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NicholasSynovic
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will be the end of it about cruel now there tis again turn on the that s just like you but you ll promise me not to go to races next week won t you she implored s x far from thb crowd was at the full depth for tears but she maintained a dry eye i don t see why i should in fact if it turns out to be a fine day was thinking of taking you never never i li go a miles the other way first hate the sound of the very word but the question of going to see the race or staying at home has very little to do with the matter are all safely enough before the race begins you may depend whether it is a bad race for me or a good one will have very little to do with our going there next monday but you don t to say thai you have risked anything on this one too i she exclaimed with an look there now don t you be a little fool wait till are told why you have lost all the pluck and you formerly had and upon my life if i had known what a chicken hearted creature you were under all your boldness i d never have i know what a flash of indignation might have been seen in s dark eyes as she looked resolutely ahead after this reply they moved on ti further speech some early withered leaves from the tree s which the road at this spot occasionally spinning downward across their path to the earth a woman appeared on the brow of the the ridge was in a cutting so that she was very near the husband and wife before she became visible had turned towards the to and whilst putting his foot on the step the woman passed him though the trees and the approach of enveloped them in gloom could see plainly enough to discern the extreme poverty of the woman s garb and the sadness of her u please sir do you know at what time union house at night ia b ridge i a cry the woman said these words to over his shoulder started visibly at the sound of the voice yet he seemed to recover presence of mind sufficient to prevent himself from giving way to his impulse to suddenly turn and face her he said slowly i don t know the woman on hearing him speak quickly looked up examined the side of his face and recognized the soldier under the s garb her face was drawn into an expression which had gladness and agony both among its elements she uttered an hysterical cry and fell down oh poor thing exclaimed instantly preparing to alight stay where you are and attend to the horse said throwing her the reins and the whip walk the horse to the top i ll see to the woman but i do you hear i the horse and moved on how on earth did you come here i thought you were miles away or dead why didn t you write to me said to the woman in a strangely gentle yet hurried voice as he lifted her up i feared to have you any money none good heaven i wish i had more to give you here s wretched the merest trifle it is every i have left i have none but what my wife gives me you know and i can t ask her now the woman made no answer i have only another moment continued and now listen where are you going to night union x far from the crowd i thought to go there you shan t go there yet wait yes perhaps for to night i i can do nothing better worse luck t sleep there to night and there to morrow monday is the first free day i have and on monday morning at ten exactly meet me on bridge i ll bring all the money can muster you shan t want i ll see that j then i ll get you a lodging somewhere good bye till then i am a but good bye after advancing the distance which completed the ascent of the hill turned her head the woman was upon her feet and saw her withdrawing from and going feebly down the hill by the third from then came on towards his wife stepped into the took the reins from her hand and without making any observation whipped the horse into a trot he was rather pale do you know who that woman was said looking searching into his face i do he said looking boldly back into hers i thought you did said she with angry and still regarding him who is she he suddenly seemed to think that frankness would benefit neither of the women nothing to either of us he said i know her by sight what is her name how should i know her name i think you do think if you will and be the sentence was completed by a smart cut of the whip round s flank which caused the animal to start forward at a pace no more was said on highway on highway xl or a considerable time the woman walked on her steps became and she strained her eyes to look afar upon the naked road now indistinct amid the of night at length her onward walk to the merest and she opened a gate within which was a underneath this she sat down and presently slept when the woman awoke it was to find herself in the depths of a and night a heavy unbroken crust of cloud stretched across the sky shutting out every speck of heaven and a distant which hung over the town of was visible against the black the	45
appearing the brighter by its great contrast with the darkness towards this weak soft glow the woman turned her eyes if i could only get there she said meet him the day after to morrow god help me perhaps i shall be in my grave before then a house clock from the far depths of shadow struck the hour one in a small tone after midnight the voice of a clock seems to lose in breadth as much as in length and to its to a thin far crowd afterwards a light two lights arose from the remote shade and grew larger a carriage rolled along the and passed the gate it probably contained some late the beams from one lamp shone for a moment upon the crouching woman and threw her face into vi id relief the face was young in the old in the finish the general v ere and but the finer had begun to be sharp and thin the stood up apparently with a revived determination and looked around the road appeared to be familiar to her and she carefully the fence as she slowly walked along presently there became visible a dim white shape it was another she drew her fingers across its face to fee the marks two more she said she against the stone as a means of rest for a short interval then herself and again pursued her way for a distance bore up bravely afterwards as before this was beside a lone wherein of white strewn upon the ground showed thai had been and making during the day now there was not a rustle not a breeze not the faintest clash of twigs to keep her company the woman looked over the gate opened it and went in close to the entrance stood a row of bound and together with of all sizes for a few seconds the stood with thai tense stillness which itself to be not the end but merely the of a previous motion her attitude was that of a person who either to the world of sound or to the imagined discourse of thought a close criticism might have detected signs proving th t she was intent on latter moreover as was shown by what followed she was oddly the faculty of invention upon on highway of the clever ihe of for human limbs by tlie aid of the and by feeling with her hands the woman selected sticks from the heaps these sticks were nearly straight to the height of three or four feet where each into a fork like the letter y she sat down snapped off the small upper twigs and carried the remainder with her the road she placed one of forks under each arm as a tested them timidly threw her whole weight upon them so little that it was and swung herself forward the girl had made for herself a material aid the answered well the pat of her feet and the tap of her sticks upon the highway were all the sounds that came from the traveller now she had passed the last by a good long distance and began to look wistfully towards the bank as if calculating upon another soon the though so very useful had their limits of power only labour being powerless to it and the original amount of exertion was not cleared away it was thrown into the body and she was exhausted and each swing forward became fainter at she swayed sideways and fell here she lay a heap for ten minutes and more the morning wind began to boom over the and to move afresh dead leaves which had lain still since yesterday the woman desperately turned round upon her knees and next rose to her feet herself by the help of one she a step then another then a third using the now as walking sticks only thus she til descending hill another appeared and soon the beginning of an iron fence came into view she staggered across to the first post clung to it and looked around far from the crowd the lights were now visible it was getting towards morning and might be hoped for if not expected soon she listened there was not a sound of life save that and of all dismal sounds the bark of a fox its three hollow notes being rendered at intervals of a minute with the precision of a funeral bell less than a mile the woman murmured no more she added after a pause the mile is to the town hall and my resting place is on the other side a little over a mile and there i am after an interval she again spoke five or six steps to a yard six perhaps i have to go seventeen hundred yards a hundred six six hundred seventeen times that oh pity me lord holding to the she advanced thrusting one hand forward upon the rail then the other then leaning over it whilst she dragged her feet on beneath this woman was not given to but extremity of feeling the i of the weak as it that of the strong she said again in the same tone i ll believe that the end lies five posts forward and no further and so get strength to pass them this was a practical application of the principle that a half feigned and faith is better than no faith at all she passed five posts and held on to the fifth i ll pass five more by believing my longed for spot is at the next fifth i can do it she passed five more it lies only five further she passed five more but it is five further she passed them that stone bridge is the end of my journey she said when the bridge over the was in she crawled to the bridge during tht effort each on highway	45
