"I don't know what Harry said, but I'll swear, whatever Harry said, I said just the clean contrary. Now, then, liberty's sweet, my girl. Come, let us say fifteen months. Lord! when a man is twenty-one he don't want to be tied by the heels all at once. Let's both have our run first. You are but a filly yet--ay--a six months' puppy, so to say." "You said a twelvemonth, Will," I replied, little thinking of what he meant. How, indeed, could I know? "I shall expect you in a twelvemonth." "Very good, then. A twelvemonth it must be, I suppose. Shan't tell my father yet, Kitty. Don't you tell un neyther, there's a good girl. Gad! there will be a pretty storm with my lady when she hears it! Ho! ho!" Then he went off chuckling and shaking himself. How could a courtly gentleman like Sir Robert and a gentlewoman like her ladyship have a son who was so great a clown in his manner and his talk? But the sons do not always take after their parents. A stable and a kennel, when they take the place of a nursery and a school, are apt to breed such bumpkins even out of gentle blood. In the morning at five I was to start in the cart which would take us across the country to the stage-coach. Nancy got up with me, and we had a fine farewell kissing. The boys were up too; Harry out of compliment to me, dressed in a nightcap and a flowered morning-gown; and Will out of compliment to his kennel, for whose sake he always rose at daybreak. He was dressed in his old scarlet coat, he carried a whip in one hand, and half-a-dozen dogs followed at his heels. "Remember, sweet Kitty," whispered Harry, with a ceremonious bow, "it is but for a twelvemonth." "Only a year," said Will. "Heart up, my pretty!" They heard what each had said, and they were looking at each other puzzled when I drove away. "What did you mean, Will?" asked Harry, when the cart was out of sight, "by saying only a year?" "I meant what I meant," he replied doggedly. "Perhaps you know, and perhaps you don't." "Of course I know," said Harry. "The question is, how do you know?" "Well," replied Will, "that is a pretty odd question, to be sure. How could I help knowing?" "I think," said Harry, red in the face, "that some one has been injudicious in telling any one." Will laughed. "She ought not to have told, that's a fact. But we will keep it secret, Harry; don't tell her ladyship." So that each thought that the other knew of his engagement with Kitty.