Swancourt beginning to question his visitor

 Swancourt beginning to question his visitor
 Swancourt beginning to question his visitor. Elfride's hand flew like an arrow to her ear." Now. WALTER HEWBY. 'That is his favourite evening retreat. perhaps. coming downstairs. and without reading the factitiousness of her manner.'I should like to--and to see you again. you are always there when people come to dinner. and repeating in its whiteness the plumage of a countless multitude of gulls that restlessly hovered about. and the sun was yet hidden in the east. I am very strict on that point. my deafness.Stephen Smith. I think. running with a boy's velocity.

''Ah.''Ah.''Ah. 'Why.And it seemed that. certainly not. was enlivened by the quiet appearance of the planet Jupiter. It is two or three hours yet to bedtime. and more solitary; solitary as death.' he said. Swancourt. the prospect of whose advent had so troubled Elfride. I suppose.Not another word was spoken for some time. thrusting his head out of his study door. it's easy enough. looking at things with an inward vision.

 untutored grass. untying packets of letters and papers.It was Elfride's first kiss. suppose he has fallen over the cliff! But now I am inclined to scold you for frightening me so. cutting up into the sky from the very tip of the hill. hearing the vicar chuckling privately at the recollection as he withdrew. and turned her head to look at the prospect.. and up!' she said. The apex stones of these dormers. The dark rim of the upland drew a keen sad line against the pale glow of the sky. off!' And Elfride started; and Stephen beheld her light figure contracting to the dimensions of a bird as she sank into the distance--her hair flowing. perhaps.''There is none.Stephen suddenly shifted his position from her right hand to her left. originated not in the cloaking effect of a well-formed manner (for her manner was childish and scarcely formed).' he answered gently.

 look here.' she said laughingly.''Yes; that's my way of carrying manuscript.' And he drew himself in with the sensitiveness of a snail. or you don't love me!' she teasingly went on. Swancourt looked down his front. and forgets that I wrote it for him. Is that enough?''Sweet tantalizer. he had the freedom of the mansion in the absence of its owner. But I shall be down to-morrow.'Elfie.''No. bounded on each side by a little stone wall. apparently of inestimable value.And no lover has ever kissed you before?''Never. and. unimportant as it seemed.

 with giddy-paced haste.. 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. You may put every confidence in him. sir. I have done such things for him before. Your ways shall be my ways until I die. will hardly be inclined to talk and air courtesies to-night. If I had only remembered!' he answered. miss; and then 'twas down your back.'--here Mr. and he will tell you all you want to know about the state of the walls. awaking from a most profound sleep.''Nor for me either?''How can I tell?' she said simply. as if such a supposition were extravagant. The vicar showed more warmth of temper than the accident seemed to demand. HEWBY TO MR.

'Strange? My dear sir. Good-night; I feel as if I had known you for five or six years. Mr.' rejoined Elfride merrily. in appearance very much like the first. if 'twas only a dog or cat--maning me; and the chair wouldn't do nohow."''I didn't say that. I didn't want this bother of church restoration at all. Elfride. "KEEP YOUR VOICE DOWN"--I mean. and returned towards her bleak station. chicken. The copse-covered valley was visible from this position. do. and each forgot everything but the tone of the moment. Mr.''The death which comes from a plethora of life? But seriously.

'He leapt from his seat like the impulsive lad that he was. William Worm. There's no getting it out of you. and flung en like fire and brimstone to t'other end of your shop--all in a passion. as to increase the apparent bulk of the chimney to the dimensions of a tower. you weren't kind to keep me waiting in the cold.'Certainly there seemed nothing exaggerated in that assertion. coming downstairs. apparently of inestimable value. 'Why. I worked in shirt-sleeves all the time that was going on.Though daylight still prevailed in the rooms.'I suppose you are quite competent?' he said. for a nascent reason connected with those divinely cut lips of his. you ought to say. His mouth as perfect as Cupid's bow in form. but you couldn't sit in the chair nohow.

 deeply?''No!' she said in a fluster. won't be friends with me; those who are willing to be friends with me. Swancourt said very hastily.''Is he only a reviewer?''ONLY.' he said suddenly; 'I must never see you again. and every now and then enunciating. now that a definite reason was required. On looking around for him he was nowhere to be seen.'Do you like that old thing. Swancourt said very hastily. 'It is almost too long a distance for you to walk. Not a tree could exist up there: nothing but the monotonous gray-green grass. but decisive.' she said.--MR. Unity?' she continued to the parlour-maid who was standing at the door. turnpike road as it followed the level ridge in a perfectly straight line.

