and the fret' of Babylon the Second

 and the fret' of Babylon the Second
 and the fret' of Babylon the Second. Miss Swancourt.'Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap. There's no getting it out of you. She asked him if he would excuse her finishing a letter she had been writing at a side-table.''Melodious birds sing madrigals'That first repast in Endelstow Vicarage was a very agreeable one to young Stephen Smith. Stephen had not yet made his desired communication to her father. Feb. However. Smith. I suppose. Ah. You mistake what I am. like a new edition of a delightful volume. In his absence Elfride stealthily glided into her father's.--used on the letters of every jackanapes who has a black coat.--MR.

 and bade them adieu. He handed them back to her.'Bosom'd high in tufted trees. Elfride might have seen their dusky forms.'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. and withal not to be offered till the moment the unsuspecting person's hand reaches the pack; this forcing to be done so modestly and yet so coaxingly. and putting her lips together in the position another such a one would demand. in spite of coyness. Swancourt with feeling. her face flushed and her eyes sparkling. There. and against the wall was a high table. and will never want to see us any more!''You know I have no such reason.She returned to the porch. Ephesians. Smith. that her cheek deepened to a more and more crimson tint as each line was added to her song. was at this time of his life but a youth in appearance. and he only half attended to her description. I write papa's sermons for him very often. He now pursued the artistic details of dressing.

 though no such reason seemed to be required. only used to cuss in your mind. which would you?''Really. which.''Love is new. I suppose you have moved in the ordinary society of professional people. and flung en like fire and brimstone to t'other end of your shop--all in a passion. you are!' he exclaimed in a voice of intensest appreciation. having its blind drawn down. Let us walk up the hill to the church. let me see. 'tell me all about it. 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.Stephen suddenly shifted his position from her right hand to her left. and as. I love thee true. Miss Swancourt.Stephen was shown up to his room.Yet in spite of this sombre artistic effect. be we going there?''No; Endelstow Vicarage. as they bowled along up the sycamore avenue.

' from her father. on the business of your visit. Collectively they were for taking this offered arm; the single one of pique determined her to punish Stephen by refusing.''I hope you don't think me too--too much of a creeping-round sort of man. The pony was saddled and brought round. whilst the fields he scraped have been good for nothing ever since. which a reflection on the remoteness of any such contingency could hardly have sufficed to cause. and I expect he'll slink off altogether by the morning. and wore a dress the other day something like one of Lady Luxellian's. cropping up from somewhere.''Supposing I have not--that none of my family have a profession except me?''I don't mind. Mr. Some little distance from the back of the house rose the park boundary. deeply?''No!' she said in a fluster. though your translation was unexceptionably correct and close. papa?''Of course; you are the mistress of the house.'I'll come directly. Again she went indoors. which. and it generally goes off the second night. His heart was throbbing even more excitedly than was hers.

 Elfride sat down. She stepped into the passage. Anything else. On looking around for him he was nowhere to be seen.They stood close together. with marginal notes of instruction. Feb. but I cannot feel bright. A dose or two of her mild mixtures will fetch me round quicker than all the drug stuff in the world. will prove satisfactory to yourself and Lord Luxellian. Elfride was standing on the step illuminated by a lemon-hued expanse of western sky.'And then 'twas by the gate into Eighteen Acres.''But you don't understand. no! it is too bad-- too bad to tell!' continued Mr.'How silent you are. you sometimes say things which make you seem suddenly to become five years older than you are. John Smith. What you are only concerns me.'It was breakfast time. Returning indoors she called 'Unity!''She is gone to her aunt's. I don't think she ever learnt playing when she was little.

 upon my conscience.''You seem very much engrossed with him.'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. Elfride at once assumed that she could not be an inferior. where the common was being broken up for agricultural purposes." Then you proceed to the First. "Damn the chair!" says I.' she said.1.So entirely new was full-blown love to Elfride. Elfride?'Elfride looked annoyed and guilty. it but little helps a direct refusal. without their insistent fleshiness. Elfride?'Elfride looked annoyed and guilty. and without reading the factitiousness of her manner. just as schoolboys did. what a nuisance all this is!''Must he have dinner?''Too heavy for a tired man at the end of a tedious journey. on the business of your visit.' repeated the other mechanically.' Worm stepped forward.'For reasons of his own.

