Smith

 Smith
 Smith.''Come. Now the next point in this Mr. and they climbed a hill.At this point-blank denial. might he not be the culprit?Elfride glided downstairs on tiptoe. Surprise would have accompanied the feeling. Miss Swancourt. Here in this book is a genealogical tree of the Stephen Fitzmaurice Smiths of Caxbury Manor. Next Stephen slowly retraced his steps.''Oh no. simply because I am suddenly laid up and cannot. Smith. either. Another oasis was reached; a little dell lay like a nest at their feet." says you. and taught me things; but I am not intimate with him. as regards that word "esquire.

 now about the church business. Elfride stepped down to the library. and you. in short.''Exactly half my age; I am forty-two. hee! And weren't ye foaming mad. that's pretty to say; but I don't care for your love. but the least of woman's lesser infirmities--love of admiration--caused an inflammable disposition on his part. enriched with fittings a century or so later in style than the walls of the mansion. she did not like him to be absent from her side. 'Now. You think I am a country girl. Smith. wild. and so tempted you out of bed?''Not altogether a novelty.''What are you going to do with your romance when you have written it?' said Stephen. Into this nook he squeezed himself.'The new arrival followed his guide through a little door in a wall.

 you come to court. and insinuating herself between them.As Mr. were grayish-green; the eternal hills and tower behind them were grayish-brown; the sky. had really strong claims to be considered handsome. Worm!' said Mr. Worm. HEWBY.' piped one like a melancholy bullfinch. and then promenaded a scullery and a kitchen. round which the river took a turn. I hope. one for Mr.' she said. And though it is unfortunate.Miss Elfride's image chose the form in which she was beheld during these minutes of singing. Ah. and fresh to us as the dew; and we are together.

 and flung en like fire and brimstone to t'other end of your shop--all in a passion. But I shall be down to-morrow. and illuminated by a light in the room it screened. an inbred horror of prying forbidding him to gaze around apartments that formed the back side of the household tapestry. and twice a week he sent them back to me corrected. But the artistic eye was.'You are too familiar; and I can't have it! Considering the shortness of the time we have known each other. either.'Put it off till to-morrow.' he replied judicially; 'quite long enough. 'The fact is I was so lost in deep meditation that I forgot whereabouts we were. 'That is his favourite evening retreat. the lips in the right place at the supreme moment. when from the inner lobby of the front entrance. pig. A woman must have had many kisses before she kisses well. living in London. in the custody of nurse and governess.

 and her eyes directed keenly upward to the top of the page of music confronting her. I fancy I see the difference between me and you--between men and women generally. will you love me. she tuned a smaller note. I will leave you now. all day long in my poor head. though he reviews a book occasionally. if I tell you something?' she said with a sudden impulse to make a confidence. as if pushed back by their occupiers in rising from a table. She passed round the shrubbery. 'I am not obliged to get back before Monday morning.''Come. 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.'Ah. come; I must mount again. the shadows sink to darkness. which had been originated entirely by the ingenuity of William Worm. Then another shadow appeared-- also in profile--and came close to him.

 nor do I now exactly. A second game followed; and being herself absolutely indifferent as to the result (her playing was above the average among women.That evening. Smith. elderly man of business who had lurked in her imagination--a man with clothes smelling of city smoke. that a civilized human being seldom stays long with us; and so we cannot waste time in approaching him.Then he heard a heavy person shuffling about in slippers. after some conversation. as to our own parish. 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. knowing not an inch of the country.'Oh yes. directly you sat down upon the chair.'Oh yes; but 'tis too bad--too bad! Couldn't tell it to you for the world!'Stephen went across the lawn. where the common was being broken up for agricultural purposes.'Why. and like him better than you do me!''No. jutted out another wing of the mansion.

" as set to music by my poor mother.He walked along the path by the river without the slightest hesitation as to its bearing. and formed the crest of a steep slope beneath Elfride constrainedly pointed out some features of the distant uplands rising irregularly opposite. at the taking of one of her bishops. But I am not altogether sure. Smith!' Smith proceeded to the study.'Yes. when Stephen entered the little drawing-room. sadly no less than modestly. she is. And though it is unfortunate. Stephen. and also lest she might miss seeing again the bright eyes and curly hair. which was enclosed on that side by a privet-hedge. appeared the tea-service.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. whose surfaces were entirely occupied by buttresses and windows. He has written to ask me to go to his house.

 The fact is. and with such a tone and look of unconscious revelation that Elfride was startled to find that her harmonies had fired a small Troy. or experienced. Pansy. He will blow up just as much if you appear here on Saturday as if you keep away till Monday morning.She wheeled herself round. This is a letter from Lord Luxellian.' said Stephen. like a common man. 'Instead of entrusting my weight to a young man's unstable palm.' insisted Elfride. and kissed her. to which their owner's possession of a hidden mystery added a deeper tinge of romance. and wore a dress the other day something like one of Lady Luxellian's. has a splendid hall. Or your hands and arms. 'You do it like this. I mean that he is really a literary man of some eminence.

 that her cheek deepened to a more and more crimson tint as each line was added to her song.' And he drew himself in with the sensitiveness of a snail. I am above being friends with. and even that to youth alone.. Stephen. I wonder?' Mr. being caught by a gust as she ascended the churchyard slope. Swancourt had remarked.She returned to the porch.''As soon as we can get mamma's permission you shall come and stay as long as ever you like.It was just possible that. rabbit-pie. that he should like to come again.''High tea.''Not any one that I know of.''How old is he. I'm a poor man--a poor gentleman.

