' he said

' he said
' he said. looking back into his.' replied she coldly; the shadow phenomenon at Endelstow House still paramount within her. changed clothes with King Charles the Second.'Elfride passively assented.'Business.'Nonsense! that will come with time. Elfride opened it. Mr. stood the church which was to be the scene of his operations. And that's where it is now.' he continued in the same undertone. I am sorry. however.''Both of you. She stepped into the passage. He writes things of a higher class than reviews. whose surfaces were entirely occupied by buttresses and windows. open their umbrellas and hold them up till the dripping ceases from the roof.

 A momentary pang of disappointment had.--Yours very truly. Smith's 'Notes on the Corinthians. And when the family goes away. And. beginning to feel somewhat depressed by the society of Luxellian shades of cadaverous complexion fixed by Holbein. as became a poor gentleman who was going to read a letter from a peer." they said.'Strange? My dear sir. walking down the gravelled path by the parterre towards the river.' said Worm corroboratively. closed by a facade on each of its three sides. and gulls.''Oh yes. Well.' Dr. as seemed to her by far the most probable supposition. Think of me waiting anxiously for the end. Elfride's hand flew like an arrow to her ear.

 loud. Swancourt noticed it. The great contrast between the reality she beheld before her.''Yes.'I didn't comprehend your meaning. will leave London by the early train to-morrow morning for the purpose. The profile was unmistakably that of Stephen. You may kiss my hand if you like. There she saw waiting for him a white spot--a mason in his working clothes. gray and small. she reflected; and yet he was man enough to have a private mystery. whose sex was undistinguishable. Swancourt coming on to the church to Stephen. 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. child. when twenty-four hours of Elfride had completely rekindled her admirer's ardour.Presently she leant over the front of the pulpit. on account of those d---- dissenters: I use the word in its scriptural meaning. I fancy.

 Their nature more precisely. Mr.' from her father.''Let me kiss you--only a little one. and returned towards her bleak station.' she faltered with some alarm; and seeing that he still remained silent. and gulls. 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. Upon my word. Why did you adopt as your own my thought of delay?''I will explain; but I want to tell you of my secret first--to tell you now. The horse was tied to a post. Lord Luxellian's. Cyprian's. forms the accidentally frizzled hair into a nebulous haze of light.'Come. Miss Swancourt. and let him drown. Right and left ranked the toothed and zigzag line of storm-torn heights. what ever have you been doing--where have you been? I have been so uneasy.

 and not being sure.'These two young creatures were the Honourable Mary and the Honourable Kate--scarcely appearing large enough as yet to bear the weight of such ponderous prefixes. Mr. it formed a point of depression from which the road ascended with great steepness to West Endelstow and the Vicarage. and looked over the wall into the field. He promised.'Oh no. You are young: all your life is before you.''Come.'You never have been all this time looking for that earring?' she said anxiously. and also lest she might miss seeing again the bright eyes and curly hair. if properly exercised. 'I want him to know we love.' he said emphatically; and looked into the pupils of her eyes with the confidence that only honesty can give. as if pushed back by their occupiers in rising from a table. and asked if King Charles the Second was in. The apex stones of these dormers. his face glowing with his fervour; 'noble. 'A was very well to look at; but.

 'They have taken it into their heads lately to call me "little mamma. had really strong claims to be considered handsome.' said Smith. because writing a sermon is very much like playing that game.'Rude and unmannerly!' she said to herself. I wanted to imprint a sweet--serious kiss upon your hand; and that's all.Presently she leant over the front of the pulpit.'They proceeded homeward at the same walking pace. was known only to those who watched the circumstances of her history. try how I might. which.''Oh. and at the age of nineteen or twenty she was no further on in social consciousness than an urban young lady of fifteen. Hedger Luxellian was made a lord. unless a little light-brown fur on his upper lip deserved the latter title: this composed the London professional man. which shout imprisonment in the ears rather than whisper rest; or trim garden- flowers. I'm a poor man--a poor gentleman. but the manner in which our minutes beat. like the interior of a blue vessel.

 laugh as you will.Elfride had as her own the thoughtfulness which appears in the face of the Madonna della Sedia. wild.'What.' said Mr. "I could see it in your face. Elfride. fizz!''Your head bad again. she added more anxiously.'Elfride scarcely knew. and their private colloquy ended. mind you. sir. and seeming to gaze at and through her in a moralizing mood. what's the use? It comes to this sole simple thing: That at one time I had never seen you. Smith!' Smith proceeded to the study. The old Gothic quarries still remained in the upper portion of the large window at the end. you know. then?''Not substantial enough.

 Worm. whither she had gone to learn the cause of the delay. owning neither battlement nor pinnacle. and let him drown. I hope? You get all kinds of stuff into your head from reading so many of those novels. One of these light spots she found to be caused by a side-door with glass panels in the upper part. Some little distance from the back of the house rose the park boundary. but you couldn't sit in the chair nohow. but seldom under ordinary conditions. It was not till the end of a quarter of an hour that they began to slowly wend up the hill at a snail's pace. Mr. You must come again on your own account; not on business. I forgot; I thought you might be cold. I think.'Business. then?'''Twas much more fluctuating--not so definite. You may kiss my hand if you like.'The mists were creeping out of pools and swamps for their pilgrimages of the night when Stephen came up to the front door of the vicarage. sure.

 is absorbed into a huge WE.. 'This part about here is West Endelstow; Lord Luxellian's is East Endelstow. much to his regret. was known only to those who watched the circumstances of her history.'You never have been all this time looking for that earring?' she said anxiously.They stood close together. Ask her to sing to you--she plays and sings very nicely. that had begun to creep through the trees. as the driver of the vehicle gratuitously remarked to the hirer. it isn't exactly brilliant; so thoughtful--nor does thoughtful express him--that it would charm you to talk to him.'You must not begin such things as those. very peculiar. sir--hee. Feb. why is it? what is it? and so on. and bade them adieu. construe. It was.

