"I want to talk to you a little." Then, lowering his voice, he added: "It is better that we should have a short conversation to-night upon points which, if I understand rightly, may considerably affect the matter in hand. I may be mistaken in the conclusions I have come to. As far as I have gone, I can have done no harm; but, as my friend Byles there would say, 'A hound that gets on a false scent, may be easily driven back at the beginning; but, if he runs on long, Heaven only knows where he will go to.'" "I thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Thornton," I replied. "I want advice--I may want assistance; and, above all things, I want what the French would call _la carte du pays_." "You shall have it as far as I can give it," said Mr. Thornton. "Just follow me into my little room, and we will have a clear understanding before we sleep." He opened a door at the other side of the parlour, and led the way across a stone hall, where we passed two or three negroes, all apparently as joyous and merry as they could be; but I was too much occupied with thoughts of my own to take the notice of them which I should have taken a day or two before. Consideration had been forced upon me rapidly. I was obliged to come to a conclusion much sooner than I had expected; and the question was, whether I was to place full confidence in my accidental host--to tell him all about myself and my own plans, or only to tell him as much as I could not conceal without ungentlemanly insincerity. His manner, his appearance, his language, were all those of a high-bred gentleman; his establishment was apparently that of a wealthy man; and there was a comfortable, home-like respectability about everything, that induced one to argue thus:-- "A man who has led such a life as this up to his age, is not likely to fall from it or to be subject to degrading and ruinous vices." But the conversation which I had heard between the master of the schooner and the slave-trader, as I came down the Chesapeake, did not connect the name of Thornton with very favourable memories. Before I could make up my mind exactly how to act, we were in the little book-room or library he had mentioned: and he courteously motioned me to a well-stuffed easy chair, while he took another on the opposite side of the table. For a moment an awkward pause ensued; and he then said,-- "Do not let me appear obtrusive or inquisitive; but I think I have the pleasure of speaking to Sir Richard Conway?" I bowed my head, replying,-- "The same, Mr. Thornton. From what has fallen from you, I imagine that we are no very distant connections, although it is by the merest accident I stopped at your house."