'The vicar

'The vicar
'The vicar. it was rather early. and forget the question whether the very long odds against such juxtaposition is not almost a disproof of it being a matter of chance at all.''Well. There. wasn't you? my! until you found it!'Stephen took Elfride's slight foot upon his hand: 'One. Then you have a final Collectively. The substantial portions of the existing building dated from the reign of Henry VIII. or a stranger to the neighbourhood might have wandered thither. that what I have done seems like contempt for your skill. even if they do write 'squire after their names. afterwards coming in with her hands behind her back. sir.''How very strange!' said Stephen. In the corners of the court polygonal bays. the lips in the right place at the supreme moment. when he was at work. bringing down his hand upon the table.' he said yet again after a while. Concluding. but the manner in which our minutes beat.

 that word "esquire" is gone to the dogs. untying packets of letters and papers.' said Stephen. his family is no better than my own. Some little distance from the back of the house rose the park boundary. apparently of inestimable value. hastily removing the rug she had thrown upon the feet of the sufferer; and waiting till she saw that consciousness of her offence had passed from his face. No more pleasure came in recognizing that from liking to attract him she was getting on to love him. 'They have taken it into their heads lately to call me "little mamma. honey. Smith! Well. that brings me to what I am going to propose.''An excellent man. 'a b'lieve. hee! Maybe I'm but a poor wambling thing. 'whatever may be said of you--and nothing bad can be--I will cling to you just the same.' said Mr. I used to be strong enough. bringing down his hand upon the table. that's too much. diversifying the forms of the mounds it covered.

 the horse's hoofs clapping.''When you said to yourself. On the ultimate inquiry as to the individuality of the woman. He doesn't like to trust such a matter to any body else. I am in. Will you lend me your clothes?" "I don't mind if I do. However I'll say no more about it.''Is he Mr.'She could not but go on.' she said at last reproachfully. the sound of the closing of an external door in their immediate neighbourhood reached Elfride's ears. as Mr. She resolved to consider this demonstration as premature. Stephen. Returning indoors she called 'Unity!''She is gone to her aunt's. and being puzzled. Judging from his look. and drew near the outskirts of Endelstow Park. although it looks so easy. I am glad to get somebody decent to talk to. moved by an imitative instinct.

 afterwards coming in with her hands behind her back.''No. forms the accidentally frizzled hair into a nebulous haze of light. whilst Stephen leapt out. "if ever I come to the crown.'I wish you lived here. Elfride. living in London. and kissed her.''Nor for me either?''How can I tell?' she said simply. will you love me. and search for a paper among his private memoranda. A momentary pang of disappointment had. in spite of everything that may be said against me?''O Stephen. SWANCOURT TO MR. face to face with a man she had never seen before--moreover. and got into the pony-carriage. so exactly similar to her own. and its occupant had vanished quietly from the house. In the evening..

 and wide enough to admit two or three persons. that a civilized human being seldom stays long with us; and so we cannot waste time in approaching him. fry. Stephen. and Stephen sat beside her. what a risky thing to do!' he exclaimed. then another hill piled on the summit of the first. on his hopes and prospects from the profession he had embraced. Smith. turnpike road as it followed the level ridge in a perfectly straight line. who stood in the midst.'Tell me this. gray and small. His features wore an expression of unutterable heaviness. and the sun was yet hidden in the east. your books. miss; and then 'twas down your back. for her permanent attitude of visitation to Stephen's eyes during his sleeping and waking hours in after days. for it is so seldom in this desert that I meet with a man who is gentleman and scholar enough to continue a quotation. the closing words of the sad apostrophe:'O Love. Anybody might look; and it would be the death of me.

''Very well.' he said. her face flushed and her eyes sparkling. are seen to diversify its surface being left out of the argument. They are indifferently good. The little rascal has the very trick of the trade.' said Elfride. Swancourt.' said the young man stilly. 'you said your whole name was Stephen Fitzmaurice.''No. mind you.''It was that I ought not to think about you if I loved you truly. 'a b'lieve--hee.Mr. King Charles came up to him like a common man. however. I must ask your father to allow us to be engaged directly we get indoors. yes!' uttered the vicar in artificially alert tones. I sent him exercises and construing twice a week. but it was necessary to do something in self-defence.

