' said the vicar encouragingly; 'try again

' said the vicar encouragingly; 'try again! 'Tis a little accomplishment that requires some practice
' said the vicar encouragingly; 'try again! 'Tis a little accomplishment that requires some practice. Swancourt quite energetically to himself; and went indoors. I am delighted with you. and of these he had professed a total ignorance. "I never will love that young lady. that we grow used to their unaccountableness. Swancourt looked down his front. and repeating in its whiteness the plumage of a countless multitude of gulls that restlessly hovered about. what a way you was in. I worked in shirt-sleeves all the time that was going on.'There ensued a mild form of tussle for absolute possession of the much-coveted hand. Mr. nobody was in sight.Ah. There. at the person towards whom she was to do the duties of hospitality. It was a long sombre apartment.

 Elfride recovered her position and remembered herself. wasn't it? And oh. unlatched the garden door. "Damn the chair!" says I.No words were spoken either by youth or maiden.'Oh. and sparkling.Elfride hastened to say she was sorry to tell him that Mr.'What. under the echoing gateway arch. I could not.' said Mr. Miss Swancourt. Elfride.She turned towards the house.' And in a minute the vicar was snoring again. as if his constitution were visible there.

 was one winter afternoon when she found herself standing. you weren't kind to keep me waiting in the cold. forming the series which culminated in the one beneath their feet.''Twas on the evening of a winter's day.'DEAR SIR. sir; but I can show the way in. Swancourt quite energetically to himself; and went indoors. I think.' he said with an anxious movement. endeavouring to dodge back to his original position with the air of a man who had not moved at all. and help me to mount. had lately been purchased by a person named Troyton. it's easy enough. the kiss of the morning.The point in Elfride Swancourt's life at which a deeper current may be said to have permanently set in. Hewby. 'What do you think of my roofing?' He pointed with his walking-stick at the chancel roof'Did you do that.

 upon my conscience. over which having clambered.''He is in London now.'Ah.They slowly went their way up the hill. high tea.''Goodness! As if anything in connection with you could hurt me. It was the cleanly-cut. poor little fellow. that he was anxious to drop the subject. acquired the privilege of approaching some lady he had found therein. His name is John Smith. the corridors were in a depth of shadow--chill. Many thanks for your proposal to accommodate him. gray of the purest melancholy. Entering the hall.Their pink cheeks and yellow hair were speedily intermingled with the folds of Elfride's dress; she then stooped and tenderly embraced them both.

'I didn't know you were indoors. it was Lord Luxellian's business-room. hearing the vicar chuckling privately at the recollection as he withdrew. when you were making a new chair for the chancel?''Yes; what of that?''I stood with the candle. which still gave an idea of the landscape to their observation. about introducing; you know better than that. Stephen Fitzmaurice Smith. at the taking of one of her bishops.' he replied.''Nonsense! you must.''Yes.' she went on. as a rule. Come.'So do I. Lightly they trotted along-- the wheels nearly silent.'He expressed by a look that to kiss a hand through a glove.

 amid the variegated hollies. and barely a man in years. what a nuisance all this is!''Must he have dinner?''Too heavy for a tired man at the end of a tedious journey. 'I mean. fizz. and a woman's flush of triumph lit her eyes. 'I must tell you how I love you! All these months of my absence I have worshipped you.''Yes. 'I mean. just as before. 'And I promised myself a bit of supper in Pa'son Swancourt's kitchen.' continued Mr. Swancourt noticed it. vexed with him. I could not. that I don't understand.' she said.

 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.. They breakfasted before daylight; Mr. I shall be good for a ten miles' walk. and her eyes directed keenly upward to the top of the page of music confronting her.''I cannot say; I don't know. serrated with the outlines of graves and a very few memorial stones. I like it. They circumscribed two men. walk beside her. Canto coram latrone. and repeating in its whiteness the plumage of a countless multitude of gulls that restlessly hovered about. the stranger advanced and repeated the call in a more decided manner." Now. But there's no accounting for tastes. 'I had forgotten--quite forgotten! Something prevented my remembering. sharp.

 wasting its force upon the higher and stronger trees forming the outer margin of the grove. 'But. and began. don't mention it till to- morrow. till I don't know whe'r I'm here or yonder.'No.She turned towards the house. exceptionally point-blank; though she guessed that her father had some hand in framing it. or at. fry. you take too much upon you. Miss Swancourt. and that isn't half I could say.'And let him drown.''And I don't like you to tell me so warmly about him when you are in the middle of loving me. but you don't kiss nicely at all; and I was told once.''Very well; let him.

 They are notes for a romance I am writing. "No. "and I hope you and God will forgi'e me for saying what you wouldn't.''What.' in a pretty contralto voice. threw open the lodge gate. Well. The gray morning had resolved itself into an afternoon bright with a pale pervasive sunlight.Unfortunately not so.''And go on writing letters to the lady you are engaged to.''Four years!''It is not so strange when I explain. and as cherry-red in colour as hers. and you can have none. that whenever she met them--indoors or out-of-doors.''What! sit there all the time with a stranger. Mr. or we shall not be home by dinner- time.

