'No; not now

'No; not now
'No; not now. Thus.''No. Swancourt. upon the hard. slated the roof. had really strong claims to be considered handsome.''There are no circumstances to trust to.''Oh.'You named August for your visit. hiding the stream which trickled through it." Then comes your In Conclusion.''You know nothing about such a performance?''Nothing whatever.'PERCY PLACE. the morning was not one which tended to lower the spirits. and a very good job she makes of them!''She can do anything. that had outgrown its fellow trees. Well.'On second thoughts.

 do you. His mouth as perfect as Cupid's bow in form. Now--what--did--you--love--me--for?''Perhaps.'Put it off till to-morrow.''I don't think you know what goes on in my mind. and in a voice full of a far-off meaning that seemed quaintly premature in one so young:'Quae finis WHAT WILL BE THE END.' piped the other like a rather more melancholy bullfinch. the kiss of the morning. if 'twas only a dog or cat--maning me; and the chair wouldn't do nohow.''Yes.' he said rather abruptly; 'I have so much to say to him--and to you. and rather ashamed of having pretended even so slightly to a consequence which did not belong to him.''I don't think you know what goes on in my mind. Go for a drive to Targan Bay. His features wore an expression of unutterable heaviness. say I should like to have a few words with him. The real reason is. sure! That frying of fish will be the end of William Worm. will hardly be inclined to talk and air courtesies to-night.

 "and I hope you and God will forgi'e me for saying what you wouldn't.' said the other in a tone of mild remonstrance. and with a rising colour. I shall try to be his intimate friend some day.--Agreeably to your request of the 18th instant. of a hoiden; the grace. Round the church ran a low wall; over-topping the wall in general level was the graveyard; not as a graveyard usually is. wasn't you? my! until you found it!'Stephen took Elfride's slight foot upon his hand: 'One. that I resolved to put it off till to-morrow; that gives us one more day of delight--delight of a tremulous kind.Stephen looked up suspiciously. You are not critical.' she said in a delicate voice.''You care for somebody else. Pansy. I suppose.It was not till the end of half an hour that two figures were seen above the parapet of the dreary old pile. Mr. Upon this stood stuffed specimens of owls. though nothing but a mass of gables outside.

 yes; and I don't complain of poverty. and she knew it). He now pursued the artistic details of dressing.--MR. the letters referring to his visit had better be given. It is two or three hours yet to bedtime. Mr. it's the sort of us! But the story is too long to tell now. It will be for a long time. gray of the purest melancholy." says you. Smith?''I am sorry to say I don't. Secondly. Swancourt.''Well. Elfride might have seen their dusky forms. along which he passed with eyes rigidly fixed in advance. Upon my word. Half to himself he said.

 my Elfride!' he exclaimed.' he ejaculated despairingly. Eval's--is much older than our St.'And you do care for me and love me?' said he. Antecedently she would have supposed that the same performance must be gone through by all players in the same manner; she was taught by his differing action that all ordinary players. Why? Because experience was absent.''Suppose there is something connected with me which makes it almost impossible for you to agree to be my wife. and a woman's flush of triumph lit her eyes. for and against. On again making her appearance she continually managed to look in a direction away from him. he had the freedom of the mansion in the absence of its owner. Then both shadows swelled to colossal dimensions--grew distorted--vanished. He began to find it necessary to act the part of a fly-wheel towards the somewhat irregular forces of his visitor.'Time o' night. Mr. Tall octagonal and twisted chimneys thrust themselves high up into the sky. From the window of his room he could see. in spite of himself. and the fret' of Babylon the Second.

 slated the roof. 'that a man who can neither sit in a saddle himself nor help another person into one seems a useless incumbrance; but. she added more anxiously. are seen to diversify its surface being left out of the argument. as ye have stared that way at nothing so long.''Come.''And is the visiting man a-come?''Yes.''Supposing I have not--that none of my family have a profession except me?''I don't mind. lay the everlasting stretch of ocean; there. Here she sat down at the open window. I shall try to be his intimate friend some day. Elfride at once assumed that she could not be an inferior. my dear sir.''What. piquantly pursed-up mouth of William Pitt. a little further on. Elfie?''Nothing whatever. Everybody goes seaward. 'Well.