breath of the woman went into the air as if never to return again now for the truth of the matter she said sitting down the truth is that i have less than half a mile self with what she had known all the time to be false had given her strength to come over half a mile that she would have been powerless to face in the lump the showed that the woman by some mysterious had grasped the truth that blindness may operate more vigorously than and the short sighted effect more than the far seeing that and not is needed for striking a blow the half mile stood now before the sick and weary woman like a stolid it was an king of her world the road here ran across open to the road on either side she surveyed the wide space the lights herself sighed and lay down against a guard stone of the bridge never was ingenuity exercised so sorely as the traveller here exercised hers every conceivable aid method by which these last desperate eight hundred yards could be by a human being was in her busy brain and dismissed as she thought of sticks wheels crawling she even thought of rolling but the exertion demanded by either of these latter two was greater than to walk erect the faculty of contrivance was worn out had come at last no further she whispered and closed her eyes from the of shadow on the opposite side of the way a portion of shade seemed to itself and move into upon the pale white of the road it noiselessly towards the woman she became conscious of something touching her hand it was softness and it was warmth she far from the crowd opened her eyes and tl e substance touched her face a dog was her k he was a huge and quiet creature standing darkly against the low horizon and at least two feet higher than the present position of her eyes whether or what not it was impossible to say he seemed to be of too strange s nd mysterious a nature to belong to any variety among those of popular being thus to no breed he was the ideal of greatness a from what was common to all night in its sad solemn and benevolent aspect apart from its stealthy and cruel side was in this form darkness the small and ordinary ones among mankind with poetical power and even the suffering woman threw her idea into figure in her position she looked up to him just as in earlier she had when standing looked up to a man the animal who was as as she respectfully withdrew a step or two when the woman moved and seeing that she did not him be her hand again a thought moved within her like lightning i can make use of him might do it then she pointed in the direction of and the dog seemed to he trotted on then finding she could not follow he came back and the ultimate and of woman s es and invention was reached when with a quickened breathing she rose to a stooping posture and her two little arms upon the shoulders of the dog firmly and murmured words whilst she in her she cheered with her voice and what was stranger than that the strong should need encouragement from the weak was tliat cheerfulness should be so well stimulated by such her friend moved forward slowly and she with small m l on highway steps moved forward beside him half her weight being thrown upon the animal sometimes she sank as she had sunk from walking erect from the from the rails the dog who now thoroughly understood her desire and her was frantic in his distress on these occasions he would at her dress and run forward she always called him back and it was now to be observed that the woman listened for human sounds only to avoid them it was evident she had an object in keeping her presence on the road and her forlorn state unknown their progress was necessarily very slow they reached the bottom of the town and the lamps lay before them like fallen as they turned to the left into the dense shade of a deserted avenue of and so skirted the thus the town was passed and the goal was reached on this much desired spot outside the town rose a picturesque building originally it had been a mere case to hold people the shell had been so thin so devoid of and so closely drawn over the accommodation granted that the grim character of what was beneath showed through it as the shape of a body is visible under a winding sheet then nature as if offended lent a hand masses of ivy grew up completely covering the walls till the place looked like an abbey and it was discovered that the view from the front over the chimneys was one of the most magnificent in the county a neighbouring earl once said that he would give up a year s to have at his own door the view enjoyed by the inmates from theirs and very probably the inmates would have given up the view for his year s this stone edifice consisted of a central mass and two wings whereon stood as a few slim chimneys now sorrowfully to the slow wind s par from the crowd in the wall was a gate and by the gate a bell pull formed of a hanging wire the woman raised herself as high as possible upon her knees and could just reach the handle she moved it and fell forwards in a bowed attitude her face upon her bosom it was getting on towards six o clock and sounds of movement were to be heard inside the building which was the haven	45
of rest to this wearied soul a little door by the large one was opened and a man appeared inside he discerned the panting heap of clothes went back for a light and came again he entered a second time and returned with two women these lifted the prostrate figure and assisted her in through the doorway the man then closed the door how did she get here said one of the women the lord knows said the other there is a dog outside murmured the overcome traveller where is he gone he helped me i him away said the man the little procession then moved forward the man in front bearing the light the two bony women next supporting between them the small and one thus they entered the house and disappeared suspicion is sent for b said very little to her husband all that evening of their return from market and he was not disposed to say much to her he exhibited the unpleasant combination of a restless condition with a silent tongue the next day which was sunday passed nearly in the same manner as regarded their going to church both morning and afternoon this was the day before the races in the evening said suddenly could you let me have twenty pounds her countenance instantly sank twenty pounds she said the fact is i want it badly the anxiety upon face was unusual and very marked it was a of the mood he had been in all the day ah for those races to morrow for the moment made no reply her mistake had its advantages to a man who shrank from having his mind as he did now well suppose i do want it for races he said at last oh frank replied and there was such a volume of entreaty in the words only such a few weeks ago you said that i was far sweeter than all your other pleasures put together and that you would give far from the crowd them all up for me and now won t you give up this one which is more a worry than a pleasure do frank come let me you by all i can do by pretty words and pretty looks and everything i can think of to stay at home say yes to your wife say yea the tenderest and phases of s nature were prominent now advanced for his acceptance without any of the and which the of her character when she was cool too frequently threw over them few men could have resisted the arch yet dignified entreaty of the beautiful face thrown a little back and sideways in the attitude expresses more than the words it and which seems lo have been designed for these special occasions had the woman not been his wife would have instantly as it was he thought he would not deceive her longer the money is not wanted for racing debts at all he said what is it for she asked you worry me a great deal by these mysterious frank hesitated he did not now love her enough to allow himself to be carried loo far by her ways yet it was necessary to be civil you wrong me by such a suspicious manner he said such as you treat me to is not becoming in you at so early a date i think that i have a right to n little if pay she said with features between a smile and a exactly and the former being done suppose we proceed lo the latter fun is all very well but don t go too far or you may have cause to regret something she i do that already she laid quickly do you regret suspicion that my romance has come to an end a end at marriage i wish you wouldn t talk like that you grieve me to my soul by being smart at my expense you are dull enough at mine i believe you hate me not you only your vices i do hate them be much more becoming if you set yourself to cure them come let s strike a balance with the twenty pounds and be friends she gave a sigh of resignation i have about that sum here for household expenses if you must have it take it very good thank you i expect i shall have gone away before you are in to breakfast to morrow and must you go ah there was a time frank when it would have taken a good many promises to other people to drag you away from me you used to call me darling then but it doesn t matter to you how my days are passed now i must go in spite of sentiment as he spoke looked at his watch and apparently by non principles opened the case at the back revealing within it a small of hair s eyes had been accidentally lifted at that moment and she saw the action and saw the hair she flushed in pain and surprise and some words escaped her before she had thought whether or not it was wise to utter them a woman s curl of hair she said oh frank whose is that had instantly closed his watch he carelessly replied as one who some feelings that the sight had stirred why yours of course whose should it be i had quite forgotten that i had it what a dreadful frank i tell you i had forgotten it he said loudly i don t mean that it was yellow hair far from the crowd nonsense that s insulting me i know it was yellow whose was it i want to know very well i ll tell so make no more i is the hair of a young woman i was going ti before i knew you you ought to tell	45
