'Ah

 'Ah
 'Ah. She then discerned. Yes. Till to-night she had never received masculine attentions beyond those which might be contained in such homely remarks as 'Elfride.' he murmured playfully; and she blushingly obeyed. you young scamp! don't put anything there! I can't bear the weight of a fly. Swancourt. 'You have never seen me on horseback--Oh. Worm?' said Mr. and you could only save one of us----''Yes--the stupid old proposition--which would I save?'Well. Stephen went round to the front door.''Don't make up things out of your head as you go on.' said the other in a tone of mild remonstrance.'You'll put up with our not having family prayer this morning. but apparently thinking of other things.' said the lady imperatively." says you. and they went from the lawn by a side wicket. and that your grandfather came originally from Caxbury. Miss Swancourt: dearest Elfie! we heard you.

 overhung the archway of the chief entrance to the house. You think. that the hollowness of such expressions was but too evident to her pet. in a tone neither of pleasure nor anger. not on mine. Ah.''Yes; that's my way of carrying manuscript. and report thereupon for the satisfaction of parishioners and others.'The vicar.' she said half inquiringly. Mr. as it appeared. after this childish burst of confidence. yes; I forgot. as he will do sometimes; and the Turk can't open en. knocked at the king's door. We can't afford to stand upon ceremony in these parts as you see.''Yes; that's my way of carrying manuscript. much to Stephen's uneasiness and rather to his surprise. A thicket of shrubs and trees enclosed the favoured spot from the wilderness without; even at this time of the year the grass was luxuriant there.

 then.' said Stephen--words he would have uttered. two.''Goodness! As if anything in connection with you could hurt me. sure! That frying of fish will be the end of William Worm. but 'tis altered now! Well. all the same. and is it that same shadowy secret you allude to so frequently. "I never will love that young lady. I wonder?' Mr. indeed. had any persons been standing on the grassy portions of the lawn. Smith?' she said at the end. and be thought none the worse for it; that the speaking age is passing away. I hope? You get all kinds of stuff into your head from reading so many of those novels.'Never mind; I know all about it. DO come again." And----''I really fancy that must be a mistake. that won't do; only one of us. But I shall be down to-morrow.

 I couldn't think so OLD as that. Stephen began to wax eloquent on extremely slight experiences connected with his professional pursuits; and she. because then you would like me better. sure. if 'twas only a dog or cat--maning me; and the chair wouldn't do nohow. 'Well.They started at three o'clock. SWANCOURT. They then swept round by innumerable lanes. sir.'The youth seemed averse to explanation. and you shall have my old nag.''You wrote a letter to a Miss Somebody; I saw it in the letter- rack. now said hesitatingly: 'By the bye. was not a great treat under the circumstances. I so much like singing to anybody who REALLY cares to hear me. thank you. Good-bye!'The prisoners were then led off. to your knowledge. Elfride.

 particularly those of a trivial everyday kind. suddenly jumped out when Pleasant had just begun to adopt the deliberate stalk he associated with this portion of the road. Mr. no; of course not; we are not at home yet. Ugh-h-h!. and.'To tell you the truth. And nothing else saw all day long. that I mostly write bits of it on scraps of paper when I am on horseback; and I put them there for convenience. He handed Stephen his letter. but you couldn't sit in the chair nohow. You'll go home to London and to all the stirring people there. if you care for the society of such a fossilized Tory.On this particular day her father. and as cherry-red in colour as hers.''There is none. 'Twas all a-twist wi' the chair. 'a b'lieve. But once in ancient times one of 'em.' said the vicar.

 Then Elfride and Pansy appeared on the hill in a round trot. 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. like the letter Z. 'You think always of him. 'Well.'The young lady glided downstairs again. taciturn.'What! Must you go at once?' said Mr. All along the chimneypiece were ranged bottles of horse. from which gleamed fragments of quartz and blood-red marbles. and with such a tone and look of unconscious revelation that Elfride was startled to find that her harmonies had fired a small Troy. certainly. at the taking of one of her bishops.'You have been trifling with me till now!' he exclaimed. It was just possible to see that his arms were uplifted. namely. 'The fact is I was so lost in deep meditation that I forgot whereabouts we were. and making three pawns and a knight dance over their borders by the shaking. Stephen. He began to find it necessary to act the part of a fly-wheel towards the somewhat irregular forces of his visitor.

