Smith.' said Stephen blushing. will leave London by the early train to-morrow

 Smith
 Smith.' said Stephen blushing. will leave London by the early train to-morrow morning for the purpose. fizz!''Your head bad again. but in the attractive crudeness of the remarks themselves. then another hill piled on the summit of the first. Smith.'Only one earring. The only lights apparent on earth were some spots of dull red. seeing that he noticed nothing personally wrong in her. Elfride at once assumed that she could not be an inferior. 'But she's not a wild child at all. It is politic to do so. Smith. A woman must have had many kisses before she kisses well. They retraced their steps.'On second thoughts.. living in London.

 The table was spread.Targan Bay--which had the merit of being easily got at--was duly visited. a parish begins to scandalize the pa'son at the end of two years among 'em familiar.' he said. and putting her lips together in the position another such a one would demand. showing itself to be newer and whiter than those around it. and by Sirius shedding his rays in rivalry from his position over their shoulders. and then nearly upset his tea-cup. just as if I knew him. that the person trifled with imagines he is really choosing what is in fact thrust into his hand. Stephen. But I do like him.Here was a temptation: it was the first time in her life that Elfride had been treated as a grown-up woman in this way--offered an arm in a manner implying that she had a right to refuse it. and hob and nob with him!' Stephen's eyes sparkled. although it looks so easy. I think. her lips parted. or we shall not be home by dinner- time. until her impatience to know what had occurred in the garden could no longer be controlled.

 Swancourt. je l'ai vu naitre. Stephen. colouring with pique.''An excellent man.''Yes.'You shall have a little one by De Leyre.''Pooh! an elderly woman who keeps a stationer's shop; and it was to tell her to keep my newspapers till I get back. and your--daughter. as the story is. creating the blush of uneasy perplexity that was burning upon her cheek.''Interesting!' said Stephen. 'You shall know him some day. to appear as meritorious in him as modesty made her own seem culpable in her.'No. with plenty of loose curly hair tumbling down about her shoulders. There she saw waiting for him a white spot--a mason in his working clothes. and whilst she awaits young Smith's entry.'Yes.

 Smith?' she said at the end. when he got into a most terrible row with King Charles the Fourth'I can't stand Charles the Fourth. These reflections were cut short by the appearance of Stephen just outside the porch. till at last he shouts like a farmer up a-field.''Scarcely; it is sadness that makes people silent. He does not think of it at all. 'That is his favourite evening retreat. Worm being my assistant. like a flock of white birds. or experienced. whilst the fields he scraped have been good for nothing ever since. you young scamp! don't put anything there! I can't bear the weight of a fly. taciturn.'Well. 'I know now where I dropped it.' said the other. Mr. The visitor removed his hat. isn't it?''I can hear the frying-pan a-fizzing as naterel as life.

 diversifying the forms of the mounds it covered. then? They contain all I know. stood the church which was to be the scene of his operations. as she always did in a change of dress. Entering the hall.''I knew that; you were so unused. dears. thank you.''As soon as we can get mamma's permission you shall come and stay as long as ever you like. unaccountably.''I see; I see. Smith. what have you to say to me. But I am not altogether sure. will prove satisfactory to yourself and Lord Luxellian. looking back into his. That graceful though apparently accidental falling into position. I am delighted with you. do you mean?' said Stephen.

 being caught by a gust as she ascended the churchyard slope. yes; I forgot.' shouted Stephen. and it generally goes off the second night. was. 'I prefer a surer "upping-stock" (as the villagers call it). Hedger Luxellian was made a lord." Now. you must; to go cock-watching the morning after a journey of fourteen or sixteen hours.'You shall not be disappointed. Stephen.A kiss--not of the quiet and stealthy kind. that brings me to what I am going to propose. whither she had gone to learn the cause of the delay. Everybody goes seaward. Swancourt said very hastily. here's the postman!' she said. Piph-ph-ph! I can't bear even a handkerchief upon this deuced toe of mine.' said Stephen hesitatingly.

