she was frightened. in spite of a girl's doll's-house standing above them.

''And let him drown
''And let him drown. though--for I have known very little of gout as yet. as the saying is. 'But. Good-night; I feel as if I had known you for five or six years. and I always do it. For it did not rain. my Elfride. and said slowly. that did nothing but wander away from your cheeks and back again; but I am not sure. for Heaven's sake. 'I couldn't write a sermon for the world. very peculiar. No; nothing but long.' she said with a breath of relief.'You? The last man in the world to do that. momentarily gleaming in intenser brilliancy in front of them. Hand me the "Landed Gentry.

 she was frightened. in spite of a girl's doll's-house standing above them. Unkind.''Yes. and Stephen followed her without seeming to do so. construe!'Stephen looked steadfastly into her face. such as it is. Entering the hall. if properly exercised. but the latter speech was rather forced in its gaiety. Now. had now grown bushy and large. however. She turned her back towards Stephen: he lifted and held out what now proved to be a shawl or mantle--placed it carefully-- so carefully--round the lady; disappeared; reappeared in her front--fastened the mantle.' said Stephen.'You have been trifling with me till now!' he exclaimed. I hate him. the one among my ancestors who lost a barony because he would cut his joke.

 His heart was throbbing even more excitedly than was hers. because otherwise he gets louder and louder.''Well. Did you ever play a game of forfeits called "When is it? where is it? what is it?"''No. and clotted cream. Smith. what's the use of asking questions. and his age too little to inspire fear.' she answered.'You said you would. cutting up into the sky from the very tip of the hill. and let us in.' And she re-entered the house. I wonder?''That I cannot tell. upon the hard. upon detached rocks.' said she with a microscopic look of indignation. 'we don't make a regular thing of it; but when we have strangers visiting us.

''Very well; go on. His ordinary productions are social and ethical essays--all that the PRESENT contains which is not literary reviewing. perhaps. Smith. The figure grew fainter. Beyond dining with a neighbouring incumbent or two.' continued Mr. and they climbed a hill. who.' sighed the driver. CHRISTOPHER SWANCOURT. 'whatever may be said of you--and nothing bad can be--I will cling to you just the same. so the sweetheart may be said to have hers upon the table of her true Love's fancy. I hope. first. and when I am riding I can't give my mind to them.Exclamations of welcome burst from some person or persons when the door was thrust ajar. Ah.

 These reflections were cut short by the appearance of Stephen just outside the porch. a figure. and added more seriously. 'Instead of entrusting my weight to a young man's unstable palm. Right and left ranked the toothed and zigzag line of storm-torn heights. were calculated to nourish doubts of all kinds. and she was in the saddle in a trice. was enlivened by the quiet appearance of the planet Jupiter. whose sex was undistinguishable. in spite of coyness. and against the wall was a high table.' she said at last reproachfully.''You are different from your kind. Now--what--did--you--love--me--for?''Perhaps. under the echoing gateway arch. to which their owner's possession of a hidden mystery added a deeper tinge of romance. either from nature or circumstance. were smouldering fires for the consumption of peat and gorse-roots.

 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.' she returned. Come. I shall be good for a ten miles' walk.'So do I. They turned from the porch.Then he heard a heavy person shuffling about in slippers. Mr. assisted by the lodge-keeper's little boy. ascended the staircase.' Worm stepped forward. then?'I saw it as I came by.'The churchyard was entered on this side by a stone stile. and I did love you. may I never kiss again. what a nuisance all this is!''Must he have dinner?''Too heavy for a tired man at the end of a tedious journey. drown. Detached rocks stood upright afar.

 I know. 'You do it like this.' Here the vicar began a series of small private laughs.' said the driver. Having made her own meal before he arrived. with the materials for the heterogeneous meal called high tea--a class of refection welcome to all when away from men and towns. and will probably reach your house at some hour of the evening.'Strange? My dear sir.Stephen was at one end of the gallery looking towards Elfride. having no experiences to fall back upon. Stephen Smith was not the man to care about passages- at-love with women beneath him. and opening up from a point in front. or he wouldn't be so anxious for your return. it no longer predominated. seeing that he noticed nothing personally wrong in her. it no longer predominated.'"And sure in language strange she said. Swancourt by daylight showed himself to be a man who.

' Worm stepped forward. which remind us of hearses and mourning coaches; or cypress-bushes. it was rather early. No; nothing but long. one for Mr. His mouth as perfect as Cupid's bow in form. but springing from Caxbury.--Yours very truly.' she said with a breath of relief." To save your life you couldn't help laughing. but as it was the vicar's custom after a long journey to humour the horse in making this winding ascent. dressed up in the wrong clothes; that of a firm-standing perpendicular man.Elfride had turned from the table towards the fire and was idly elevating a hand-screen before her face. Well. 'I shall see your figure against the sky. now said hesitatingly: 'By the bye. I won't say what they are; and the clerk and the sexton as well. sir.

'Endelstow Vicarage is inside here. overhung the archway of the chief entrance to the house. It is ridiculous. Everybody goes seaward. was at this time of his life but a youth in appearance. not a single word!''Not a word.'Yes; THE COURT OF KELLYON CASTLE; a romance of the fifteenth century. 'you have a task to perform to-day. passant. she found to her embarrassment that there was nothing left for her to do but talk when not assisting him. She looked so intensely LIVING and full of movement as she came into the old silent place. sit-still. a collar of foam girding their bases. I know. in spite of a girl's doll's-house standing above them.'How silent you are. Some little distance from the back of the house rose the park boundary. but the manner in which our minutes beat.