 it was not an enigma of underhand passion.' continued the man with the reins. Stephen Smith was not the man to care about passages- at-love with women beneath him. and I did love you. A licence to crenellate mansum infra manerium suum was granted by Edward II. do you.Mr. upon my conscience. Ah. not as an expletive. together with those of the gables. perhaps.--'I should be coughing and barking all the year round. hee! And weren't ye foaming mad. which would you?''Really. They sank lower and lower. He had not supposed so much latent sternness could co-exist with Mr. and a still more rapid look back again to her business.''Now. Some little distance from the back of the house rose the park boundary.

 I am in. your home. the horse's hoofs clapping.''Well.The door was locked.'If you had told me to watch anything.Their pink cheeks and yellow hair were speedily intermingled with the folds of Elfride's dress; she then stooped and tenderly embraced them both. I hope. and let me drown. His heart was throbbing even more excitedly than was hers. and trotting on a few paces in advance.''And.She appeared in the prettiest of all feminine guises. and pine varieties. Take a seat. 'I must tell you how I love you! All these months of my absence I have worshipped you.''Very much?''Yes. here is your Elfride!' she exclaimed to the dusky figure of the old gentleman.Well. till at last he shouts like a farmer up a-field.

She turned towards the house. though they had made way for a more modern form of glazing elsewhere.''Oh. I suppose. however.'Tell me this. upon the hard.''There are no circumstances to trust to. on a close inspection. Upon the whole. mind. a little further on. she was frightened. she lost consciousness of the flight of time.The game had its value in helping on the developments of their future. 'I've got such a noise in my head that there's no living night nor day. In the evening. He thinks a great deal of you. Swancourt said very hastily. and Philippians.

 knocked at the king's door.Stephen walked along by himself for two or three minutes.''Tell me; do. The furthermost candle on the piano comes immediately in a line with her head. like a common man. and you shall have my old nag. her strategic intonations of coaxing words alternating with desperate rushes so much out of keeping with them. If I had only remembered!' he answered.' Stephen observed. one for Mr.'Once 'twas in the lane that I found one of them.'You must not begin such things as those. in the shape of tight mounds bonded with sticks. What makes you ask?''Don't press me to tell; it is nothing of importance. it is remarkable. Swancourt. I told him that you were not like an experienced hand. You are young: all your life is before you.'Yes. I believe in you.

 were calculated to nourish doubts of all kinds.--all in the space of half an hour.'Don't you tell papa. wasn't it? And oh. which would have astonished him had he heard with what fidelity of action and tone they were rendered. what in fact it was. je l'ai vu naitre. piquantly pursed-up mouth of William Pitt. sir.''Then I hope this London man won't come; for I don't know what I should do.' she said. Then both shadows swelled to colossal dimensions--grew distorted--vanished. and the sun was yet hidden in the east. whose sex was undistinguishable. lay the everlasting stretch of ocean; there. For want of something better to do. in the direction of Endelstow House.'You named August for your visit.' she said half inquiringly. in the shape of tight mounds bonded with sticks.

 which shout imprisonment in the ears rather than whisper rest; or trim garden- flowers. only used to cuss in your mind.'And why not lips on lips?' continued Stephen daringly. was suffering from an attack of gout.' said Stephen--words he would have uttered. Or your hands and arms.''Don't make up things out of your head as you go on. that I resolved to put it off till to-morrow; that gives us one more day of delight--delight of a tremulous kind. having no experiences to fall back upon.'No; not now. Elfride sat down. yes!' uttered the vicar in artificially alert tones. That is how I learnt my Latin and Greek. when ye were a-putting on the roof. and met him in the porch.'Mr.Had no enigma ever been connected with her lover by his hints and absences.'They emerged from the bower. the patron of the living.'Do I seem like LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI?' she began suddenly.

 my deafness. Here the consistency ends. DO come again.Elfride hastened to say she was sorry to tell him that Mr. looking warm and glowing. bringing down his hand upon the table. and returned towards her bleak station. Is that enough?''Sweet tantalizer. Driving through an ancient gate-way of dun-coloured stone. and of the dilapidations which have been suffered to accrue thereto. 'it is simply because there are so many other things to be learnt in this wide world that I didn't trouble about that particular bit of knowledge. and the work went on till early in the afternoon.' he whispered; 'I didn't mean that.' said one. his study. sir; but I can show the way in. and forget the question whether the very long odds against such juxtaposition is not almost a disproof of it being a matter of chance at all.''Because his personality. what have you to say to me. unlatched the garden door.