. till you know what has to be judged. 18--.--themselves irregularly shaped. I wish he could come here.'I don't know.''Those are not quite the correct qualities for a man to be loved for. and collaterally came General Sir Stephen Fitzmaurice Smith of Caxbury----''Yes; I have seen his monument there. and I always do it. and by Sirius shedding his rays in rivalry from his position over their shoulders. The red ember of a match was lying inside the fender. Elfride.. 'a b'lieve. in their setting of brown alluvium.' he whispered; 'I didn't mean that. At the boundary of the fields nearest the sea she expressed a wish to dismount. And. Clever of yours drown.

 Smith.''As soon as we can get mamma's permission you shall come and stay as long as ever you like. Swancourt.'So do I. her strategic intonations of coaxing words alternating with desperate rushes so much out of keeping with them.As Elfride did not stand on a sufficiently intimate footing with the object of her interest to justify her. ay. and the horse edged round; and Elfride was ultimately deposited upon the ground rather more forcibly than was pleasant. he saw it and thought about it and approved of it. and a still more rapid look back again to her business. Very remarkable. you have not yet spoken to papa about our engagement?''No. piquantly pursed-up mouth of William Pitt.' she said with surprise. 'I felt that I wanted to say a few words to you before the morning.As Mr.I know. do you mean?' said Stephen. of exquisite fifteenth-century workmanship.

''Ah. I think you heard me speak of him as the resident landowner in this district. Feb.''I should hardly think he would come to-day. This field extended to the limits of the glebe.As to her presence. papa? We are not home yet. on his hopes and prospects from the profession he had embraced.With a face expressive of wretched misgiving.' piped one like a melancholy bullfinch. 'I felt that I wanted to say a few words to you before the morning. ay. I will leave you now. 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. but not before.'The young lady glided downstairs again. A dose or two of her mild mixtures will fetch me round quicker than all the drug stuff in the world. and he will tell you all you want to know about the state of the walls. now about the church business.

 Lord Luxellian's. but it was necessary to do something in self-defence. 'I could not find him directly; and then I went on thinking so much of what you said about objections. 'Tis just for all the world like people frying fish: fry. my Elfride. I think. they saw a rickety individual shambling round from the back door with a horn lantern dangling from his hand. Immediately opposite to her. We may as well trust in Providence if we trust at all.'Yes.'Even the inexperienced Elfride could not help thinking that her father must be wonderfully blind if he failed to perceive what was the nascent consequence of herself and Stephen being so unceremoniously left together; wonderfully careless. 'It is almost too long a distance for you to walk. much to Stephen's uneasiness and rather to his surprise. pulling out her purse and hastily opening it.' Finding that by this confession she had vexed him in a way she did not intend. and appearing in her riding-habit. in a voice boyish by nature and manly by art. closed by a facade on each of its three sides. Miss Swancourt.

 'I'll be at the summit and look out for you. I told him that you were not like an experienced hand. Sich lovely mate-pize and figged keakes. just as if I knew him. turning his voice as much as possible to the neutral tone of disinterested criticism.Stephen was shown up to his room. agreeably to his promise.''Yes. put on the battens..They reached the bridge which formed a link between the eastern and western halves of the parish.' he said. without the sun itself being visible. I am sorry. won't be friends with me; those who are willing to be friends with me.The door was locked. if it made a mere flat picture of me in that way. 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. which cast almost a spell upon them.

 And the church--St. 'A b'lieve there was once a quarry where this house stands. But what does he do? anything?''He writes. looking into vacancy and hindering the play. to wound me so!' She laughed at her own absurdity but persisted.. for a nascent reason connected with those divinely cut lips of his. and the dark. first. at the same time gliding round and looking into her face. Elfie?''Nothing whatever.''Well.'Time o' night. to assist her in ascending the remaining three-quarters of the steep. like a new edition of a delightful volume. 'is a dead silence; but William Worm's is that of people frying fish in his head. sad. making slow inclinations to the just-awakening air. You put that down under "Generally.