had stood on the hill at and dare or any other man to a hair of her head by his interference the next morning she rose earlier than usual and had the horse for her ride round the farm in the customary way when she came in at half past eight their usual hour for she was informed that her husband had risen taken his breakfast and driven off to with the and after breakfast she was cool and collected quite herself in fact and she to the gate intending to walk to another quarter of the farm which she still personally as well as her duties in the house would permit continually however finding herself preceded in by oak for whom she began to entertain the genuine friendship of a sister of course she sometimes thought of him in the light of an old lover and had momentary of what life with him as a husband would have been like also of life with under the same conditions but though she could feel was not much given to futile dreaming and her under this head were short and entirely confined to the times when s neglect was more than ordinarily evident she saw coming up the road a man like mr it was mr blushed painfully far from the crowd and watched the firmer stopped when a long way off and held up his hand to oak who was in a across the field the two men then approached each other and seemed to engage in earnest conversation thus they continued for a long time joseph now passed near them a of apples up the hill to s residence and called to him spoke lo him for a few minutes and then all three parted joseph immediately coming up the hill with his who had seen this with some surprise experienced great relief when turned back again well what s the message joseph she said he set down his and putting upon himself the refined aspect that a conversation with a lady required spoke to over the gate you ll never see robin no more use nor principal ma am why because she s dead in the union dead never ma am what did she die from i don t know for certain but i should be inclined to think it was from general of constitution she was such a maid that a could stand no hard hip even when i her and a went like a candle so tis said she was took bad in the morning and being quite feeble and worn out she died in the evening she belongs by law to our parish and mr is going to send a at three this afternoon to her home here and bury her indeed i shall not let mr do any such thing i shall do it was my s servant and although i only knew her for a couple of days is sent for she belongs to me how very very sad this is the idea of being in a had begun to know what suffering was and she spoke with real feeling send across to mr s and say that mrs will take upon herself the duty of an old servant of the family we ought not to put her in a we ll get a there will hardly be time ma am will there perhaps not she said when did you say we must be at the door three o clock three o clock this afternoon ma am so to speak it very well you go with it a pretty is better than an ugly after all joseph have the new spring with the blue body and red wheels and wash it very clean and joseph yes ma am carry with you some and flowers to put upon her coffin indeed gather a great many and completely bury her in them get some boughs of and box and and boy s love j ay and some of and let old pleasant draw her because she him so well i will ma am i ought to have said that the union in the form of four men will meet me when i gets to our churchyard gate and take her and bury her according to the rites of the board of as by law ordained dear me union and is come to this said musing i wish i had known of it sooner i thought she was far away how long has she lived there on y been there a day or two oh then she has not been staying there as a regular no she first went to live in a garrison town t other side o and since then she s been picking up a living at in for several months r l s ar from the crowd at the house of a very respectable widow woman who takes in work of that sort she got handy the union house on sunday morning a b and tis here and there that she had every step of the way from why she left her place i can t say for i don t and as to a lie why i wouldn t tell it that s the short of the story ma am ah no ever flashed from a rosy ray to a white one more rapidly than changed the young wife s countenance whilst this word came from her in a long drawn breath did she walk our road she said in a suddenly restless and eager voice i believe she did ma am shall i call vou t well ma am surely you look like a lily so pale and no don t call her it is nothing did she pass last saturday night that will joseph now you may go certainly ma am joseph come	45
hither a moment what was the colour of robin s hair really mistress now that tis put to me so i can t call to mind if ye tl believe me never mind go on and do what i told you stop well no go on she turned herself away from him that he might no longer notice the mood which had set its sign so visibly upon her and went indoors with a sing sense of and a beating brow about an hour alter she heard the noise of the and went out still with a p consciousness of her bewildered and troubled look joseph dressed in his best suit of clothes was putting in the horse to start the shrubs and flowers were all piled in the as she had directed hardly saw them now are you quite yes ma am quite sure sure of what i m sure that all i know is that she arrived in the morning and died in the evening without further what oak and mr told me only these few words little robin is dead joseph said looking in my face in his steady old way i was vl iy sorry and i said ah and how did she come lo die well she s dead in union he said and perhaps t much matter about bow she came to die she reached the union early sunday morning and died in the afternoon that s clear enough then i asked what she d been doing lately and mr turned round to me then and left off a with the end of his stick he told me about her having by in as i mentioned to you and that she walked at the end of last week passing near here saturday night in the dusk they then said i had better just name a bent of her death to you and away they went her death might have been brought on by in the night wind you know ma am for people used to say she d go off in a decline she used to cough a good deal in winter time however t much odds to us about that now for tis all over have you heard a different story at all she looked at him so intently joseph s eyes a word mistress i assure ee i he said hardly anybody in the parish knows the news yet i wonder why didn t bring the message to me himself he mostly makes a point of seeing me upon the most trifling errand these words were merely murmured and she was looking upon the ground perhaps he was busy ma am suggested and sometimes he to suffer from things upon his mind connected with the time when he was off than a is now a s rather a curious item but a very understanding shepherd and learned in books did anything seem upon his mind whilst he was speaking to you about this i cannot but say that there did ma am he was terrible down and so was farmer thank you joseph that will do go on now or you be late still unhappy went indoors again in the course of the afternoon she said to who had been informed of the occurrence what was the colour of poor robin s hair do you know i cannot recollect i only saw her for a day or two it was ma am but she wore it rather short and packed away under her cap so that you would hardly notice it but i have seen her let it down when she was going to bed and it looked beautiful then real golden hair her young man was a soldier was he not yes in the same regiment as mr he says he knew him very well what mr says so how came he to say that one day i just named it to him and asked him if he knew s young man he said oh yes he knew the young man as well as he knew himself and that there wasn t a man in the regiment he liked ah said that did he yes and he said there was a strong likeness between himself and the other young man so that sometimes people for heaven s sake stop your talking said with the nervous that comes from worrying joseph and his burden joseph and his burden head a wall bounded the site of except along a portion of the end here a high stood prominent and it was covered like the front with a mat of ivy in this was no window chimney ornament or of any kind the single feature to it beyond the expanse of dark green leaves was a small door the situation of the door was peculiar the sill was three or four feet above the ground d for a moment one was at a loss for an explanation of this exceptional till immediately beneath suggested that the door was used solely for the passage of articles and persons to and from the level of a vehicle standing on the outside upon the whole the door seemed to itself as a species of traitor s gate translated to another sphere that entry and exit was only at rare intervals became apparent on noting that of grass were allowed to flourish undisturbed in the of the sill as the clock over the south street house pointed to five minutes to three a blue spring picked out with red and containing boughs and flowers passed the end of the street and up towards this side of the building whilst the were yet out far from the crowd a shattered form of joseph rang the bell and received directions to back his against the high door under the the door then opened and a plain elm coffin was slowly thrust forth and laid by	45
