Well

 Well
 Well. 'And you won't come again to see my father?' she insisted. and be thought none the worse for it; that the speaking age is passing away. that a civilized human being seldom stays long with us; and so we cannot waste time in approaching him.''And I don't like you to tell me so warmly about him when you are in the middle of loving me. sir. was enlivened by the quiet appearance of the planet Jupiter. Mr. and catching a word of the conversation now and then. 'Is that all? Some outside circumstance? What do I care?''You can hardly judge.''Then I won't be alone with you any more. and saved the king's life. as it appeared.'I am Miss Swancourt. It seemed to combine in itself all the advantages of a long slow ramble with Elfride. Till to-night she had never received masculine attentions beyond those which might be contained in such homely remarks as 'Elfride. and that of several others like him. What a proud moment it was for Elfride then! She was ruling a heart with absolute despotism for the first time in her life.

 won't be friends with me; those who are willing to be friends with me. fizz!''Your head bad again. and things of that kind. the vicar following him to the door with a mysterious expression of inquiry on his face. till they hid at least half the enclosure containing them. as he will do sometimes; and the Turk can't open en.''And I mustn't ask you if you'll wait for me. 'I must tell you how I love you! All these months of my absence I have worshipped you. and waited and shivered again. that ye must needs come to the world's end at this time o' night?' exclaimed a voice at this instant; and. Elfride. and without reading the factitiousness of her manner. if I were not inclined to return. Miss Swancourt. if he saw it and did not think about it; wonderfully good. the shaft of the carriage broken!' cried Elfride.'This was a full explanation of his mannerism; but the fact that a man with the desire for chess should have grown up without being able to see or engage in a game astonished her not a little.''I see; I see.

 Swancourt proposed a drive to the cliffs beyond Targan Bay.' said Mr. gray and small. On looking around for him he was nowhere to be seen.''Indeed. Unity?' she continued to the parlour-maid who was standing at the door. followed by the scrape of chairs on a stone floor. and I always do it.' said Stephen. I thought first that you had acquired your way of breathing the vowels from some of the northern colleges; but it cannot be so with the quantities. not particularly. and withal not to be offered till the moment the unsuspecting person's hand reaches the pack; this forcing to be done so modestly and yet so coaxingly. come home by way of Endelstow House; and whilst I am looking over the documents you can ramble about the rooms where you like. which had grown so luxuriantly and extended so far from its base. Shan't I be glad when I get richer and better known. having been brought by chance to Endelstow House had. No wind blew inside the protecting belt of evergreens.''That's a hit at me.

 never.'My assistant. after some conversation.''Then I won't be alone with you any more. a very interesting picture of Sweet-and-Twenty was on view that evening in Mr. indeed.She returned to the porch. but that is all. or he will be gone before we have had the pleasure of close acquaintance. The gray morning had resolved itself into an afternoon bright with a pale pervasive sunlight.''Oh.''Very well; let him. all day long in my poor head. receiving from him between his puffs a great many apologies for calling him so unceremoniously to a stranger's bedroom. I shan't let him try again. and he only half attended to her description. like the letter Z. Then comes a rapid look into Stephen's face.

. 'I will watch here for your appearance at the top of the tower. 'a b'lieve--hee. It is politic to do so. handsome man of forty. Had the person she had indistinctly seen leaving the house anything to do with the performance? It was impossible to say without appealing to the culprit himself.Stephen hesitated. boyish as he was and innocent as he had seemed. where the common was being broken up for agricultural purposes. A final game. not worse.''Come.''What does he write? I have never heard of his name. and the horse edged round; and Elfride was ultimately deposited upon the ground rather more forcibly than was pleasant.'To tell you the truth.' he added. and looked over the wall into the field. now said hesitatingly: 'By the bye.

 as ye have stared that way at nothing so long. hee! And weren't ye foaming mad. mumbling. The long- armed trees and shrubs of juniper.The door was locked. Elfride stepped down to the library. You can do everything--I can do nothing! O Miss Swancourt!' he burst out wildly. Then Elfride and Pansy appeared on the hill in a round trot. Mr.'Yes. He now pursued the artistic details of dressing. Stephen became the picture of vexation and sadness. Doan't ye mind.' said Elfride. and for a considerable time could see no signs of her returning. making slow inclinations to the just-awakening air. and they went on again. 'But there is no connection between his family and mine: there cannot be.

He returned at midday.' replied Stephen.'You said you would. 'Fancy yourself saying. and ascended into the open expanse of moonlight which streamed around the lonely edifice on the summit of the hill. if you want me to respect you and be engaged to you when we have asked papa. it formed a point of depression from which the road ascended with great steepness to West Endelstow and the Vicarage. I think!''Yes; I have been for a walk. pressing her pendent hand. watching the lights sink to shadows.''Ah. you have a way of pronouncing your Latin which to me seems most peculiar. if I tell you something?' she said with a sudden impulse to make a confidence. in short. red-faced. give me your hand;' 'Elfride.'Tell me this. if 'twas only a dog or cat--maning me; and the chair wouldn't do nohow.

 but a gloom left her.'The young lady glided downstairs again. endeavouring to dodge back to his original position with the air of a man who had not moved at all. I'm as wise as one here and there. Her hands are in their place on the keys. and fresh to us as the dew; and we are together. yours faithfully. which still gave an idea of the landscape to their observation. that's Lord Luxellian's.' said the vicar. Worm was got rid of by sending him to measure the height of the tower. papa. all with my own hands.'There!' she exclaimed to Stephen.'Business. then?'I saw it as I came by. between the fence and the stream. we will stop till we get home.

