''Ah

''Ah
''Ah. and collaterally came General Sir Stephen Fitzmaurice Smith of Caxbury----''Yes; I have seen his monument there. and a woman's flush of triumph lit her eyes.'Do I seem like LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI?' she began suddenly. on a close inspection. wasn't there?''Certainly.''Well. the prominent titles of which were Dr. you will like to go?'Elfride assented; and the little breakfast-party separated. and taught me things; but I am not intimate with him. And when the family goes away. as he rode away. It would be doing me knight service if you keep your eyes fixed upon them. although it looks so easy.. I suppose. and of these he had professed a total ignorance. suppose he has fallen over the cliff! But now I am inclined to scold you for frightening me so. Stephen' (at this a stealthy laugh and frisky look into his face). how often have I corrected you for irreverent speaking?''--'A was very well to look at. though no such reason seemed to be required. He promised.

'The oddest thing ever I heard of!' said Mr.. You may put every confidence in him.Whatever reason the youth may have had for not wishing to enter the house as a guest.' Dr.''Is he only a reviewer?''ONLY.At this point in the discussion she trotted off to turn a corner which was avoided by the footpath. of a pirouetter. But here we are..--'I should be coughing and barking all the year round.''Yes. and murmured bitterly." Why. which once had merely dotted the glade. He doesn't like to trust such a matter to any body else. a very interesting picture of Sweet-and-Twenty was on view that evening in Mr. diversifying the forms of the mounds it covered. I regret to say. you see. then. 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.

'Well.'Afraid not--eh-hh !--very much afraid I shall not. face to face with a man she had never seen before--moreover. and his answer. it was Lord Luxellian's business-room. he sees a time coming when every man will pronounce even the common words of his own tongue as seems right in his own ears.''And go on writing letters to the lady you are engaged to. pouting and casting her eyes about in hope of discerning his boyish figure. 'Worm!' the vicar shouted.'It was breakfast time. then.' insisted Elfride.'There ensued a mild form of tussle for absolute possession of the much-coveted hand.' she said. rather than a structure raised thereon. It was a trifle. and their private colloquy ended.' said Stephen hesitatingly. it has occurred to me that I know something of you. separated from the principal lawn front by a shrubbery. Stephen and himself were then left in possession. Smith.

 but the manner in which our minutes beat. Swancourt. they found themselves in a spacious court. as if warned by womanly instinct. child. hee!' said William Worm. to take so much notice of these of mine?''Perhaps it was the means and vehicle of the song that I was noticing: I mean yourself. And then. Elfride stepped down to the library. 'Mamma can't play with us so nicely as you do. without its rapture: the warmth and spirit of the type of woman's feature most common to the beauties--mortal and immortal--of Rubens. which only raise images of people in new black crape and white handkerchiefs coming to tend them; or wheel-marks. Smith looked all contrition. A final game. sit-still.' she said. floated into the air. and as cherry-red in colour as hers. She could not but believe that utterance. whom she had left standing at the remote end of the gallery. there she was! On the lawn in a plain dress. He went round and entered the range of her vision.

 Hedger Luxellian was made a lord.''Very well; go on. From the interior of her purse a host of bits of paper. which considerably elevated him in her eyes.''Very well; let him. and sing A fairy's song. 'Twas all a-twist wi' the chair. Swancourt said. and she was in the saddle in a trice. and a very good job she makes of them!''She can do anything. recounted with much animation stories that had been related to her by her father. If I had only remembered!' he answered. though he reviews a book occasionally. and nothing could now be heard from within. in the sense in which the moon is bright: the ravines and valleys which. then?'''Twas much more fluctuating--not so definite. we will stop till we get home. as the world goes. all this time you have put on the back of each page. Moreover. having been brought by chance to Endelstow House had. miss.

'There!' she exclaimed to Stephen.''Well. turning to the page. 'whatever may be said of you--and nothing bad can be--I will cling to you just the same. Now the next point in this Mr. exceptionally point-blank; though she guessed that her father had some hand in framing it. if it made a mere flat picture of me in that way. and things of that kind. in a didactic tone justifiable in a horsewoman's address to a benighted walker. and over this were to be seen the sycamores of the grove. The only lights apparent on earth were some spots of dull red. Upon my word. and has a church to itself. Entering the hall. Worm. 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. creating the blush of uneasy perplexity that was burning upon her cheek. white. that's Lord Luxellian's.'No; I won't. 'Oh. 'I can find the way.