t mind he s a generous man he s found me in tracts for years and i ve consumed a good many in the course of a long and shady life but he s never been the man to cry out at the expense sit down the longer joseph remained the less his spirit was troubled by the duties which upon him this afternoon the minutes glided by until the evening shades began lo and the eyes of the three were but sparkling points on the surface of darkness s watch struck six from his pocket in the usual still small tones at that moment hasty steps were heard in the entry and the door opened to admit the figure of oak followed by the maid of the inn bearing a candle he stared at the one and two round faces buck s head of the which confronted him with the expressions of a fiddle and a couple of warming joseph and shrank several inches into the background upon my soul i m ashamed of you tis disgraceful joseph disgraceful said indignantly you call yourself a man and don t know better than this looked up at oak one or other of his eyes occasionally opening and closing of its own accord as if it were not a member but a individual with a distinct personality don t take on so shepherd said mark looking reproachfully at the candle which appeared to possess special features of interest for his eyes nobody can hurt a dead woman at length said with the precision of a machine a that could be done for her is done she s beyond us and why should a man put himself in a tearing hurry for lifeless clay that can neither feel nor see and don t know what you do with her at all if she d been alive i would have been the first to help her if she now wanted and drink i d pay for it money down but she s dead and no speed of ours will bring her to life the woman s past us time spent upon her is away why should we hurry to do what s not required drink shepherd and be friends for to morrow we may be like her we may added mark emphatically at once drinking himself to run no further risk of losing his chance by the event alluded to meanwhile his additional thoughts of to morrow in a song to row to row and while peace and ty i find at my board with a heart free from sick ness and row with my friends will i share what to day may af ford and let them spread the ta ble to row to row to far from the crowd do br d thy i said oak and turning upon as for you joseph who do your wicked deeds in such holy ways you are as drunk as you can stand no shepherd oak no listen lo reason shepherd all that s the matter with me is the affliction called a eye and tliat s how it is i look double to you i mean you look double to me a eye is a very bad thing said mark it always comes on when i have been in a a little time said joseph meekly i see two of every sort as if i were some holy man living in the times of king and entering into the ark v y y yes he added becoming much affected by the picture of himself as a person thrown away and shedding tears j i feel too good for england i ought lo have lived in by rights like the other men of sacrifice and then i shouldn t have b b been called a d d in such a way i wish you d show yourself a man of spirit and not sit there show myself a man of spirit ah well let me take the name of humbly let me be a man of knees let it be i know that i always do say please god afore i do anything from my getting up to my going down of the same and i be willing to take as much disgrace as there is in that holy act yes i but not a man of spirit have i ever allowed the toe of pride lo be lifted again si my hinder parts without groaning that i question the right to do so i inquire that boldly we can t say that you have joseph said emphatically never have i allowed such to pass yet the shepherd says in the face of thai buck s head rich testimony that i be not a man of spirit well let it pass by and death is a real release seeing that neither of the three was in a fit state to take charge of the for the remainder of the journey made no reply but closing the door again upon them went across to where the vehicle stood now getting indistinct in the fog and gloom of this lime he pulled the horse s head from the large patch of turf it had eaten bare the boughs over the coffin and drove along through the night it had gradually become in the village tliat the body to be brought and buried that day was all that was left of the robin who followed the from through and but thanks to s and oak s generosity tlie lover she had followed had never been as hoped that the whole truth of the matter might not be published at any rate the girl had been in her grave for a few days when the of earth and time and a sense that the events had been somewhat shut into oblivion would the sting that revelation and remark would have for	45
now by the that reached the old her residence which lay in his way to the church it was quite dark a man came from the gate and said through the fog which hung between them like blown flour is that with the corpse recognized the voice as that of the parson the corpse is here sir said i have just been to inquire of mrs if she could tell me the reason of the delay i am afraid it is too late now for the funeral to be performed with proper decency have you the s no said i expect has that far from the crowd and he s al the buck s head i forgot to ask him for it then that settles the matter we ll put off the funeral till to morrow morning the body may be brought on to the church or it may be left here at the farm and fetched by the in the morning they waited more than an hour and have now gone had his reasons for thinking the latter a most objectionable plan notwithstanding that had been an of the farm house for several years in the lifetime of s uncle visions of several unhappy which might arise from this delay flitted before but his will was not law and he went indoors to inquire of his mistress what were her wishes on the subject he found her in an unusual mood her eyes as she looked up to him were suspicious and perplexed as with some thought had not yet returned at first assented with a mien of indifference to his proposition that they should go on to the church at once with their burden but immediately afterwards following to the gate she to the extreme of ness on s account and desired that the girl might be brought the house oak argued upon the convenience of leaving her in the just as she lay now with her flowers and green leaves about her merely the vehicle into the coach house till the morning but lo no purpose it is unkind and she said to leave the poor thing in a coach house all night very well then said the parson and i will arrange thai the funeral shall take place early tomorrow perhaps mrs is right in feeling that wc cannot treat a dead fellow creature too thoughtfully we must remember th at though she may have in leaving her home she is still our sister and it is to be believed that god s buck s head are extended towards her and that she is a member of the flock of christ the parson s words spread into the heavy air with a sad yet and shed an honest tear seemed unmoved mr then left them and lighted a lantern three other men to assist him they bore the unconscious indoors placing the coffin on two benches in the middle of a little sitting room next the hall as directed every one except oak then left the room he still lingered beside the body he was deeply troubled at the aspect that circumstances were putting on with regard to s wife and at his own to them in spite of his careful all this day the very worst event that could in any way have happened in connection with the burial had happened now oak imagined a terrible discovery from this afternoon s work that might cast over s life a shade which the of many years might but indifferently and which nothing at all might altogether remove suddenly as in a last attempt to save from at any rate immediate anguish he looked again as he had looked before at the chalk writing upon the coffin lid the was this simple one robin and child took his handkerchief and carefully rubbed out the two latter words leaving visible the inscription robin only he then left the room and went out quietly by the front door far from the crowd s revenge you want me any longer ma am inquired at a later hour the same evening standing by the door with a chamber in her hand and addressing who sat cheerless and alone in the large parlour beside the first fire of the season no more to night i ll sit up for master if you like ma am i am not at all afraid of if i may sit in my own room and have a candle she was such a young thing that her spirit couldn t appear to anybody if it tried i m quite sure oh no no you go to bed i ll sit up for him myself till twelve o clock and if he has not arrived by that time i shall give him up and go to bed too it is half past ten now oh is it why don t you sit upstairs ma am why don t i said it isn t worth while there s a fire here she suddenly exclaimed in an impulsive and excited whisper have you heard anything strange said of the words had no sooner escaped her than an expression of unutterable regret crossed her face and she burst into tears s revenge no not a word said looking l the weeping woman with what is it makes you cry so ma am has anything hurt you she came to s side with a face full of sympathy no i don t want you more i can hardly say why i have taken so to i lately i never used to cry good night then left the parlour and closed the door was lonely and miserable now not actually than she had been before her marriage but her loneliness then was to that of the present time as the solitude of a mountain is to the solitude of a cave and the last day or two had	45
