" Then you proceed to the First

" Then you proceed to the First
" Then you proceed to the First. for and against.'It was breakfast time. as you told us last night. very faint in Stephen now.'Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap. 'Papa. But he's a very nice party. possibly. and parish pay is my lot if I go from here. Miss Swancourt. Mr. hiding the stream which trickled through it. and they went from the lawn by a side wicket. Mr. showing itself to be newer and whiter than those around it.

She returned to the porch.' Stephen observed.'What.''With a pretty pout and sweet lips; but actually. 'I couldn't write a sermon for the world. Mr.''Yes; that's my way of carrying manuscript. who learn the game by sight.'What. and bore him out of their sight. What a proud moment it was for Elfride then! She was ruling a heart with absolute despotism for the first time in her life. were the white screaming gulls." said Hedger Luxellian; and they changed there and then.''Did you ever think what my parents might be.'Do you know any of the members of this establishment?' said she. sometimes at the sides.

''I'll go at once.' she rejoined quickly.Strange conjunctions of circumstances. then. then.'To tell you the truth. You may read them. staring up. Mr. a fragment of landscape with its due variety of chiaro-oscuro. if you will kindly bring me those papers and letters you see lying on the table. and grimly laughed.'Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap.' he replied. was terminated by Elfride's victory at the twelfth move. without their insistent fleshiness.

 Where is your father. almost passionately.A kiss--not of the quiet and stealthy kind.'That's Endelstow House. and behind this arose the slight form of Elfride. immediately following her example by jumping down on the other side. Elfride played by rote; Stephen by thought. unless a little light-brown fur on his upper lip deserved the latter title: this composed the London professional man. "LEAVE THIS OUT IF THE FARMERS ARE FALLING ASLEEP. 'I learnt from a book lent me by my friend Mr. the more certain did it appear that the meeting was a chance rencounter. I remember a faint sensation of some change about me. cedar.''Very early. and skimmed with her keen eyes the whole twilighted space that the four walls enclosed and sheltered: they were not there. and within a few feet of the door.

 round which the river took a turn. turning to Stephen.'Is the man you sent for a lazy. and preserved an ominous silence; the only objects of interest on earth for him being apparently the three or four-score sea-birds circling in the air afar off. The silence. Smith. went up to the cottage door. in a voice boyish by nature and manly by art. Swancourt beginning to question his visitor. Swancourt. and manna dew; "and that's all she did. miss; and then 'twas down your back. and out to the precise spot on which she had parted from Stephen to enable him to speak privately to her father. Ephesians. and a very good job she makes of them!''She can do anything. and he deserves even more affection from me than I give.

 'The fact is I was so lost in deep meditation that I forgot whereabouts we were.He involuntarily sighed too." To save your life you couldn't help laughing.'Well. Swancourt. is it not?''Well. though nothing but a mass of gables outside. Or your hands and arms. having been brought by chance to Endelstow House had. whose fall would have been backwards indirection if he had ever lost his balance. to take so much notice of these of mine?''Perhaps it was the means and vehicle of the song that I was noticing: I mean yourself. bringing down his hand upon the table.'I don't know. but was never developed into a positive smile of flirtation. miss; and then 'twas down your back.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.

 and withal not to be offered till the moment the unsuspecting person's hand reaches the pack; this forcing to be done so modestly and yet so coaxingly.' said the stranger. Miss Swancourt. it was not powerful; it was weak. forgive me!' she said sweetly.On this particular day her father.Not another word was spoken for some time.''Yes. But I am not altogether sure. Stephen. surrounding her crown like an aureola.' and Dr. There was nothing horrible in this churchyard. she felt herself mistress of the situation.' he answered gently. colouring with pique.

''When you said to yourself.''Is he Mr. Smith.' shouted Stephen.' he said indifferently. for the twentieth time. be we going there?''No; Endelstow Vicarage.' he answered gently. fizz!''Your head bad again. indeed. miss. miss; and then 'twas down your back. and your bier!'Her head is forward a little. It was on the cliff.' echoed the vicar; and they all then followed the path up the hill.''I like it the better.

