Chapter 23
THE ADVENTURE OF THE RUNAWAY COUPLE The country had for some time back been changing in character. By a thousand indications I could judge that I was again drawing near to Scotland. I saw it written in the face of the hills, in the growth of the trees, and in the glint of the waterbrooks that kept the high-road company. It might have occurred to me, also, that I was, at the same time, approaching a place of some fame in Britain- -Gretna Green. Over these same leagues of road--which Rowley and I now traversed in the claret-coloured chaise, to the note of the flageolet and the French lesson--how many pairs of lovers had gone bowling northwards to the music of sixteen scampering horseshoes; and how many irate persons, parents, uncles, guardians, evicted rivals, had come tearing after, clappi
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