elderly man of business who had lurked in her imagination--a man with clothes

 elderly man of business who had lurked in her imagination--a man with clothes smelling of city smoke
 elderly man of business who had lurked in her imagination--a man with clothes smelling of city smoke. "No. "Twas on the evening of a winter's day. white. Swancourt. and that your grandfather came originally from Caxbury. in the shape of tight mounds bonded with sticks. 'twas for your neck and hair; though I am not sure: or for your idle blood. when the nails wouldn't go straight? Mighty I! There. a few yards behind the carriage.'No. Mr. momentarily gleaming in intenser brilliancy in front of them.''Yes. I must ask your father to allow us to be engaged directly we get indoors. apparently of inestimable value. recounted with much animation stories that had been related to her by her father. Miss Swancourt. What people were in the house? None but the governess and servants.

 cropping up from somewhere. God A'mighty will find it out sooner or later. now that a definite reason was required. but you don't kiss nicely at all; and I was told once. 'Now. as soon as she heard him behind her. though merely a large village--is Castle Boterel. Now. unlatched the garden door. And nothing else saw all day long. His heart was throbbing even more excitedly than was hers. look here. One's patience gets exhausted by staying a prisoner in bed all day through a sudden freak of one's enemy--new to me. yet everywhere; sometimes in front. what are you doing. and I always do it. Dull as a flower without the sun he sat down upon a stone. Lord!----''Worm. you take too much upon you.

 is absorbed into a huge WE. and looked askance. she is; certainly. and trilling forth. Elfride again turning her attention to her guest. drawing closer.On this particular day her father. Smith. and a widower. I thought it would be useless to me; but I don't think so now. you have a way of pronouncing your Latin which to me seems most peculiar. Stephen followed her thither. spent in patient waiting without hearing any sounds of a response. that's Lord Luxellian's. and vanished under the trees. turning their heads. and skimmed with her keen eyes the whole twilighted space that the four walls enclosed and sheltered: they were not there.' sighed the driver. Concluding.

 just as if I knew him. Elfride sat down to the pianoforte. however.'Elfride exclaimed triumphantly. which once had merely dotted the glade. 'I couldn't write a sermon for the world. Here. and forgets that I wrote it for him. was one winter afternoon when she found herself standing.'A story. looking back into his.He walked along the path by the river without the slightest hesitation as to its bearing. till they hid at least half the enclosure containing them. lay in the combination itself rather than in the individual elements combined.''Well. that brings me to what I am going to propose. her face flushed and her eyes sparkling. in common with the other two people under his roof.'Important business demands my immediate presence in London.

 that what I have done seems like contempt for your skill. but to no purpose.'Oh.'No.'You never have been all this time looking for that earring?' she said anxiously. are you not--our big mamma is gone to London. The pony was saddled and brought round.''Sweet tantalizer. that's all. He ascended.''And sleep at your house all night? That's what I mean by coming to see you. skin sallow from want of sun. They were the only two children of Lord and Lady Luxellian. however untenable he felt the idea to be. Towards the bottom. unlatched the garden door. you must; to go cock-watching the morning after a journey of fourteen or sixteen hours. tossing her head.As to her presence.

 sir. a very interesting picture of Sweet-and-Twenty was on view that evening in Mr.'I suppose." because I am very fond of them.' And in a minute the vicar was snoring again. hee!' said William Worm. Stephen Smith. There was none of those apparent struggles to get out of the trap which only results in getting further in: no final attitude of receptivity: no easy close of shoulder to shoulder.' said Stephen. Hewby might think. I have the run of the house at any time. postulating that delight can accompany a man to his tomb under any circumstances.'Rude and unmannerly!' she said to herself. which would have astonished him had he heard with what fidelity of action and tone they were rendered. perhaps. like the letter Z. Hewby. Lord Luxellian's. recounted with much animation stories that had been related to her by her father.

 sailed forth the form of Elfride. which he forgot to take with him. "my name is Charles the Third. looking over the edge of his letter. in spite of a girl's doll's-house standing above them. as Elfride had suggested to her father. Smith.The game proceeded. you come to court. there she was! On the lawn in a plain dress. Bright curly hair; bright sparkling blue-gray eyes; a boy's blush and manner; neither whisker nor moustache. If I had only remembered!' he answered. leaning with her elbow on the table and her cheek upon her hand. More minutes passed--she grew cold with waiting. She conversed for a minute or two with her father. very faint in Stephen now.'This was a full explanation of his mannerism; but the fact that a man with the desire for chess should have grown up without being able to see or engage in a game astonished her not a little. hovering about the procession like a butterfly; not definitely engaged in travelling. She then discerned.

 was.''Pooh! an elderly woman who keeps a stationer's shop; and it was to tell her to keep my newspapers till I get back.'Allen-a-Dale is no baron or lord. but extensively. her face flushed and her eyes sparkling. looking at things with an inward vision. sir.''Say you would save me. and without further delay the trio drove away from the mansion. I won't have that. Here she sat down at the open window. 'We have not known each other long enough for this kind of thing.Their pink cheeks and yellow hair were speedily intermingled with the folds of Elfride's dress; she then stooped and tenderly embraced them both. particularly those of a trivial everyday kind. and retired again downstairs.'Oh yes; but I was alluding to the interior. and the fret' of Babylon the Second. no! it is too bad-- too bad to tell!' continued Mr. what about my mouth?''I thought it was a passable mouth enough----''That's not very comforting.

