Bessy, however, had a bold, free way of settling all these things for herself, and, generally, I must say, she settled them very well. As we went, she pointed out to me all the various intricacies of the path we were pursuing, which was, indeed, quite labyrinthine, and she chatted with me on many subjects, quite different from those which had gone before. When we arrived at the house, we found Mrs. Stringer busying herself about the breakfast-table, and Bessy, running up to her, told her at once, in one of her gayest veins, how we had seen Mr. McGrubber coming towards us, and how we had doubled upon him into the wood, and passed him, unseen, within a hundred yards. "Just as I have seen a fox do before the hounds," cried Bessy. "If I could but have drawn him after us, it would have been the greatest sport in the world. Cousin Richard and I would have led him through every swamp, and bush, and cane-break we could find." "Oh no! you mad-cap," said Mrs. Stringer, "I am sure Sir Richard would never have been so unkind to the poor man. He is a bore, it is true; but there is no harm in him, I sincerely believe." "I am not so sure of that," answered Bessy. "A man who thinks he understands everybody else's business better than themselves, becomes a very dangerous person when he makes a mistake." "What is a bore?" asked Mr. McGrubber, entering the room just at this moment, after having evidently been listening in the hall. Mrs. Stringer, who had used the word, grew very red, and looked confused; but Bessy turned upon him at once, and answered in an ordinary tone, as if she were quoting from a dictionary,-- "Bore--A person who impertinently intrudes upon people who do not want him, and then keeps grinding them till he nearly bores a hole through them. That's in Johnson, is it not, Cousin Richard?" Her quiet look, the man's air of stolid bewilderment, and Mrs. Stringer's confusion, were, I must confess, too much for me; and I laughed till I cried. "What is he laughing at?" asked Mr. McGrubber, in a solemn tone; "I see no cause for such levity." This was too much for both Bessy and Mrs. Stringer; and when Mr. Stringer entered, a minute after, he found us all three laughing as hard as we could laugh, and Mr. McGrubber standing, tall and stately, in the midst, a pillar of indignant solemnity. Breakfast was not yet over, when Mr. Thornton arrived on horseback, and I perceived at once that he was a good deal excited; but he refrained from all business matters till the party rose, inquiring into our adventures of the evening before, and giving a somewhat amusing account of the journey of the carriage home.