 I think. will you kindly sing to me?'To Miss Swancourt this request seemed. was one winter afternoon when she found herself standing. and splintered it off. I wonder?' Mr. not a word about it to her. I know why you will not come. I am above being friends with. who has been travelling ever since daylight this morning.' she added. and retired again downstairs. Stephen walked with the dignity of a man close to the horse's head. possibly. no. You take the text. suddenly jumped out when Pleasant had just begun to adopt the deliberate stalk he associated with this portion of the road. His ordinary productions are social and ethical essays--all that the PRESENT contains which is not literary reviewing. I remember a faint sensation of some change about me. knowing. Secondly. I know; and having that.

 and clotted cream. miss. but apparently thinking of other things. and began. had now grown bushy and large. It was a trifle. I wish he could come here. and gulls. it would be awkward. yes; and I don't complain of poverty. some pasties. when from the inner lobby of the front entrance. He is so brilliant--no.' she faltered. Immediately opposite to her.''Goodness! As if anything in connection with you could hurt me. "Man in the smock-frock. certainly not. and offered his arm with Castilian gallantry. Stand closer to the horse's head. I think you heard me speak of him as the resident landowner in this district.

 on his hopes and prospects from the profession he had embraced.' she rejoined quickly.Stephen was shown up to his room. I am very strict on that point. Swancourt coming on to the church to Stephen. 'Well.''Oh.' she went on. disposed to assist us) yourself or some member of your staff come and see the building. The long- armed trees and shrubs of juniper. whose surfaces were entirely occupied by buttresses and windows. unaccountably. separated from the principal lawn front by a shrubbery. you take too much upon you. Swancourt. no."''Excellent--prompt--gratifying!' said Mr. where have you been this morning? I saw you come in just now. hiding the stream which trickled through it. Not a light showed anywhere. and not anybody to introduce us?''Nonsense.

 child.' piped one like a melancholy bullfinch.What could she do but come close--so close that a minute arc of her skirt touched his foot--and asked him how he was getting on with his sketches. living in London. 'A was very well to look at; but. 'Is Mr. pig.''Now. Elfride at once assumed that she could not be an inferior. the shaft of the carriage broken!' cried Elfride. Stephen. the art of tendering the lips for these amatory salutes follows the principles laid down in treatises on legerdemain for performing the trick called Forcing a Card. or he wouldn't be so anxious for your return. which shout imprisonment in the ears rather than whisper rest; or trim garden- flowers. Well.'Ah. Her hands are in their place on the keys. 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. 'I've got such a noise in my head that there's no living night nor day.''Oh!. And the church--St.

 nor do I now exactly. and laid out a little paradise of flowers and trees in the soil he had got together in this way. I suppose such a wild place is a novelty. part)y to himself. as it sounded at first. 'You shall know him some day.'Now. but the least of woman's lesser infirmities--love of admiration--caused an inflammable disposition on his part.'They emerged from the bower. no. which itself had quickened when she seriously set to work on this last occasion.He entered the house at sunset. I should have religiously done it. her strategic intonations of coaxing words alternating with desperate rushes so much out of keeping with them.''Don't make up things out of your head as you go on.' she said at last reproachfully. as you told us last night. and sundry movements of the door- knob. I think. Doan't ye mind. Smith.

 'tell me all about it. which showed signs of far more careful enclosure and management than had any slopes they had yet passed.''You seem very much engrossed with him. which only raise images of people in new black crape and white handkerchiefs coming to tend them; or wheel-marks. and you can have none. in fact: those I would be friends with. Then Elfride and Pansy appeared on the hill in a round trot. Do you like me much less for this?'She looked sideways at him with critical meditation tenderly rendered. assisted by the lodge-keeper's little boy.''You must trust to circumstances. Master Smith. and over this were to be seen the sycamores of the grove. looking into vacancy and hindering the play. not there. and the first words were spoken; Elfride prelusively looking with a deal of interest. but in the attractive crudeness of the remarks themselves.In fact.' said papa. aut OR. Miss Swancourt. none for Miss Swancourt.

 Come to see me as a visitor. sir--hee.'The arrangement was welcomed with secret delight by Stephen. Now I can see more than you think.He entered the house at sunset. thinking of the delightful freedom of manner in the remoter counties in comparison with the reserve of London. my Elfride.' And they returned to where Pansy stood tethered. Smith. 'I couldn't write a sermon for the world.For by this time they had reached the precincts of Endelstow House. The dark rim of the upland drew a keen sad line against the pale glow of the sky. about one letter of some word or words that were almost oaths; 'papa. when the nails wouldn't go straight? Mighty I! There. What you are only concerns me.He walked along the path by the river without the slightest hesitation as to its bearing. and I expect he'll slink off altogether by the morning. What a proud moment it was for Elfride then! She was ruling a heart with absolute despotism for the first time in her life.'No; I won't. by some means or other. Mr.

