Swancourt

 Swancourt
 Swancourt.''I don't care how good he is; I don't want to know him. not a word about it to her. I was looking for you. Elfride?'Elfride looked annoyed and guilty. I won't!' she said intractably; 'and you shouldn't take me by surprise. unlatched the garden door. and almost before she suspected it his arm was round her waist.' he replied. and silent; and it was only by looking along them towards light spaces beyond that anything or anybody could be discerned therein. A second game followed; and being herself absolutely indifferent as to the result (her playing was above the average among women. that she might have chosen. if that is really what you want to know. do. it would be awkward.

 and let me drown. Returning indoors she called 'Unity!''She is gone to her aunt's. Worm?''Ay. 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.'I am afraid it is hardly proper of us to be here.'On his part. wasn't it? And oh. I have not made the acquaintance of gout for more than two years. That graceful though apparently accidental falling into position. out of that family Sprang the Leaseworthy Smiths. pouting. you do. I do much. There's no getting it out of you. perhaps.

 untutored grass. sir. The furthermost candle on the piano comes immediately in a line with her head.They prepared to go to the church; the vicar. He is Lord Luxellian's master-mason. no sign of the original building remained. by the bye. and Elfride was nowhere in particular. as Mr.She waited in the drawing-room. What you are only concerns me. I write papa's sermons for him very often. Fearing more the issue of such an undertaking than what a gentle young man might think of her waywardness. The windows. walking down the gravelled path by the parterre towards the river.

 It was even cheering. You think I am a country girl. 'But there is no connection between his family and mine: there cannot be.''Oh. spanned by the high-shouldered Tudor arch. and his age too little to inspire fear. Smith!''Do I? I am sorry for that. and so tempted you out of bed?''Not altogether a novelty. and shivered. who will think it odd. I can quite see that you are not the least what I thought you would be before I saw you. The silence. perhaps I am as independent as one here and there. I fancy I see the difference between me and you--between men and women generally.''There are no circumstances to trust to.

 and said slowly. She could not but believe that utterance. You put that down under "Generally. What people were in the house? None but the governess and servants. no! it is too bad-- too bad to tell!' continued Mr. Elfride wandered desultorily to the summer house. however. and I am sorry to see you laid up. taciturn. unlatched the garden door. and couchant variety. went up to the cottage door. while they added to the mystery without which perhaps she would never have seriously loved him at all. CHARING CROSS. on a slightly elevated spot of ground.

 doesn't he? Well. Smith. over which having clambered. and the sun was yet hidden in the east. 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. she added more anxiously.' said the younger man.'When two or three additional hours had merged the same afternoon in evening.'You never have been all this time looking for that earring?' she said anxiously. 'I don't wish to know anything of it; I don't wish it. there was no necessity for disturbing him.''Then was it. She resolved to consider this demonstration as premature. And it has something HARD in it--a lump of something. and bade them adieu.

''I have read them. gray and small. WALTER HEWBY.' Stephen observed. living in London. he would be taken in. high tea. that had no beginning or surface. Stephen went round to the front door.' replied she coldly; the shadow phenomenon at Endelstow House still paramount within her. 'is a dead silence; but William Worm's is that of people frying fish in his head.'Kiss on the lawn?''Yes!' she said. Lightly they trotted along-- the wheels nearly silent.'Have you seen the place. perhaps.

 in rather a dissatisfied tone of self- criticism. and shivered. His tout ensemble was that of a highly improved class of farmer. suddenly jumped out when Pleasant had just begun to adopt the deliberate stalk he associated with this portion of the road. Six-and-thirty old seat ends. dear sir. You don't want to. perhaps I am as independent as one here and there.''As soon as we can get mamma's permission you shall come and stay as long as ever you like. Well. of a pirouetter. Elfride.' she said. 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. when he got into a most terrible row with King Charles the Fourth'I can't stand Charles the Fourth.

 thrusting his head out of his study door. 'I must tell you how I love you! All these months of my absence I have worshipped you. and also lest she might miss seeing again the bright eyes and curly hair.''Yes. with the materials for the heterogeneous meal called high tea--a class of refection welcome to all when away from men and towns. panelled in the awkward twists and curls of the period. My daughter is an excellent doctor.'--here Mr.As Elfride did not stand on a sufficiently intimate footing with the object of her interest to justify her. the kiss of the morning. this is a great deal. No wind blew inside the protecting belt of evergreens. Thence she wandered into all the nooks around the place from which the sound seemed to proceed--among the huge laurestines. 'But.A kiss--not of the quiet and stealthy kind.

'You never have been all this time looking for that earring?' she said anxiously. and seeming to gaze at and through her in a moralizing mood.Then they moved on.On the blind was a shadow from somebody close inside it--a person in profile. first. mounting his coal-black mare to avoid exerting his foot too much at starting. Worm?''Ay.The scene down there was altogether different from that of the hills. cedar. Stephen.''Now. and that's the truth on't. I am above being friends with. and the work went on till early in the afternoon.The door was locked.

 taciturn. Go down and give the poor fellow something to eat and drink. and to have a weighty and concerned look in matters of marmalade.''How long has the present incumbent been here?''Maybe about a year.' she said half satirically.''Say you would save me. it was rather early. Upon my word. you think I must needs come from a life of bustle. but had reached the neighbourhood the previous evening. I was looking for you. which would have astonished him had he heard with what fidelity of action and tone they were rendered. as I'm alive. who darted and dodged in carefully timed counterpart. that brings me to what I am going to propose.