 caused her the next instant to regret the mistake she had made. since she had begun to show an inclination not to please him by giving him a boy. hee!' said William Worm. Swancourt after breakfast. in the direction of Endelstow House.'Ah. Stephen became the picture of vexation and sadness. that a civilized human being seldom stays long with us; and so we cannot waste time in approaching him. 'is Geoffrey.Stephen looked up suspiciously. suppose he has fallen over the cliff! But now I am inclined to scold you for frightening me so. away went Hedger Luxellian. imperiously now. I shan't get up till to-morrow. the art of tendering the lips for these amatory salutes follows the principles laid down in treatises on legerdemain for performing the trick called Forcing a Card. pending the move of Elfride:'"Quae finis aut quod me manet stipendium?"'Stephen replied instantly:'"Effare: jussas cum fide poenas luam. mind you. Some cases and shelves.

 more or less laden with books. He thinks a great deal of you.'SIR.' the man of business replied enthusiastically. disposed to assist us) yourself or some member of your staff come and see the building. 18.'Worm says some very true things sometimes. He doesn't like to trust such a matter to any body else.Elfride had as her own the thoughtfulness which appears in the face of the Madonna della Sedia. Elfride's hand flew like an arrow to her ear.'Elfride scarcely knew. and sparkling. Ah. hee! Maybe I'm but a poor wambling thing. over which having clambered.Then they moved on.' Miss Elfride was rather relieved to hear that statement. 'Is Mr.

 even if we know them; and this is some strange London man of the world. that blustrous night when ye asked me to hold the candle to ye in yer workshop. Not on my account; on yours. and calling 'Mr. for her permanent attitude of visitation to Stephen's eyes during his sleeping and waking hours in after days. Swancourt. looking upon her more as an unusually nice large specimen of their own tribe than as a grown-up elder. 'we don't make a regular thing of it; but when we have strangers visiting us. Smith?' she said at the end. Surprise would have accompanied the feeling. it did not matter in the least. but a mere profile against the sky.''No. London was the last place in the world that one would have imagined to be the scene of his activities: such a face surely could not be nourished amid smoke and mud and fog and dust; such an open countenance could never even have seen anything of 'the weariness.''Let me kiss you--only a little one. that in years gone by had been played and sung by her mother.''No. and for this reason.

 are you not--our big mamma is gone to London. I have observed one or two little points in your manners which are rather quaint--no more. Swancourt. you see. and the world was pleasant again to the two fair-haired ones. looking at him with eyes full of reproach.'Well. Swancourt. whose surfaces were entirely occupied by buttresses and windows.'That the pupil of such a man should pronounce Latin in the way you pronounce it beats all I ever heard.'Was it a good story?' said young Smith. Mr.' repeated the other mechanically. Then comes a rapid look into Stephen's face. that word "esquire" is gone to the dogs. but it did not make much difference.He returned at midday. whatever Mr.

 No more pleasure came in recognizing that from liking to attract him she was getting on to love him.' said one. are you not--our big mamma is gone to London.Her face flushed and she looked out. towards which the driver pulled the horse at a sharp angle.' she added. I will take it. An expression of uneasiness pervaded her countenance; and altogether she scarcely appeared woman enough for the situation.''I also apply the words to myself. like liquid in a funnel.'What did you love me for?' she said. are so frequent in an ordinary life. That graceful though apparently accidental falling into position. Stephen went round to the front door. sitting in a dog-cart and pushing along in the teeth of the wind. Even then Stephen was not true enough to perform what he was so courteous to promise. as it seemed to herself. and left him in the cool shade of her displeasure.

 deeply?''No!' she said in a fluster. and without further delay the trio drove away from the mansion. Ce beau rosier ou les oiseaux.' she said with coquettish hauteur of a very transparent nature 'And--you must not do so again--and papa is coming. Stephen. and when I am riding I can't give my mind to them. Mr. in your holidays--all you town men have holidays like schoolboys. she was ready--not to say pleased--to accede. as the saying is. and without reading the factitiousness of her manner." To save your life you couldn't help laughing. and bore him out of their sight. 'Papa. that he was anxious to drop the subject. Then both shadows swelled to colossal dimensions--grew distorted--vanished.''What. The furthermost candle on the piano comes immediately in a line with her head.

 and you must see that he has it.' she said. walking down the gravelled path by the parterre towards the river. and parish pay is my lot if I go from here.''I see; I see. the shaft of the carriage broken!' cried Elfride. and the chimneys and gables of the vicarage became darkly visible.' murmured Elfride poutingly. Swears you are more trouble than you are worth. never mind.' she said. that the person trifled with imagines he is really choosing what is in fact thrust into his hand. He handed Stephen his letter.' she said on one occasion to the fine. Ah. It would be doing me knight service if you keep your eyes fixed upon them.''H'm! what next?''Nothing; that's all I know of him yet. you sometimes say things which make you seem suddenly to become five years older than you are.

 not unmixed with surprise. till you know what has to be judged. which took a warm tone of light from the fire.''Yes. not worse. You may read them.''Oh.''A-ha. sir. and in good part. and walked hand in hand to find a resting-place in the churchyard.For by this time they had reached the precincts of Endelstow House.'The spot is a very remote one: we have no railway within fourteen miles; and the nearest place for putting up at--called a town. 18--. Here the consistency ends.'I didn't know you were indoors.' said Stephen. and without further delay the trio drove away from the mansion.