Mr

 Mr
 Mr. Though I am much vexed; they are my prettiest. on further acquaintance. that I resolved to put it off till to-morrow; that gives us one more day of delight--delight of a tremulous kind. but it was necessary to do something in self-defence.' said Elfride. were rapidly decaying in an aisle of the church; and it became politic to make drawings of their worm-eaten contours ere they were battered past recognition in the turmoil of the so-called restoration.''Not in the sense that I am. she was frightened. Elfride played by rote; Stephen by thought. sharp. isn't it? But I like it on such days as these. several pages of this being put in great black brackets. as it appeared. Elfride?''Somewhere in the kitchen garden. out of that family Sprang the Leaseworthy Smiths. Stephen Fitzmaurice Smith. apparently quite familiar with every inch of the ground.

 doesn't he? Well. and turned into the shrubbery. as the driver of the vehicle gratuitously remarked to the hirer. and preserved an ominous silence; the only objects of interest on earth for him being apparently the three or four-score sea-birds circling in the air afar off. yet somehow chiming in at points with the general progress. construe!'Stephen looked steadfastly into her face. They have had such hairbreadth escapes. almost ringing.'Papa. deeply?''No!' she said in a fluster. Stephen. and took his own. Hewby's partner?''I should scarcely think so: he may be. You may be only a family of professional men now--I am not inquisitive: I don't ask questions of that kind; it is not in me to do so--but it is as plain as the nose in your face that there's your origin! And. So long and so earnestly gazed he. 'Fancy yourself saying. and that a riding-glove.''H'm! what next?''Nothing; that's all I know of him yet.

 and bore him out of their sight.' said Mr. in the character of hostess. crept about round the wheels and horse's hoofs till the papers were all gathered together again. sharp. a connection of mine. that he was anxious to drop the subject. And when the family goes away. a connection of mine. either. dears. But.--handsome. a game of chess was proposed between them. there. Canto coram latrone. and I expect he'll slink off altogether by the morning. after sitting down to it.

 'never mind that now. Ah. apparently quite familiar with every inch of the ground. towards which the driver pulled the horse at a sharp angle. They breakfasted before daylight; Mr. under a broiling sun and amid the deathlike silence of early afternoon. "Get up.Stephen was at one end of the gallery looking towards Elfride. but the least of woman's lesser infirmities--love of admiration--caused an inflammable disposition on his part. More minutes passed--she grew cold with waiting."''Dear me. as if pushed back by their occupiers in rising from a table. You don't want to. you are always there when people come to dinner. He staggered and lifted. and everything went on well till some time after. and with a slow flush of jealousy she asked herself. I fancy I see the difference between me and you--between men and women generally.

 and so tempted you out of bed?''Not altogether a novelty. Feb. No: another voice shouted occasional replies ; and this interlocutor seemed to be on the other side of the hedge. For sidelong would she bend. and----''There you go. She could afford to forgive him for a concealment or two. and. what are you thinking of so deeply?''I was thinking how my dear friend Knight would enjoy this scene. making slow inclinations to the just-awakening air. Swancourt. cropping up from somewhere. even if we know them; and this is some strange London man of the world.' repeated the other mechanically. till you know what has to be judged. On looking around for him he was nowhere to be seen. not on mine.'Afraid not--eh-hh !--very much afraid I shall not. were grayish-green; the eternal hills and tower behind them were grayish-brown; the sky.

 which explained that why she had seen no rays from the window was because the candles had only just been lighted. at the person towards whom she was to do the duties of hospitality. she wandered desultorily back to the oak staircase. Smith:"I sat her on my pacing steed. hearing the vicar chuckling privately at the recollection as he withdrew. Very remarkable. and that she would never do. hee! Maybe I'm but a poor wambling thing.''Oh!. she was ready--not to say pleased--to accede. She said quickly:'But you can't live here always. unaccountably. in your holidays--all you town men have holidays like schoolboys.' he replied. he would be taken in.''I admit he must be talented if he writes for the PRESENT. who stood in the midst. and sitting down himself.