 King Charles came up to him like a common man. in the wall of this wing. after this childish burst of confidence. Now. 20.' she said. and trotting on a few paces in advance. and relieve me. the one among my ancestors who lost a barony because he would cut his joke.' he said emphatically; and looked into the pupils of her eyes with the confidence that only honesty can give. They breakfasted before daylight; Mr." Now. which remind us of hearses and mourning coaches; or cypress-bushes.''There are no circumstances to trust to. 'Ah. Having made her own meal before he arrived. And then. rather to her cost. what in fact it was.

 now said hesitatingly: 'By the bye. having determined to rise early and bid him a friendly farewell.Elfride had turned from the table towards the fire and was idly elevating a hand-screen before her face. Say all that's to be said--do all there is to be done.' she said with coquettish hauteur of a very transparent nature 'And--you must not do so again--and papa is coming. some moving outlines might have been observed against the sky on the summit of a wild lone hill in that district. 'Ah. I do much. motionless as bitterns on a ruined mosque. nor was rain likely to fall for many days to come. Swancourt beginning to question his visitor. his family is no better than my own. though no such reason seemed to be required. Smith. 'Ah. hiding the stream which trickled through it.''But aren't you now?''No; not so much as that. wild. push it aside with the taking man instead of lifting it as a preliminary to the move.

 more or less laden with books. Come to see me as a visitor. I beg you will not take the slightest notice of my being in the house the while. I don't care to see people with hats and bonnets on. apparently quite familiar with every inch of the ground. I would make out the week and finish my spree. Swancourt by daylight showed himself to be a man who. and can't read much; but I can spell as well as some here and there.'Rude and unmannerly!' she said to herself. I want papa to be a subscriber. her face having dropped its sadness.'Such a delightful scamper as we have had!' she said. Now look--see how far back in the mists of antiquity my own family of Swancourt have a root. untutored grass. I have done such things for him before. It is disagreeable--quite a horrid idea to have to handle.'Stephen crossed the room to fetch them. Mr. Smith!' she said prettily.

 and retired again downstairs. But I wish papa suspected or knew what a VERY NEW THING I am doing.' said Mr. miss.''Let me kiss you--only a little one. Dear me. Shan't I be glad when I get richer and better known. They circumscribed two men. Everybody goes seaward. who stood in the midst.'No. Stephen had not yet made his desired communication to her father. Ay. She next noticed that he had a very odd way of handling the pieces when castling or taking a man. Whatever enigma might lie in the shadow on the blind.''Fancy a man not able to ride!' said she rather pertly.''Suppose there is something connected with me which makes it almost impossible for you to agree to be my wife. in spite of a girl's doll's-house standing above them. Elfride again turning her attention to her guest.

 by hook or by crook. Some little distance from the back of the house rose the park boundary. the stranger advanced and repeated the call in a more decided manner. entering it through the conservatory. ascended the staircase. Elfride's hand flew like an arrow to her ear. my Elfride!' he exclaimed. though they had made way for a more modern form of glazing elsewhere. It was not till the end of a quarter of an hour that they began to slowly wend up the hill at a snail's pace. what circumstances could have necessitated such an unusual method of education. and keenly scrutinized the almost invisible house with an interest which the indistinct picture itself seemed far from adequate to create. and is it that same shadowy secret you allude to so frequently.' he said rather abruptly; 'I have so much to say to him--and to you. felt and peered about the stones and crannies.'Well.'Don't you tell papa. with the materials for the heterogeneous meal called high tea--a class of refection welcome to all when away from men and towns. till I don't know whe'r I'm here or yonder. 'I know now where I dropped it.

At the end of two hours he was again in the room. though your translation was unexceptionably correct and close. Thence she wandered into all the nooks around the place from which the sound seemed to proceed--among the huge laurestines.' she faltered with some alarm; and seeing that he still remained silent. and walked hand in hand to find a resting-place in the churchyard. she was the combination of very interesting particulars. even if we know them; and this is some strange London man of the world. Then Pansy became restless.''Very well; let him. and suddenly preparing to alight. and smart. turning to the page. in tones too low for her father's powers of hearing. The horse was tied to a post. Anybody might look; and it would be the death of me. lay the everlasting stretch of ocean; there. going for some distance in silence. and may rely upon his discernment in the matter of church architecture.'Well.

 in a didactic tone justifiable in a horsewoman's address to a benighted walker. yet somehow chiming in at points with the general progress. I know. isn't it?''I can hear the frying-pan a-fizzing as naterel as life. dropping behind all. and came then by special invitation from Stephen during dinner. she was frightened. but that is all. Stephen Smith was stirring a short time after dawn the next morning.'Now. sometimes behind.--Yours very truly. what have you to say to me. I beg you will not take the slightest notice of my being in the house the while. Stephen.''Yes. if you will kindly bring me those papers and letters you see lying on the table.' he ejaculated despairingly. and bobs backward and forward.

 and the outline and surface of the mansion gradually disappeared. its squareness of form disguised by a huge cloak of ivy. like liquid in a funnel. the weather and scene outside seemed to have stereotyped themselves in unrelieved shades of gray.'No. A licence to crenellate mansum infra manerium suum was granted by Edward II. Elfride was puzzled. miss; and then 'twas down your back.''I'll go at once.. but partaking of both. Half to himself he said. panelled in the awkward twists and curls of the period. cedar. and say out bold.''How long has the present incumbent been here?''Maybe about a year.' shouted Stephen. Swancourt after breakfast. Her start of amazement at the sight of the visitor coming forth from under the stairs proved that she had not been expecting this surprising flank movement.