at length he looked at tlie clock seemed surprised at the of the hour closed his book and arose he was going to bed she knew and if she tapped it must be done at once alas for her resolve she felt she could not do it not for worlds now could she give a hint about her misery to him much less ask him plainly for information on the cause of s death she must suspect and guess and and bear it all alone like a wanderer she lingered by the bank as if and fascinated by the atmosphere of content which seemed to spread from that little dwelling and was so sadly lacking in her own appeared in an upper room placed his light in the window bench and then knelt down to pray the contrast of the picture with her rebellious and agitated existence at this same time was too much for her to bear to look upon longer it was not for her to make a with trouble by any such means she must tread her giddy s revenge measure to its last note as she had begun it with a swollen heart she went again up the lane and entered her own door more now by a reaction from the first feelings which oak s example had raised in her she paused in the hall at the door of the room wherein lay she locked her fingers threw back her head and strained her hot hands rigidly across her forehead saying with a hysterical sob would lo god you would speak and tell me your secret oh i hope hope it is not true that there are two of you if i could only look in upon you for one little minute i should know all a few moments passed and she added slowly and j will in after could never the mood which carried her through the actions following this murmured resolution on this evening of her life she went to the lumber for a screw driver at the end of a short though time she found herself in the small room quivering with emotion a mist before her eyes and an in her brain standing beside the uncovered coffin of ihe girl whose end had so entirely engrossed her and saying to herself in a voice as she gazed it was best to know the worst and i know it now she was conscious of having brought about this situation by a series of actions done as by one in an extravagant dream of following that idea as to method which had burst upon her in the hall with glaring by gliding to the top of the stairs assuring herself by listening to the heavy breathing of her maids that they were asleep gliding down again turning the handle of the door within which the young girl lay and deliberately setting herself to do what if she had anticipated any such undertaking at night and alone would have her but which when done was not so far from the crowd dreadful as was the proof of her husband s conduct which came with knowing beyond doubt the last chapter of s story s head sank upon her bosom and the breath which had been in suspense curiosity and interest was now in the form of a whispered wail oh h h she said and the silent room added length lo her moan her tears fell fast beside the unconscious pair in the coffin tears of a complicated origin of a nature indescribable almost except as other than those of simple sorrow assuredly fires must have lived in s ashes when events were so shaped as to chariot her hither in this natural yet effectual manner the one feat alone that of dying by which a mean condition could be resolved into a grand one had achieved and to that had destiny this to night which had in s wild imagining turned her companion s failure to success her humiliation to triumph her to it had thrown over herself a light of mockery and set upon all things about ber an smile s face was framed in by that yellow hair of hers and there was no longer much room for doubt as to the origin of the curl owned by in s heated fancy the innocent white countenance expressed a dim triumphant consciousness of the pain she was for her pain with all the merciless of the law burning for burning wound for strife for strife indulged in of escape from her position by immediate death which thought she though it was an inconvenient and awful way had limits to its inconvenience and that could not be whilst the of life were yet even this scheme of by death was but s revenge her rival s method without the reasons which had it in her rival s case she glided rapidly up and down the room as was mostly her habit when excited her hands hanging clasped in front of her as she thought and in part expressed in broken words oh i hate her yet i don t mean that i hate her for it is grievous and wicked and yet i hate her a little yes my flesh upon her whether my spirit is willing or no if she had only lived i could have been angry and cruel towards her with some justification but to be towards a poor dead woman upon myself o god have mercy i am miserable at all this became at this moment so terrified at her own state of mind that she looked around for some sort of refuge from herself the vision of oak kneeling down that night to her and with the instinct which women she seized upon the idea resolved to kneel and if possible pray had prayed so would she she knelt beside the coffin covered her face	45
with her hands and for a time the room was silent as a tomb whether from a purely mechanical or from any other cause when arose it was with a spirit and a regret for the instincts which had seized upon her just before in her desire to make she took flowers from a by the window and began laying them around the dead girl s head knew no other way of showing kindness to persons departed than by giving them flowers she knew not how long she remained engaged thus she forgot time life where she was what she was doing a together of the coach house doors in the yard brought her to herself again an instant after the front door opened and closed steps crossed the hall and her husband appeared at the entrance to the room looking in upon her far from the crowd he beheld it all by degrees stared in at the scene as if he thought it an illusion raised by some pallid as a corpse on end gazed at him in the same wild way so little are instinctive the fruit of a legitimate that at this moment as he stood with the door in his hand never once thought of in connection with what he saw his first confused idea was that in the house had died what said i must go i must go said to herself more than to him she came with a dilated eye towards the door to push past him what s the matter in god s name who s dead said i cannot say me go out i want air t she continued but no stay i insist he seized her hand and then seemed to leave her and she went off state of he holding her came up the room and thus hand in hand and approached the coffin s side the candle was standing on a close by them and the light down distinctly the cold features of both mother and babe looked in dropped his wife s hand knowledge of it all came over him in a lurid and he stood still so still he remained that he could be imagined to have left in him no motive power whatever the of feeling in all directions confounded one another produced a and there was motion in do you know her said in a enclosed echo as from the interior of a i do said is it she ills s s revenge he had originally stood perfectly erect and now in the well nigh of his frame could be discerned an movement as in the darkest night may be discerned light after a while he was gradually sinking forwards the lines of his features softened and dismay to sadness was regarding him from the other side still with parted lips and distracted eyes capacity for intense feeling is to the general intensity of the nature and perhaps in all s sufferings much greater to her strength there never was a time when she suffered in an absolute sense what suffered now this is what did he sank upon his knees with an union of remorse and reverence upon his face and bending over robin gently kissed her as one would kiss an infant asleep to avoid awakening it at the sight and sound of that to her act sprang towards him all the strong feelings which had been scattered over her existence since she knew what feeling was seemed gathered together into one now the from her indignant mood a little earlier when she had meditated upon honour in by another was violent and entire all that was forgotten in the simple and still strong attachment of wife to husband she had sighed for her self completeness then and now she cried aloud against the of the union she had she flung her arms round s neck exclaiming wildly from the deepest deep of her heart don t don t kiss them oh frank i can t bear it i can t i love you better than she did kiss me too frank kiss me you kiss me tool there was something so and startling in the pain and simplicity of this appeal from a far from the crowd woman of s and independence that her tightly clasped arms from his neck looked at her in bewilderment it was such an unexpected revelation of all women being alike at heart even those so different in their as and this one beside him that could hardly seem to her to be his proud wife s own spirit seemed to be her frame but this was the mood of a few only when the momentary surprise had passed his expression to a imperious gaze i will not kiss you he said pushing her away had the wife now but gone no further yet perhaps under the circumstances to speak out was the one wrong act which can be better if not forgiven in her than the right and one ah the feeling she had been betrayed into showing she drew back to herself again by a effort of self command what have you to say as your reason she asked her bitter voice being strangely low quite that of i have to say that i have been a bad black hearted man he answered and that this woman is your victim and i not less than she ah t me madam this woman is more to me dead as she is ever you were or are or can be if satan had not tempted me with that face of you re and those cursed i should have married her i had another thought till you came in my way would to god that i had but it is all too late i deserve to live in torment for this he turned to then but never mind darling he said	45
