"I wander in this country like one in a dream; so much a few months have changed it.
Men who formerly occupied themselves with their own affairs, are now swallowed up in matters of state policy; and those tremble under the apprehension of some strange and sudden convulsion of empire, who were formerly only occupied by the fear of going to bed supperless.

And to sum up the matter, I meet a stranger apparently well acquainted with my name and concerns, who first attaches himself to me, whether I will or no; and then refuses me an explanation of his business, while he menaces me with the strangest accusations." "Had I meant such infamy," said the stranger, "believe me, I had not given you the thread of my intrigue.

But be wise, and come one with me.

There is, hard by, a small inn, where, if you can take a stranger's warrant for it, we shall sleep in perfect security." "Yet, you yourself," said Peveril, "but now were anxious to avoid observation; and in that case, how can you protect me ?" "Pshaw! I did but silence that tattling landlady, in the way in which such people are most readily hushed; and for Topham, and his brace of night owls, they must hawk at other and lesser game than I should prove." Peveril could not help admiring the easy and confident indifference with which the stranger seemed to assume a superiority to all the circumstances of danger around him; and after hastily considering the matter with himself, came to the resolution to keep company with him for this night at least; and to learn, if possible, who he really was, and to what party in the estate he was attached.

The boldness and freedom of his talk seemed almost inconsistent with his following the perilous, though at that time the gainful trade of an informer.