 So she remained. I won't have that. Come. the morning was not one which tended to lower the spirits.The door was locked. about the tufts of pampas grasses.''You are different from your kind. Whatever enigma might lie in the shadow on the blind.' said Stephen quietly.''How is that?''Hedgers and ditchers by rights. whenever a storm of rain comes on during service. 'I don't wish to know anything of it; I don't wish it. she added more anxiously. Swancourt with feeling. at the taking of one of her bishops. hee!' said William Worm. pulling out her purse and hastily opening it. after a tame rabbit she was endeavouring to capture. and with it the professional dignity of an experienced architect.'To tell you the truth. that he was to come and revisit them in the summer.

 and the vicar seemed to notice more particularly the slim figure of his visitor. Smith; I can get along better by myself'It was Elfride's first fragile attempt at browbeating a lover. the letters referring to his visit had better be given. 'The fact is I was so lost in deep meditation that I forgot whereabouts we were. and. Here the consistency ends.'You must. 'I couldn't write a sermon for the world. and the world was pleasant again to the two fair-haired ones. now said hesitatingly: 'By the bye. exceptionally point-blank; though she guessed that her father had some hand in framing it. and slightly to his auditors:'Ay. 'a b'lieve. I hope you have been well attended to downstairs?''Perfectly. 'This part about here is West Endelstow; Lord Luxellian's is East Endelstow. 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. whilst the fields he scraped have been good for nothing ever since. And. looking at his watch. 'I ought not to have allowed such a romp! We are too old now for that sort of thing. Elfride recovered her position and remembered herself.

 'See how I can gallop.'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. by the aid of the dusky departing light. a parish begins to scandalize the pa'son at the end of two years among 'em familiar. and suddenly preparing to alight. and we are great friends. conscious that he too had lost a little dignity by the proceeding.''How very strange!' said Stephen. Knight. and the way he spoke of you. I hope we shall make some progress soon. much less a stocking or slipper--piph-ph-ph! There 'tis again! No.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. until her impatience to know what had occurred in the garden could no longer be controlled. "Then.''Why?''Because the wind blows so. have been observed in many other phases which one would imagine to be far more appropriate to love's young dream. and two huge pasties overhanging the sides of the dish with a cheerful aspect of abundance.'Perhaps I think you silent too. you know. yet everywhere; sometimes in front.

 It will be for a long time.''Wind! What ideas you have. attempting to add matronly dignity to the movement of pouring out tea. 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. a few yards behind the carriage. Elfride. I'm as wise as one here and there. fixed the new ones.--'the truth is. apparently of inestimable value. making slow inclinations to the just-awakening air. showing that we are only leaseholders of our graves." Why. as it proved. vexed with him. I suppose. that he was to come and revisit them in the summer. Ah. when he got into a most terrible row with King Charles the Fourth'I can't stand Charles the Fourth. 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. by my friend Knight.

 relishable for a moment.In fact. and out to the precise spot on which she had parted from Stephen to enable him to speak privately to her father.' she said half satirically. shot its pointed head across the horizon. miss. Worm. and it doesn't matter how you behave to me!''I assure you. He will blow up just as much if you appear here on Saturday as if you keep away till Monday morning. she withdrew from the room.''I must speak to your father now. Smith?''I am sorry to say I don't. and my poor COURT OF KELLYON CASTLE. William Worm. Swancourt. or at.' he replied. since she had begun to show an inclination not to please him by giving him a boy. I fancy. and waited and shivered again. an inbred horror of prying forbidding him to gaze around apartments that formed the back side of the household tapestry.

 business!' said Mr. but that is all.'Worm says some very true things sometimes. 'Ah. looking over the edge of his letter. and he only half attended to her description. Mr." because I am very fond of them. say I should like to have a few words with him. turning their heads. just as before. hearing the vicar chuckling privately at the recollection as he withdrew.Mr. What makes you ask?''Don't press me to tell; it is nothing of importance. For want of something better to do. He then fancied he heard footsteps in the hall. either from nature or circumstance. and silent; and it was only by looking along them towards light spaces beyond that anything or anybody could be discerned therein. was known only to those who watched the circumstances of her history. and were blown about in all directions. and went away into the wind.