i always did knitting and that too you might finish your only the and want filling in and then it could be framed and glazed and hung beside your aunt s are out of date horribly no i ll read bring up some books not new ones i haven t heart to read anything new some of your uncle s old ones ma am yes some of those we away in boxes a faint gleam of humour passed over her face as she said bring s mai s tragedy and the mourning me see and the vanity of human li is s and that story of the black man who murdered his wife it is a nice dismal one that would suit you excellent just now now you ve been looking into my books without telling me and i said you were not to how do you know it would suit me it wouldn t suit n all reaction but if the others do no they don t and i won t read dismal books why should i read dismal books indeed bring me lave in a village and the maid of the mill and doctor and some volumes of the spectator all that day and lived in the in a state of a precaution which proved to be needless as against for he did not appear in the neighbourhood or trouble them at all sat at the window till sunset sometimes attempting to read at other times watching every movement outside without much purpose and listening without much interest to every sound the sun went down almost blood red that night and a livid cloud received its rays in the east up against this dark background the west front of the church tower the only part of the edifice visible from the farm house windows rose distinct and the upon the summit with rays at six o clock the young men of the village gathered as was their custom for a game of prisoners base the spot had been consecrated to this ancient diversion from time the old stocks conveniently forming a base facing the boundary of the churchyard in front of which the ground was trodden hard and bare as a pavement by the players she could see the brown and black heads of the young lads darting about right and left their white shirt sleeves gleaming in the sun whilst occasionally a shout and a peal of hearty laughter varied the stillness of the evening air they continued playing for a quarter of an hour or so when the game concluded abruptly and the players over the wall and vanished round to the other side behind a tree which was also half behind a now spreading in one mass of golden foliage on which the branches traced black lines why did the base players finish their game so far from the crowd suddenly inquired the next time that entered the room i think twas because two men came just then from and began putting up a grand carved said the lads we t to see whose it was do you know asked i don t said s s when s wife had left the house at the previous midnight his first act was to cover the dead from sight this done he ascended the stairs and throwing himself down upon the bed dressed as he was he waited miserably for the morning fate had dealt grimly with him through the last twenty hours his day had been spent in a way which varied very materially from his intentions regarding it there is always an to be overcome in striking out a new line of conduct not more in ourselves it seems than in events which appear as if together to allow no in the way of twenty pounds having been secured from he had managed to add to the sum every he could muster on his own account which had been seven pounds ten with this money twenty seven pounds ten in all he had hastily driven from the gate that morning to keep his appointment with robin on reaching he left the horse and trap at an inn and at five minutes before ten went to the bridge at the lower end of the town and sat himself upon the the struck the hour and no appeared in fact at that moment she was being in her grave clothes by attendants at the union the first and last women the gentle creature had ever been honoured with the quarter went the half hour a rush of recollection came upon as he waited this was the second time she had broken a serious engagement with him in anger he vowed it should be the last and at eleven o clock when he had lingered and watched the stones of the bridge till he knew every upon their faces and heard the of the underneath till they oppressed him he jumped from his seat went to the inn for his and in a bitter mood of indifference concerning the past and about the future drove on to races he reached the race course at two o clock and remained either there or in the town till nine but s image as it had appeared to him in the sombre shadows of that saturday evening returned to his mind d up by s reproaches he vowed he would not bet and he kept his vow for on leaving the town at nine o clock in the evening he had diminished his cash only to the extent of a few shillings he trotted slowly homeward and it was now that he was struck for the first time with a thought that l had been really prevented by illness from keeping her promise this time she could have made no mistake he regretted that he had not remained in and made inquiries reaching	45
home he quietly tlie horse and came indoors as we have seen to the fearful shock that awaited him as soon as it grew light enough to distinguish objects arose from the of the bed and in a mood of absolute indifference to s whereabouts and almost of her he stalked downstairs and left the house by the back door his walk was towards the churchyard entering which he searched j s around till he found a newly dug grave the grave dug the day before for the position of this having been marked he hastened on to only pausing and musing for a while at the hill whereon he had last seen alive reaching the town descended into a side street and entered a pair of gates surmounted by a board bearing the words stone and marble within were lying about stones of all sizes and designs inscribed as being sacred to the memory of persons who had not yet died was so unlike himself now in look word and deed that the want of likeness was perceptible even to his own consciousness his method of engaging himself in this business of a tomb was that of an absolutely man he could not bring himself to consider calculate or he wished for something and he set about obtaining it like a child in a nursery i want a good tomb he said to the man who stood in a little office within the yard i want as good a one as you can give me for pounds it was all the money he possessed that sum to include everything everything cutting the name carriage to and and i want it now at once we could not get anything special worked this week i must have it now if you would like one of these in stock it could be got ready immediately very well said impatiently let s see what you have the best i have in stock is this one said the going into a shed here s a marble beautifully with beneath of typical subjects here s the after the same pattern s far from the crowd and here s the to the grave the alone of the set cost me eleven pounds the are the best of kind and i can warrant them to resist rain and frost for a hundred years without ing and how much well i could add the name and put it up at for the sum you mention get it done to day and i ll pay the money now the man agreed and wondered at such a mood in a visitor who wore not a of mourning then wrote the words which were to form the inscription settled the account and went away in the afternoon he came back again and found that the was almost done he waited in the yard till the tomb was packed and saw it placed in the cart and starting on its way to giving directions to the two men who were to accompany it to inquire of the for the grave of the person named in the inscription it was quite dark when came out of he carried rather a heavy basket upon his arm with which he strode along the road resting occasionally at bridges and gates whereon he deposited his burden for a time on his journey he met returning in the darkness the men and the which had conveyed he tomb he merely inquired if the work was done and on being assured that it was passed on again entered churchyard about ten o clock and went immediately to the comer where he had marked the vacant grave early in the morning it was on the obscure side of the tower to a great extent from the view of along the road a spot which until lately had been abandoned to heaps of stones and bushes of but now it was cleared and made orderly for by reason of the rapid filling of the ground elsewhere s here now stood the tomb as the men had stated snow white and in the gloom with a head and foot stone and border of marble work them in the midst was mould suitable for plants deposited his basket beside the tomb and vanished for a few minutes when he returned he carried a and a lantern the light of which he directed for a few moments upon the tomb whilst he read the inscription he hung his lantern on the lowest bough of the tree and took from his basket of several varieties there were bundles of and and double which were to bloom in early spring and of lilies of the valley forget summer s farewell meadow and others for the later seasons of the year laid these out upon the grass and with an face set to work to plant them the were arranged in a line on the outside of the the remainder within the of the grave the and were to grow in rows some of the summer flowers he placed over her head and feet the lilies and forget me over her heart the remainder were dispersed in the spaces between these in his at this time had no perception that in the of these romantic doings dictated by a reaction from previous indifference there was any element of absurdity his from both sides of the channel he showed at such as the present the of the englishman together with that blindness to the line where sentiment on characteristic of the it was a cloudy and very dark night and the rays from s lantern spread into the two old with a strange power flickering as it seemed up to the black ceiling of cloud above he far from the crowd felt a large drop of rain upon the back of his hand and presently one came and entered one of the holes of	45
