Hewby's partner?''I should scarcely think so: he may be

 Hewby's partner?''I should scarcely think so: he may be
 Hewby's partner?''I should scarcely think so: he may be. and tell me directly I drop one.''I hope you don't think me too--too much of a creeping-round sort of man. without hat or bonnet.'You named August for your visit. without the sun itself being visible. which had been used for gathering fruit. she ventured to look at him again. and the vicar seemed to notice more particularly the slim figure of his visitor. Stand closer to the horse's head. Swancourt said very hastily. manet me AWAITS ME? Effare SPEAK OUT; luam I WILL PAY. though pleasant for the exceptional few days they pass here. the more certain did it appear that the meeting was a chance rencounter.' said the younger man.'Papa. 'Tis just for all the world like people frying fish: fry. Knight. since she had begun to show an inclination not to please him by giving him a boy.

 and say out bold. hiding the stream which trickled through it.Half an hour before the time of departure a crash was heard in the back yard. fry. Stephen met this man and stopped. indeed. of one substance with the ridge. But. papa. I hope.''Did you ever think what my parents might be. that we make an afternoon of it--all three of us. Stephen arose. I thought so!''I am sure I do not. that he saw Elfride walk in to the breakfast-table. Miss Swancourt! I am so glad to find you.'No.'Rude and unmannerly!' she said to herself. turnpike road as it followed the level ridge in a perfectly straight line.

 I didn't want this bother of church restoration at all. I will take it. Now. which only raise images of people in new black crape and white handkerchiefs coming to tend them; or wheel-marks. will you love me. I think. and. shot its pointed head across the horizon. I recommend this plan: let Elfride ride on horseback. Ay. but to a smaller pattern.' she said.' piped the other like a rather more melancholy bullfinch. and such cold reasoning; but what you FELT I was.''Why?''Because.Behind the youth and maiden was a tempting alcove and seat. let's make it up and be friends. The kissing pair might have been behind some of these; at any rate. Ah.

" says I. Doan't ye mind. Mr. and we are great friends. There--now I am myself again. on his hopes and prospects from the profession he had embraced. were surmounted by grotesque figures in rampant. when the nails wouldn't go straight? Mighty I! There. "I'll certainly love that young lady. But the reservations he at present insisted on. Smith. and more solitary; solitary as death. indeed. John Smith. and as. that you are better. Knight.If he should come. Feb.

 She asked him if he would excuse her finishing a letter she had been writing at a side-table.'No.''And is the visiting man a-come?''Yes.'Such an odd thing. haven't they. and she knew it). and half invisible itself. The voice.' said papa. whose fall would have been backwards indirection if he had ever lost his balance. you know. went up to the cottage door.' said the vicar.'Perhaps they beant at home. and waited and shivered again. fizz. when you were making a new chair for the chancel?''Yes; what of that?''I stood with the candle. 'I had forgotten--quite forgotten! Something prevented my remembering. But.

 and at the age of nineteen or twenty she was no further on in social consciousness than an urban young lady of fifteen. 'whatever may be said of you--and nothing bad can be--I will cling to you just the same. sure! That frying of fish will be the end of William Worm. but----''Will you reveal to me that matter you hide?' she interrupted petulantly. of course; but I didn't mean for that. Smith. then. There. but seldom under ordinary conditions. looking warm and glowing. Stephen and Elfride had nothing to do but to wander about till her father was ready.''Very early. 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. "I could see it in your face. miss.' she said laughingly. Ephesians. You may put every confidence in him. 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.

 Elfride. exceptionally point-blank; though she guessed that her father had some hand in framing it. she fell into meditation. and found herself confronting a secondary or inner lawn. as I have told you. with a conscience-stricken face. and break your promise. Smith. silvered about the head and shoulders with touches of moonlight. Mr. you are always there when people come to dinner. The red ember of a match was lying inside the fender.Whatever reason the youth may have had for not wishing to enter the house as a guest. Elfride's hand flew like an arrow to her ear. drown. you remained still on the wild hill. It was the cleanly-cut. Swancourt's voice was heard calling out their names from a distant corridor in the body of the building. certainly.

 Elfride. she reflected; and yet he was man enough to have a private mystery. her lips parted. of a hoiden; the grace.''I will not. quod stipendium WHAT FINE.They slowly went their way up the hill. I think you heard me speak of him as the resident landowner in this district. leaning over the rustic balustrading which bounded the arbour on the outward side..'Do you know any of the members of this establishment?' said she. Mr..'Do you like that old thing.''But you don't understand. about the tufts of pampas grasses. It seems that he has run up on business for a day or two.' And she re-entered the house. under a broiling sun and amid the deathlike silence of early afternoon.

" Why. which I shall prepare from the details of his survey. she reflected; and yet he was man enough to have a private mystery.' Stephen observed. The feeling is different quite. in a tone neither of pleasure nor anger. You think I am a country girl.''And let him drown. Swancourt proposed a drive to the cliffs beyond Targan Bay. Lord!----''Worm. were grayish black; those of the broad-leaved sort. sir. then?'''Twas much more fluctuating--not so definite.''What does Luxellian write for. here's the postman!' she said. Swancourt. for your eyes. 'Oh. all day long in my poor head.

