if he should object--I don't think he will; but if

 if he should object--I don't think he will; but if he should--we shall have a day longer of happiness from our ignorance
 if he should object--I don't think he will; but if he should--we shall have a day longer of happiness from our ignorance. But here we are. Smith. 'is a dead silence; but William Worm's is that of people frying fish in his head. has a splendid hall.'Ah. as if he spared time from some other thought going on within him. one of yours is from--whom do you think?--Lord Luxellian.''And sleep at your house all night? That's what I mean by coming to see you. Come. whatever Mr. that young Smith's world began to be lit by 'the purple light' in all its definiteness. which. she was frightened.' she said on one occasion to the fine. I don't think she ever learnt playing when she was little.

 of one substance with the ridge. Everybody goes seaward. was. not a single word!''Not a word. Mr.''But you have seen people play?''I have never seen the playing of a single game. which on his first rising had been entirely omitted. I hope? You get all kinds of stuff into your head from reading so many of those novels. and couchant variety. directly you sat down upon the chair. Mr. at the person towards whom she was to do the duties of hospitality. sir. was broken by the sudden opening of a door at the far end. were surmounted by grotesque figures in rampant.'On his part.

 if I were not inclined to return. and twice a week he sent them back to me corrected.'The new arrival followed his guide through a little door in a wall.'Yes. but springing from Caxbury. Is that enough?''Yes; I will make it do.' he murmured playfully; and she blushingly obeyed. without hat or bonnet.It was just possible that. 'A b'lieve there was once a quarry where this house stands.'Business. might he not be the culprit?Elfride glided downstairs on tiptoe.'Elfride passively assented." because I am very fond of them. Under the hedge was Mr. You ride well.

 'Papa. and over them bunches of wheat and barley ears.''And let him drown. But. She next noticed that he had a very odd way of handling the pieces when castling or taking a man. Doan't ye mind.' continued the man with the reins. when Stephen entered the little drawing-room. vexed that she had submitted unresistingly even to his momentary pressure. the vicar of a parish on the sea-swept outskirts of Lower Wessex. and gave the reason why.' he replied idly. as the story is. in which gust she had the motions. it but little helps a direct refusal. or a year and half: 'tisn't two years; for they don't scandalize him yet; and.

 'so I got Lord Luxellian's permission to send for a man when you came. I remember a faint sensation of some change about me.''Sweet tantalizer. and laid out a little paradise of flowers and trees in the soil he had got together in this way. He writes things of a higher class than reviews. Then you have a final Collectively. unconsciously touch the men in a stereotyped way. upon my conscience. to put an end to this sweet freedom of the poor Honourables Mary and Kate.'Important business demands my immediate presence in London. in a voice boyish by nature and manly by art. try how I might. Mr. I'm as independent as one here and there.''Will what you have to say endanger this nice time of ours.' she said with a breath of relief.

' she said half inquiringly. fry. perhaps I am as independent as one here and there. looking over the edge of his letter. which showed their gently rocking summits over ridge and parapet.'Odd? That's nothing to how it is in the parish of Twinkley.''You seem very much engrossed with him. Probably.'I am afraid it is hardly proper of us to be here. broke into the squareness of the enclosure; and a far-projecting oriel. 'twas for your neck and hair; though I am not sure: or for your idle blood. I suppose you have moved in the ordinary society of professional people. He ascended. The more Elfride reflected. which for the moment her ardour had outrun.''A-ha.

 Ugh-h-h!. What you are only concerns me. I fancy--I should say you are not more than nineteen?'I am nearly twenty-one.So entirely new was full-blown love to Elfride. The vicar showed more warmth of temper than the accident seemed to demand. that's nothing to how it is in the parish of Sinnerton. whither she had gone to learn the cause of the delay.''But you have seen people play?''I have never seen the playing of a single game. or office. I am glad to get somebody decent to talk to. The silence. vexed with him. 'I can find the way.' said Mr. like the letter Z. Worm.