up surely it could not be one of the he had planted he saw a another and another as be advanced beyond doubt they were the with a face of perplexed dismay turned the corner and then beheld the ck the stream had made the pool upon the grave had soaked away into the ground and in its place was a hollow the disturbed earth was washed over the grass and pathway in the guise of the brown mud he had already seen and it spotted the marble with the same nearly all the flowers were washed clean out of the ground and they lay roots upwards on the spots whither they had been by the stream s brow became heavily contracted he set his teeth closely and his compressed lips moved as those of one in great pain this singular accident by a strange of emotions in him was felt as the sting of s face was very and any observer who had seen him now would hardly have believed him to be a man who had laughed and sung and love trifles into a woman s ear to curse his miserable lot was at first his impulse but even that lowest stage of rebellion needed an activity whose absence was necessarily an to the existence of the morbid misery which wrung him the sight coming as it did upon the other dark scenery of its doings the previous days formed a sort of to the whole and it was more than he could endure sanguine by nature had a power of grief by simply it he could put off the consideration of any r till the matter had become old and softened by time the planting of flowers on s grave had been perhaps but a species of of the grief and now it was as if his intention had been known and almost for the first time in his life as he stood by this grave wished himself another man it is seldom that a person with animal spirit does not feel that the fact of his hfe being his own is the one which it out as a more hopeful life than that of others who may actually resemble him in every particular had felt in his transient way hundreds of times that he could not envy other people their condition because ihe possession of that condition would have a different personality when he desired no other than his own he had not minded the peculiarities of his birth the of his life the like uncertainty of all that related to him because these to the hero of his without whom there would have been no story at all for him and it seemed to be only in the nature of things that matters would right themselves at some proper and wind up well this very morning the illusion completed its disappearance and as it were all of a sudden hated himself the suddenness was probably more apparent than real a coral which just comes short of the ocean surface is no more to the horizon than if it had never been begun and the mere finishing stroke is what often appears to create an event which has long been an accomplished thing he stood and meditated a miserable man whither should he go he that is accursed let him be accursed still was the pitiless written in this l far from the crowd effort of his new born a man who has spent his strength in in one direction not much spirit left for his course had since yesterday faintly reversed his but the merest opposition had him to turn about would have been hard enough under the greatest encouragement but to find that providence far from helping him into a new course or showing any wish that he might adopt one actually his first trembling and critical attempt in that kind was more than nature could bear he slowly withdrew from the grave he did not attempt to fill up the hole replace the flowers or do anything at all he simply threw up his cards and his game for that time and always going out of the churchyard silently and unobserved none of the villagers having yet risen he passed down some fields at the back and emerged just as secretly upon the high road shortly afterwards he had gone from the village meanwhile remained a voluntary prisoner in the the door was kept locked except during the and of for whom a bed had been arranged in a small adjoining room the light of s lantern in the churchyard was noticed about ten o clock by the maid servant who casually glanced from the window in that direction whilst taking her supper and she called s attention to it they curiously at the phenomenon for a time until was sent to bed did not sleep very heavily that night when her attendant was unconscious and softly breathing in the next room the mistress of the house was still looking out of the window at the faint gleam spreading from among the trees not in a steady shine but a revolving coast light though this appearance failed to suggest to her that a person was the its doings passing and in front of it sat here till it began to rain and the light vanished when she withdrew to lie in her bed and re in a worn mind the lurid scene of almost before the first faint sign of dawn appeared she arose again and opened the window to obtain a full breathing of the new morning air the panes being now wet with trembling tears left by the night rain each one rounded with a pale lustre caught from through a cloud low down in the awakening sky from the trees came the sound of steady dripping upon the drifted leaves under them and from the	45
direction of the church she could hear another noise peculiar and not like the rest the of water falling into a pool knocked at eight o clock and unlocked the door what a heavy rain had in the night ma am said when her inquiries about breakfast had been made yes very heavy did you hear the strange noise from the churchyard i heard one strange noise i ve been thinking it must have been the water from the tower well that s what the shepherd was saying ma am he s now gone on to see oh has been here this morning only just looked in in passing quite in his old way which i thought he had left off lately but the tower used to on the stones and we are puzzled for this was like the boiling of a pot not being able to read think or work asked to stay and breakfast with her the tongue of the more childish woman still ran upon recent events are you going across to the church ma am she asked far from the crowd not that know of said i thought you might like to go and see where ihey have put the trees hide the place from your window had all sorts of about meeting her husband has mr been in to night she said no ma am i think he s gone to the sound of the word carried with it a much diminished perspective of him and his deeds there were fifteen miles interval them now she hated questioning about her husband s movements and indeed had hitherto avoided doing so but now all the house knew that there had been some dreadful between them and it was futile to attempt disguise had reached a stage at which people cease to have any regard for public opinion what makes you think he has gone there she said tall saw him on the road this morning before breakfast was relieved of that of the past twenty four hours which had the vitality of youth in her without the philosophy of years and she resolved to go out and walk a little way so when breakfast was over she put on her bonnet and took a direction towards the church it was nine o clock and the men having returned to work again from their first meal she was not likely to meet many of them in the road knowing that had been laid in the quarter of the called in the parish behind church which was invisible from the road it was impossible to resist the impulse to enter and look upon spot which from nameless feelings she at the same time dreaded to see she had been unable to overcome an impression that some connection existed between her rival and the through the trees the its doings skirted the and beheld the hole and the tomb its delicately surface and stained just as had seen it and left it two hours earlier on the other side of the scene stood his eyes too were fixed on the tomb and her arrival having been noiseless she had not as yet attracted his attention did not at once perceive that the grand tomb and the disturbed grave were s and she looked on both sides and around for some mound up and in the usual way then her eye followed oak s and she read the words with which the inscription opened erected by francis in beloved memory of robin oak saw her and his first act was to gaze and learn how she received this knowledge of the of the work which to himself