'Ha! Ha! pleasant enough! And what are you to do about money? Did you ever find that purse of yours that you--lost, I think, at Dover?' 'Never!' 'Better and better!' cried Ireton, laughing again, yet feeling for his own purse, and sauntering towards the hall. Harleigh was already out of sight. 'Pour soul!' said Selina, 'I am sure, for one, I'll help her.' 'Let us make a subscription,' said Elinor, producing half a guinea, and looking round to Mrs Maple. Selina joined the same sum, full of glee to give, for the first time, as much as her sister. Mrs Maple clamorously ordered them to shut the parlour door. With shame, yet joy, the stranger accepted the two half guineas, intimated her hopes that she should soon repay them, repeated her thanks, and took leave. The sisters would still have detained her, but Mrs Maple peremptorily insisted upon breakfasting without further delay. The Incognita was proceeding to the housekeeper's room, for a packet of the gifts of Elinor, but she was stopt in the hall by Ireton, who was loitering about, playing with his purse, and jerking and catching it from hand to hand. 'Here, my dear,' he cried, 'look at this, and take what you will from it.' She coldly thanked him, and, saying that the young ladies had amply supplied her, would have moved on: but he prevented her, repeating his offer, and adding, while with uncontrolled freedom he stared at her, 'How the deuce, with such a pretty face as that, could you ever think of making yourself look such a fright?' She told him that she was in haste. 'But what was the whim of it?' She desired him to make way, every moment of day-light being precious to her. 'Hang day-light!' cried he, 'I never liked it; and if you will but wait a few minutes--' Selina, here, running to call him to breakfast, he finished in a whisper, 'I'll convey you in my own chaise wherever you like to go;' and then, forced to put up his purse, he gallantly handed his fair bride-elect back to the parlour. The stranger, entering the housekeeper's room, met Harleigh, who seriously remonstrated against her walking project, offering his servant to procure her a post-chaise. The sigh of her negative expressed its melancholy economy, though she owned a wish that she could find some meaner vehicle that would be safe. Harleigh then disappeared; but, a few minutes afterwards, when she was setting out from the garden-gate, she again met him, and he told her that he was going to order a parcel from a stationer's at Brighthelmstone; and that a sort of chaise-cart, belonging to a farmer just by, would be sent for it, almost immediately. 'I do not recommend,' added he, smiling, 'such a machine for its elegance; and, if you would permit me to offer you one more eligible--' A grave motion of the head repressed him from finishing his phrase, and he acquainted her that he had just been to the farm, to bespeak a sober driver, with whom he had already settled for his morning's work.