‘I do not think I can, Rupert,’ said Elizabeth, not wishing to expose Harriet, for Mrs. Woodbourne’s sake.

‘Then I am to understand,’ said Rupert, ’that Miss Hazleby has presented Fido to this noble Adolphus, as a pledge of the tenderest friendship, and that you and Kate act as confidants.’

‘Nonsense, Rupert,’ said Anne, trying to check him by a look.

‘And I suppose,’ proceeded Rupert, ’that the gentleman is to extract poor Fido’s faithful heart, and wear it next his own.  I never should have devised so refined and sentimental a souvenir.  It is far beyond forget-me-nots and arrows.  So professional too.’

Elizabeth and Anne laughed so much that they could neither of them speak for some moments; but when Anne recovered, she took her brother by the arm and whispered, ’Rupert, the less you say about the Turners or Fido, the better.  I will explain it all to you when we have an opportunity.’

Elizabeth thanked her by a look; and at this moment Dora, who had been far in advance with Katherine and the Hazlebys, came running back to beg Rupert to gather for her some fine bulrushes which grew on the brink of the river.  Rupert was very willing to comply with her request; but Elizabeth recommended Dora to leave them till they should return, and not to take the trouble of carrying them to Whistlefar Castle and back again.

Leaving the river, they began to ascend a steep chalky lane, which had been wet all the winter, and was now full of rough hardened wheel-ruts and holes made by slipping horses.  Elizabeth thought that Robert Bruce’s calthorps could hardly have made the ground more uneven, and she was just going to say so, when Helen groaned out, ‘What a horrid place!  I slip and bruise my ancle every minute.’  Upon which she immediately took the other side of the question, and answered, ’It is not nearly so bad as the long lane on the down, and you never complain of that.’

‘Oh! but this is all up-hill,’ said Helen.

‘I am not in the least tired, Helen,’ said Dora, who with Rupert’s assistance was taking flying leaps over the ruts.

‘You? no, I should think not,’ said Helen, in so piteous a tone, that Rupert very good-naturedly waited till she came up to him, and then offered her his arm.

On seeing this, Harriet was rather vexed that she had not been first noticed by the gentleman, and began to make heavy complaints of the badness of the road, but no one paid much attention to her.  Elizabeth however gave her arm to Lucy, who never could bear much fatigue.

After they had gained the top of the hill, they walked on for some distance between high hedges, and as none of the party knew the way further than the river, except from some directions given them by Mr. Walker, the Curate, they begun to think that they must have missed a turn to the left, which he had told them to take.  Harriet and Helen both declared that they had passed the turning; Katherine was sure they