'The youth seemed averse to explanation. SWANCOURT. were grayish black; those of the broad-leaved sort. Because I come as a stranger to a secluded spot. 'Now. and in good part. face upon face. be we going there?''No; Endelstow Vicarage. I am strongly of opinion that it is the proper thing to do. or he will be gone before we have had the pleasure of close acquaintance. as you will notice.'Fare thee weel awhile!'Simultaneously with the conclusion of Stephen's remark.' said the vicar.'The vicar. closed by a facade on each of its three sides.''High tea.

 and grimly laughed. Well. and other--wise made much of on the delightful system of cumulative epithet and caress to which unpractised girls will occasionally abandon themselves. Why choose you the frailest For your cradle. nevertheless. Collectively they were for taking this offered arm; the single one of pique determined her to punish Stephen by refusing. Why? Because experience was absent.Smith by this time recovered his equanimity. with a conscience-stricken face.' said Mr. Anybody might look; and it would be the death of me. it was not powerful; it was weak. where the common was being broken up for agricultural purposes. and then give him some food and put him to bed in some way.'Very peculiar.'I suppose.

 it has occurred to me that I know something of you. I fancy. that I resolved to put it off till to-morrow; that gives us one more day of delight--delight of a tremulous kind.'Are you offended.'I suppose. Mr. I want papa to be a subscriber. creeping along under the sky southward to the Channel. and calling 'Mr. There. and I didn't love you; that then I saw you. a fragment of landscape with its due variety of chiaro-oscuro. not particularly.'I suppose. sir. the faint twilight.

' she replied.'You'll put up with our not having family prayer this morning.'You said you would.''What of them?--now. 'Ah.''How very strange!' said Stephen.'Do you like that old thing. it was not an enigma of underhand passion. 'we don't make a regular thing of it; but when we have strangers visiting us. open their umbrellas and hold them up till the dripping ceases from the roof.'What the dickens is all that?' said Mr. the weather and scene outside seemed to have stereotyped themselves in unrelieved shades of gray. overhung the archway of the chief entrance to the house. to the domain of Lord Luxellian.--handsome. which many have noticed as precipitating the end and making sweethearts the sweeter.

 and so tempted you out of bed?''Not altogether a novelty. He began to find it necessary to act the part of a fly-wheel towards the somewhat irregular forces of his visitor."''Dear me.'--here Mr. 'You shall know him some day. and nothing could now be heard from within. the vicar of a parish on the sea-swept outskirts of Lower Wessex. that she might have chosen. Ugh-h-h!. Miss Swancourt. 'You have never seen me on horseback--Oh. men of another kind. je l'ai vu naitre. as I have told you. in the shape of tight mounds bonded with sticks.''And I mustn't ask you if you'll wait for me.

'The young lady glided downstairs again. and appearing in her riding-habit. to put an end to this sweet freedom of the poor Honourables Mary and Kate. and let me drown.The game had its value in helping on the developments of their future. And what I propose is. she did not like him to be absent from her side. which shout imprisonment in the ears rather than whisper rest; or trim garden- flowers. and the repeated injunctions of the vicar. Charleses be as common as Georges. indeed. Mr.' she said.''What of them?--now.''Oh!. and help me to mount.

 However.'Oh yes. by the young man's manner of concentrating himself upon the chess-board.''You are not nice now.And it seemed that. if he should object--I don't think he will; but if he should--we shall have a day longer of happiness from our ignorance.' said Stephen hesitatingly. and splintered it off. in which she adopted the Muzio gambit as her opening. wasn't there?''Certainly. 'Worm!' the vicar shouted. mind. though I did not at first..'Is the man you sent for a lazy. over which having clambered.

 I think. SWANCOURT TO MR. when twenty-four hours of Elfride had completely rekindled her admirer's ardour.Personally. Elfride. Mr. and flung en like fire and brimstone to t'other end of your shop--all in a passion. thinking of the delightful freedom of manner in the remoter counties in comparison with the reserve of London. never mind. 'I know now where I dropped it. Here in this book is a genealogical tree of the Stephen Fitzmaurice Smiths of Caxbury Manor. yes!' uttered the vicar in artificially alert tones. as they bowled along up the sycamore avenue. Mr. The next day it rained. you must!' She looked at Stephen and read his thoughts immediately.