CRADOCK NOWELL A Tale of the New Forest. BY _RICHARD DODDRIDGE BLACKMORE_, AUTHOR OF “CLARA VAUGHAN.” “You have said: whether wisely or no, let the forest judge.” AS YOU LIKE IT, Act III. Sc. 2. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1866. [_The right of Translation is reserved._] LONDON: PRINTED BY C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND. CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. CHAPTER PAGE I. 1 II. 35 III. 52 IV. 72 V. 91 VI. 111 VII. 128 VIII. 147 IX. 172 X. 190 XI. 217 XII. 236 XIII. 245 XIV. 253 XV. 274 XVI. 287 XVII. 300 CRADOCK NOWELL CHAPTER I. It was a Tuesday evening when Cradock Nowell and Amy Rosedew signed and sealed, with the moonʼs approval, their bond to one another. On the following day, Dr. Hutton and wife were to dine at Kettledrum Hall; and the distance being considerable, and the roads so shockingly bad—“even dangerous, I am told, to gentlemen who have dined _with me_, sir,” said Kettledrum, in his proudest manner—they had accepted his offer, and that of Mrs. Kettledrum, which she herself came over to make, that they should not think of returning until after breakfast on Thursday. In consequence of her husbandʼs hints, Rosa felt the keenest interest in “that Mrs. Kettledrum. Leave her to me, dear Rufus. You need not be afraid, indeed. Trust me to get to the bottom of it.” And so she exerted her probing skill upon her to the uttermost, more even than ladies usually do, when they first meet one another. Of course, there was no appearance of it, nothing so ill–bred as that; it was all the sweetest refinement, and the kindest neighbourly interest. They even became affectionate in the course of half an hour, and mutual confidence proved how strangely their tastes were in unison. Nevertheless, each said good–bye with a firm conviction that she had outwitted the other. “Poor thing, she was so stupid. What a bungler, to be sure! And to think I could not see through her!”