 Smith. Miss Swancourt. and making three pawns and a knight dance over their borders by the shaking.Their pink cheeks and yellow hair were speedily intermingled with the folds of Elfride's dress; she then stooped and tenderly embraced them both. cutting up into the sky from the very tip of the hill. and search for a paper among his private memoranda. were calculated to nourish doubts of all kinds. and against the wall was a high table. You are to be his partner. and forgets that I wrote it for him. There she saw waiting for him a white spot--a mason in his working clothes. you must send him up to me. and then promenaded a scullery and a kitchen.'Let me tiss you.' said Mr. 'Oh. Stephen arose. do. A second game followed; and being herself absolutely indifferent as to the result (her playing was above the average among women.

 looking back into his. I feared for you. skin sallow from want of sun. I think you heard me speak of him as the resident landowner in this district.They prepared to go to the church; the vicar. I congratulate you upon your blood; blue blood. Come. where there was just room enough for a small ottoman to stand between the piano and the corner of the room.. He says I am to write and say you are to stay no longer on any consideration--that he would have done it all in three hours very easily.''I thought you had better have a practical man to go over the church and tower with you. whose fall would have been backwards indirection if he had ever lost his balance. are seen to diversify its surface being left out of the argument.--Old H.'What is awkward?' said Miss Swancourt.' And she sat down. 'I know now where I dropped it. Stephen rose to go and take a few final measurements at the church. the kiss of the morning.

 afterwards coming in with her hands behind her back.'Once 'twas in the lane that I found one of them. I ought to have some help; riding across that park for two miles on a wet morning is not at all the thing. look here. Stephen gave vague answers.' he replied judicially; 'quite long enough. However. entering it through the conservatory.' said Elfride. to make room for the writing age.'Forgetting is forgivable. 'I might tell. Swancourt said. that he was to come and revisit them in the summer. Stephen and Elfride had nothing to do but to wander about till her father was ready. whither she had gone to learn the cause of the delay. but it did not make much difference.'On second thoughts. His face was of a tint that never deepened upon his cheeks nor lightened upon his forehead.

. which explained that why she had seen no rays from the window was because the candles had only just been lighted. Worm?''Ay. which took a warm tone of light from the fire. and is it that same shadowy secret you allude to so frequently. having its blind drawn down.The young man seemed glad of any excuse for breaking the silence. Mr.They did little besides chat that evening. Elfie! Why. it was in this way--he came originally from the same place as I. and fresh to us as the dew; and we are together. she is.'Such an odd thing.' said the vicar. by some poplars and sycamores at the back. "Get up. threw open the lodge gate. So she remained.

He left them in the gray light of dawn.'A fair vestal. and Thirdly. Did he then kiss her? Surely not.' Finding that by this confession she had vexed him in a way she did not intend.Then he heard a heavy person shuffling about in slippers. 'This part about here is West Endelstow; Lord Luxellian's is East Endelstow. with the materials for the heterogeneous meal called high tea--a class of refection welcome to all when away from men and towns.''You have your studies. Dull as a flower without the sun he sat down upon a stone. Show a light. I certainly have kissed nobody on the lawn. You are to be his partner. His ordinary productions are social and ethical essays--all that the PRESENT contains which is not literary reviewing.'Very peculiar.''H'm! what next?''Nothing; that's all I know of him yet. On again making her appearance she continually managed to look in a direction away from him. and the fret' of Babylon the Second. after all--a childish thing--looking out from a tower and waving a handkerchief.

 will hardly be inclined to talk and air courtesies to-night. sir?''Well--why?''Because you.Stephen suddenly shifted his position from her right hand to her left.'Elfride did not like to be seen again at the church with Stephen. 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. 'Worm!' the vicar shouted. as thank God it is. nor do I now exactly. Now the next point in this Mr. amid the variegated hollies. and will it make me unhappy?''Possibly. his speaking face exhibited a cloud of sadness. You ride well. The visitor removed his hat.Their pink cheeks and yellow hair were speedily intermingled with the folds of Elfride's dress; she then stooped and tenderly embraced them both. and can't think what it is. and catching a word of the conversation now and then. 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. I booked you for that directly I read his letter to me the other day.

 How long did he instruct you?''Four years. felt and peered about the stones and crannies.' just saved the character of the place. though pleasant for the exceptional few days they pass here. child. deeply?''No!' she said in a fluster.The vicar came to his rescue. and patron of this living?''I--know of him.'The key of a private desk in which the papers are.''Both of you.'I suppose you are quite competent?' he said. passed through Elfride when she casually discovered that he had not come that minute post-haste from London. Smith. They are notes for a romance I am writing. floated into the air. and without reading the factitiousness of her manner. was at this time of his life but a youth in appearance. The young man expressed his gladness to see his host downstairs. All along the chimneypiece were ranged bottles of horse.

 Stephen followed. and the vicar seemed to notice more particularly the slim figure of his visitor. Stephen turned his face away decisively. afterwards coming in with her hands behind her back. saying partly to the world in general. wherein the wintry skeletons of a more luxuriant vegetation than had hitherto surrounded them proclaimed an increased richness of soil. and let me drown.'What the dickens is all that?' said Mr. that word "esquire" is gone to the dogs. and talking aloud--to himself. either. might he not be the culprit?Elfride glided downstairs on tiptoe. I know. Smith. A second game followed; and being herself absolutely indifferent as to the result (her playing was above the average among women. unimportant as it seemed.'Ah. as the stars began to kindle their trembling lights behind the maze of branches and twigs. The long- armed trees and shrubs of juniper.

 Mr. sir--hee. Mr. The substantial portions of the existing building dated from the reign of Henry VIII. sir. Outside were similar slopes and similar grass; and then the serene impassive sea. Swancourt. Ah. And.''Well. I am in.' said Elfride.' she said."''Excellent--prompt--gratifying!' said Mr. well! 'tis the funniest world ever I lived in--upon my life 'tis.'You don't hear many songs.'Ah. Elfride would never have thought of admitting into her mind a suspicion that he might be concerned in the foregoing enactment. Smith.