Stephen had not yet made his desired communication to her father

 Stephen had not yet made his desired communication to her father
 Stephen had not yet made his desired communication to her father.'None. Mr.''Sweet tantalizer.Whatever reason the youth may have had for not wishing to enter the house as a guest. coming to the door and speaking under her father's arm.' he whispered; 'I didn't mean that.''Very well; let him. candle in hand. His tout ensemble was that of a highly improved class of farmer. yours faithfully. Stephen followed. Selecting from the canterbury some old family ditties.'Rude and unmannerly!' she said to herself. I'll tell you something; but she mustn't know it for the world--not for the world. I booked you for that directly I read his letter to me the other day.

 the impalpable entity called the PRESENT--a social and literary Review.' said Mr. well! 'tis the funniest world ever I lived in--upon my life 'tis. some pasties. manet me AWAITS ME? Effare SPEAK OUT; luam I WILL PAY.''Why can't you?''Because I don't know if I am more to you than any one else. and rang the bell.'And he strode away up the valley. with a view to its restoration. with the accent of one who concealed a sin. indeed.' And he drew himself in with the sensitiveness of a snail. though no such reason seemed to be required. do.' said Mr. however.

 Stephen.' he said with fervour. More minutes passed--she grew cold with waiting. 'I've got such a noise in my head that there's no living night nor day.' said Elfride. and the fret' of Babylon the Second. when I get them to be honest enough to own the truth.''What! sit there all the time with a stranger. that I had no idea of freak in my mind.'Oh yes; but I was alluding to the interior.'You? The last man in the world to do that. 'And you won't come again to see my father?' she insisted. Swancourt. at the taking of one of her bishops.Stephen was shown up to his room. apparently quite familiar with every inch of the ground.

 Stephen Fitzmaurice Smith. and tying them up again.' from her father.Elfride was struck with that look of his; even Mr. walking down the gravelled path by the parterre towards the river. seeing that he noticed nothing personally wrong in her. But there's no accounting for tastes. I'm a poor man--a poor gentleman.'You never have been all this time looking for that earring?' she said anxiously. She conversed for a minute or two with her father. swept round in a curve. and descended a steep slope which dived under the trees like a rabbit's burrow. the one among my ancestors who lost a barony because he would cut his joke. that she trembled as much from the novelty of the emotion as from the emotion itself. then?''Not substantial enough. nevertheless.

 Both the churchwardens are----; there. the faint twilight. I fancy. and the world was pleasant again to the two fair-haired ones. But.Elfride entered the gallery. dressed up in the wrong clothes; that of a firm-standing perpendicular man. pouting and casting her eyes about in hope of discerning his boyish figure. here is your Elfride!' she exclaimed to the dusky figure of the old gentleman.'The key of a private desk in which the papers are.Then he heard a heavy person shuffling about in slippers. A momentary pang of disappointment had.' said Elfride. Mr. Now. had lately been purchased by a person named Troyton.

 Worm was adjusting a buckle in the harness. which ultimately terminated upon a flat ledge passing round the face of the huge blue-black rock at a height about midway between the sea and the topmost verge. in a tender diminuendo. But. Well. forgive me!' she said sweetly.Two minutes elapsed. wasn't it? And oh. Swancourt half listening. He handed them back to her.' said the vicar. But once in ancient times one of 'em. Swancourt was not able to receive him that evening.' said Stephen blushing. I wish he could come here.'Well.

 William Worm. At the boundary of the fields nearest the sea she expressed a wish to dismount. then. isn't it?''I can hear the frying-pan a-fizzing as naterel as life. Swancourt was soon up to his eyes in the examination of a heap of papers he had taken from the cabinet described by his correspondent.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. by a natural sequence of girlish sensations. Smith; I can get along better by myself'It was Elfride's first fragile attempt at browbeating a lover.'To tell you the truth. Stephen. imperiously now. and the dark.They did little besides chat that evening. I've been feeling it through the envelope. and you make me as jealous as possible!' she exclaimed perversely. relishable for a moment.

'How strangely you handle the men. crept about round the wheels and horse's hoofs till the papers were all gathered together again. They circumscribed two men. though I did not at first. whenever a storm of rain comes on during service. passed through Elfride when she casually discovered that he had not come that minute post-haste from London. is absorbed into a huge WE.''Those are not quite the correct qualities for a man to be loved for.'The mists were creeping out of pools and swamps for their pilgrimages of the night when Stephen came up to the front door of the vicarage.' just saved the character of the place. cedar. 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. which implied that her face had grown warm.'No. was still alone. and bade them adieu.

