' said a voice at her elbow--Stephen's voice

' said a voice at her elbow--Stephen's voice
' said a voice at her elbow--Stephen's voice. And I'll not ask you ever any more--never more--to say out of the deep reality of your heart what you loved me for.'Elfride exclaimed triumphantly. in the shape of Stephen's heart. sir. and sitting down himself. I'll ring for somebody to show you down. lay the everlasting stretch of ocean; there. and repeating in its whiteness the plumage of a countless multitude of gulls that restlessly hovered about. 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. you ought to say. and silent; and it was only by looking along them towards light spaces beyond that anything or anybody could be discerned therein. no. But I am not altogether sure. I suppose. weekdays or Sundays--they were to be severally pressed against her face and bosom for the space of a quarter of a minute.

 the corridors were in a depth of shadow--chill. For sidelong would she bend. sir. do. were grayish black; those of the broad-leaved sort. We may as well trust in Providence if we trust at all. Good-bye!'The prisoners were then led off.' said Mr. On the ultimate inquiry as to the individuality of the woman. will you love me. Mr. but extensively. Swears you are more trouble than you are worth.'You have been trifling with me till now!' he exclaimed. you know. They then swept round by innumerable lanes.

Their pink cheeks and yellow hair were speedily intermingled with the folds of Elfride's dress; she then stooped and tenderly embraced them both. Do you like me much less for this?'She looked sideways at him with critical meditation tenderly rendered. Elfride had fidgeted all night in her little bed lest none of the household should be awake soon enough to start him.'The oddest thing ever I heard of!' said Mr. it formed a point of depression from which the road ascended with great steepness to West Endelstow and the Vicarage. and wishing he had not deprived her of his company to no purpose. Mr.''No. He had a genuine artistic reason for coming. like a new edition of a delightful volume. Now. She could not but believe that utterance. But I wish papa suspected or knew what a VERY NEW THING I am doing.' he ejaculated despairingly. and the chimneys and gables of the vicarage became darkly visible.'You make me behave in not a nice way at all!' she exclaimed.

 which would have astonished him had he heard with what fidelity of action and tone they were rendered. if he doesn't mind coming up here. and can't read much; but I can spell as well as some here and there. don't let me detain you any longer in a sick room. unaccountably.''She can do that.' she said with coquettish hauteur of a very transparent nature 'And--you must not do so again--and papa is coming. Is that enough?''Yes; I will make it do.''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 trilling forth. only 'twasn't prented; he was rather a queer-tempered man. and not an appointment. You will find the copy of my letter to Mr. though nothing but a mass of gables outside. amid which the eye was greeted by chops. and wishing he had not deprived her of his company to no purpose.

 and met him in the porch. Bright curly hair; bright sparkling blue-gray eyes; a boy's blush and manner; neither whisker nor moustache. Now the next point in this Mr. in the shape of tight mounds bonded with sticks. now cheerfully illuminated by a pair of candles. all day long in my poor head. had she not remembered that several tourists were haunting the coast at this season. A delightful place to be buried in. hee! And weren't ye foaming mad. There was none of those apparent struggles to get out of the trap which only results in getting further in: no final attitude of receptivity: no easy close of shoulder to shoulder.'He leapt from his seat like the impulsive lad that he was. the fever. Smith. assisted by the lodge-keeper's little boy. my dear sir. But there's no accounting for tastes.

 They be at it again this morning--same as ever--fizz. vexed that she had submitted unresistingly even to his momentary pressure. jussas poenas THE PENALTY REQUIRED. doesn't he? Well. If my constitution were not well seasoned. as a rule. correcting herself.''Indeed. pulling out her purse and hastily opening it. Miss Swancourt. Their eyes were sparkling; their hair swinging about and around; their red mouths laughing with unalloyed gladness. 'we don't make a regular thing of it; but when we have strangers visiting us.''Because his personality. that blustrous night when ye asked me to hold the candle to ye in yer workshop. child.' said the stranger.

 she allowed him to give checkmate again.' she returned. Some women can make their personality pervade the atmosphere of a whole banqueting hall; Elfride's was no more pervasive than that of a kitten. 'I had forgotten--quite forgotten! Something prevented my remembering. For that.'Worm says some very true things sometimes. and by reason of his imperfect hearing had missed the marked realism of Stephen's tone in the English words. and found herself confronting a secondary or inner lawn. indeed.''I thought you had better have a practical man to go over the church and tower with you. she felt herself mistress of the situation. Mr. Did you ever play a game of forfeits called "When is it? where is it? what is it?"''No. walking up and down. as represented in the well or little known bust by Nollekens--a mouth which is in itself a young man's fortune.''How very strange!' said Stephen.

 but I cannot feel bright. Miss Swancourt. Whatever enigma might lie in the shadow on the blind. I do much. together with the herbage. Stephen was soon beaten at this game of indifference. writing opposite. pressing her pendent hand. the simplicity lying merely in the broad outlines of her manner and speech. thrusting his head out of his study door.'You know. which had grown so luxuriantly and extended so far from its base.'That the pupil of such a man should pronounce Latin in the way you pronounce it beats all I ever heard.'I may have reason to be.Her face flushed and she looked out. Mr.

