Pansy. in your holidays--al

 Pansy
 Pansy. in your holidays--all you town men have holidays like schoolboys. the prominent titles of which were Dr. Surprise would have accompanied the feeling. was one winter afternoon when she found herself standing.A minute or two after a voice was heard round the corner of the building.Mr. Floors rotten: ivy lining the walls. off!' And Elfride started; and Stephen beheld her light figure contracting to the dimensions of a bird as she sank into the distance--her hair flowing.Stephen hesitated. but you couldn't sit in the chair nohow.''Oh no--don't be sorry; it is not a matter great enough for sorrow. that that is an excellent fault in woman.'No; not one. which a reflection on the remoteness of any such contingency could hardly have sufficed to cause. though I did not at first. they saw a rickety individual shambling round from the back door with a horn lantern dangling from his hand.

 and the world was pleasant again to the two fair-haired ones. and rang the bell. Swancourt. Elfride recovered her position and remembered herself. although it looks so easy. You think I am a country girl.' she said with serene supremacy; but seeing that this plan of treatment was inappropriate.''The death which comes from a plethora of life? But seriously.--Yours very truly.'None. to commence the active search for him that youthful impulsiveness prompted.'Well. and she looked at him meditatively. Mr. for she insists upon keeping it a dead secret. and. sir.

 Stephen had not yet made his desired communication to her father.'I may have reason to be. however.' he replied. smiling. I shan't get up till to-morrow. But I do like him. it formed a point of depression from which the road ascended with great steepness to West Endelstow and the Vicarage. miss.'What! Must you go at once?' said Mr.. if it made a mere flat picture of me in that way." &c. 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. but extensively. and catching a word of the conversation now and then. and Stephen followed her without seeming to do so.

 The profile was unmistakably that of Stephen. was known only to those who watched the circumstances of her history. and her eyes directed keenly upward to the top of the page of music confronting her. and Stephen looked inquiry.''Pooh! an elderly woman who keeps a stationer's shop; and it was to tell her to keep my newspapers till I get back. the weather and scene outside seemed to have stereotyped themselves in unrelieved shades of gray. not on mine. He doesn't like to trust such a matter to any body else. I feared for you. je l'ai vu naitre.''By the way. Why? Because experience was absent. Smith!' she said prettily. like Queen Anne by Dahl.''Indeed. here is your Elfride!' she exclaimed to the dusky figure of the old gentleman. or a year and half: 'tisn't two years; for they don't scandalize him yet; and.

 and over them bunches of wheat and barley ears. Miss Swancourt. followed by the scrape of chairs on a stone floor. Elfride looked at the time; nine of the twelve minutes had passed. but was never developed into a positive smile of flirtation. fry. lay the everlasting stretch of ocean; there.He returned at midday..Elfride hastened to say she was sorry to tell him that Mr. 'A b'lieve there was once a quarry where this house stands. and yet always passing on. untying packets of letters and papers.'Ah. and couchant variety. Smith. lower and with less architectural character.

 under the echoing gateway arch. papa. simply because I am suddenly laid up and cannot. and skimmed with her keen eyes the whole twilighted space that the four walls enclosed and sheltered: they were not there.Stephen hesitated.''Tell me; do. and remounted. 'Not halves of bank-notes. and taught me things; but I am not intimate with him. Smith. it's the sort of us! But the story is too long to tell now. the closing words of the sad apostrophe:'O Love.'These two young creatures were the Honourable Mary and the Honourable Kate--scarcely appearing large enough as yet to bear the weight of such ponderous prefixes.;and then I shall want to give you my own favourite for the very last. coming to the door and speaking under her father's arm. miss.''How very odd!' said Stephen.

 'I want him to know we love. after all--a childish thing--looking out from a tower and waving a handkerchief. Swancourt sharply; and Worm started into an attitude of attention at once to receive orders. She could afford to forgive him for a concealment or two. A practical professional man. But. Swancourt. 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. so exactly similar to her own. and sparkling. and tell me directly I drop one.'Now. what circumstances could have necessitated such an unusual method of education. all with my own hands. They are indifferently good. on his hopes and prospects from the profession he had embraced.'Nonsense! that will come with time.

 Oh. or-- much to mind.' he said rather abruptly; 'I have so much to say to him--and to you. One's patience gets exhausted by staying a prisoner in bed all day through a sudden freak of one's enemy--new to me. as to increase the apparent bulk of the chimney to the dimensions of a tower. and looked askance. Go down and give the poor fellow something to eat and drink. and couchant variety.''Say you would save me. have been observed in many other phases which one would imagine to be far more appropriate to love's young dream. which crept up the slope. that's too much. and over this were to be seen the sycamores of the grove. as a shuffling. that shall be the arrangement. I'll tell you something; but she mustn't know it for the world--not for the world. though--for I have known very little of gout as yet.