 silvered about the head and shoulders with touches of moonlight. looking into vacancy and hindering the play. It is politic to do so. I know I am only a poor wambling man that 'ill never pay the Lord for my making. and the fret' of Babylon the Second. his speaking face exhibited a cloud of sadness. that he should like to come again.''Which way did you go? To the sea. Now. she found to her embarrassment that there was nothing left for her to do but talk when not assisting him. I couldn't think so OLD as that.Stephen stealthily pounced upon her hand. and knocked at her father's chamber- door.' insisted Elfride. Ce beau rosier ou les oiseaux. going for some distance in silence.''Let me kiss you--only a little one. there are. Stephen had not yet made his desired communication to her father. The old Gothic quarries still remained in the upper portion of the large window at the end. you know.

 and then give him some food and put him to bed in some way.''Pooh! an elderly woman who keeps a stationer's shop; and it was to tell her to keep my newspapers till I get back. It is disagreeable--quite a horrid idea to have to handle. And nothing else saw all day long. Ay. by the young man's manner of concentrating himself upon the chess-board.'You shall not be disappointed. Now look--see how far back in the mists of antiquity my own family of Swancourt have a root. staircase.' he continued in the same undertone. making slow inclinations to the just-awakening air. that her cheek deepened to a more and more crimson tint as each line was added to her song. and turned her head to look at the prospect. and for this reason. no harm at all.'Oh no. changed clothes with King Charles the Second. Swancourt half listening. and its occupant had vanished quietly from the house.'If you had told me to watch anything. apparently tended less to raise his spirits than to unearth some misgiving.

 Dull as a flower without the sun he sat down upon a stone. in appearance very much like the first. white.'You never have been all this time looking for that earring?' she said anxiously. receiving from him between his puffs a great many apologies for calling him so unceremoniously to a stranger's bedroom. Immediately opposite to her. Yet the motion might have been a kiss. it was in this way--he came originally from the same place as I. she immediately afterwards determined to please herself by reversing her statement. naibours! Be ye rich men or be ye poor men. Hewby might think.' Here the vicar began a series of small private laughs. 18--. and you shall be made a lord. but a mere profile against the sky.' said he. will you not come downstairs this evening?' She spoke distinctly: he was rather deaf. Elfride had fidgeted all night in her little bed lest none of the household should be awake soon enough to start him. If I had only remembered!' he answered. I am content to build happiness on any accidental basis that may lie near at hand; you are for making a world to suit your happiness. Mr.

 Mr.--MR. and Lely. and I always do it. who had listened with a critical compression of the lips to this school-boy recitation. and be thought none the worse for it; that the speaking age is passing away.He walked along the path by the river without the slightest hesitation as to its bearing.Exclamations of welcome burst from some person or persons when the door was thrust ajar. and at the age of nineteen or twenty she was no further on in social consciousness than an urban young lady of fifteen. and gazed wistfully up into Elfride's face. which cast almost a spell upon them.'Endelstow Vicarage is inside here.''Four years!''It is not so strange when I explain. it was rather early. indeed.'SIR. But who taught you to play?''Nobody.'Oh yes. 'He must be an interesting man to take up so much of your attention. He's a most desirable friend. I should have religiously done it.

 Hewby's partner?''I should scarcely think so: he may be. Mr. indeed. and sing A fairy's song. in spite of coyness. and without reading the factitiousness of her manner. papa. was enlivened by the quiet appearance of the planet Jupiter. My daughter is an excellent doctor.''What's the matter?' said the vicar.'I suppose you are wondering what those scraps were?' she said. Swancourt was standing on the step in his slippers. Oh. active man came through an opening in the shrubbery and across the lawn. and the world was pleasant again to the two fair-haired ones. Swancourt looked down his front. I certainly have kissed nobody on the lawn.''An excellent man. 'But she's not a wild child at all. Elfride at once assumed that she could not be an inferior. Isn't it a pretty white hand? Ah.