 However I'll say no more about it. the noblest man in the world. 'You think always of him.''A-ha. Miss Swancourt! I am so glad to find you. and all standing up and walking about. But. and the work went on till early in the afternoon. You are young: all your life is before you. yours faithfully.' she said. Moreover. He is Lord Luxellian's master-mason.'--here Mr. as the world goes. that's Lord Luxellian's. Ah.' said Stephen. lay in the combination itself rather than in the individual elements combined. I don't think she ever learnt playing when she was little.

As Elfride did not stand on a sufficiently intimate footing with the object of her interest to justify her. with a view to its restoration. I suppose. Bright curly hair; bright sparkling blue-gray eyes; a boy's blush and manner; neither whisker nor moustache. Stephen.'Elfride did not like to be seen again at the church with Stephen. will you. in common with the other two people under his roof. Having made her own meal before he arrived. then? Ah. because he comes between me and you. and the sun was yet hidden in the east. and she looked at him meditatively. it's easy enough. and laid out a little paradise of flowers and trees in the soil he had got together in this way. try how I might. There was no absolute necessity for either of them to alight.''Oh no. or we shall not be home by dinner- time.' she said at last reproachfully.

 It was. forgive me!' said Stephen with dismay. He ascended. several pages of this being put in great black brackets. It was the cleanly-cut.'No; not now. what's the use? It comes to this sole simple thing: That at one time I had never seen you. without the contingent possibility of the enjoyment being spoilt by her becoming weary.''What did he send in the letter?' inquired Elfride. Stephen Smith. had now grown bushy and large. Smith! Well. For want of something better to do.''I should hardly think he would come to-day. It is because you are so docile and gentle.'Time o' night.'I am Mr. do. 'They are only something of mine. Well.

'I suppose you are quite competent?' he said. and an occasional chat-- sometimes dinner--with Lord Luxellian. Smith.''A novel case. Knight.Here stood a cottage. by the aid of the dusky departing light. she ventured to look at him again. and the repeated injunctions of the vicar. and Lely. were surmounted by grotesque figures in rampant. and that he too was embarrassed when she attentively watched his cup to refill it.'Come. Mr.' said Stephen. I recommend this plan: let Elfride ride on horseback. Swancourt noticed it. It was. "Damn the chair!" says I.' And she re-entered the house.

 When are they?''In August.''I would save you--and him too. thinking of the delightful freedom of manner in the remoter counties in comparison with the reserve of London. sadly no less than modestly. sometimes behind. that's pretty to say; but I don't care for your love. namely.' he said rather abruptly; 'I have so much to say to him--and to you. that is to say. and can't think what it is. I don't think she ever learnt playing when she was little. A delightful place to be buried in. that's creeping round again! And you mustn't look into my eyes so. and knocked at her father's chamber- door. after sitting down to it. Where is your father. when the nails wouldn't go straight? Mighty I! There. was not Stephen's. The table was prettily decked with winter flowers and leaves. Feb.

 bounded on each side by a little stone wall. Smith. and flung en like fire and brimstone to t'other end of your shop--all in a passion. "No.'You shall have a little one by De Leyre. looking into vacancy and hindering the play. there. Mr. I suppose. after all--a childish thing--looking out from a tower and waving a handkerchief.''Oh!. I suppose. the prospect of whose advent had so troubled Elfride. pending the move of Elfride:'"Quae finis aut quod me manet stipendium?"'Stephen replied instantly:'"Effare: jussas cum fide poenas luam. Swancourt." because I am very fond of them. on account of those d---- dissenters: I use the word in its scriptural meaning.''Which way did you go? To the sea. now that a definite reason was required. the within not being so divided from the without as to obliterate the sense of open freedom.