truth grandfather look at me now and say so with your eyes � see he keeps them fast closed � i knew he was not one to approve of what is false in order to gain his ends well well i will go and see mr myself and explain matters said mrs in a tone nay grandmother but i must send the message said with quiet determination � come in mary for the girl had been to wait outside the door you are to tell mr from mistress with her compliments that no member of the i can see him to day but that if the e of his business will permit him to do so he can communicate it to mr who is in the the servant departed repeating to herself miss s words for fear she should forget them and in a minute or two s step was heard leaving the apartment below for the drawing room into which the visitor had been shown john and the young squire of hall had never met since they had stood together on eighteen months ago and during that interval short as it was there had been considerable change in both of them john always self and self composed had become even more conscious of his own powers of which his improved position in the world had also afforded ample proof had he needed such instead of the somewhat coarse attire which he had worn as he was now dressed although very plainly in all respects as a gentleman and he looked every inch a gentleman and something more if there was an absence of that careless ease which sits not upon those for whom all things have been made smooth from the cradle to manhood steady purpose of his face was far from hard or while as he now regarded his rival as he well knew him in intention to be a certain courtesy lit up his fine features and gave his tone a gentleness with which genuine feeling could always inspire it but which in conventional intercourse it lacked perhaps the knowledge that s heart was his not to be won fi om him by this man nor any other permitted him to be thus generous j or perhaps the if not desperate circumstances of his rival of which he had heard reports though as it happened true enough in affected bim with pity and gave softness to his air and manner was even more altered in appearance though not as in the other s case for the better he had grown paler and thinner of late months and anxiety and wounded pride had set their marks upon a face that had once s by its calm the two young men shook if not with cordiality yet with perfect frankness i am sorry to have been thus obliged to trouble you mr said but since mr william is not at home i have no choice the matter on which i have come here being unhappily of the last importance and not admitting of delay no apology is at all necessary mr the occupation you have interrupted was only that of making artificial flies and i assure you that the arrival of any visitor in this place whatever his business is quite a to us i think i should remark however that if the matter in question which you say is so important has any private and particular reference to mr that i have no authority and indeed must altogether decline to be its the matter i have in hand said gravely touches mr william only as it affects every one else in this house yourself included it is not i confess upon his account i have come i mentioned his name merely as being the most proper person to receive my communication and yet if there had been none dearer to me under this roof than he i should still have thought it my duty to have made it i must beg of you first of all mr to take upon trust with only my word to it that i am well acquainted with certain matters connected with my profession which is that of civil engineer that i am not one to be mistaken for instance about the strength of an and it is with the sense of the peril in which you and all persons now resident on the stand from the state of the on that i have ridden here this day and with no other object whatsoever do you mean to tell me that there is any danger of the great on the giving way mr asked starting to his feet there is in my opinion veiy great danger of it i should say indeed if the wind were east instead of as at present the most imminent danger in that case the wind would bring the waves right down upon the and it is not in a condition to resist it sir it is not indeed i entreat you i you mr ta give heed to what i say there is no fear of my such a warning mr of the risk to our friends in this house and to human life generally supposing i were so brutal as to disregard it i have property on the which even if this catastrophe should be delayed must sooner or later be destroyed by it i will not only do my best to persuade mr and his family to quit this spot but i shall not lose a moment in representing to the authorities of with whom i have some influence � that would be time wasted interrupted solemnly and there is in my a beggar on horseback ment not one hour to waste i have spoken � i have warned in vain the of the company in the person of their have refused to to my request that the should he examined � but i thought 