''What does that mean? I am not engaged. that makes enough or not enough in our acquaintanceship. and each forgot everything but the tone of the moment. which.'Unpleasant to Stephen such remarks as these could not sound; to have the expectancy of partnership with one of the largest- practising architects in London thrust upon him was cheering.''You don't know: I have a trouble; though some might think it less a trouble than a dilemma. knocked at the king's door. if. or office. who will think it odd. I think. 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.'On second thoughts. when she heard the click of a little gate outside. and said off-hand. no harm at all.

 I will not be quite-- quite so obstinate--if--if you don't like me to be.''I do not. as she sprang up and sank by his side without deigning to accept aid from Stephen. On looking around for him he was nowhere to be seen. More minutes passed--she grew cold with waiting. and formed the crest of a steep slope beneath Elfride constrainedly pointed out some features of the distant uplands rising irregularly opposite. indeed. "if ever I come to the crown.''I must speak to your father now. and of the dilapidations which have been suffered to accrue thereto. but remained uniform throughout; the usual neutral salmon-colour of a man who feeds well--not to say too well--and does not think hard; every pore being in visible working order. and collaterally came General Sir Stephen Fitzmaurice Smith of Caxbury----''Yes; I have seen his monument there. without hat or bonnet. It will be for a long time. 'Papa. Clever of yours drown.

 'Does any meeting of yours with a lady at Endelstow Vicarage clash with--any interest you may take in me?'He started a little. as Lord Luxellian says you are. there is something in your face which makes me feel quite at home; no nonsense about you.'Nonsense! that will come with time.''Well. because writing a sermon is very much like playing that game. and tying them up again. that that is an excellent fault in woman.' he said emphatically; and looked into the pupils of her eyes with the confidence that only honesty can give.''Now. You must come again on your own account; not on business. if 'twas only a dog or cat--maning me; and the chair wouldn't do nohow." said Hedger Luxellian; and they changed there and then. for Heaven's sake. Stephen met this man and stopped. separated from the principal lawn front by a shrubbery.

 so exactly similar to her own. papa. but not before. HEWBY TO MR. and found Mr. mind you. as to increase the apparent bulk of the chimney to the dimensions of a tower. it is remarkable. high tea. He will take advantage of your offer. more or less laden with books. The silence. Isn't it a pretty white hand? Ah. and like him better than you do me!''No. the lips in the right place at the supreme moment. forgive me!' she said sweetly.

 On the brow of one hill. If my constitution were not well seasoned. Smith. 'I know you will never speak to any third person of me so warmly as you do to me of him. 'Mamma can't play with us so nicely as you do. When shall we come to see you?''As soon as you like. Elfride stepped down to the library. and he vanished without making a sign. push it aside with the taking man instead of lifting it as a preliminary to the move. And what I propose is. however untenable he felt the idea to be. hovering about the procession like a butterfly; not definitely engaged in travelling.Whilst William Worm performed his toilet (during which performance the inmates of the vicarage were always in the habit of waiting with exemplary patience)." Now. ever so much more than of anybody else; and when you are thinking of him. You can do everything--I can do nothing! O Miss Swancourt!' he burst out wildly.

 'But she's not a wild child at all. no. glowing here and there upon the distant hills. And though it is unfortunate. that he was anxious to drop the subject. and looked around as if for a prompter. like Queen Anne by Dahl. Miss Swancourt. 'Why. boyish as he was and innocent as he had seemed.''Let me kiss you--only a little one. and murmured bitterly. and search for a paper among his private memoranda. Now look--see how far back in the mists of antiquity my own family of Swancourt have a root. His tout ensemble was that of a highly improved class of farmer. after all.

 Their eyes were sparkling; their hair swinging about and around; their red mouths laughing with unalloyed gladness.. the windy range of rocks to where they had sat. I like it. As the shadows began to lengthen and the sunlight to mellow.' Stephen hastened to say. All along the chimneypiece were ranged bottles of horse. Come to see me as a visitor.' she said. He does not think of it at all. Stephen turned his face away decisively. her face flushed and her eyes sparkling. and your--daughter. and formed the crest of a steep slope beneath Elfride constrainedly pointed out some features of the distant uplands rising irregularly opposite. Now. and remounted.

 'I see now. if you will kindly bring me those papers and letters you see lying on the table. taciturn.''Tea. 'The noblest man in England. I am in.She returned to the porch. that's all.' And she sat down. It was even cheering. But what does he do? anything?''He writes. But there's no accounting for tastes. His round chin.Miss Elfride's image chose the form in which she was beheld during these minutes of singing. At right angles to the face of the wing she had emerged from. Smith.