"To tell you the truth, I have not called since we came to Texford," answered Algernon. "You know that they have peculiar notions. Our father, looking upon them as puritanical dissenters, has no wish to have them at the house. I have not seen the old ladies for some years. I remember that they did not make a very favourable impression on me when I met them last." "I suppose I may call on them," said Harry. "They were kind to me when I was a boy, and I liked cousin Mary, as we called her." "Yes, there can be no objection to your going," answered Algernon. "They will not consider it necessary to return your visit, and will look upon it as a kindness." The young men had been riding on further than they had intended, and being engaged in conversation while passing along lanes with high hedges on either side, they had not observed a storm gathering in the sky. Emerging from the lanes Harry invited his brother to take a gallop across the wide extended downs spread out before them, and thus they did not observe till they turned the thunder clouds sweeping up rapidly towards them. "We shall get wet jackets, I suspect, before we reach home," observed Harry. "I hope not," answered his brother, "for I have been especially charged to avoid the damp and cold, and I feel somewhat heated. I wish there was some place where we could get shelter." "I am very sorry that I led you on, for I see no shed or cottage anywhere," said Harry, gazing round; "and I am afraid we shall have the rain down upon us before many minutes. Our shortest way to the nearest house at Hurlston will, I suspect, be across the downs. Come along, there is no time to spare." They put their horses into a gallop. The downs though at a distance appearing to be level, were intercepted by several deep ravines, and the young men had not gone far before they were compelled to turn inland by coming to one of the most rugged and wild of these ravines, the side of which was too steep to allow them to ride down it. A little further Harry observed a place which he thought they could descend without difficulty, and thus save some distance. As he reached the bottom, followed by Algernon, he saw nestling under a rock on one side a hut built party of rough stones, and partly of the planks of some wreck cast on shore. At the same moment a bright flash of lightning darted from the clouds, followed by a crashing peal of thunder, when immediately down came the rain. "We may, at all events, find shelter in yonder hut," said Harry, "though it seems scarcely large enough to admit our horses, but I will hold them while you go inside." They made their way down the ravine, when Algernon dismounting pushed open the door and ran in, while Harry leading the horses followed him. At the further end of the hut a woman was seated on a stool before the wood fire blazing on the hearth, over which she bent, apparently engaged in watching the contents of an iron pot boiling on it.