walter
Lester, and the valorous attendant with whom it had pleased Fate to endow