Hetty Wesley

mill!

round the corner, and sat down suddenly in the gutter with a squeal, as a bagpipe collapses. The old gentleman rotated on one leg like a

hasty, and here's a shilling-piece to cry quits. Sta

, and darted down Little College Street to Hutton's Boarding House, und

n's, H

your

are rotte

t and carry home yo

when Wesley has

this last taunt from a safe distance. The o

rd for a moment! A fight, you

oy no

les W

it?" The boy grinned. The Reverend Samuel Wesley

harles Wesley be

I was told it began up school, with Randall's flingin

where wi

: they told me Poets' Corner was already bespoke for a turn-up between t

sight of half a dozen boys-the vanguard of Hutton's-at the street c

s rusty wig and countrified brown suit, he was a person of some dignity and no little force of character. They read it perhaps in the set of his mouth, perhaps in the high aquiline arch of his nose, which he fed with

comer; "no need to

d, but lithe, clear-skinned, and in the pink of condition; a handsome boy, too. By his height you might have guessed him under sixteen, but his face set you doubting. There are faces almost uncannily good-looking: they charm so confidently that you shrink from predicting t

ons of England, after all-met with scurrilous derision; and here Master Randall nursed a dull and inarticulate resentment in a world out of joint, where the winning side was a butt for epigrams. To win, and be laughed at! To have the account reopened in lampoons and witticisms, contemptible but irritating, when it shoul

Hutton's, who cheered him for the honour of their house, he had few well-wishers; but among them was a sprinkling of boys beari

get in with his long left. He was cunning, too; appeared slower than he was, tempting the other to take liberties, and, towards the end of the round, to step in a shade too closely. It was but a shade. We

ge, falling short, let in the little one, who dealt him a double knock-rap, rap, on either side of the jaw-before breaking away. Stung out of caution he rushed and ma

d quite indecisive, though at the end of them Wesley had a promising black eye and Randall was bleeding at mouth and nose. The

this there happened that which dismayed many and puzzled all. Wesley's fists went up, but hung, as it were impotent for the moment, while his eyes glanced aside from his adversary's and rested, with a stiffening of surprise, on the corner of the ring wh

t a hand gripping him by the elbow. "Now, how the-" he began, turning as he suppos

And although her fingers pinched his

at is more, he timed it beautifully; helped by Randall himself, who followed up at random, demoralised by the happy fluke and encouraged by the shouts o

very pretty-very pretty indeed!" He turne

" She withdrew her

low that down,

ase

ont great thoughts. It gave her the ineffable touch of greatness which more than redeemed her shabby black gown and antique bonnet; and, on an afterthought, the old gentleman decided that it must have been be

after a while he dropped his scruti

e, "dander up

, though I have never seen it on him. And I trus

don't tell me I'm talking to a Whig?-not

idently a reserve of mirth. "Indeed, no: but

d gentleman short

guard. Even so, for the fraction of a second, victory lay in his arms, a clear gift to be embraced: a quick crook of the elbow, and Master Wesley's head and neck would be snugly in Chancery. Master Wesley knew it-knew, further, that there was no retreat, and that his one chance hung on getting in his blow first and disabling with it. He jabbed it home

cross the green, the old gentleman took snuf

to the lady, "Are yo

is moth