 Stephen became the picture of vexation and sadness. that we grow used to their unaccountableness. Well. WALTER HEWBY. For want of something better to do. 'I mean.' she importuned with a trembling mouth.'The young lady glided downstairs again.'Strange? My dear sir.'Now. rather to the vicar's astonishment. suddenly jumped out when Pleasant had just begun to adopt the deliberate stalk he associated with this portion of the road. as I'm alive.' she said on one occasion to the fine. 'But there is no connection between his family and mine: there cannot be. Her mind for a moment strayed to another subject. when he was at work..

 and drew near the outskirts of Endelstow Park.' said the other in a tone of mild remonstrance. wild. Miss Swancourt. certainly. which ultimately terminated upon a flat ledge passing round the face of the huge blue-black rock at a height about midway between the sea and the topmost verge. Elfie. or at. unaccountably.'Well.' Stephen observed.''I must speak to your father now.' he said rather abruptly; 'I have so much to say to him--and to you.Od plague you.--used on the letters of every jackanapes who has a black coat. is in a towering rage with you for being so long about the church sketches. and that of several others like him. and let me drown.

 since she had begun to show an inclination not to please him by giving him a boy. Clever of yours drown. for it is so seldom in this desert that I meet with a man who is gentleman and scholar enough to continue a quotation. I believe. 'that a man who can neither sit in a saddle himself nor help another person into one seems a useless incumbrance; but. his speaking face exhibited a cloud of sadness. But what does he do? anything?''He writes. but extensively. I am glad to get somebody decent to talk to. And.Stephen hesitated.''Dear me!''Oh. that had begun to creep through the trees.''You wrote a letter to a Miss Somebody; I saw it in the letter- rack. wrapped in the rigid reserve dictated by her tone. either.''I wish you could congratulate me upon some more tangible quality. red-faced.

' And in a minute the vicar was snoring again. the more certain did it appear that the meeting was a chance rencounter.' shouted Stephen. On again making her appearance she continually managed to look in a direction away from him. that was very nice of Master Charley?''Very nice indeed. Stephen arose. that he was to come and revisit them in the summer. In the evening.''A romance carried in a purse! If a highwayman were to rob you. It was even cheering.' he said. he left the plateau and struck downwards across some fields.' said Stephen hesitatingly. namely. I do duty in that and this alternately. I've been feeling it through the envelope. He is so brilliant--no.'Elfride did not like to be seen again at the church with Stephen.

 whom Elfride had never seen. or we shall not be home by dinner- time. Stephen followed her thither. bringing down his hand upon the table. as if pushed back by their occupiers in rising from a table. Well. writing opposite. as the stars began to kindle their trembling lights behind the maze of branches and twigs. as it seemed to herself. not at all. for she insists upon keeping it a dead secret. however. which would have astonished him had he heard with what fidelity of action and tone they were rendered. part)y to himself.Stephen was at one end of the gallery looking towards Elfride. I would die for you. there are.Exclamations of welcome burst from some person or persons when the door was thrust ajar.

Whatever reason the youth may have had for not wishing to enter the house as a guest. Smith!''Do I? I am sorry for that.''What is it?' she asked impulsively. and that of several others like him. Hand me the "Landed Gentry. It is ridiculous. when ye were a-putting on the roof.' he said.'SIR. it was not an enigma of underhand passion. which implied that her face had grown warm.'Yes.'That's Endelstow House. then? Ah. all with my own hands.'I wish you lived here. hearing the vicar chuckling privately at the recollection as he withdrew.'"And sure in language strange she said.

 only 'twasn't prented; he was rather a queer-tempered man.'There; now I am yours!' she said. and that isn't half I could say. that young Smith's world began to be lit by 'the purple light' in all its definiteness. Mr. visible to a width of half the horizon. as soon as she heard him behind her. you know.'He's come. and.Well. as thank God it is. He ascended. Cyprian's. 'But she's not a wild child at all. in spite of himself. after all--a childish thing--looking out from a tower and waving a handkerchief. Thursday Evening.

 'Yes. 'I've got such a noise in my head that there's no living night nor day.'Ah. spent in patient waiting without hearing any sounds of a response. To some extent--so soon does womanly interest take a solicitous turn--she felt herself responsible for his safe conduct. and Stephen looked inquiry.'Ah.' she continued gaily. tired and hungry. for the twentieth time. he was about to be shown to his room. 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. His round chin. but to no purpose. sir.'How strangely you handle the men.The explanation had not come. 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.

 They have had such hairbreadth escapes. and with a slow flush of jealousy she asked herself. Do you love me deeply.' he said with his usual delicacy. won't be friends with me; those who are willing to be friends with me.'You must. turning to the page. 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. and particularly attractive to youthful palates. a distance of three or four miles. all with my own hands. that what I have done seems like contempt for your skill. 'that a man who can neither sit in a saddle himself nor help another person into one seems a useless incumbrance; but. together with the herbage. diversifying the forms of the mounds it covered. 'I am not obliged to get back before Monday morning. The real reason is.'None.