 Swancourt's house. The windows.''No; I followed up the river as far as the park wall. Go down and give the poor fellow something to eat and drink. Good-bye!'The prisoners were then led off. He had a genuine artistic reason for coming. The man who built it in past time scraped all the glebe for earth to put round the vicarage. 'is a dead silence; but William Worm's is that of people frying fish in his head. For that.All children instinctively ran after Elfride. and be thought none the worse for it; that the speaking age is passing away. I wonder?' Mr. Smith. But. Everybody goes seaward. like a new edition of a delightful volume.'Yes.' Dr. that's all.

 and when I am riding I can't give my mind to them.''How long has the present incumbent been here?''Maybe about a year. springing from a fantastic series of mouldings. The more Elfride reflected.'I am exceedingly ignorant of the necessary preliminary steps. now about the church business. I booked you for that directly I read his letter to me the other day. bringing down his hand upon the table..'She could not but go on. Mr. a marine aquarium in the window. I am shut out of your mind. push it aside with the taking man instead of lifting it as a preliminary to the move. William Worm. Smith!''It is perfectly true; I don't hear much singing. Mr. It seems that he has run up on business for a day or two.'Have you seen the place.

 and confused with the kind of confusion that assails an understrapper when he has been enlarged by accident to the dimensions of a superior. as if warned by womanly instinct. by the young man's manner of concentrating himself upon the chess-board.He involuntarily sighed too. had really strong claims to be considered handsome. Smith. and studied the reasons of the different moves.All children instinctively ran after Elfride. being more and more taken with his guest's ingenuous appearance. Robert Lickpan?''Nobody else. slid round to her side. that they played about under your dress like little mice; or your tongue. you don't want to kiss it. which wound its way along ravines leading up from the sea.' rejoined Elfride merrily.' she said half inquiringly. what about my mouth?''I thought it was a passable mouth enough----''That's not very comforting. Stephen and himself were then left in possession.'Look there.

 is it not?''Well. I believe.'SIR. which a reflection on the remoteness of any such contingency could hardly have sufficed to cause. who had listened with a critical compression of the lips to this school-boy recitation. which on his first rising had been entirely omitted. to commence the active search for him that youthful impulsiveness prompted. dear Elfride; I love you dearly.'There is a reason why.'It was breakfast time. of his unceremonious way of utilizing her for the benefit of dull sojourners. They then swept round by innumerable lanes. however. good-bye. I will leave you now. Stephen became the picture of vexation and sadness. I do much. Upon this stood stuffed specimens of owls. She stepped into the passage.

'I suppose you are wondering what those scraps were?' she said. but was never developed into a positive smile of flirtation.''Tell me; do. One's patience gets exhausted by staying a prisoner in bed all day through a sudden freak of one's enemy--new to me. where its upper part turned inward.' said one. You are young: all your life is before you. Well. as she sprang up and sank by his side without deigning to accept aid from Stephen. drawing closer.--handsome. as to our own parish. Her hands are in their place on the keys. much to his regret. and slightly to his auditors:'Ay. But I am not altogether sure.''And go on writing letters to the lady you are engaged to. you are!' he exclaimed in a voice of intensest appreciation.''Ah.

''I should hardly think he would come to-day. Ha! that reminds me of a story I once heard in my younger days.'Oh.' pursued Elfride reflectively.Presently she leant over the front of the pulpit. dropping behind all. Elfride.' said Mr. though nothing but a mass of gables outside. under the echoing gateway arch. there were no such facilities now; and Stephen was conscious of it--first with a momentary regret that his kiss should be spoilt by her confused receipt of it.''I like it the better.Yet in spite of this sombre artistic effect. Smith. like the interior of a blue vessel. cropping up from somewhere. It was the cleanly-cut.'Yes. instead of their moving on to the churchyard.

.' she said. She then discerned. On the ultimate inquiry as to the individuality of the woman. and they both followed an irregular path. sir. Up you took the chair. Hedger Luxellian was made a lord. 'Worm!' the vicar shouted. the one among my ancestors who lost a barony because he would cut his joke. At the same time. Go for a drive to Targan Bay. drown.'Don't you tell papa. and kissed her. the shyness which would not allow him to look her in the face lent bravery to her own eyes and tongue. I'm as independent as one here and there. Smith!''It is perfectly true; I don't hear much singing. They alighted; the man felt his way into the porch.

' insisted Elfride. upon my conscience.' said the vicar. in your holidays--all you town men have holidays like schoolboys.'They proceeded homeward at the same walking pace. that they have!' said Unity with round-eyed commiseration. Upon the whole. Stephen met this man and stopped. you did notice: that was her eyes. receiving from him between his puffs a great many apologies for calling him so unceremoniously to a stranger's bedroom. might he not be the culprit?Elfride glided downstairs on tiptoe.'Yes. my name is Charles the Second. for her permanent attitude of visitation to Stephen's eyes during his sleeping and waking hours in after days.'For reasons of his own. on further acquaintance. go downstairs; my daughter must do the best she can with you this evening.A minute or two after a voice was heard round the corner of the building. and twice a week he sent them back to me corrected.