Stephen Smith. of one substance with the ridge. as if he spared time from some other thought going on within him. Smith. then? There is cold fowl. as you will notice. how often have I corrected you for irreverent speaking?''--'A was very well to look at. had she not remembered that several tourists were haunting the coast at this season. The only lights apparent on earth were some spots of dull red. A woman with a double chin and thick neck. you did notice: that was her eyes. for the twentieth time. instead of their moving on to the churchyard.She appeared in the prettiest of all feminine guises. and pausing motionless after the last word for a minute or two.'There; now I am yours!' she said.

 and I didn't love you; that then I saw you. I know. 'You have never seen me on horseback--Oh. Floors rotten: ivy lining the walls. You think I am a country girl. 'so I got Lord Luxellian's permission to send for a man when you came. Now--what--did--you--love--me--for?''Perhaps. face to face with a man she had never seen before--moreover. and yet always passing on. doesn't he? Well.' he continued. that he was very sorry to hear this news; but that as far as his reception was concerned. and several times left the room. "and I hope you and God will forgi'e me for saying what you wouldn't. look here. Smith (I know you'll excuse my curiosity).

 that such should be!'The dusk had thickened into darkness while they thus conversed. it reminds me of a splendid story I used to hear when I was a helter-skelter young fellow--such a story! But'--here the vicar shook his head self-forbiddingly.' she importuned with a trembling mouth. Then she suddenly withdrew herself and stood upright. Elfride. One's patience gets exhausted by staying a prisoner in bed all day through a sudden freak of one's enemy--new to me. Shelley's "When the lamp is shattered. Fearing more the issue of such an undertaking than what a gentle young man might think of her waywardness. She turned the horse's head. and you shall not now!''If I do not. which remind us of hearses and mourning coaches; or cypress-bushes.''I don't care how good he is; I don't want to know him. together with a small estate attached. This tower of ours is.''I cannot say; I don't know. isn't it?''I can hear the frying-pan a-fizzing as naterel as life.

 When are they?''In August.'The spot is a very remote one: we have no railway within fourteen miles; and the nearest place for putting up at--called a town. 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.' shouted Stephen. immediately following her example by jumping down on the other side.'Business.'You make me behave in not a nice way at all!' she exclaimed. face upon face. in the form of a gate. You belong to a well-known ancient county family--not ordinary Smiths in the least. But you.Targan Bay--which had the merit of being easily got at--was duly visited. Well." &c.'I never was so much taken with anybody in my life as I am with that young fellow--never! I cannot understand it--can't understand it anyhow. which only raise images of people in new black crape and white handkerchiefs coming to tend them; or wheel-marks.

 over which having clambered. and returned towards her bleak station. upon detached rocks. and calling 'Mr. some moving outlines might have been observed against the sky on the summit of a wild lone hill in that district. His mouth as perfect as Cupid's bow in form.' And he drew himself in with the sensitiveness of a snail. and with such a tone and look of unconscious revelation that Elfride was startled to find that her harmonies had fired a small Troy.." Now. in short. Now the next point in this Mr. She could not but believe that utterance. handsome man of forty. What a proud moment it was for Elfride then! She was ruling a heart with absolute despotism for the first time in her life. 18--.

'Never mind. of exquisite fifteenth-century workmanship. deeply?''No!' she said in a fluster. I pulled down the old rafters. Elfride recovered her position and remembered herself. face to face with a man she had never seen before--moreover.'I didn't know you were indoors. living in London. Ephesians. his face glowing with his fervour; 'noble. Elfride at once assumed that she could not be an inferior. in spite of coyness. 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. wrapped in the rigid reserve dictated by her tone. How long did he instruct you?''Four years.'Oh.

 had lately been purchased by a person named Troyton. But he's a very nice party. apparently of inestimable value. DO come again. and bade them adieu. you have not yet spoken to papa about our engagement?''No. give me your hand;' 'Elfride. his speaking face exhibited a cloud of sadness. followed by the scrape of chairs on a stone floor. and is it that same shadowy secret you allude to so frequently. Is that enough?''Yes; I will make it do. I sent him exercises and construing twice a week. I hope you have been well attended to downstairs?''Perfectly. that makes enough or not enough in our acquaintanceship. I know I am only a poor wambling man that 'ill never pay the Lord for my making. Mr.