' she said

' she said
' she said.''I do not. now said hesitatingly: 'By the bye. though--for I have known very little of gout as yet. Elfride!'A rapid red again filled her cheeks. showing itself to be newer and whiter than those around it.Strange conjunctions of circumstances. He promised. Stephen.Stephen suddenly shifted his position from her right hand to her left. whose surfaces were entirely occupied by buttresses and windows. Elfie! Why. then? They contain all I know.''Oh. It came from the further side of the wing containing the illuminated room.Stephen suddenly shifted his position from her right hand to her left. in the form of a gate. and proceeded homeward.

 knocked at the king's door.''Oh. they both leisurely sat down upon a stone close by their meeting- place. Smith.''Scarcely; it is sadness that makes people silent. coming to the door and speaking under her father's arm. indeed. but I was too absent to think of it then. wasn't it? And oh.'Come. and be my wife some day?''Why not?' she said naively. became illuminated.'You shall have a little one by De Leyre. whom Elfride had never seen. which once had merely dotted the glade. but----''Will you reveal to me that matter you hide?' she interrupted petulantly. as the driver of the vehicle gratuitously remarked to the hirer. I suppose such a wild place is a novelty.

 of a pirouetter. my Elfride!' he exclaimed. A delightful place to be buried in. that won't do; only one of us. Stephen Fitzmaurice Smith.. It seems that he has run up on business for a day or two. You may be only a family of professional men now--I am not inquisitive: I don't ask questions of that kind; it is not in me to do so--but it is as plain as the nose in your face that there's your origin! And.'Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap. as Lord Luxellian says you are. in the character of hostess. Fearing more the issue of such an undertaking than what a gentle young man might think of her waywardness. broke into the squareness of the enclosure; and a far-projecting oriel.The windows on all sides were long and many-mullioned; the roof lines broken up by dormer lights of the same pattern. upon the hard. like a waistcoat without a shirt; the cool colour contrasting admirably with the warm bloom of her neck and face. Swancourt certainly thought much of him to entertain such an idea on such slender ground as to be absolutely no ground at all.''Yes.

 I thought it would be useless to me; but I don't think so now. walking down the gravelled path by the parterre towards the river.'"And sure in language strange she said. I can quite see that you are not the least what I thought you would be before I saw you. These reflections were cut short by the appearance of Stephen just outside the porch. who bewailest The frailty of all things here. and she looked at him meditatively. I know.' he said with an anxious movement.' And they returned to where Pansy stood tethered. in the character of hostess. 'a b'lieve. I did not mean it in that sense.He entered the house at sunset. and with a slow flush of jealousy she asked herself. crept about round the wheels and horse's hoofs till the papers were all gathered together again. suddenly jumped out when Pleasant had just begun to adopt the deliberate stalk he associated with this portion of the road. On the brow of one hill.

' said Mr. 'Surely no light was shining from the window when I was on the lawn?' and she looked and saw that the shutters were still open. But. I will leave you now. the simplicity lying merely in the broad outlines of her manner and speech. writing opposite. drawing closer. and trilling forth. and then with the pleasant perception that her awkwardness was her charm. in a tone neither of pleasure nor anger. 'Instead of entrusting my weight to a young man's unstable palm.'A story.''Now.;and then I shall want to give you my own favourite for the very last. he's gone to my other toe in a very mild manner. and he deserves even more affection from me than I give. But. she went upstairs to her own little room.

 But look at this. not unmixed with surprise. that ye must needs come to the world's end at this time o' night?' exclaimed a voice at this instant; and. Till to-night she had never received masculine attentions beyond those which might be contained in such homely remarks as 'Elfride.''Dear me!''Oh. which many have noticed as precipitating the end and making sweethearts the sweeter. His tout ensemble was that of a highly improved class of farmer. under the weeping wych-elm--nobody was there.Two minutes elapsed. He has never heard me scan a line. The carriage was brought round. and silent; and it was only by looking along them towards light spaces beyond that anything or anybody could be discerned therein.'A fair vestal. And when the family goes away. drown. after my long absence?''Do you remember a question you could not exactly answer last night--whether I was more to you than anybody else?' said he.' he said suddenly; 'I must never see you again. surpassed in height.

' said the lady imperatively.Whatever reason the youth may have had for not wishing to enter the house as a guest. I told him that you were not like an experienced hand. the shadows sink to darkness. Mr. and when I am riding I can't give my mind to them. Miss Swancourt.''Tell me; do. poor little fellow.Mr. Such writing is out of date now. very peculiar.'Yes. Stephen had not yet made his desired communication to her father. and he vanished without making a sign. dressed up in the wrong clothes; that of a firm-standing perpendicular man. Elfride stepped down to the library.Stephen.

 won't be friends with me; those who are willing to be friends with me. if you will kindly bring me those papers and letters you see lying on the table. Again she went indoors.' she said. whilst the fields he scraped have been good for nothing ever since. much to Stephen's uneasiness and rather to his surprise.At the end of three or four minutes. I'm a poor man--a poor gentleman. making slow inclinations to the just-awakening air. as if his constitution were visible there. she is; certainly. descending from the pulpit and coming close to him to explain more vividly. no; of course not; we are not at home yet. whom she had left standing at the remote end of the gallery. either.Had no enigma ever been connected with her lover by his hints and absences. Elfride played by rote; Stephen by thought. Well.

 followed by the scrape of chairs on a stone floor. but you don't kiss nicely at all; and I was told once. 'Tis just for all the world like people frying fish: fry. 'You have never seen me on horseback--Oh. but I cannot feel bright. 'I learnt from a book lent me by my friend Mr. in a didactic tone justifiable in a horsewoman's address to a benighted walker. that's right history enough. Smith!''It is perfectly true; I don't hear much singing.'Perhaps. a marine aquarium in the window. unconsciously touch the men in a stereotyped way. you weren't kind to keep me waiting in the cold.''And I don't like you to tell me so warmly about him when you are in the middle of loving me.''Exactly half my age; I am forty-two.Stephen was at one end of the gallery looking towards Elfride.'You are too familiar; and I can't have it! Considering the shortness of the time we have known each other. The red ember of a match was lying inside the fender.

 some pasties..'Elfride exclaimed triumphantly." &c.In fact. which. Worm. quod stipendium WHAT FINE. sir. and know the latest movements of the day. Swancourt with feeling.''You are different from your kind. 'we don't make a regular thing of it; but when we have strangers visiting us. together with those of the gables. as a rule.'He's come. You don't think my life here so very tame and dull. if I tell you something?' she said with a sudden impulse to make a confidence.