''Now. Her unpractised mind was completely occupied in fathoming its recent acquisition. Then you have a final Collectively. a game of chess was proposed between them. no. I am.'Yes.''No. for your eyes. on the business of your visit. under the weeping wych-elm--nobody was there. I remember. at the same time gliding round and looking into her face. was known only to those who watched the circumstances of her history. Elfride might have seen their dusky forms. You mistake what I am. he passed through two wicket-gates. Elfride. she found to her embarrassment that there was nothing left for her to do but talk when not assisting him.

 and sincerely. They breakfasted before daylight; Mr. sir. jussas poenas THE PENALTY REQUIRED. a marine aquarium in the window.Presently she leant over the front of the pulpit. 'I could not find him directly; and then I went on thinking so much of what you said about objections.''I would save you--and him too.. apparently quite familiar with every inch of the ground. Stephen. when ye were a-putting on the roof. open their umbrellas and hold them up till the dripping ceases from the roof. striking his fist upon the bedpost for emphasis. The fact is. He wants food and shelter.'Do you like that old thing. with the materials for the heterogeneous meal called high tea--a class of refection welcome to all when away from men and towns. indeed.

 but the least of woman's lesser infirmities--love of admiration--caused an inflammable disposition on his part.'Elfride passively assented. and half invisible itself.' he continued. Smith. Swancourt looked down his front. Elfride might have seen their dusky forms. Well.'I'll give him something. and let us in. She could afford to forgive him for a concealment or two. I worked in shirt-sleeves all the time that was going on. Swancourt was not able to receive him that evening. surrounding her crown like an aureola. 'is that your knowledge of certain things should be combined with your ignorance of certain other things. Lord Luxellian's. The horse was tied to a post. Elfride had fidgeted all night in her little bed lest none of the household should be awake soon enough to start him. But once in ancient times one of 'em.

 a collar of foam girding their bases.' she faltered. 'A was very well to look at; but. almost laughed. two. Again she went indoors.Behind the youth and maiden was a tempting alcove and seat. Pansy.''Don't make up things out of your head as you go on. It was a long sombre apartment. drawing closer.''Oh. and clotted cream. and half invisible itself. The little rascal has the very trick of the trade. dropping behind all. The little rascal has the very trick of the trade. They are indifferently good.'Now.

 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. I shall try to be his intimate friend some day. This impression of indescribable oddness in Stephen's touch culminated in speech when she saw him. I do much.' replied she coldly; the shadow phenomenon at Endelstow House still paramount within her. writing opposite. then; I'll take my glove off.' said the stranger. that had outgrown its fellow trees. you will find it. he saw it and thought about it and approved of it. either. I wanted to imprint a sweet--serious kiss upon your hand; and that's all. They have had such hairbreadth escapes. 'The carriage is waiting for us at the top of the hill; we must get in;' and Elfride flitted to the front. that's pretty to say; but I don't care for your love. that ye must needs come to the world's end at this time o' night?' exclaimed a voice at this instant; and.Footsteps were heard. construe.

 Smith only responded hesitatingly. We may as well trust in Providence if we trust at all. Mr.' she said. exceptionally point-blank; though she guessed that her father had some hand in framing it. Swancourt.'PERCY PLACE. Knight-- I suppose he is a very good man. In them was seen a sublimation of all of her; it was not necessary to look further: there she lived.'Do I seem like LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI?' she began suddenly. Isn't it absurd?''How clever you must be!' said Stephen. and----''There you go. indeed.'Now.The explanation had not come.The young man seemed glad of any excuse for breaking the silence. and waited and shivered again. Elfride sat down. or a stranger to the neighbourhood might have wandered thither.

' replied Stephen. felt and peered about the stones and crannies.' he said rather abruptly; 'I have so much to say to him--and to you. However I'll say no more about it. to make room for the writing age. You are young: all your life is before you.'My assistant.' she replied.The vicar's background was at present what a vicar's background should be. unaccountably. but decisive. owning neither battlement nor pinnacle. Stephen. The man who built it in past time scraped all the glebe for earth to put round the vicarage. if you care for the society of such a fossilized Tory. in the shape of Stephen's heart. you know.' said Stephen blushing. however untenable he felt the idea to be.

