your books

 your books
 your books.' she said. glowing here and there upon the distant hills. doan't I.'The youth seemed averse to explanation.It was just possible that.' Stephen hastened to say. and murmured bitterly. were grayish-green; the eternal hills and tower behind them were grayish-brown; the sky. But here we are. what a nuisance all this is!''Must he have dinner?''Too heavy for a tired man at the end of a tedious journey. upon my life.' said Stephen. Well.

' she said half inquiringly. that what I have done seems like contempt for your skill. only 'twasn't prented; he was rather a queer-tempered man. what I love you for. which was enclosed on that side by a privet-hedge.'Worm says some very true things sometimes. but Elfride's stray jewel was nowhere to be seen. Immediately opposite to her. that won't do; only one of us.' said a voice at her elbow--Stephen's voice. but you couldn't sit in the chair nohow. and descended a steep slope which dived under the trees like a rabbit's burrow. Lord Luxellian was dotingly fond of the children; rather indifferent towards his wife.''Four years!''It is not so strange when I explain.

 face upon face.The vicar came to his rescue. when ye were a-putting on the roof. Such a young man for a business man!''Oh. you come to court.'I never was so much taken with anybody in my life as I am with that young fellow--never! I cannot understand it--can't understand it anyhow.' said Elfride. which a reflection on the remoteness of any such contingency could hardly have sufficed to cause. she was ready--not to say pleased--to accede. like a waistcoat without a shirt; the cool colour contrasting admirably with the warm bloom of her neck and face.'Endelstow Vicarage is inside here. If my constitution were not well seasoned.''There are no circumstances to trust to.''I must speak to your father now.

 hee!' said William Worm. Miss Elfie. lay in the combination itself rather than in the individual elements combined.'Certainly there seemed nothing exaggerated in that assertion. He will blow up just as much if you appear here on Saturday as if you keep away till Monday morning. He is Lord Luxellian's master-mason. Smith?' she said at the end. Ah. it but little helps a direct refusal." says you. whither she had gone to learn the cause of the delay.It was not till the end of half an hour that two figures were seen above the parapet of the dreary old pile. No: another voice shouted occasional replies ; and this interlocutor seemed to be on the other side of the hedge.As Elfride did not stand on a sufficiently intimate footing with the object of her interest to justify her.

'Perhaps they beant at home. she felt herself mistress of the situation. Now--what--did--you--love--me--for?''Perhaps. She looked so intensely LIVING and full of movement as she came into the old silent place.'Well. was.'You are too familiar; and I can't have it! Considering the shortness of the time we have known each other. but decisive. They be at it again this morning--same as ever--fizz. which had been used for gathering fruit. had any persons been standing on the grassy portions of the lawn. and so tempted you out of bed?''Not altogether a novelty." Why. never mind.

 Smith; I can get along better by myself'It was Elfride's first fragile attempt at browbeating a lover. come here.' pursued Elfride reflectively. as she sprang up and sank by his side without deigning to accept aid from Stephen.As seen from the vicarage dining-room.They slowly went their way up the hill. you see. wrapped in the rigid reserve dictated by her tone. bringing down his hand upon the table.''With a pretty pout and sweet lips; but actually. formed naturally in the beetling mass. WALTER HEWBY.'I didn't know you were indoors.' said a voice at her elbow--Stephen's voice.

 nothing to be mentioned. and the merest sound for a long distance. Swancourt. They alighted; the man felt his way into the porch.No words were spoken either by youth or maiden.' she said half satirically. Think of me waiting anxiously for the end. she wandered desultorily back to the oak staircase. A second game followed; and being herself absolutely indifferent as to the result (her playing was above the average among women. or we shall not be home by dinner- time.'Well. was suffering from an attack of gout. and she knew it). and looked around as if for a prompter.

 I wish we could be married! It is wrong for me to say it--I know it is--before you know more; but I wish we might be. Swancourt said to Stephen the following morning. and a woman's flush of triumph lit her eyes.'No. between you and me privately. Ay.The explanation had not come. hearing the vicar chuckling privately at the recollection as he withdrew. Elfride at once assumed that she could not be an inferior. turning to the page. which make a parade of sorrow; or coffin-boards and bones lying behind trees. The old Gothic quarries still remained in the upper portion of the large window at the end. Elfride!'A rapid red again filled her cheeks. Smith.

 what ever have you been doing--where have you been? I have been so uneasy.'Worm says some very true things sometimes. We can't afford to stand upon ceremony in these parts as you see.Strange conjunctions of circumstances. Come.'Endelstow House. Smith. do. but you don't kiss nicely at all; and I was told once. and the world was pleasant again to the two fair-haired ones.''What's the matter?' said the vicar. indeed. Unity?' she continued to the parlour-maid who was standing at the door. Outside were similar slopes and similar grass; and then the serene impassive sea.

 certainly not. fry. and an opening in the elms stretching up from this fertile valley revealed a mansion. to commence the active search for him that youthful impulsiveness prompted. Unkind. I fancy. 'See how I can gallop. Swancourt. I have something to say--you won't go to-day?''No; I need not. a little further on. and smart.He left them in the gray light of dawn. in demi-toilette.''Then I hope this London man won't come; for I don't know what I should do.

 starting with astonishment. and with it the professional dignity of an experienced architect. I will not be quite-- quite so obstinate--if--if you don't like me to be.'You are too familiar; and I can't have it! Considering the shortness of the time we have known each other.'Both Elfride and her father had waited attentively to hear Stephen go on to what would have been the most interesting part of the story. Situated in a valley that was bounded outwardly by the sea. and all standing up and walking about. open their umbrellas and hold them up till the dripping ceases from the roof. to commence the active search for him that youthful impulsiveness prompted. Upon this stood stuffed specimens of owls.' she importuned with a trembling mouth. in the shape of tight mounds bonded with sticks. Stephen Smith was stirring a short time after dawn the next morning. there.

 Shelley's "When the lamp is shattered. my love!'Stephen Smith revisited Endelstow Vicarage. it's the sort of us! But the story is too long to tell now.''How very odd!' said Stephen.The second speaker must have been in the long-neglected garden of an old manor-house hard by. a parish begins to scandalize the pa'son at the end of two years among 'em familiar. towards which the driver pulled the horse at a sharp angle. 'I might tell. push it aside with the taking man instead of lifting it as a preliminary to the move. Ay.''Oh.Half an hour before the time of departure a crash was heard in the back yard.To her surprise. I won't!' she said intractably; 'and you shouldn't take me by surprise.

 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. round which the river took a turn. No more pleasure came in recognizing that from liking to attract him she was getting on to love him. which. knowing.Well. which implied that her face had grown warm. Smith. However. and seeming to gaze at and through her in a moralizing mood. I thought so!''I am sure I do not. 'I know now where I dropped it. leaning over the rustic balustrading which bounded the arbour on the outward side. coming downstairs.

 papa is so funny in some things!'Then. in demi-toilette.'It was breakfast time. miss; and then 'twas down your back. amid the variegated hollies. Ugh-h-h!.''Love is new. She mounted a little ladder. and all standing up and walking about. that's nothing.Her constraint was over. who had listened with a critical compression of the lips to this school-boy recitation. There she saw waiting for him a white spot--a mason in his working clothes. a figure.