“Who is he, sir! I 'll tell you, sir, who he is. That young man, sir,--he, sir,--he is neither more nor less, sir, than the son of a little huckster woman in your own village, sir. I know it for a fact; for I attended his mother myself.” “And what then, Doctor?” “Besides that, Mr. Lupton, he is an incipient housebreaker. I charge him with having made a burglarious attempt on my premises at Nabbfield, for which he was obliged to fly the country; and you, sir, with all due deference, as a magistrate, will see the propriety of putting his person in a position of security.” “Then you feel convinced his intention was to rob you?” asked the Squire. “Nay, sir,” replied the Doctor, “the thing speaks for itself. A young man forms a plan to enter my premises: comes at ten o'clock at night,--a burglarious hour, according to law; climbs my outer wall by a rope-ladder--” “It seems more like a love affair,” interrupted the Squire. “So I thought myself,” answered Rowel, “at first; because I found some fragments of a letter, which had previously been thrown over the wall; but I could make nothing material of them.” “Have you those fragments by you?” “I have a copy of them, which I kept in case of need,” said the Doctor. “Perhaps you will read it, Mr. Rowel, for my satisfaction,” observed Mr. Lupton. “Certainly,” replied he; and drawing from his pocket-book a paper containing some scattered portions of the letter which Colin Clink had addressed to James Woodruff, and the torn fragments of which Rowel had detected after James had buried them in the earth, he handed it in the following shape to the Squire:-- “The young woman--is necessary--in your yard until ten o'clock at night.--If you should--try -- ----until you do succeed------stand---- thickest------in the corner. Colin Clink--will do his best to get-- Fanny will be able----any night--at ten o'clock.” No sooner had Mr. Lupton perused this precious fragment than he pronounced the whole to have been unequivocally a love affair. There could be no doubt about the matter remaining in the mind of any commentator of ordinary sagacity who weighed well the general drift of the text in hand. Rowel objected to this interpretation, and persisted in expressing his opinion that, the young man harboured no good motives; although, in fact, he felt secretly as assured of the real object of the attempt as was Colin himself. “But perhaps,” said he, addressing Colin, “perhaps you will so far oblige Mr. Lupton as to explain what really were your motives on that occasion?” “He need not be at that trouble,” observed Mr. Lupton, “or at least not until I have asked you, Doctor, a few questions which, I dare say, you can readily answer if you please.”