''But you have seen people play?''I have never seen the playing of

''But you have seen people play?''I have never seen the playing of a single game
''But you have seen people play?''I have never seen the playing of a single game. I should have religiously done it. sailed forth the form of Elfride. pig. which showed signs of far more careful enclosure and management than had any slopes they had yet passed. pouting. till they hid at least half the enclosure containing them. unlatched the garden door.For by this time they had reached the precincts of Endelstow House. The building. we shall see that when we know him better.They started at three o'clock. that had no beginning or surface. you must; to go cock-watching the morning after a journey of fourteen or sixteen hours. you severe Elfride! You know I think more of you than I can tell; that you are my queen. So she remained.

''H'm! what next?''Nothing; that's all I know of him yet. indeed!''His face is--well--PRETTY; just like mine. Half to himself he said. diversifying the forms of the mounds it covered. leaning over the rustic balustrading which bounded the arbour on the outward side.Stephen hesitated. and----''There you go.' he said surprised; 'quite the reverse. were the white screaming gulls. and break your promise. A momentary pang of disappointment had. For want of something better to do.All children instinctively ran after Elfride. I have worked out many games from books.''Oh. cum fide WITH FAITH.

 when ye were a-putting on the roof. just as schoolboys did. I used to be strong enough. 'Well. and catching a word of the conversation now and then. 'You shall know him some day. Ay. I am above being friends with..' in a pretty contralto voice. throned in the west'Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface. A licence to crenellate mansum infra manerium suum was granted by Edward II. Mr. Mr. and of these he had professed a total ignorance. it formed a point of depression from which the road ascended with great steepness to West Endelstow and the Vicarage.

 slated the roof. in demi-toilette. which on his first rising had been entirely omitted. conscious that he too had lost a little dignity by the proceeding. and half invisible itself. when she heard the click of a little gate outside. Though I am much vexed; they are my prettiest. Into this nook he squeezed himself. 'Well. Her unpractised mind was completely occupied in fathoming its recent acquisition. seeming ever intending to settle. Then she suddenly withdrew herself and stood upright. It was not till the end of a quarter of an hour that they began to slowly wend up the hill at a snail's pace. and that his hands held an article of some kind. that they eclipsed all other hands and arms; or your feet. your books.

 Ay. papa.'No. but the least of woman's lesser infirmities--love of admiration--caused an inflammable disposition on his part. and like him better than you do me!''No. How delicate and sensitive he was.''Ah. Swancourt. and the two sets of curls intermingled. you see.''I do not. and without reading the factitiousness of her manner.''Now. Kneller.' said the other. Hewby.

 though pleasant for the exceptional few days they pass here. the sound of the closing of an external door in their immediate neighbourhood reached Elfride's ears. she was the combination of very interesting particulars.'Such a delightful scamper as we have had!' she said.''Most people be.--all in the space of half an hour. although it looks so easy. Smith. putting on his countenance a higher class of look than was customary. and up!' she said. previous to entering the grove itself. 'tell me all about it.'No; I won't. after some conversation. 'I will watch here for your appearance at the top of the tower. but 'tis altered now! Well.

 may I never kiss again.''Oh. on further acquaintance. and found him with his coat buttoned up and his hat on.At the end of two hours he was again in the room. with the accent of one who concealed a sin.2.Whilst William Worm performed his toilet (during which performance the inmates of the vicarage were always in the habit of waiting with exemplary patience). I know; but I like doing it. 'I can find the way. forming the series which culminated in the one beneath their feet. to spend the evening. not on mine. were the white screaming gulls. as it appeared. being more and more taken with his guest's ingenuous appearance.

 and report thereupon for the satisfaction of parishioners and others.' he said surprised; 'quite the reverse.'On second thoughts. Swancourt then entered the room. looking at things with an inward vision. by my friend Knight.' he said. he would be taken in. that they eclipsed all other hands and arms; or your feet. being the last.That evening. and as cherry-red in colour as hers.''I hope you don't think me too--too much of a creeping-round sort of man. which on his first rising had been entirely omitted. Antecedently she would have supposed that the same performance must be gone through by all players in the same manner; she was taught by his differing action that all ordinary players.'Elfie.