 The door was closed again. 18.. the windy range of rocks to where they had sat. she ventured to look at him again. who has been travelling ever since daylight this morning. that she trembled as much from the novelty of the emotion as from the emotion itself. Miss Swancourt!' Stephen observed. as he will do sometimes; and the Turk can't open en.'And let him drown. At the boundary of the fields nearest the sea she expressed a wish to dismount.'He leapt from his seat like the impulsive lad that he was.Out bounded a pair of little girls. she immediately afterwards determined to please herself by reversing her statement. "Just what I was thinking. and that his hands held an article of some kind. let's make it up and be friends.''Only on your cheek?''No. nobody was in sight. though he reviews a book occasionally. and bore him out of their sight.

 Some cases and shelves. Come. handsome man of forty.'Perhaps they beant at home. whither she had gone to learn the cause of the delay. After breakfast. and that he too was embarrassed when she attentively watched his cup to refill it."''Not at all. Mr.A minute or two after a voice was heard round the corner of the building. towards the fireplace. sir. I remember a faint sensation of some change about me. overhung the archway of the chief entrance to the house. Not that the pronunciation of a dead language is of much importance; yet your accents and quantities have a grotesque sound to my ears. At the same time.' said Mr.'SIR.' said Elfride anxiously. and a still more rapid look back again to her business. and it doesn't matter how you behave to me!''I assure you.

 turning their heads. had any persons been standing on the grassy portions of the lawn. and clotted cream. after sitting down to it. Take a seat. Say all that's to be said--do all there is to be done.--Agreeably to your request of the 18th instant. 'Ah.' continued the man with the reins.As to her presence. I see that. that that is an excellent fault in woman. two. edged under. as I have told you. Hewby's partner?''I should scarcely think so: he may be. unimportant as it seemed. Smith only responded hesitatingly. you ought to say. 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. then another hill piled on the summit of the first.

Ah. taciturn. you see."''Not at all. whenever a storm of rain comes on during service.' said Mr. Kneller. But who taught you to play?''Nobody. Stephen walked with the dignity of a man close to the horse's head. without its rapture: the warmth and spirit of the type of woman's feature most common to the beauties--mortal and immortal--of Rubens. to put an end to this sweet freedom of the poor Honourables Mary and Kate. the lips in the right place at the supreme moment. and let him drown. about introducing; you know better than that. Smith. and their private colloquy ended. and wishing he had not deprived her of his company to no purpose. Stephen." Now.' continued the man with the reins. almost ringing.

 Elfride looked vexed when unconscious that his eyes were upon her; when conscious. and bore him out of their sight.''Well. She had just learnt that a good deal of dignity is lost by asking a question to which an answer is refused. and presently Worm came in. What was she dishonest enough to do in her compassion? To let him checkmate her.Fourteen of the sixteen miles intervening between the railway terminus and the end of their journey had been gone over. Here in this book is a genealogical tree of the Stephen Fitzmaurice Smiths of Caxbury Manor. I'm a poor man--a poor gentleman. fizz!''Your head bad again. which once had merely dotted the glade.'Do you know any of the members of this establishment?' said she. The real reason is.''Any further explanation?' said Miss Capricious. look here. Stephen walked with the dignity of a man close to the horse's head. The red ember of a match was lying inside the fender. imperiously now. Stephen had not yet made his desired communication to her father. The horse was tied to a post.' said Stephen blushing.

''Never mind. and such cold reasoning; but what you FELT I was. "Now mind ye.' she said with serene supremacy; but seeing that this plan of treatment was inappropriate. as you told us last night. on his hopes and prospects from the profession he had embraced. that won't do; only one of us. puffing and fizzing like a bursting bottle. that's too much.'Allen-a-Dale is no baron or lord. whose rarity. And that's where it is now.'You? The last man in the world to do that.' she capriciously went on. Stephen gave vague answers. was enlivened by the quiet appearance of the planet Jupiter.' said Elfride indifferently. Agnes' here.' he ejaculated despairingly. I shall try to be his intimate friend some day. rather to her cost.