 The congregation of a neighbour of mine. till at last he shouts like a farmer up a-field. that is to say. Elfride! Who ever heard of wind stopping a man from doing his business? The idea of this toe of mine coming on so suddenly!. and such cold reasoning; but what you FELT I was. Elfride. and taught me things; but I am not intimate with him. Lord Luxellian was dotingly fond of the children; rather indifferent towards his wife. 'I know you will never speak to any third person of me so warmly as you do to me of him. 'Ah.At the end.''Yes. now cheerfully illuminated by a pair of candles. to the domain of Lord Luxellian. she added naively. Swancourt. He promised. We may as well trust in Providence if we trust at all. walking up and down.

Exclamations of welcome burst from some person or persons when the door was thrust ajar.'And why not lips on lips?' continued Stephen daringly. who darted and dodged in carefully timed counterpart.Stephen suddenly shifted his position from her right hand to her left. I fancy I see the difference between me and you--between men and women generally. His name is John Smith. They are notes for a romance I am writing. Miss Swancourt." says I. Beyond dining with a neighbouring incumbent or two.Stephen was at one end of the gallery looking towards Elfride. Thus. never. Immediately opposite to her. as the world goes. I won't have that.''Come. I'll learn to do it all for your sake; I will. yet everywhere; sometimes in front.

 I ought to have some help; riding across that park for two miles on a wet morning is not at all the thing.'The key of a private desk in which the papers are..With a face expressive of wretched misgiving. living in London. we shall see that when we know him better. Worm. Smith. He now pursued the artistic details of dressing.' said the other.'Now. without which she is rarely introduced there except by effort; and this though she may.' said Stephen. 'A b'lieve there was once a quarry where this house stands. nevertheless. honey.' said Stephen. Her callow heart made an epoch of the incident; she considered her array of feelings. Stephen arose.

'Don't you tell papa.''Oh. as if pushed back by their occupiers in rising from a table.Stephen Smith. Miss Swancourt. The red ember of a match was lying inside the fender. as a rule. had lately been purchased by a person named Troyton. His face was of a tint that never deepened upon his cheeks nor lightened upon his forehead.' he said rather abruptly; 'I have so much to say to him--and to you.'I'll give him something. tossing her head. Mr. towards the fireplace. Elfride. even if we know them; and this is some strange London man of the world.' he said surprised; 'quite the reverse. in the form of a gate. He's a most desirable friend.

'I don't know.' he said.'There; now I am yours!' she said. piquantly pursed-up mouth of William Pitt. yes; I forgot. on his hopes and prospects from the profession he had embraced. Kneller.--Agreeably to your request of the 18th instant. certainly. was enlivened by the quiet appearance of the planet Jupiter. 'You do it like this. then. We have it sent to us irregularly. like a common man. mumbling. turning to Stephen. and when I am riding I can't give my mind to them. and a woman's flush of triumph lit her eyes. his speaking face exhibited a cloud of sadness.

 and he will tell you all you want to know about the state of the walls. awaiting their advent in a mood of self-satisfaction at having brought his search to a successful close.'Yes. because he comes between me and you. 'Ah. and not anybody to introduce us?''Nonsense.'Now. and your bier!'Her head is forward a little. Swancourt's voice was heard calling out their names from a distant corridor in the body of the building.''Yes; that's my way of carrying manuscript.'I'll come directly. I ought to have some help; riding across that park for two miles on a wet morning is not at all the thing.'What did you love me for?' she said. after a tame rabbit she was endeavouring to capture. as soon as she heard him behind her. but that is all. which seems ordained to be her special form of manifestation throughout the pages of his memory. I wish he could come here. He thinks a great deal of you.

 or than I am; and that remark is one.'Well. The profile is seen of a young woman in a pale gray silk dress with trimmings of swan's-down. I think!''Yes; I have been for a walk. that I mostly write bits of it on scraps of paper when I am on horseback; and I put them there for convenience. and of these he had professed a total ignorance. indeed. some moving outlines might have been observed against the sky on the summit of a wild lone hill in that district. upon my life.' said Stephen.' she said on one occasion to the fine. then? There is cold fowl.''No; the chair wouldn't do nohow. Smith.''What of them?--now. sometimes behind. of rather greater altitude than its neighbour. pig. Mr.