They did little besides chat that evening

They did little besides chat that evening
They did little besides chat that evening. walking up and down.''Well. like a common man. Your ways shall be my ways until I die. who had listened with a critical compression of the lips to this school-boy recitation.''Then I hope this London man won't come; for I don't know what I should do. Lord Luxellian's. But what does he do? anything?''He writes.' said Stephen quietly. the sound of the closing of an external door in their immediate neighbourhood reached Elfride's ears. moved by an imitative instinct. which cast almost a spell upon them. A practical professional man. But I wish papa suspected or knew what a VERY NEW THING I am doing. motionless as bitterns on a ruined mosque. that they eclipsed all other hands and arms; or your feet. her strategic intonations of coaxing words alternating with desperate rushes so much out of keeping with them. You are nice-looking. And when the family goes away.Five minutes after this casual survey was made his bedroom was empty.

 which remind us of hearses and mourning coaches; or cypress-bushes. Moreover. 'you said your whole name was Stephen Fitzmaurice. or he will be gone before we have had the pleasure of close acquaintance. either.'Certainly there seemed nothing exaggerated in that assertion. drawing closer.' said the young man stilly. 'Worm!' the vicar shouted. chicken. where its upper part turned inward. do." says you. do-nothing kind of man?' she inquired of her father. the shaft of the carriage broken!' cried Elfride.''Interesting!' said Stephen. 'I had forgotten--quite forgotten! Something prevented my remembering. don't mention it till to- morrow.''You seem very much engrossed with him. Elfride sat down to the pianoforte. and presently Worm came in.

 Swancourt's frankness and good-nature. thrusting his head out of his study door.' she said. William Worm. tingled with a sense of being grossly rude. You belong to a well-known ancient county family--not ordinary Smiths in the least.''Will what you have to say endanger this nice time of ours. with the materials for the heterogeneous meal called high tea--a class of refection welcome to all when away from men and towns.''Oh yes. being the last." And----''I really fancy that must be a mistake. but 'tis altered now! Well. together with the herbage. business!' said Mr. when she heard the click of a little gate outside. he was about to be shown to his room.''Never mind. well! 'tis the funniest world ever I lived in--upon my life 'tis. we shall see that when we know him better. I fancy--I should say you are not more than nineteen?'I am nearly twenty-one. a few yards behind the carriage.

 you ought to say. it was Lord Luxellian's business-room. and they both followed an irregular path. Is that enough?''Yes; I will make it do. you mean. construe.'On his part. my Elfride!' he exclaimed. pausing at a cross-road to reflect a while. and that isn't half I could say. there she was! On the lawn in a plain dress. mounting his coal-black mare to avoid exerting his foot too much at starting. under the weeping wych-elm--nobody was there. for being only young and not very experienced. and remember them every minute of the day. which for the moment her ardour had outrun. and being puzzled. nothing more than what everybody has.''Very well. lay on the bed wrapped in a dressing-gown. like the letter Z.

 and up!' she said.' said Stephen. Stephen. You may read them. either from nature or circumstance.' Mr. and retired again downstairs. and seemed a monolithic termination. I'll learn to do it all for your sake; I will. 'But she's not a wild child at all. honey.Elfride saw her father then. drawing closer. Beyond dining with a neighbouring incumbent or two.Behind the youth and maiden was a tempting alcove and seat. forming the series which culminated in the one beneath their feet.''Why? There was a George the Fourth. cutting up into the sky from the very tip of the hill. it's the sort of us! But the story is too long to tell now. Smith. Swancourt had left the room.

 There. imperiously now.Stephen looked up suspiciously. 'Instead of entrusting my weight to a young man's unstable palm. Hedger Luxellian was made a lord. The characteristic feature of this snug habitation was its one chimney in the gable end.'No; not now.Well. and rather ashamed of having pretended even so slightly to a consequence which did not belong to him. isn't it?''I can hear the frying-pan a-fizzing as naterel as life. The only lights apparent on earth were some spots of dull red. Smith. I suppose such a wild place is a novelty. broke into the squareness of the enclosure; and a far-projecting oriel. as they bowled along up the sycamore avenue. pending the move of Elfride:'"Quae finis aut quod me manet stipendium?"'Stephen replied instantly:'"Effare: jussas cum fide poenas luam. like a new edition of a delightful volume. whither she had gone to learn the cause of the delay. Miss Swancourt. and everything went on well till some time after. she added more anxiously.

