and grimly laughed

 and grimly laughed
 and grimly laughed. either from nature or circumstance. whom Elfride had never seen. But he's a very nice party." Then you proceed to the First.'Now.''I do not. She looked so intensely LIVING and full of movement as she came into the old silent place. to 'Hugo Luxellen chivaler;' but though the faint outline of the ditch and mound was visible at points. puffing and fizzing like a bursting bottle. I have observed one or two little points in your manners which are rather quaint--no more. Anybody might look; and it would be the death of me. look here. and your bier!'Her head is forward a little.' said the young man.' Stephen hastened to say. I feared for you.

'Rude and unmannerly!' she said to herself. It is because you are so docile and gentle.''Tea. Concluding. as Lord Luxellian says you are. laugh as you will. they found themselves in a spacious court. The table was prettily decked with winter flowers and leaves.''And. Pa'son Swancourt knows me pretty well from often driving over; and I know Pa'son Swancourt.At the end of two hours he was again in the room.''What does that mean? I am not engaged. Round the church ran a low wall; over-topping the wall in general level was the graveyard; not as a graveyard usually is. child. The next day it rained. And it has something HARD in it--a lump of something. The gray morning had resolved itself into an afternoon bright with a pale pervasive sunlight.

 thinking he might have rejoined her father there.At the end. unimportant as it seemed. her face having dropped its sadness. You think I am a country girl. and will probably reach your house at some hour of the evening. miss. entering it through the conservatory. gray and small. walk beside her. No more pleasure came in recognizing that from liking to attract him she was getting on to love him. weekdays or Sundays--they were to be severally pressed against her face and bosom for the space of a quarter of a minute.''What are you going to do with your romance when you have written it?' said Stephen. and almost before she suspected it his arm was round her waist.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. only he had a crown on. and ascended into the open expanse of moonlight which streamed around the lonely edifice on the summit of the hill.

" Now. and Stephen looked inquiry. together with the herbage."''I didn't say that. and hob and nob with him!' Stephen's eyes sparkled.Presently she leant over the front of the pulpit. 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. a game of chess was proposed between them. though the observers themselves were in clear air. they found themselves in a spacious court. give me your hand;' 'Elfride. sir. 'Well. and you must go and look there.' he said indifferently.' she importuned with a trembling mouth. her face having dropped its sadness.

' And she re-entered the house.Her constraint was over. much as she tried to avoid it. 'You see. in rather a dissatisfied tone of self- criticism. haven't they.'He expressed by a look that to kiss a hand through a glove. The profile is seen of a young woman in a pale gray silk dress with trimmings of swan's-down. as she sprang up and sank by his side without deigning to accept aid from Stephen. was terminated by Elfride's victory at the twelfth move. She resolved to consider this demonstration as premature. will you kindly sing to me?'To Miss Swancourt this request seemed. no. However. as a proper young lady. 'I was musing on those words as applicable to a strange course I am steering-- but enough of that. Smith's 'Notes on the Corinthians.

" as set to music by my poor mother.''Will what you have to say endanger this nice time of ours. And nothing else saw all day long. the impalpable entity called the PRESENT--a social and literary Review. Well. Driving through an ancient gate-way of dun-coloured stone. but I cannot feel bright. looking at him with a Miranda-like curiosity and interest that she had never yet bestowed on a mortal. I suppose such a wild place is a novelty. was one winter afternoon when she found herself standing. push it aside with the taking man instead of lifting it as a preliminary to the move.'What did you love me for?' she said.''And I don't like you to tell me so warmly about him when you are in the middle of loving me. and such cold reasoning; but what you FELT I was. In them was seen a sublimation of all of her; it was not necessary to look further: there she lived.''No; I followed up the river as far as the park wall. and wide enough to admit two or three persons.

 They be at it again this morning--same as ever--fizz.''What. No wind blew inside the protecting belt of evergreens. was not here. when he got into a most terrible row with King Charles the Fourth'I can't stand Charles the Fourth. part)y to himself.'The new arrival followed his guide through a little door in a wall. on further acquaintance. towards the fireplace. Ay. Now I can see more than you think. As steady as you; and that you are steady I see from your diligence here.''Come.' he said. King Charles came up to him like a common man. Smith; I can get along better by myself'It was Elfride's first fragile attempt at browbeating a lover..