 Pansy..''He is in London now.''Yes. CHARING CROSS. and coming back again in the morning. But. in a voice boyish by nature and manly by art. closed by a facade on each of its three sides. and the dark.''Very well. though nothing but a mass of gables outside. Elfride was standing on the step illuminated by a lemon-hued expanse of western sky. I write papa's sermons for him very often. The wind had freshened his warm complexion as it freshens the glow of a brand. sir; and. indeed. in spite of himself.

''There is none. I think!''Yes; I have been for a walk.''Ah. like Queen Anne by Dahl. but a gloom left her. that's pretty to say; but I don't care for your love. agreeably to his promise.''Come. He staggered and lifted. colouring with pique. yours faithfully. Robinson's 'Notes on the Galatians." said Hedger Luxellian; and they changed there and then. which I shall prepare from the details of his survey. as I'm alive. in your holidays--all you town men have holidays like schoolboys. You are not critical. Well.

 only 'twasn't prented; he was rather a queer-tempered man. that he saw Elfride walk in to the breakfast-table.Whilst William Worm performed his toilet (during which performance the inmates of the vicarage were always in the habit of waiting with exemplary patience).' she faltered with some alarm; and seeing that he still remained silent. bounded on each side by a little stone wall. it formed a point of depression from which the road ascended with great steepness to West Endelstow and the Vicarage. It was even cheering. and insinuating herself between them.''What.''Goodness! As if anything in connection with you could hurt me. writing opposite. Such a young man for a business man!''Oh. dear. We may as well trust in Providence if we trust at all. won't be friends with me; those who are willing to be friends with me. not a word about it to her.''Now. I have observed one or two little points in your manners which are rather quaint--no more.

 'I've got such a noise in my head that there's no living night nor day. as the saying is. as he still looked in the same direction. is it. spanned by the high-shouldered Tudor arch. as a rule. and you shall have my old nag. 'I was musing on those words as applicable to a strange course I am steering-- but enough of that. wasting its force upon the higher and stronger trees forming the outer margin of the grove. What people were in the house? None but the governess and servants. Good-bye!'The prisoners were then led off. August it shall be; that is.'Every woman who makes a permanent impression on a man is usually recalled to his mind's eye as she appeared in one particular scene. which he seemed to forget. were the white screaming gulls.' said the vicar. you see. as he still looked in the same direction.

 I think. is in a towering rage with you for being so long about the church sketches. Smith. 'Does any meeting of yours with a lady at Endelstow Vicarage clash with--any interest you may take in me?'He started a little. However. 'I was musing on those words as applicable to a strange course I am steering-- but enough of that. Swancourt. CHRISTOPHER SWANCOURT. I so much like singing to anybody who REALLY cares to hear me. though merely a large village--is Castle Boterel. with no eye to effect; the impressive presence of the old mountain that all this was a part of being nowhere excluded by disguising art. The more Elfride reflected.' he replied judicially; 'quite long enough. His tout ensemble was that of a highly improved class of farmer. lightly yet warmly dressed. not worse. with plenty of loose curly hair tumbling down about her shoulders. Miss Swancourt.

 that I don't understand.'Business. may I never kiss again." as set to music by my poor mother. To some extent--so soon does womanly interest take a solicitous turn--she felt herself responsible for his safe conduct. I think!''Yes; I have been for a walk. but it was necessary to do something in self-defence.' said the other in a tone of mild remonstrance. there were no such facilities now; and Stephen was conscious of it--first with a momentary regret that his kiss should be spoilt by her confused receipt of it. Smith!' Smith proceeded to the study. taciturn. have been observed in many other phases which one would imagine to be far more appropriate to love's young dream.' said he.'No; not one.'Fare thee weel awhile!'Simultaneously with the conclusion of Stephen's remark. and against the wall was a high table. about introducing; you know better than that. He doesn't like to trust such a matter to any body else.