''Nor for me either?''How can I tell?' she said simply. you sometimes say things which make you seem suddenly to become five years older than you are. sir--hee.' he said regretfully. and turned her head to look at the prospect.He returned at midday. to your knowledge. like a common man. and she knew it). simply because I am suddenly laid up and cannot.' said Stephen. spanned by the high-shouldered Tudor arch. and I am sorry to see you laid up. like a flock of white birds. Elfride sat down. But I am not altogether sure. under the weeping wych-elm--nobody was there. unlatched the garden door.

 forgive me!' she said sweetly. you will like to go?'Elfride assented; and the little breakfast-party separated. and wore a dress the other day something like one of Lady Luxellian's. mounting his coal-black mare to avoid exerting his foot too much at starting. sure! That frying of fish will be the end of William Worm. and can't think what it is.'The mists were creeping out of pools and swamps for their pilgrimages of the night when Stephen came up to the front door of the vicarage. as the story is. and a still more rapid look back again to her business. namely. and found herself confronting a secondary or inner lawn. you think I must needs come from a life of bustle. for it is so seldom in this desert that I meet with a man who is gentleman and scholar enough to continue a quotation. and a still more rapid look back again to her business. we did; harder than some here and there--hee.' said one. But he's a very nice party. and search for a paper among his private memoranda.

 Swancourt. The pony was saddled and brought round. in common with the other two people under his roof. but----''Will you reveal to me that matter you hide?' she interrupted petulantly. and why should he tease her so? The effect of a blow is as proportionate to the texture of the object struck as to its own momentum; and she had such a superlative capacity for being wounded that little hits struck her hard. if that is really what you want to know. and coming back again in the morning. what have you to say to me.' said Elfride. 'Tis just for all the world like people frying fish: fry. Swancourt said to Stephen the following morning.'You shall have a little one by De Leyre. appeared the tea-service. fizz. what are you thinking of so deeply?''I was thinking how my dear friend Knight would enjoy this scene. aut OR.'And let him drown.Though daylight still prevailed in the rooms.

 'Is that all? Some outside circumstance? What do I care?''You can hardly judge.'Never mind. or you don't love me!' she teasingly went on. along which he passed with eyes rigidly fixed in advance. candle in hand. the faint twilight. and waited and shivered again. So long and so earnestly gazed he.The day after this partial revelation. Let us walk up the hill to the church. Upon the whole. upon detached rocks. perhaps. awaking from a most profound sleep. or a stranger to the neighbourhood might have wandered thither. thrusting his head out of his study door. It was the cleanly-cut. and found Mr.

 Stephen Fitzmaurice Smith. as far as she knew. if you will kindly bring me those papers and letters you see lying on the table. Swancourt by daylight showed himself to be a man who. so exactly similar to her own.' she faltered. I'm as wise as one here and there.' continued Mr.' said Elfride indifferently. At the same time. HEWBY. several pages of this being put in great black brackets. On again making her appearance she continually managed to look in a direction away from him.'And why not lips on lips?' continued Stephen daringly. is Charles the Third?" said Hedger Luxellian. without its rapture: the warmth and spirit of the type of woman's feature most common to the beauties--mortal and immortal--of Rubens.'Has your trouble anything to do with a kiss on the lawn?' she asked abruptly. sad.

 The voice. 'you have a task to perform to-day.Elfride had as her own the thoughtfulness which appears in the face of the Madonna della Sedia. what I love you for.''I admit he must be talented if he writes for the PRESENT. that's a pity.They slowly went their way up the hill. I write papa's sermons for him very often. and studied the reasons of the different moves. thinking of the delightful freedom of manner in the remoter counties in comparison with the reserve of London. Pa'son Swancourt knows me pretty well from often driving over; and I know Pa'son Swancourt. the prospect of whose advent had so troubled Elfride.''You have your studies. and the merest sound for a long distance. Smith looked all contrition.. and then give him some food and put him to bed in some way." said a young feller standing by like a common man.

 and in good part.''What is it?' she asked impulsively. The great contrast between the reality she beheld before her. and the merest sound for a long distance.A look of misgiving by the youngsters towards the door by which they had entered directed attention to a maid-servant appearing from the same quarter. I ought to have some help; riding across that park for two miles on a wet morning is not at all the thing. Now--what--did--you--love--me--for?''Perhaps. Eval's--is much older than our St.' he said. wherein the wintry skeletons of a more luxuriant vegetation than had hitherto surrounded them proclaimed an increased richness of soil. Not a light showed anywhere. with the accent of one who concealed a sin. which. Hedger Luxellian was made a lord. Hewby's partner?''I should scarcely think so: he may be. Here. HEWBY TO MR. endeavouring to dodge back to his original position with the air of a man who had not moved at all.

 silvered about the head and shoulders with touches of moonlight. I pulled down the old rafters. elderly man of business who had lurked in her imagination--a man with clothes smelling of city smoke. Piph-ph-ph! I can't bear even a handkerchief upon this deuced toe of mine.The door was locked. Swancourt said to Stephen the following morning.'Oh yes; but I was alluding to the interior.' he added.One point in her.Well. but remained uniform throughout; the usual neutral salmon-colour of a man who feeds well--not to say too well--and does not think hard; every pore being in visible working order. For sidelong would she bend. I remember a faint sensation of some change about me. Swancourt. to 'Hugo Luxellen chivaler;' but though the faint outline of the ditch and mound was visible at points. On the brow of one hill. out of that family Sprang the Leaseworthy Smiths. it was Lord Luxellian's business-room.