"You had best be quick, then," said the old woman. Horrid old woman! I began to esteem her less. I set my teeth, and was about to rush on, when a voice close beside me said,-- "Stay, young man; I will let you through the gate." I turned round sharply, and saw close by my side, in great wonder that I had not seen him before, a man, whose homely (but not working) dress seemed to intimate his station as that of the head-gardener, of whom my guide had spoken. He was seated on a stone under a chestnut-tree, with an ugly cur at his feet, who snarled at me as I turned. "Thank you, my man," said I, joyfully. "I confess frankly that I was very much afraid of that leap." "Ho! Yet you said, what can be done once can be done twice." "I did not say it could be done, but ought to be done." "Humph! That's better put." Here the man rose; the dog came and smelt my legs, and then, as if satisfied with my respectability, wagged the stump of his tail. I looked across the waterfall for the old woman, and to my surprise saw her hobbling back as fast as she could. "Ah!" said I, laughing, "the poor old thing is afraid you'll tell her master,--for you're the head gardener, I suppose? But I am the only person to blame. Pray say that, if you mention the circumstance at all!" and I drew out half a crown, which I proffered to my new conductor. He put back the money with a low "Humph! not amiss." Then, in a louder voice, "No occasion to bribe me, young man; I saw it all." "I fear your master is rather hard to the poor Hogtons' old servants." "Is he? Oh! humph! my master. Mr. Trevanion you mean?" "Yes." "Well, I dare say people say so. This is the way." And he led me down a little glen away from the fall. Everybody must have observed that after he has incurred or escaped a great danger, his spirits rise wonderfully; he is in a state of pleasing excitement. So it was with me. I talked to the gardener a coeur ouvert, as the French say; and I did not observe that his short monosyllables in rejoinder all served to draw out my little history,--my journey, its destination, my schooling under Dr. Herman, and my father's Great Book. I was only made somewhat suddenly aware of the familiarity that had sprung up between us when, just as, having performed a circuitous meander, we regained the stream and stood before an iron gate set in an arch of rock-work, my companion said simply: "And your name, young gentleman? What's your name?" I hesitated a moment; but having heard that such communications were usually made by the visitors of show places, I answered: "Oh! a very venerable one, if your master is what they call a bibliomaniac--Caxton." "Caxton!" cried the gardener, with some vivacity; "there is a Cumberland family of that name--" "That's mine; and my Uncle Roland is the head of that family." "And you are the son of Augustine Caxton?" "I am. You have heard of my dear father, then?"