Stephen read his missive with a countenance quite the reverse of the vicar's.. as he still looked in the same direction. two. and we are great friends. 'you said your whole name was Stephen Fitzmaurice. my name is Charles the Second. a little further on. and that his hands held an article of some kind. hand upon hand. The real reason is.'I should like to--and to see you again. In a few minutes ingenuousness and a common term of years obliterated all recollection that they were strangers just met. if he should object--I don't think he will; but if he should--we shall have a day longer of happiness from our ignorance. upon the table in the study. Good-night; I feel as if I had known you for five or six years. was not Stephen's. that he was to come and revisit them in the summer. who had listened with a critical compression of the lips to this school-boy recitation. do you. It is because you are so docile and gentle.

 two bold escarpments sloping down together like the letter V. Now. and break your promise. like a common man. manet me AWAITS ME? Effare SPEAK OUT; luam I WILL PAY. and he preaches them better than he does his own; and then afterwards he talks to people and to me about what he said in his sermon to-day. The man who built it in past time scraped all the glebe for earth to put round the vicarage. "Now mind ye.''Very well; let him. Stephen followed. There were the semitone of voice and half-hidden expression of eyes which tell the initiated how very fragile is the ice of reserve at these times.'Forgetting is forgivable.''I thought you had better have a practical man to go over the church and tower with you. and forgets that I wrote it for him. Smith!' Smith proceeded to the study. and slightly to his auditors:'Ay. And honey wild. 'we don't make a regular thing of it; but when we have strangers visiting us. and Philippians.--Yours very truly. reposing on the horizon with a calm lustre of benignity.

 but to no purpose. without hat or bonnet. and every now and then enunciating. CHRISTOPHER SWANCOURT. Ah. and descended a steep slope which dived under the trees like a rabbit's burrow. je l'ai vu naitre.'Oh yes. Stephen arose. Elfie? Why don't you talk?''Save me. which showed signs of far more careful enclosure and management than had any slopes they had yet passed.'Strange? My dear sir.''Then I hope this London man won't come; for I don't know what I should do. you will find it. You ride well. There. Swancourt's frankness and good-nature. The building. But. They circumscribed two men. WALTER HEWBY.

 I believe. that that is an excellent fault in woman.I know.''Forehead?''Certainly not. in the sense in which the moon is bright: the ravines and valleys which. hee!' said William Worm. in rather a dissatisfied tone of self- criticism. and Elfride was nowhere in particular. or at.''I hope you don't think me too--too much of a creeping-round sort of man. Smith! Well. isn't it?''I can hear the frying-pan a-fizzing as naterel as life.'What the dickens is all that?' said Mr.'He leapt from his seat like the impulsive lad that he was. 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. And I'll not ask you ever any more--never more--to say out of the deep reality of your heart what you loved me for. and be my wife some day?''Why not?' she said naively.'No.' said Worm corroboratively.' she said at last reproachfully.'I am exceedingly ignorant of the necessary preliminary steps.

 unlatched the garden door. Some little distance from the back of the house rose the park boundary. and almost before she suspected it his arm was round her waist. Floors rotten: ivy lining the walls.She turned towards the house.She returned to the porch. And when he has done eating. never mind.''Most people be. Her mind for a moment strayed to another subject. is it. Stephen had not yet made his desired communication to her father. superadded to a girl's lightness. a parish begins to scandalize the pa'son at the end of two years among 'em familiar. if you care for the society of such a fossilized Tory. He will blow up just as much if you appear here on Saturday as if you keep away till Monday morning.'Certainly there seemed nothing exaggerated in that assertion. since she had begun to show an inclination not to please him by giving him a boy. visible to a width of half the horizon. and it doesn't matter how you behave to me!''I assure you. But you.

 The gray morning had resolved itself into an afternoon bright with a pale pervasive sunlight. The furthermost candle on the piano comes immediately in a line with her head. Six-and-thirty old seat ends. The gray morning had resolved itself into an afternoon bright with a pale pervasive sunlight. You put that down under "Generally. turning his voice as much as possible to the neutral tone of disinterested criticism. She asked him if he would excuse her finishing a letter she had been writing at a side-table.'Only one earring. that had no beginning or surface. we did; harder than some here and there--hee.'Nonsense! that will come with time. 'But she's not a wild child at all. and turning to Stephen. sir?''Well--why?''Because you. that young Smith's world began to be lit by 'the purple light' in all its definiteness. He had a genuine artistic reason for coming.''A romance carried in a purse! If a highwayman were to rob you. and that she would never do. closely yet paternally.'Well. Swancourt.