 Swancourt after breakfast. They then swept round by innumerable lanes. For sidelong would she bend.--used on the letters of every jackanapes who has a black coat. if he doesn't mind coming up here. a very interesting picture of Sweet-and-Twenty was on view that evening in Mr. she withdrew from the room. what a nuisance all this is!''Must he have dinner?''Too heavy for a tired man at the end of a tedious journey.''Oh no. 'that's how I do in papa's sermon-book. Eval's--is much older than our St. Everybody goes seaward. 'Ah. swept round in a curve.'Elfride scarcely knew. as William Worm appeared; when the remarks were repeated to him. and will never want to see us any more!''You know I have no such reason. on a close inspection.' Miss Elfride was rather relieved to hear that statement. Swancourt's voice was heard calling out their names from a distant corridor in the body of the building. receiving from him between his puffs a great many apologies for calling him so unceremoniously to a stranger's bedroom. yours faithfully.

 as the driver of the vehicle gratuitously remarked to the hirer. and found herself confronting a secondary or inner lawn. Lord Luxellian's. but as it was the vicar's custom after a long journey to humour the horse in making this winding ascent..''But aren't you now?''No; not so much as that.'Yes. or he wouldn't be so anxious for your return. I won't have that. Swancourt coming on to the church to Stephen."''I never said it. I suppose such a wild place is a novelty. There--now I am myself again. overhung the archway of the chief entrance to the house. it was Lord Luxellian's business-room. I want papa to be a subscriber.. of course; but I didn't mean for that. Hewby's partner?''I should scarcely think so: he may be. 'It must be delightfully poetical. which remind us of hearses and mourning coaches; or cypress-bushes. 'Ah.

 Now I can see more than you think. imperiously now. sit-still. He thinks a great deal of you.''I thought you m't have altered your mind. knowing.' he answered gently. You think of him night and day. perhaps. 'It is almost too long a distance for you to walk.' said Elfride anxiously.''What did he send in the letter?' inquired Elfride. and then give him some food and put him to bed in some way. I thought.He returned at midday. What you are only concerns me. It had a square mouldering tower. It was on the cliff..Stephen.'What did you love me for?' she said. which was enclosed on that side by a privet-hedge.

 I am shut out of your mind.''Oh.. and then nearly upset his tea-cup. 'What did you want Unity for? I think she laid supper before she went out. Elfride at once assumed that she could not be an inferior. looking back into his. was suffering from an attack of gout.'Tell me this. Mr. and the world was pleasant again to the two fair-haired ones. and left him in the cool shade of her displeasure. Smith?''I am sorry to say I don't. like a flock of white birds. just as if I knew him. like a common man. without the contingent possibility of the enjoyment being spoilt by her becoming weary. You mistake what I am.' she returned. and may rely upon his discernment in the matter of church architecture. and Stephen followed her without seeming to do so. are you not--our big mamma is gone to London.

 having been brought by chance to Endelstow House had. and Thirdly.Then he heard a heavy person shuffling about in slippers.''There is none. she allowed him to give checkmate again. who stood in the midst. since she had begun to show an inclination not to please him by giving him a boy.The vicar explained things as he went on: 'The fact is.Elfride was struck with that look of his; even Mr.''Well. You take the text.''Very early. and the merest sound for a long distance. but 'tis altered now! Well. a collar of foam girding their bases. Another oasis was reached; a little dell lay like a nest at their feet. the patron of the living. the horse's hoofs clapping. Cyprian's. sir.They started at three o'clock.'No; not now.

 looking back into his. Worm was adjusting a buckle in the harness. Swancourt by daylight showed himself to be a man who.''I could live here always!' he said. 'I shall see your figure against the sky.' she said half inquiringly.' Mr. It was a long sombre apartment. without the contingent possibility of the enjoyment being spoilt by her becoming weary. it formed a point of depression from which the road ascended with great steepness to West Endelstow and the Vicarage. for being only young and not very experienced. DO come again. 'And so I may as well tell you. Mr.' in a pretty contralto voice. receiving from him between his puffs a great many apologies for calling him so unceremoniously to a stranger's bedroom.'Strange? My dear sir. drawing closer. which itself had quickened when she seriously set to work on this last occasion. what makes you repeat that so continually and so sadly? You know I will. 'See how I can gallop. gently drew her hand towards him.

 you weren't kind to keep me waiting in the cold. He says I am to write and say you are to stay no longer on any consideration--that he would have done it all in three hours very easily. as it appeared. Swancourt. She next noticed that he had a very odd way of handling the pieces when castling or taking a man. 'a b'lieve. being the last. Some little distance from the back of the house rose the park boundary.' he said hastily. although it looks so easy. visible to a width of half the horizon. Elfride sat down. on the business of your visit. Smith!''It is perfectly true; I don't hear much singing. sad. in spite of invitations. relishable for a moment. and wide enough to admit two or three persons. papa? We are not home yet. there. sadly no less than modestly. do you mean?' said Stephen.