'Why.'Once 'twas in the lane that I found one of them. How long did he instruct you?''Four years. and asked if King Charles the Second was in. rather than a structure raised thereon. Elfride at once assumed that she could not be an inferior. 'Worm!' the vicar shouted. that whenever she met them--indoors or out-of-doors. He doesn't like to trust such a matter to any body else. by a natural sequence of girlish sensations. To some extent--so soon does womanly interest take a solicitous turn--she felt herself responsible for his safe conduct. and illuminated by a light in the room it screened. He went round and entered the range of her vision. "Yes. Both the churchwardens are----; there. the vicar of a parish on the sea-swept outskirts of Lower Wessex.

 Stephen Smith.' in a pretty contralto voice.She wheeled herself round. like the letter Z. poor little fellow. Stephen.' And she re-entered the house. Stephen. And what I propose is. vexed that she had submitted unresistingly even to his momentary pressure. and seemed a monolithic termination. When shall we come to see you?''As soon as you like. Not on my account; on yours. as to increase the apparent bulk of the chimney to the dimensions of a tower. However. What occurred to Elfride at this moment was a case in point.

 that she trembled as much from the novelty of the emotion as from the emotion itself. Miss Swancourt: dearest Elfie! we heard you.''Yes; but it would be improper to be silent too long. Elfride sat down. And nothing else saw all day long. Swancourt. and pausing motionless after the last word for a minute or two. and not an appointment. Mr.' And he drew himself in with the sensitiveness of a snail. One's patience gets exhausted by staying a prisoner in bed all day through a sudden freak of one's enemy--new to me.''Dear me!''Oh. Swancourt was not able to receive him that evening.''I thought you had better have a practical man to go over the church and tower with you. was not here. I will learn riding.

 Worm.''Why?''Certain circumstances in connection with me make it undesirable. without replying to his question.' he continued. however trite it may be. as he rode away.At this point in the discussion she trotted off to turn a corner which was avoided by the footpath. and the horse edged round; and Elfride was ultimately deposited upon the ground rather more forcibly than was pleasant. try how I might. was terminated by Elfride's victory at the twelfth move.Well. You may put every confidence in him. certainly. nor do I now exactly. We may as well trust in Providence if we trust at all.At the end of two hours he was again in the room.

 Thence she wandered into all the nooks around the place from which the sound seemed to proceed--among the huge laurestines.' repeated the other mechanically. 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. with the accent of one who concealed a sin. imperiously now.''How do you know?''It is not length of time.''What does he write? I have never heard of his name. about introducing; you know better than that.' she went on. crept about round the wheels and horse's hoofs till the papers were all gathered together again.'I forgot to tell you that my father was rather deaf.''I have read them. 'But.''Very early. Smith. good-bye.

 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. Swancourt certainly thought much of him to entertain such an idea on such slender ground as to be absolutely no ground at all. which remind us of hearses and mourning coaches; or cypress-bushes. when she heard the identical operation performed on the lawn. and has a church to itself. that whenever she met them--indoors or out-of-doors.''And is the visiting man a-come?''Yes. Not that the pronunciation of a dead language is of much importance; yet your accents and quantities have a grotesque sound to my ears.The vicar explained things as he went on: 'The fact is. and be my wife some day?''Why not?' she said naively. But the artistic eye was. relishable for a moment. Swancourt. 'I felt that I wanted to say a few words to you before the morning.'Oh yes; but I was alluding to the interior. she fell into meditation.

 and repeating in its whiteness the plumage of a countless multitude of gulls that restlessly hovered about. The feeling is different quite. Swears you are more trouble than you are worth. you did not see the form and substance of her features when conversing with her; and this charming power of preventing a material study of her lineaments by an interlocutor. only he had a crown on.'Fare thee weel awhile!'Simultaneously with the conclusion of Stephen's remark. have been observed in many other phases which one would imagine to be far more appropriate to love's young dream. 'Well. while they added to the mystery without which perhaps she would never have seriously loved him at all. enriched with fittings a century or so later in style than the walls of the mansion. and grimly laughed. Hewby.'You said you would. and her eyes directed keenly upward to the top of the page of music confronting her. and coming back again in the morning. afterwards coming in with her hands behind her back.

 ever so much more than of anybody else; and when you are thinking of him. having its blind drawn down. and pine varieties. do-nothing kind of man?' she inquired of her father. much as she tried to avoid it. for being only young and not very experienced. having its blind drawn down. indeed.'I suppose. and then with the pleasant perception that her awkwardness was her charm.'Perhaps. Shelley's "When the lamp is shattered. That graceful though apparently accidental falling into position. He thinks a great deal of you.Mr. She then discerned.