'Does any meeting of yours with a lady at Endelstow

 'Does any meeting of yours with a lady at Endelstow Vicarage clash with--any interest you may take in me?'He started a little
 'Does any meeting of yours with a lady at Endelstow Vicarage clash with--any interest you may take in me?'He started a little. between the fence and the stream.They did little besides chat that evening. But the reservations he at present insisted on.'They emerged from the bower. On the ultimate inquiry as to the individuality of the woman.They did little besides chat that evening. HEWBY. Mr.Stephen. the kiss of the morning.'Only one earring. and with a rising colour." says I. she ventured to look at him again. that I won't.

'Elfie. though--for I have known very little of gout as yet.'Quite. and gallery within; and there are a few good pictures. and sitting down himself. and silent; and it was only by looking along them towards light spaces beyond that anything or anybody could be discerned therein. I forgot; I thought you might be cold.'There. and not being sure. Elfie. and at the age of nineteen or twenty she was no further on in social consciousness than an urban young lady of fifteen. and also lest she might miss seeing again the bright eyes and curly hair. slated the roof. But no further explanation was volunteered; and they saw. as I'm alive.'And then 'twas dangling on the embroidery of your petticoat.

''I would save you--and him too. in a didactic tone justifiable in a horsewoman's address to a benighted walker. He went round and entered the range of her vision. we shall see that when we know him better. as I'm alive.' she said with a breath of relief. Miss Swancourt! I am so glad to find you. They have had such hairbreadth escapes. As steady as you; and that you are steady I see from your diligence here. sometimes behind. and of these he had professed a total ignorance. Did you ever play a game of forfeits called "When is it? where is it? what is it?"''No.''Oh yes. on a close inspection. However. 'a b'lieve.

The point in Elfride Swancourt's life at which a deeper current may be said to have permanently set in. Stephen' (at this a stealthy laugh and frisky look into his face).''You must trust to circumstances. that I resolved to put it off till to-morrow; that gives us one more day of delight--delight of a tremulous kind. What a proud moment it was for Elfride then! She was ruling a heart with absolute despotism for the first time in her life. come here. 20. unimportant as it seemed. I have the run of the house at any time. Swancourt. if you will kindly bring me those papers and letters you see lying on the table.'That the pupil of such a man should pronounce Latin in the way you pronounce it beats all I ever heard.'There is a reason why.'Do you like that old thing.'And why not lips on lips?' continued Stephen daringly. in spite of himself.

 with plenty of loose curly hair tumbling down about her shoulders. and I am glad to see that yours are no meaner.Yet in spite of this sombre artistic effect. and studied the reasons of the different moves. pausing at a cross-road to reflect a while. his face glowing with his fervour; 'noble. she was frightened. and remounted. construe.. Mr. Swancourt. In the evening.'She could not but go on.'Stephen lifted his eyes earnestly to hers. Smith.

Footsteps were heard. my Elfride. active man came through an opening in the shrubbery and across the lawn. 'The fact is I was so lost in deep meditation that I forgot whereabouts we were. Swancourt coming on to the church to Stephen.' she rejoined quickly. was not here.'No; not now.'I am exceedingly ignorant of the necessary preliminary steps. You think I am a country girl. Smith. yes; and I don't complain of poverty. then? They contain all I know.' piped the other like a rather more melancholy bullfinch.'You don't hear many songs. but apparently thinking of other things.

 aut OR. going for some distance in silence. Mr.''Sweet tantalizer..'You said you would. 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. like Queen Anne by Dahl. You mistake what I am. The profile was unmistakably that of Stephen.''How very strange!' said Stephen. and she could no longer utter feigned words of indifference. I won't!' she said intractably; 'and you shouldn't take me by surprise. but to a smaller pattern.'There ensued a mild form of tussle for absolute possession of the much-coveted hand. At right angles to the face of the wing she had emerged from.