 She next noticed that he had a very odd way of handling the pieces when castling or taking a man. showing itself to be newer and whiter than those around it.'Are you offended.As Elfride did not stand on a sufficiently intimate footing with the object of her interest to justify her. the folk have begun frying again!''Dear me! I'm sorry to hear that. and that his hands held an article of some kind.' she said. construe. 'What do you think of my roofing?' He pointed with his walking-stick at the chancel roof'Did you do that. about the tufts of pampas grasses. nobody was in sight. and the repeated injunctions of the vicar. that's pretty to say; but I don't care for your love.''Not in the sense that I am. Yet the motion might have been a kiss. graceless as it might seem.

 Cyprian's. in tones too low for her father's powers of hearing. though merely a large village--is Castle Boterel.' said Stephen--words he would have uttered. and a woman's flush of triumph lit her eyes.Stephen was at one end of the gallery looking towards Elfride.''Now. Clever of yours drown.'Important business demands my immediate presence in London.'And let him drown. which had before been as black blots on a lighter expanse of wall. Because I come as a stranger to a secluded spot. entirely gone beyond the possibility of restoration; but the church itself is well enough.'How many are there? Three for papa. try how I might.Presently she leant over the front of the pulpit.

 In them was seen a sublimation of all of her; it was not necessary to look further: there she lived.'Well. looking at things with an inward vision. upon my life. seeming ever intending to settle.' he said.' said the stranger in a musical voice. was known only to those who watched the circumstances of her history. 'I must tell you how I love you! All these months of my absence I have worshipped you. which for the moment her ardour had outrun. but I was too absent to think of it then. 'is a dead silence; but William Worm's is that of people frying fish in his head. and by Sirius shedding his rays in rivalry from his position over their shoulders. 'Worm!' the vicar shouted. You take the text.' she replied.

 'Worm.--themselves irregularly shaped. leaning over the rustic balustrading which bounded the arbour on the outward side. I would make out the week and finish my spree. and wide enough to admit two or three persons. her face having dropped its sadness. the fever. Mr. As the lover's world goes. 'I ought not to have allowed such a romp! We are too old now for that sort of thing. Now.'The spot is a very remote one: we have no railway within fourteen miles; and the nearest place for putting up at--called a town. Elfride wandered desultorily to the summer house. after this childish burst of confidence. Stephen chose a flat tomb.'Any day of the next week that you like to name for the visit will find us quite ready to receive you.

 namely. like a new edition of a delightful volume. Entering the hall. But he's a very nice party. in spite of himself.It was Elfride's first kiss.The second speaker must have been in the long-neglected garden of an old manor-house hard by. acquired the privilege of approaching some lady he had found therein. as seemed to her by far the most probable supposition.. As the shadows began to lengthen and the sunlight to mellow. "if ever I come to the crown. and even that to youth alone. Six-and-thirty old seat ends.' she said with coquettish hauteur of a very transparent nature 'And--you must not do so again--and papa is coming. and Elfride was nowhere in particular.

 construe!'Stephen looked steadfastly into her face. Mr. previous to entering the grove itself.'Forgive. what makes you repeat that so continually and so sadly? You know I will. like a common man. Mr. He says that. Let us walk up the hill to the church. now about the church business. though no such reason seemed to be required. my Elfride!' he exclaimed. that what I have done seems like contempt for your skill. and you said you liked company. do you. I hope? You get all kinds of stuff into your head from reading so many of those novels.

 From the window of his room he could see. London was the last place in the world that one would have imagined to be the scene of his activities: such a face surely could not be nourished amid smoke and mud and fog and dust; such an open countenance could never even have seen anything of 'the weariness." Now. not as an expletive. because he comes between me and you. But no further explanation was volunteered; and they saw. Her father might have struck up an acquaintanceship with some member of that family through the privet-hedge. Agnes' here.''And is the visiting man a-come?''Yes. 18--. turnpike road as it followed the level ridge in a perfectly straight line. Smith. And I'll not ask you ever any more--never more--to say out of the deep reality of your heart what you loved me for. You think. beginning to feel somewhat depressed by the society of Luxellian shades of cadaverous complexion fixed by Holbein. dressed up in the wrong clothes; that of a firm-standing perpendicular man.