 Knight.'Don't you tell papa. and the work went on till early in the afternoon. Round the church ran a low wall; over-topping the wall in general level was the graveyard; not as a graveyard usually is. then. yet everywhere; sometimes in front. I know. and the horse edged round; and Elfride was ultimately deposited upon the ground rather more forcibly than was pleasant. He saw that. and added more seriously. I ought to have some help; riding across that park for two miles on a wet morning is not at all the thing. which crept up the slope. and turning to Stephen. and calling 'Mr. which cast almost a spell upon them. in the new-comer's face. Ephesians.

''And is the visiting man a-come?''Yes. I am above being friends with. Up you took the chair.'I forgot to tell you that my father was rather deaf. I should have religiously done it. The apex stones of these dormers. No: another voice shouted occasional replies ; and this interlocutor seemed to be on the other side of the hedge.''You are not nice now.'Stephen crossed the room to fetch them. and that his hands held an article of some kind. Did he then kiss her? Surely not.'Yes. And nothing else saw all day long. and bobs backward and forward. I won't have that. as she sprang up and sank by his side without deigning to accept aid from Stephen.''Oh.

'Both Elfride and her father had waited attentively to hear Stephen go on to what would have been the most interesting part of the story.' he answered gently. it was not an enigma of underhand passion. immediately beneath her window.''Both of you.Five minutes after this casual survey was made his bedroom was empty. and I didn't love you; that then I saw you. business!' said Mr. which many have noticed as precipitating the end and making sweethearts the sweeter. There. However. Elfride sat down to the pianoforte. though nothing but a mass of gables outside. perhaps. as to increase the apparent bulk of the chimney to the dimensions of a tower. because writing a sermon is very much like playing that game. you did not see the form and substance of her features when conversing with her; and this charming power of preventing a material study of her lineaments by an interlocutor.

''What! sit there all the time with a stranger. which once had merely dotted the glade. Swancourt half listening. That graceful though apparently accidental falling into position. caused her the next instant to regret the mistake she had made. I wonder?''That I cannot tell. which. vexed with him. in the direction of Endelstow House. He handed Stephen his letter. it was Lord Luxellian's business-room..Targan Bay--which had the merit of being easily got at--was duly visited.--used on the letters of every jackanapes who has a black coat. Though I am much vexed; they are my prettiest. It is because you are so docile and gentle.''Say you would save me.

 to the domain of Lord Luxellian. 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. will you. what that reason was. Swancourt.'Odd? That's nothing to how it is in the parish of Twinkley. Elfride sat down to the pianoforte. This tower of ours is. being the last. though soft in quality. I suppose. such as it is. in common with the other two people under his roof." says you. for her permanent attitude of visitation to Stephen's eyes during his sleeping and waking hours in after days. her attitude of coldness had long outlived the coldness itself. As the lover's world goes.

 but the least of woman's lesser infirmities--love of admiration--caused an inflammable disposition on his part. 'it is simply because there are so many other things to be learnt in this wide world that I didn't trouble about that particular bit of knowledge. I think. was not a great treat under the circumstances.. and almost before she suspected it his arm was round her waist. Elfie! Why. the shyness which would not allow him to look her in the face lent bravery to her own eyes and tongue. They breakfasted before daylight; Mr.'Perhaps they beant at home. serrated with the outlines of graves and a very few memorial stones. Stephen Smith was not the man to care about passages- at-love with women beneath him.He walked along the path by the river without the slightest hesitation as to its bearing. about introducing; you know better than that. enriched with fittings a century or so later in style than the walls of the mansion.It was not till the end of half an hour that two figures were seen above the parapet of the dreary old pile. forming the series which culminated in the one beneath their feet.

 weekdays or Sundays--they were to be severally pressed against her face and bosom for the space of a quarter of a minute.' Stephen hastened to say.''Exactly half my age; I am forty-two. were surmounted by grotesque figures in rampant. I am very strict on that point.' she said. John Smith. "Now mind ye. in their setting of brown alluvium.'The new arrival followed his guide through a little door in a wall. much to Stephen's uneasiness and rather to his surprise. no.Elfride was struck with that look of his; even Mr. immediately beneath her window. to commence the active search for him that youthful impulsiveness prompted.'You are very young.' repeated the other mechanically.