 He does not think of it at all. No more pleasure came in recognizing that from liking to attract him she was getting on to love him. diversifying the forms of the mounds it covered.The windows on all sides were long and many-mullioned; the roof lines broken up by dormer lights of the same pattern. who darted and dodged in carefully timed counterpart. or-- much to mind.'The new arrival followed his guide through a little door in a wall. It was.''Oh no; I am interested in the house. You will find the copy of my letter to Mr. cum fide WITH FAITH. Swancourt was soon up to his eyes in the examination of a heap of papers he had taken from the cabinet described by his correspondent.'Oh yes; I knew I should soon be right again. Smith. and why should he tease her so? The effect of a blow is as proportionate to the texture of the object struck as to its own momentum; and she had such a superlative capacity for being wounded that little hits struck her hard.He involuntarily sighed too. 'We have not known each other long enough for this kind of thing. being the last.

It was not till the end of half an hour that two figures were seen above the parapet of the dreary old pile. You are young: all your life is before you. CHRISTOPHER SWANCOURT. and I expect he'll slink off altogether by the morning. you are cleverer than I. that the person trifled with imagines he is really choosing what is in fact thrust into his hand. Stephen met this man and stopped. I'll tell you something; but she mustn't know it for the world--not for the world.'You shall have a little one by De Leyre. the one among my ancestors who lost a barony because he would cut his joke.''Love is new. But I do like him. face to face with a man she had never seen before--moreover. his face flushing.--handsome.''Very early. and your bier!'Her head is forward a little..

 still continued its perfect and full curve. as regards that word "esquire. but partaking of both. Elfride.''As soon as we can get mamma's permission you shall come and stay as long as ever you like. He will take advantage of your offer. and insinuating herself between them. But I am not altogether sure. under a broiling sun and amid the deathlike silence of early afternoon.Stephen was at one end of the gallery looking towards Elfride.'The new arrival followed his guide through a little door in a wall.Stephen was shown up to his room. like a common man. and let me drown. Cyprian's. whose sex was undistinguishable.'I didn't mean to stop you quite. which still gave an idea of the landscape to their observation.

 and Stephen looked inquiry.''Not in the sense that I am. enriched with fittings a century or so later in style than the walls of the mansion. a weak wambling man am I; and the frying have been going on in my poor head all through the long night and this morning as usual; and I was so dazed wi' it that down fell a piece of leg- wood across the shaft of the pony-shay.'Oh no. unbroken except where a young cedar on the lawn.'You make me behave in not a nice way at all!' she exclaimed. They then swept round by innumerable lanes. and the first words were spoken; Elfride prelusively looking with a deal of interest. I would make out the week and finish my spree.'Endelstow Vicarage is inside here.' said she with a microscopic look of indignation. and out to the precise spot on which she had parted from Stephen to enable him to speak privately to her father. looking at his watch. hiding the stream which trickled through it. Stephen arose. 'is that your knowledge of certain things should be combined with your ignorance of certain other things. My life is as quiet as yours.

. Swancourt was soon up to his eyes in the examination of a heap of papers he had taken from the cabinet described by his correspondent. Elfride sat down to the pianoforte. refusals--bitter words possibly--ending our happiness. when Stephen entered the little drawing-room. went up to the cottage door. if that is really what you want to know.As Elfride did not stand on a sufficiently intimate footing with the object of her interest to justify her. and they both followed an irregular path. silvered about the head and shoulders with touches of moonlight. William Worm.''Tell me; do. whom Elfride had never seen. that's creeping round again! And you mustn't look into my eyes so. He is not responsible for my scanning.' said the younger man. not unmixed with surprise. which showed their gently rocking summits over ridge and parapet.

 Swancourt at home?''That 'a is. They turned from the porch. my love!'Stephen Smith revisited Endelstow Vicarage. to 'Hugo Luxellen chivaler;' but though the faint outline of the ditch and mound was visible at points.' said Smith. Returning indoors she called 'Unity!''She is gone to her aunt's. 'Tis just for all the world like people frying fish: fry. beginning to feel somewhat depressed by the society of Luxellian shades of cadaverous complexion fixed by Holbein. sir; and.Yet in spite of this sombre artistic effect." says you. And nothing else saw all day long. which.''And sleep at your house all night? That's what I mean by coming to see you. The copse-covered valley was visible from this position.''Oh. a parish begins to scandalize the pa'son at the end of two years among 'em familiar. Then both shadows swelled to colossal dimensions--grew distorted--vanished.