occurred, that prevented a nice conjunction, and Britannia had reason to lament, in addition to the loss of her favourite's life, numberless cruel amputations of his right arm.
The luckless cause of these unnatural divisions announced his presence in the hall by a loud crack of his whip, that startled the party, and his voice was first heard, exclaiming—
"Why Benjamin! you Ben Pump! is this the manner in which you receive the heiress? Excuse him, cousin Elizabeth. The arrangements were too delicate and nice to be trusted to every one; but now I am here, things will go on better.—Come, light up, Mr. Penguillan, light up, light up, and let us see one another's faces. Well, 'duke, I have brought home your deer; what is to be done with it, ha?"
"By the lord, Squire," commenced Benjamin in reply, first giving his mouth a wipe with the back of his hand, "if this here thing had been ordered sum'at earlier in the day, it might have been got up, d'ye see, to your liking. I had mustered all hands, and was exercising candles, when you hove in sight; but when the women heard your bells, they started an end, as if they were riding the boatswain's colt; and, if-so-be there is that man in the house, who can bring up a parcel of women when they have got headway on them, until they've run out the end of their rope, his name is not Benjamin Pump. But Miss Betsy here, must have altered more than a privateer in disguise, since she has got on her woman's duds, if she will go to take offence with an old fellow, for the small matter of lighting a few candles."
Elizabeth and her father continued silent, for both experienced the same sensations on entering the hall. The former had resided one year in the building before she left home for the school,
