When he had approached within hearing distance, he endeavoured by various means, such as stamping with his feet, brushing against the underwood as he passed, and the like, to render her aware of his presence, but for some minutes without success. At length, however, a violent onslaught he made against a blackthorn bush (by which means he acquired a practical knowledge of the penetrating properties of thorns) attracted her attention, and with a start sufficiently violent to show that her nervous system was unusually excited, she turned and beheld him. Re-assured by finding that the alarming sounds had been caused by the approach of a friend, rather than by that of a wild beast or an ogre (plagues so common in the midland counties of “England in ye nineteenth century,” that of course her imagination had instantly suggested them), Alice waited till he came up, and received him with her customary bright smile, although her heightened colour, and an unusual degree of consciousness in her manner, proved that for some reason the meeting rather embarrassed her also. “You walk betimes, Miss Hazlehurst,” began Harry, anxious to break the ice, but not knowing in the slightest degree how, when it should be broken, he was going to proceed; “You are really a pattern of early rising; but I have a notion we are both bound on the same errand, namely, to meet Arthur--am I wrong?” “Quite right,” was the reply; “I got up at a wonderfully early hour; I suppose I was too much excited by such an unaccustomed event as a dinner-party, to be able to sleep at all soundly.” “You look fagged and weary even now,” returned Coverdale, regarding her anxiously, “and you will fatigue yourself still more by walking to the station and back. Are you prudent to undertake so long an expedition before breakfast?” “Oh yes,” was the reply; “it will refresh me and do me good; besides, I want particularly to see and talk to Arthur.” “I will accompany you as far as the station, if you will allow me,” returned Harry, “and, as soon as your brother arrives, leave you to talk with him in peace; the few words I have to say to him will do equally well after breakfast.” Alice signified her consent, and the conversation continued for several minutes to turn on indifferent subjects, though the burden of sustaining it fell chiefly upon Alice, Harry’s observations becoming shorter and less coherent at each reply. At length, however, Alice’s stock of small-talk failed her, and Harry, in despair, was about to hazard some such original observation as, that the grass was looking remarkably green, when his companion suddenly addressed him. “I am afraid that you will think that I am interfering very unnecessarily and impertinently, Mr. Coverdale, but I must trust to your kindness to make allowance for me.”