"What will father do next?" wondered the perturbed young lady, in burning suspense. What he did was to stare unmercifully into the young man's face, as if every separate feature was a distinct and incomprehensible phenomenon, and, afterward, inspect him with due carefulness, and at his very deliberate leisure, from the hat on his head to the shoes on his feet. Mr. Devonhough did not flinch. Some persons object to being stared at; he did not. It is very foolish to mind such things. And besides, he had eyes as well as this old Brobdingnagian, and knew how to use them to quite as good a purpose. While the bellicose Creecy took in slowly the outward manifestations of this bland young stranger, the young stranger himself, in about two seconds and a half, had cross-examined every constituent element in the old man's body, and thoroughly analyzed even the marrow in his bones. We have intimated that the old man's figure was bad; his face was a dreadful climax to a bad figure, so marred it was by worry, so battered by time, so travel-stained on life's rough journey, so battle-scarred in life's hard strife. Behind this forbidding frontage, the old man kept in store a good, sound heart; but what availed that to his present inquisitor? A good, sound heart in an ugly body, is the last thing a young man looks for in this world, or cares to find. From the inspection of so much ugliness, Mr. Devonhough glanced towards the daughter; it was merely a glance, for with a delicate sense of feeling, he quickly looked away in an opposite direction. Flushed she was with shame, ill at ease, ready to cry out with a bitter cry, accusingly towards heaven, unspeakably humiliated; but, withal, a winsome lass, so fresh and fair, so pretty. Such a father! Such a girl! In heaven's name how do such things come about? Satisfied with his investigations, Mr. Creecy now remarked, quite cheerfully: "I s'pose, sir, you air a drover?" "A drover? No, sir; as far as I am able to judge, I am not. More, I cannot say, as I do not know what you mean." "Den I reckin, sir, you air er furiner inter the bargin." "No, sir; not a foreigner either, though I was educated abroad--partly."