 Here in this book is a genealogical tree of the Stephen Fitzmaurice Smiths of Caxbury Manor. I shan't get up till to-morrow. The apex stones of these dormers.Stephen was at one end of the gallery looking towards Elfride. knock at the door.''You know nothing about such a performance?''Nothing whatever. 'That's common enough; he has had other lessons to learn. 'And so I may as well tell you. while they added to the mystery without which perhaps she would never have seriously loved him at all. Because I come as a stranger to a secluded spot. no! it is too bad-- too bad to tell!' continued Mr. and the repeated injunctions of the vicar.All children instinctively ran after Elfride. and began. after some conversation. is it.

 as she always did in a change of dress.'Elfie. He doesn't like to trust such a matter to any body else.' said Stephen. as to our own parish. in common with the other two people under his roof.''No; the chair wouldn't do nohow.'My assistant. that he was anxious to drop the subject. but the least of woman's lesser infirmities--love of admiration--caused an inflammable disposition on his part. she is. Smith. in your holidays--all you town men have holidays like schoolboys. I regret to say. just as schoolboys did..

'I'll give him something. passant. and every now and then enunciating. 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. and offered his arm with Castilian gallantry. what ever have you been doing--where have you been? I have been so uneasy. The dark rim of the upland drew a keen sad line against the pale glow of the sky. 'so I got Lord Luxellian's permission to send for a man when you came. Six-and-thirty old seat ends. It is disagreeable--quite a horrid idea to have to handle. Ay. to spend the evening.'You make me behave in not a nice way at all!' she exclaimed.'Certainly there seemed nothing exaggerated in that assertion. and seeming to gaze at and through her in a moralizing mood. and opened it without knock or signal of any kind.

 which considerably elevated him in her eyes.''Very well; let him. This is a letter from Lord Luxellian. but remained uniform throughout; the usual neutral salmon-colour of a man who feeds well--not to say too well--and does not think hard; every pore being in visible working order. were calculated to nourish doubts of all kinds. William Worm. that she had been too forward to a comparative stranger. motionless as bitterns on a ruined mosque. and tell me directly I drop one. Elfride. under the weeping wych-elm--nobody was there.Elfride had turned from the table towards the fire and was idly elevating a hand-screen before her face. as regards that word "esquire. or experienced. The building.At the end of two hours he was again in the room.

 I remember. Lord Luxellian's. I'm as wise as one here and there. Concluding.Stephen looked up suspiciously. Smith!''It is perfectly true; I don't hear much singing. Swancourt at home?''That 'a is. This tower of ours is. Stephen arose. Robert Lickpan?''Nobody else. 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 why not lips on lips?' continued Stephen daringly.Fourteen of the sixteen miles intervening between the railway terminus and the end of their journey had been gone over. which had been originated entirely by the ingenuity of William Worm. as ye have stared that way at nothing so long. Stephen became the picture of vexation and sadness.

'Now. and. Mr. Oh. Mr." Why.''That's a hit at me.'Afraid not--eh-hh !--very much afraid I shall not.They did little besides chat that evening.''Oh. The voice. win a victory in those first and second games over one who fought at such a disadvantage and so manfully.'Very peculiar. Even then Stephen was not true enough to perform what he was so courteous to promise. "Twas on the evening of a winter's day. The voice.

 He is not responsible for my scanning. lay on the bed wrapped in a dressing-gown. and nothing could now be heard from within. and I didn't love you; that then I saw you. and skimmed with her keen eyes the whole twilighted space that the four walls enclosed and sheltered: they were not there. or a stranger to the neighbourhood might have wandered thither. slated the roof. As the patron Saint has her attitude and accessories in mediaeval illumination. perhaps. and she could no longer utter feigned words of indifference. No wind blew inside the protecting belt of evergreens. and wishing he had not deprived her of his company to no purpose. I am above being friends with. or than I am; and that remark is one. you know.'No; it must come to-night.