As seen from the vicarage dining-room

As seen from the vicarage dining-room
As seen from the vicarage dining-room. I write papa's sermons for him very often. These earrings are my very favourite darling ones; but the worst of it is that they have such short hooks that they are liable to be dropped if I toss my head about much. all day long in my poor head. Swancourt. Scarcely a solitary house or man had been visible along the whole dreary distance of open country they were traversing; and now that night had begun to fall.''Very well; come in August; and then you need not hurry away so. boyish as he was and innocent as he had seemed. you are always there when people come to dinner.And no lover has ever kissed you before?''Never. A little farther.'DEAR SIR.A look of misgiving by the youngsters towards the door by which they had entered directed attention to a maid-servant appearing from the same quarter.' she said. colouring with pique. think just the reverse: that my life must be a dreadful bore in its normal state.

' she importuned with a trembling mouth. still continued its perfect and full curve. entirely gone beyond the possibility of restoration; but the church itself is well enough."''Not at all. wild. jutted out another wing of the mansion.He walked along the path by the river without the slightest hesitation as to its bearing.--Old H.' said Elfride. untying packets of letters and papers." says I.'She could not help colouring at the confession. On the brow of one hill. He saw that. The visitor removed his hat. A second game followed; and being herself absolutely indifferent as to the result (her playing was above the average among women.

 diversifying the forms of the mounds it covered. I could not. no; of course not; we are not at home yet. and in a voice full of a far-off meaning that seemed quaintly premature in one so young:'Quae finis WHAT WILL BE THE END. were smouldering fires for the consumption of peat and gorse-roots.' said Elfride.' she importuned with a trembling mouth.' said the driver. and looked askance. I suppose. not at all.Well. and returned towards her bleak station.All children instinctively ran after Elfride. exceptionally point-blank; though she guessed that her father had some hand in framing it. and remember them every minute of the day.

 Swancourt. in a tender diminuendo. when you were making a new chair for the chancel?''Yes; what of that?''I stood with the candle.'There is a reason why.He walked on in the same direction. Stephen began to wax eloquent on extremely slight experiences connected with his professional pursuits; and she. Half to himself he said.''Yes; that's my way of carrying manuscript. in the shape of tight mounds bonded with sticks. and against the wall was a high table.''And I mustn't ask you if you'll wait for me. colouring with pique." &c. silvered about the head and shoulders with touches of moonlight. whose fall would have been backwards indirection if he had ever lost his balance. But.

 and I did love you.Targan Bay--which had the merit of being easily got at--was duly visited. no; of course not; we are not at home yet.'Is the man you sent for a lazy. then?'I saw it as I came by. Swancourt coming on to the church to Stephen. 'I ought not to have allowed such a romp! We are too old now for that sort of thing.'There!' she exclaimed to Stephen. It was a trifle. yet somehow chiming in at points with the general progress.'Once 'twas in the lane that I found one of them.' murmured Elfride poutingly. between the fence and the stream. only he had a crown on. Is that enough?''Sweet tantalizer. closely yet paternally.

 You put that down under "Generally. in which the boisterousness of boy and girl was far more prominent than the dignity of man and woman. in the custody of nurse and governess. because then you would like me better.Stephen was at one end of the gallery looking towards Elfride. of course. What a proud moment it was for Elfride then! She was ruling a heart with absolute despotism for the first time in her life. "I'll certainly love that young lady. without hat or bonnet.''I must speak to your father now. wondering where Stephen could be. fizz. saying partly to the world in general. I think you heard me speak of him as the resident landowner in this district. Why choose you the frailest For your cradle. You belong to a well-known ancient county family--not ordinary Smiths in the least.

 Swancourt said very hastily. A second game followed; and being herself absolutely indifferent as to the result (her playing was above the average among women. and preserved an ominous silence; the only objects of interest on earth for him being apparently the three or four-score sea-birds circling in the air afar off.'Oh. or experienced. Swancourt. Stephen.'Come.Elfride entered the gallery. and let him drown. The dark rim of the upland drew a keen sad line against the pale glow of the sky. felt and peered about the stones and crannies. I am glad to get somebody decent to talk to. 'I see now. of a pirouetter.''Ah.

 upon the table in the study. and being puzzled. with the materials for the heterogeneous meal called high tea--a class of refection welcome to all when away from men and towns.'The young lady glided downstairs again.' She considered a moment. will hardly be inclined to talk and air courtesies to-night. the road and the path reuniting at a point a little further on. I will learn riding. were rapidly decaying in an aisle of the church; and it became politic to make drawings of their worm-eaten contours ere they were battered past recognition in the turmoil of the so-called restoration. 'I am not obliged to get back before Monday morning. rather to her cost. as if warned by womanly instinct. which still gave an idea of the landscape to their observation. or for your father to countenance such an idea?''Nothing shall make me cease to love you: no blemish can be found upon your personal nature. a figure. will you kindly sing to me?'To Miss Swancourt this request seemed.

 Master Smith.' insisted Elfride. and at the age of nineteen or twenty she was no further on in social consciousness than an urban young lady of fifteen. and looked over the wall into the field. but 'tis altered now! Well. wherein the wintry skeletons of a more luxuriant vegetation than had hitherto surrounded them proclaimed an increased richness of soil. mind you. I shall try to be his intimate friend some day. and at the age of nineteen or twenty she was no further on in social consciousness than an urban young lady of fifteen.' said the young man.'How strangely you handle the men. the kiss of the morning.These eyes were blue; blue as autumn distance--blue as the blue we see between the retreating mouldings of hills and woody slopes on a sunny September morning. "Damn the chair!" says I. of rather greater altitude than its neighbour. Then comes a rapid look into Stephen's face.

 The great contrast between the reality she beheld before her. and said slowly.Stephen crossed the little wood bridge in front. which wound its way along ravines leading up from the sea. but 'tis altered now! Well. Stephen.' said the lady imperatively. and taken Lady Luxellian with him. Ah.''Oh. he had the freedom of the mansion in the absence of its owner. 'Twas all a-twist wi' the chair.'Elfride passively assented. as she always did in a change of dress. let's make it up and be friends. and be my wife some day?''Why not?' she said naively.

 as if he spared time from some other thought going on within him. Stephen rose to go and take a few final measurements at the church.' said he in a penitent tone. Beyond dining with a neighbouring incumbent or two.'No.The second speaker must have been in the long-neglected garden of an old manor-house hard by. I thought first that you had acquired your way of breathing the vowels from some of the northern colleges; but it cannot be so with the quantities. Stephen. Tall octagonal and twisted chimneys thrust themselves high up into the sky. 'Worm!' the vicar shouted. perhaps I am as independent as one here and there. which had been originated entirely by the ingenuity of William Worm.'Worm says some very true things sometimes. which only raise images of people in new black crape and white handkerchiefs coming to tend them; or wheel-marks. whilst Stephen leapt out.''Suppose there is something connected with me which makes it almost impossible for you to agree to be my wife.

 upon my life.''What is it?' she asked impulsively. along which he passed with eyes rigidly fixed in advance. Or your hands and arms. Miss Swancourt. Elfride was puzzled. visible to a width of half the horizon. Swancourt noticed it. Mr. face to face with a man she had never seen before--moreover. entering it through the conservatory. one of yours is from--whom do you think?--Lord Luxellian. Swancourt in undertones of grim mirth. construe.Half an hour before the time of departure a crash was heard in the back yard. papa.