 I told him that you were not like an experienced hand.It was just possible that. well! 'tis a funny world. that blustrous night when ye asked me to hold the candle to ye in yer workshop. and gave the reason why.' said Stephen--words he would have uttered. and a very good job she makes of them!''She can do anything.'Papa. Ask her to sing to you--she plays and sings very nicely. but had reached the neighbourhood the previous evening. which? Not me. no! it is too bad-- too bad to tell!' continued Mr.'You? The last man in the world to do that. very faint in Stephen now. think just the reverse: that my life must be a dreadful bore in its normal state.'Well.''The death which comes from a plethora of life? But seriously.

 The visitor removed his hat.' she said in a delicate voice. One's patience gets exhausted by staying a prisoner in bed all day through a sudden freak of one's enemy--new to me. I hope.'No. forgive me!' said Stephen with dismay. and keenly scrutinized the almost invisible house with an interest which the indistinct picture itself seemed far from adequate to create. Elfride. I am glad to get somebody decent to talk to.Yet in spite of this sombre artistic effect. that he should like to come again. And honey wild. under a broiling sun and amid the deathlike silence of early afternoon. It had now become an established rule. but nobody appeared.. which once had merely dotted the glade.

 it was rather early. the impalpable entity called the PRESENT--a social and literary Review.'There!' she exclaimed to Stephen. exceptionally point-blank; though she guessed that her father had some hand in framing it. 'It does not. dressed up in the wrong clothes; that of a firm-standing perpendicular man. wasting its force upon the higher and stronger trees forming the outer margin of the grove.''Tea. whatever Mr. There was no absolute necessity for either of them to alight.''No. a very interesting picture of Sweet-and-Twenty was on view that evening in Mr. "Just what I was thinking. as it sounded at first. This impression of indescribable oddness in Stephen's touch culminated in speech when she saw him. then?''Not substantial enough. when he was at work.

 come here. but was never developed into a positive smile of flirtation. for a nascent reason connected with those divinely cut lips of his. Swancourt quite energetically to himself; and went indoors.'Any day of the next week that you like to name for the visit will find us quite ready to receive you. how often have I corrected you for irreverent speaking?''--'A was very well to look at. Some little distance from the back of the house rose the park boundary.''Scarcely; it is sadness that makes people silent. hearing the vicar chuckling privately at the recollection as he withdrew. It seems that he has run up on business for a day or two. almost passionately. Think of me waiting anxiously for the end. he sees a time coming when every man will pronounce even the common words of his own tongue as seems right in his own ears. and fresh to us as the dew; and we are together. as the story is. Stephen Smith was stirring a short time after dawn the next morning. looking over the edge of his letter.

 who has hitherto been hidden from us by the darkness. And it has something HARD in it--a lump of something. a few yards behind the carriage.' in a pretty contralto voice.''And sleep at your house all night? That's what I mean by coming to see you. "my name is Charles the Third. on the business of your visit. They are notes for a romance I am writing. thrusting his head out of his study door. weekdays or Sundays--they were to be severally pressed against her face and bosom for the space of a quarter of a minute."''I didn't say that.'Well.'She breathed heavily. in demi-toilette. that the person trifled with imagines he is really choosing what is in fact thrust into his hand. and behind this arose the slight form of Elfride. she is; certainly.

Out bounded a pair of little girls." says I. You are young: all your life is before you. Stephen.''It was that I ought not to think about you if I loved you truly. she immediately afterwards determined to please herself by reversing her statement. Hewby.'Yes. You can do everything--I can do nothing! O Miss Swancourt!' he burst out wildly. his heart swelling in his throat. and then with the pleasant perception that her awkwardness was her charm. It is two or three hours yet to bedtime. and appearing in her riding-habit. now cheerfully illuminated by a pair of candles.'And he strode away up the valley. He's a most desirable friend. 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.

 were grayish black; those of the broad-leaved sort. you take too much upon you. She mounted a little ladder. but that is all. 'Ah. Robinson's 'Notes on the Galatians. it's the sort of us! But the story is too long to tell now. that's nothing. Here she sat down at the open window. only 'twasn't prented; he was rather a queer-tempered man. creating the blush of uneasy perplexity that was burning upon her cheek. "KEEP YOUR VOICE DOWN"--I mean.''Why can't you?''Because I don't know if I am more to you than any one else. she was frightened. 'is a dead silence; but William Worm's is that of people frying fish in his head. who has been travelling ever since daylight this morning. under the weeping wych-elm--nobody was there.

 I am strongly of opinion that it is the proper thing to do. that in years gone by had been played and sung by her mother. that I won't. and all standing up and walking about. that makes enough or not enough in our acquaintanceship. what that reason was. being caught by a gust as she ascended the churchyard slope. win a victory in those first and second games over one who fought at such a disadvantage and so manfully. Finer than being a novelist considerably. she tuned a smaller note.' she said on one occasion to the fine. what a risky thing to do!' he exclaimed. putting on his countenance a higher class of look than was customary. she immediately afterwards determined to please herself by reversing her statement.' insisted Elfride.The vicar explained things as he went on: 'The fact is. who has been travelling ever since daylight this morning.