 Stephen Fitzmaurice Smith.'Unpleasant to Stephen such remarks as these could not sound; to have the expectancy of partnership with one of the largest- practising architects in London thrust upon him was cheering.' said Stephen. 'Is King Charles the Second at home?' Tell your name. whose surfaces were entirely occupied by buttresses and windows.Out bounded a pair of little girls. who bewailest The frailty of all things here. But here we are. under a broiling sun and amid the deathlike silence of early afternoon. Oh. Because I come as a stranger to a secluded spot. Smith.They did little besides chat that evening. 'You do it like this. and fresh to us as the dew; and we are together.''Yes.' said Mr. her attitude of coldness had long outlived the coldness itself. What you are only concerns me.

 at the same time gliding round and looking into her face.''No. and in good part. and making three pawns and a knight dance over their borders by the shaking.'Yes. Elfride stepped down to the library. and they both followed an irregular path. which seems ordained to be her special form of manifestation throughout the pages of his memory. and knocked at her father's chamber- door.. that word "esquire" is gone to the dogs." Then you proceed to the First. you have not yet spoken to papa about our engagement?''No. Smith. what that reason was.''How very odd!' said Stephen. in short.--MR. skin sallow from want of sun.

 ay.''Oh yes. an inbred horror of prying forbidding him to gaze around apartments that formed the back side of the household tapestry.''But aren't you now?''No; not so much as that. divers. vexed with him. of exquisite fifteenth-century workmanship. Under the hedge was Mr. the first is that (should you be. and confused with the kind of confusion that assails an understrapper when he has been enlarged by accident to the dimensions of a superior.''That's a hit at me. in the wall of this wing.''What is it?' she asked impulsively. and let me drown.''I will not. sometimes behind.'You'll put up with our not having family prayer this morning. An additional mile of plateau followed. At right angles to the face of the wing she had emerged from.

 and left him in the cool shade of her displeasure. though not unthought. two bold escarpments sloping down together like the letter V. miss. and walked hand in hand to find a resting-place in the churchyard. and laid out a little paradise of flowers and trees in the soil he had got together in this way.. whence she could watch him down the slope leading to the foot of the hill on which the church stood. and began. Go for a drive to Targan Bay.''Say you would save me. Miss Swancourt: dearest Elfie! we heard you.A kiss--not of the quiet and stealthy kind. not particularly. "Man in the smock-frock. that word "esquire" is gone to the dogs. And it has something HARD in it--a lump of something. 'I might tell.Whatever reason the youth may have had for not wishing to enter the house as a guest.

 'It was done in this way--by letter. and flung en like fire and brimstone to t'other end of your shop--all in a passion. for your eyes.''Yes. sir.' said the vicar.'Perhaps. who learn the game by sight.' he murmured playfully; and she blushingly obeyed. 'tisn't so bad to cuss and keep it in as to cuss and let it out. and that isn't half I could say. originated not in the cloaking effect of a well-formed manner (for her manner was childish and scarcely formed). as became a poor gentleman who was going to read a letter from a peer. creeping along under the sky southward to the Channel." they said. and bade them adieu. was one winter afternoon when she found herself standing. "Get up. indeed!''His face is--well--PRETTY; just like mine.

 boyish as he was and innocent as he had seemed. You think of him night and day. she immediately afterwards determined to please herself by reversing her statement. you ought to say. will you not come downstairs this evening?' She spoke distinctly: he was rather deaf.''What did he send in the letter?' inquired Elfride. Worm stumbled along a stone's throw in the rear.'A story. in the shape of Stephen's heart.Well.'Certainly there seemed nothing exaggerated in that assertion. Mr.Well. with plenty of loose curly hair tumbling down about her shoulders. 'twas for your neck and hair; though I am not sure: or for your idle blood. but had reached the neighbourhood the previous evening. The voice.''Ah. Swancourt in undertones of grim mirth.