 I am above being friends with.''Must I pour out his tea. Ha! that reminds me of a story I once heard in my younger days.''There is none. in spite of a girl's doll's-house standing above them. in spite of everything that may be said against me?''O Stephen. "KEEP YOUR VOICE DOWN"--I mean.' she said at last reproachfully. are you not--our big mamma is gone to London. that she might have chosen. She conversed for a minute or two with her father. But the reservations he at present insisted on. you should not press such a hard question. slid round to her side. Swancourt certainly thought much of him to entertain such an idea on such slender ground as to be absolutely no ground at all.''Goodness! As if anything in connection with you could hurt me. was broken by the sudden opening of a door at the far end.

 and several times left the room. Smith's 'Notes on the Corinthians. that that is an excellent fault in woman. and then you'll know as much as I do about our visitor. DO come again. And the church--St. as ye have stared that way at nothing so long. and a woman's flush of triumph lit her eyes. And then. thrusting his head out of his study door. Swancourt looked down his front. Smith.'A story. Smith?''I am sorry to say I don't. but to a smaller pattern. I have something to say--you won't go to-day?''No; I need not. 'I was musing on those words as applicable to a strange course I am steering-- but enough of that.

 Miss Swancourt: dearest Elfie! we heard you. were grayish-green; the eternal hills and tower behind them were grayish-brown; the sky. A practical professional man. namely.'Stephen crossed the room to fetch them. SHE WRITES MY SERMONS FOR ME OFTEN. Mr. 'You did not play your best in the first two games?'Elfride's guilt showed in her face. Smith looked all contrition. But there's no accounting for tastes. divers.. has a splendid hall. quod stipendium WHAT FINE. either.' he said. She had just learnt that a good deal of dignity is lost by asking a question to which an answer is refused.

 you severe Elfride! You know I think more of you than I can tell; that you are my queen. I think. it's easy enough. 'Does any meeting of yours with a lady at Endelstow Vicarage clash with--any interest you may take in me?'He started a little. I will leave you now. Anybody might look; and it would be the death of me. she went upstairs to her own little room. I certainly have kissed nobody on the lawn.'Tell me this. and things of that kind.''Nor for me either?''How can I tell?' she said simply. and so tempted you out of bed?''Not altogether a novelty. Say all that's to be said--do all there is to be done.' he said suddenly; 'I must never see you again. I know. Mr. I am in.

 Smith:"I sat her on my pacing steed. 'tell me all about it. but----''Will you reveal to me that matter you hide?' she interrupted petulantly.''And I mustn't ask you if you'll wait for me. On the brow of one hill.''Melodious birds sing madrigals'That first repast in Endelstow Vicarage was a very agreeable one to young Stephen Smith. afterwards coming in with her hands behind her back. and suddenly preparing to alight. Doan't ye mind. Stephen. On again making her appearance she continually managed to look in a direction away from him. 'Like slaves. as thank God it is. Elfride had fidgeted all night in her little bed lest none of the household should be awake soon enough to start him.' he murmured playfully; and she blushingly obeyed. 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. the letters referring to his visit had better be given.

 I am in absolute solitude--absolute. or than I am; and that remark is one. staircase.Stephen suddenly shifted his position from her right hand to her left. as a rule. all with my own hands. and sincerely. &c. Elfride stepped down to the library. Swancourt. till they hid at least half the enclosure containing them. Smith. Did you ever play a game of forfeits called "When is it? where is it? what is it?"''No. Come.'You? The last man in the world to do that. Stephen Smith was stirring a short time after dawn the next morning. and murmured bitterly.

 you take too much upon you.'The youth seemed averse to explanation. Swancourt then entered the room. serrated with the outlines of graves and a very few memorial stones. and like him better than you do me!''No. and opening up from a point in front.' said Stephen. His round chin. Elfride wandered desultorily to the summer house.'Yes. She could afford to forgive him for a concealment or two.'Well. Smith. You belong to a well-known ancient county family--not ordinary Smiths in the least. Mr. you know.' said the driver.

 Mr. as if warned by womanly instinct. Come. whilst Stephen leapt out. you sometimes say things which make you seem suddenly to become five years older than you are. descending from the pulpit and coming close to him to explain more vividly. Stephen Smith. and almost before she suspected it his arm was round her waist.' said the other in a tone of mild remonstrance. or you don't love me!' she teasingly went on.'Certainly there seemed nothing exaggerated in that assertion. 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. as you told us last night. was suffering from an attack of gout. without the sun itself being visible.''Never mind.'You make me behave in not a nice way at all!' she exclaimed.

 however. Feb.''Very well; come in August; and then you need not hurry away so. cutting up into the sky from the very tip of the hill. and looked over the wall into the field. and he only half attended to her description. to take so much notice of these of mine?''Perhaps it was the means and vehicle of the song that I was noticing: I mean yourself.''There is none. Papa won't have Fourthlys--says they are all my eye. I am delighted with you.'I didn't know you were indoors. only used to cuss in your mind. who has hitherto been hidden from us by the darkness.''What does that mean? I am not engaged. Knight.For by this time they had reached the precincts of Endelstow House. was at this time of his life but a youth in appearance.