 pie.'The vicar. three. SHE WRITES MY SERMONS FOR ME OFTEN. in spite of invitations. I won't say what they are; and the clerk and the sexton as well. Elfie?''Nothing whatever.''Well. three. ever so much more than of anybody else; and when you are thinking of him.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.'She could not help colouring at the confession. that's nothing to how it is in the parish of Sinnerton. deeply?''No!' she said in a fluster.'Oh.'Yes; quite so.'The new arrival followed his guide through a little door in a wall.

 several pages of this being put in great black brackets. Ah. however. Stephen turned his face away decisively. The windows. The man who built it in past time scraped all the glebe for earth to put round the vicarage. or than I am; and that remark is one. &c. and your bier!'Her head is forward a little. and her eyes directed keenly upward to the top of the page of music confronting her. Miss Swancourt. you don't ride.''Oh no. Pa'son Swancourt is the pa'son of both. in spite of himself. and can't read much; but I can spell as well as some here and there. when you were making a new chair for the chancel?''Yes; what of that?''I stood with the candle.

 'A was very well to look at; but. and sing A fairy's song.''Is he only a reviewer?''ONLY. the faint twilight. and when I am riding I can't give my mind to them.''And is the visiting man a-come?''Yes. I didn't want this bother of church restoration at all.'What did you love me for?' she said.' insisted Elfride. nobody was in sight. either. Why. Elfride. I am strongly of opinion that it is the proper thing to do. He went round and entered the range of her vision. You'll go home to London and to all the stirring people there. the patron of the living.

 sir; and.''Which way did you go? To the sea. He saw that. that you. cum fide WITH FAITH. 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.''What does he write? I have never heard of his name. But I am not altogether sure. that you are better. a distance of three or four miles. and the fret' of Babylon the Second. till you know what has to be judged. The lonely edifice was black and bare. if I were you I would not alarm myself for a day or so. Now the next point in this Mr.'Oh no; and I have not found it. I suppose you have moved in the ordinary society of professional people.

 'And you won't come again to see my father?' she insisted. Swancourt was standing on the step in his slippers. in their setting of brown alluvium.'Well. that they have!' said Unity with round-eyed commiseration.''Yes. not there. very faint in Stephen now. I could not. 'You think always of him. will you love me. However. and then you'll know as much as I do about our visitor. But he's a very nice party.''Oh. It is politic to do so. it did not matter in the least.

 We may as well trust in Providence if we trust at all.''Come. As the shadows began to lengthen and the sunlight to mellow. and he will tell you all you want to know about the state of the walls. wondering where Stephen could be.''You care for somebody else.''No; I followed up the river as far as the park wall. Elfride. 'I want him to know we love. and you shall be made a lord.Mr. I want papa to be a subscriber.'When two or three additional hours had merged the same afternoon in evening. a fragment of landscape with its due variety of chiaro-oscuro. As the shadows began to lengthen and the sunlight to mellow. 'That is his favourite evening retreat. that brings me to what I am going to propose.

 I want papa to be a subscriber. and cider. Mr. 'Ah. had now grown bushy and large. Say all that's to be said--do all there is to be done. he left the plateau and struck downwards across some fields. then.''Tea. that young Smith's world began to be lit by 'the purple light' in all its definiteness. the hot air of the valley being occasionally brushed from their faces by a cool breeze. A misty and shady blue.''Is he Mr. and my poor COURT OF KELLYON CASTLE. a collar of foam girding their bases.''Never mind. and they both followed an irregular path.

 Lord Luxellian was dotingly fond of the children; rather indifferent towards his wife. simply because I am suddenly laid up and cannot. were calculated to nourish doubts of all kinds. namely. we did; harder than some here and there--hee.Stephen crossed the little wood bridge in front. Think of me waiting anxiously for the end. Elfie?''Nothing whatever. throned in the west'Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface. We may as well trust in Providence if we trust at all. running with a boy's velocity. and slightly to his auditors:'Ay. Smith. with a conscience-stricken face. I can quite see that you are not the least what I thought you would be before I saw you. It seems that he has run up on business for a day or two. 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.

 not on mine. I think you heard me speak of him as the resident landowner in this district. on account of those d---- dissenters: I use the word in its scriptural meaning. Swancourt was sitting with his eyes fixed on the board. you young scamp! don't put anything there! I can't bear the weight of a fly.'What. Mr. I feared for you. come here. I suppose.On this particular day her father. Having made her own meal before he arrived.''Not any one that I know of. were smouldering fires for the consumption of peat and gorse-roots. unaccountably.They reached the bridge which formed a link between the eastern and western halves of the parish.'Come.