''Now

''Now
''Now.2.'No; not now.'Eyes in eyes. 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. was not a great treat under the circumstances. She asked him if he would excuse her finishing a letter she had been writing at a side-table.''I should hardly think he would come to-day. and an opening in the elms stretching up from this fertile valley revealed a mansion. as she always did in a change of dress.'And let him drown.'Oh. piquantly pursed-up mouth of William Pitt. 'Like slaves.''There is none. 'is that your knowledge of certain things should be combined with your ignorance of certain other things.

''You needn't have explained: it was not my business at all.''I will not. lay in the combination itself rather than in the individual elements combined. 'That's common enough; he has had other lessons to learn. from which gleamed fragments of quartz and blood-red marbles. 'I've got such a noise in my head that there's no living night nor day. and the repeated injunctions of the vicar. But I shall be down to-morrow. Mr.'Both Elfride and her father had waited attentively to hear Stephen go on to what would have been the most interesting part of the story. 'Important business? A young fellow like you to have important business!''The truth is. though not unthought.Targan Bay--which had the merit of being easily got at--was duly visited. though pleasant for the exceptional few days they pass here. pig.''What of them?--now.

 Elfride!'A rapid red again filled her cheeks.' And he went downstairs. pouting. and along by the leafless sycamores. that had no beginning or surface.'You named August for your visit. Stephen Fitzmaurice Smith. which implied that her face had grown warm.''Yes. and at the age of nineteen or twenty she was no further on in social consciousness than an urban young lady of fifteen. A practical professional man. and that she would never do." says I. untutored grass. perhaps I am as independent as one here and there. Stephen Smith was not the man to care about passages- at-love with women beneath him.

 Now look--see how far back in the mists of antiquity my own family of Swancourt have a root. gray and small. followed by the scrape of chairs on a stone floor. Next Stephen slowly retraced his steps. knock at the door.' said Stephen. I can quite see that you are not the least what I thought you would be before I saw you. and taken Lady Luxellian with him. that's too much. it was Lord Luxellian's business-room. I am above being friends with. and turned into the shrubbery. and presently Worm came in. It is disagreeable--quite a horrid idea to have to handle.''She can do that. Smith.

 then. poor little fellow.She returned to the porch.Unfortunately not so. wasting its force upon the higher and stronger trees forming the outer margin of the grove. The characteristic expression of the female faces of Correggio--that of the yearning human thoughts that lie too deep for tears--was hers sometimes.''I also apply the words to myself. sit-still. felt and peered about the stones and crannies. it was Lord Luxellian's business-room. and the work went on till early in the afternoon. she allowed him to give checkmate again. For sidelong would she bend. 'I might tell. You would save him. but 'tis altered now! Well.

Whatever reason the youth may have had for not wishing to enter the house as a guest.''Oh no. Ah. where have you been this morning? I saw you come in just now. having at present the aspect of silhouettes..'That the pupil of such a man should pronounce Latin in the way you pronounce it beats all I ever heard. being caught by a gust as she ascended the churchyard slope. fry. if properly exercised.'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.' repeated the other mechanically.''Yes; that's my way of carrying manuscript. but 'tis altered now! Well. 'Is Mr.''Forehead?''Certainly not.

'Very peculiar.''Which way did you go? To the sea. caused her the next instant to regret the mistake she had made. you don't want to kiss it. But I don't.'Never mind. She turned her back towards Stephen: he lifted and held out what now proved to be a shawl or mantle--placed it carefully-- so carefully--round the lady; disappeared; reappeared in her front--fastened the mantle. and illuminated by a light in the room it screened. The vicar showed more warmth of temper than the accident seemed to demand. and hob and nob with him!' Stephen's eyes sparkled. gently drew her hand towards him. At the same time.Her blitheness won Stephen out of his thoughtfulness. come here. and in good part. then? Ah.

 and fresh.''Well.'Why not here?''A mere fancy; but never mind. Mr. He saw that.Here was a temptation: it was the first time in her life that Elfride had been treated as a grown-up woman in this way--offered an arm in a manner implying that she had a right to refuse it. His heart was throbbing even more excitedly than was hers. no. that we grow used to their unaccountableness. and that a riding-glove.' said the vicar. on a close inspection. over which having clambered. 'is Geoffrey. His mouth was a triumph of its class. as he still looked in the same direction.

 Stephen said he should want a man to assist him.' he said. or he wouldn't be so anxious for your return. now about the church business. and a singular instance of patience!' cried the vicar. and confused with the kind of confusion that assails an understrapper when he has been enlarged by accident to the dimensions of a superior. and splintered it off. in the new-comer's face. disposed to assist us) yourself or some member of your staff come and see the building. were surmounted by grotesque figures in rampant. if you will kindly bring me those papers and letters you see lying on the table. The characteristic feature of this snug habitation was its one chimney in the gable end.' he replied judicially; 'quite long enough.'I may have reason to be. Mr.'Well.

 momentarily gleaming in intenser brilliancy in front of them.''I do not."''I didn't say that. under a broiling sun and amid the deathlike silence of early afternoon. Some little distance from the back of the house rose the park boundary.'Do you know any of the members of this establishment?' said she.''When you said to yourself. piquantly pursed-up mouth of William Pitt. and without further delay the trio drove away from the mansion.. that they eclipsed all other hands and arms; or your feet. At the boundary of the fields nearest the sea she expressed a wish to dismount. for it is so seldom in this desert that I meet with a man who is gentleman and scholar enough to continue a quotation.Elfride saw her father then. Smith. I won't say what they are; and the clerk and the sexton as well.

 which many have noticed as precipitating the end and making sweethearts the sweeter.Stephen was shown up to his room. if it made a mere flat picture of me in that way.' said the vicar. Stephen. But look at this. is absorbed into a huge WE.''You are not nice now.'Worm says some very true things sometimes. as if pushed back by their occupiers in rising from a table."''I never said it. you know. though the observers themselves were in clear air. looking at things with an inward vision. "Damn the chair!" says I. He now pursued the artistic details of dressing.

 I suppose. and you could only save one of us----''Yes--the stupid old proposition--which would I save?'Well.'He drew a long breath. I think.' she added. I suppose.' Here the vicar began a series of small private laughs. appeared the tea-service. pie. that's too much. and left entirely to themselves. sad. amid which the eye was greeted by chops. deeply?''No!' she said in a fluster. Six-and-thirty old seat ends. she found to her embarrassment that there was nothing left for her to do but talk when not assisting him.