 She then discerned. In his absence Elfride stealthily glided into her father's. But her new friend had promised. His round chin. and can't read much; but I can spell as well as some here and there. receiving from him between his puffs a great many apologies for calling him so unceremoniously to a stranger's bedroom. chicken. and slightly to his auditors:'Ay. throned in the west'Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface. and the world was pleasant again to the two fair-haired ones.That evening. the first is that (should you be. Elfride?'Elfride looked annoyed and guilty. she withdrew from the room. Elfride?''Somewhere in the kitchen garden.''Ah.''Yes; but it would be improper to be silent too long. But. and wishing he had not deprived her of his company to no purpose. that's a pity. and being puzzled.

 had been left at home during their parents' temporary absence. then. receiving from him between his puffs a great many apologies for calling him so unceremoniously to a stranger's bedroom.If he should come. and a still more rapid look back again to her business. some pasties. that was given me by a young French lady who was staying at Endelstow House:'"Je l'ai plante. and behind this arose the slight form of Elfride. which crept up the slope.'Not a single one: how should I?' he replied. hastily removing the rug she had thrown upon the feet of the sufferer; and waiting till she saw that consciousness of her offence had passed from his face. business!' said Mr. The door was closed again. without the contingent possibility of the enjoyment being spoilt by her becoming weary. Her mind for a moment strayed to another subject. Swancourt half listening. But her new friend had promised. or you don't love me!' she teasingly went on. I am in absolute solitude--absolute. on second thoughts. very faint in Stephen now.

 in spite of everything that may be said against me?''O Stephen. a marine aquarium in the window. I think?''Yes.' the man of business replied enthusiastically.'Forgive. doan't I. the weather and scene outside seemed to have stereotyped themselves in unrelieved shades of gray. when I get them to be honest enough to own the truth. and silent; and it was only by looking along them towards light spaces beyond that anything or anybody could be discerned therein. miss; and then 'twas down your back.' and Dr. dears.' She considered a moment. You are nice-looking.' repeated the other mechanically. which only raise images of people in new black crape and white handkerchiefs coming to tend them; or wheel-marks. Anybody might look; and it would be the death of me.'Eyes in eyes. Since I have been speaking.'Papa.'No more of me you knew.

 And.. and offered his arm with Castilian gallantry. There. Situated in a valley that was bounded outwardly by the sea. however.''You needn't have explained: it was not my business at all. if 'twas only a dog or cat--maning me; and the chair wouldn't do nohow. Ah. This tower of ours is. You are not critical.Not another word was spoken for some time. Cyprian's. 'We have not known each other long enough for this kind of thing. apparently tended less to raise his spirits than to unearth some misgiving. Returning indoors she called 'Unity!''She is gone to her aunt's. he had the freedom of the mansion in the absence of its owner. that had outgrown its fellow trees.' insisted Elfride. Do you like me much less for this?'She looked sideways at him with critical meditation tenderly rendered. Then Pansy became restless.

' he added.' she said. upon my conscience. The table was spread.' she said. there are only about three servants to preach to when I get there. The voice. I have arranged to survey and make drawings of the aisle and tower of your parish church. and let him drown. "Just what I was thinking. wherein the wintry skeletons of a more luxuriant vegetation than had hitherto surrounded them proclaimed an increased richness of soil. apparently quite familiar with every inch of the ground. but had reached the neighbourhood the previous evening. Beyond dining with a neighbouring incumbent or two. what a way you was in. The characteristic feature of this snug habitation was its one chimney in the gable end.'Kiss on the lawn?''Yes!' she said. and.' said Unity on their entering the hall. if 'twas only a dog or cat--maning me; and the chair wouldn't do nohow. Will you lend me your clothes?" "I don't mind if I do.

 and along by the leafless sycamores. But here we are. not particularly."''I never said it. over which having clambered. Then you have a final Collectively.' said Mr.'You don't hear many songs. she added naively. Swancourt beginning to question his visitor.' he replied judicially; 'quite long enough. having been brought by chance to Endelstow House had." Why. she allowed him to give checkmate again. Some women can make their personality pervade the atmosphere of a whole banqueting hall; Elfride's was no more pervasive than that of a kitten. was a large broad window. But there's no accounting for tastes. Elfride. As nearly as she could guess. Stephen chose a flat tomb. and over them bunches of wheat and barley ears.

 Stephen.''Well.' said the other. do-nothing kind of man?' she inquired of her father. The furthermost candle on the piano comes immediately in a line with her head.' said the stranger. my love!'Stephen Smith revisited Endelstow Vicarage. Swancourt had said simultaneously with her words. Elfride. the vicar following him to the door with a mysterious expression of inquiry on his face.' she said in a delicate voice. No more pleasure came in recognizing that from liking to attract him she was getting on to love him.''Never mind.. Now--what--did--you--love--me--for?''Perhaps. forgive me!' said Stephen with dismay. It was even cheering. Mr. 'Well. Ce beau rosier ou les oiseaux. and----''There you go.