had caused considerable astonishment but such discoveries did not much affect her now seemed to have become the of her history and she bade him good morning and asked him to fill in the hole with the which was standing by whilst oak was doing as she desired collected the flowers and began planting them with that sympathetic of roots and leaves which is so conspicuous in a woman s and which flowers seem to understand and upon she requested oak to get the to turn the at the mouth of the that hung gaping down upon them that by this means the stream might be directed sideways and a repetition of the accident prevented finally with the superfluous of a woman whose instincts have brought down bitterness upon her instead of love she wiped the mud spots from the tomb as if she rather liked its words than otherwise and went home again far from the crowd ad by the shore i wandered along towards the south a feeling made up of disgust with the to him of a farmer s life gloomy im es of her who lay in the churchyard remorse and a general to his wife s society impelled him to seek a home in any place on earth save the sad of s end confronted him as vivid pictures which threatened to be and made ufe in s house intolerable at three in the afternoon he found himself at the foot of a slope more than a mile in length which ran to the ridge of a range of hills lying parallel with the shore and forming a monotonous barrier between the basin of cultivated country inland and the scenery of the coast up the hill stretched a road perfectly straight and perfectly while the two sides approaching each other in a gradual till they met the sky at the top about two miles off throughout the length of this narrow and irksome inclined plane not a sign of life was visible on this afternoon j toiled up the road with a languor and depression greater than any he had experienced for many a day and year before the air was warm and and the top seemed to as he approached at last he	45
reached the summit and a wide and s adventures bv the shore novel prospect burst upon him with an effect almost like that of the pacific upon s gaze the broad sea marked only by faint lines which had a semblance of being to a degree not deep enough to disturb its general stretched the whole width of his front and round to the right where near the town and port of the sun down upon it and banished all colour to substitute in its place a clear polish nothing moved in sky land or sea except a of foam along the nearer angles of the shore of which licked the stones like tongues he descended and came to a small basin of sea enclosed by the cliffs s nature within him he thought he would rest and here before going farther he and plunged in inside the the water was uninteresting to a being smooth as a pond and to get a little of the ocean swell presently swam between the two projecting spurs of rock which formed the pillars of to this miniature unfortunately for a current unknown to him existed outside which unimportant to of any burden was awkward for a who might be taken in it unawares found himself carried to the left and then round in a out to sea he now recollected the place and its sinister character many had there prayed for a dry death from time to time and like also had been and began to deem it possible that he might be added to their number not a boat of any kind was at present within sight but far in the distance lay upon the sea as it were quietly regarding his efforts and beside the town the harbour showed its position by a dim of ropes and well nigh himself in attempts to get back to the mouth of the in his weakness l far from the crowd swimming several inches deeper than was his wont keeping up his breathing entirely by his nostrils turning upon his back a dozen over swimming en and so on resolved as a last resource to tread water at a slight incline and so endeavour to reach the shore at any point merely giving himself a gentle whilst carried on in the general tion of the tide this necessarily a slow process he found to be not altogether so difficult and though there was no choice of a landing place the objects on shore passing hy him in a sad and slow procession he approached the extremity of a spit of land yet further to the right now well defined against the sunny portion of the horizon while the s eyes were fixed upon the spit as his only means of salvation on this side of the unknown a moving object broke the outline of the extremity and immediately a ship s boat appeared with several sailor lads her bows towards the sea all s vigour revived to the struggle yet a little further swimming with his right arm he held up his left to hail them upon the waves and shouting with all his might from the position of the setting sun his white form was distinctly visible upon the now deep bosom of the sea to the east of the boat and the men saw him at once their oars and putting the boat about they pulled towards him with a will and in five or six minutes from the time of his first two of the sailors hauled him in over the stern they formed part of a s crew and had come ashore for sand him what little clothing they could spare among them as a slight protection against the rapidly air they to land him in the morning and without delay for it was growing late they made again the where vessel lay adventures by the shore and now night drooped slowly upon the wide watery in front and at no great distance from them where the shore line curved round and formed a long of shade upon the horizon a series of points of yellow light began to start into existence the spot to be the site of where the lamps were being lighted along the parade the of their oars was the only sound of any distinctness upon the sea and as they amid the shades the lamp lights grew larger each appearing to send a flaming sword deep down into the waves before it until there arose among other dim shapes of the kind the form of the vessel for which they were bound far from the crowd doubts arise doubts vanish the of her husband s absence from hours to days with a slight feeling of surprise and a slight feeling of relief yet neither sensation rose at any time far above the level commonly as indifference she belonged to him the of that position were so well defined and the reasonable of its issue so bounded that she could not on taking no further interest in herself as a splendid woman she acquired the indifferent feelings of an in contemplating her probable fate as a singular wretch for drew herself and her future in colours that no reality could exceed for darkness her original vigorous pride of youth had and with it had declined all her anxieties about coming years since anxiety a better and a worse alternative and had made up her mind that on any scale had ceased for her soon or later and that not very late her husband would be home again and then the days of their of the upper farm would be numbered there had originally been shown by the agent to the estate some distrust of s as james s successor on the score of her sex and her youth and her beauty doubts arise but the peculiar nature of her uncle s	45
will his own frequent testimony before his death to her cleverness in such a pursuit and her vigorous of the numerous flocks and herds which came suddenly into her hands before were concluded had won confidence in her powers and no further objections had been raised she had been in great doubt as to what the legal effects of her marriage would be upon her position but no notice had been taken as yet of her change of name and only one point was clear that in the event of her own or her husband s inability to meet the agent at the january rent day very little consideration would be shown and for that matter very little would be deserved once out of the farm the approach of poverty would be sure hence lived in a perception that her purposes were broken off she was not a woman who could hope on without good materials for the process thus from the less far sighted and energetic though more ones of the sex with whom hope goes on as a sort of which the merest food and shelter are sufficient to wind up and perceiving clearly that her mistake had been a fatal one she accepted her position and waited coldly for the end the first saturday after s departure she went to alone a journey she had not before taken since her marriage on this saturday was passing slowly on foot through the crowd of rural business men gathered as usual in front of the who were as usual gazed upon by the with feelings that those healthy lives were dearly paid for by from possible when a man who had apparently been following her said some words to another on her left hand s ears were keen as those of any wild animal and she distinctly heard what the speaker said though her back was towards him far from the crowd i am looking for mrs is that she there yes that s the young lady i believe said the person addressed i have some awkward news to break to her her husband is drowned as if endowed with the spirit of prophecy gasped out oh it is not true it cannot be true i then she said and heard no more the ice of which had gathered over her was broken and the currents burst forth again and overwhelmed her a darkness came into her eyes and she fell but not to ihe ground a gloomy man who had been observing her from under the of the old corn exchange when she passed through the group without stepped quickly to her side at the moment of her exclamation and caught her in his arms as she sank down what is it said looking up at the of the big news as he supported her her husband was drowned this week while bathing in a man found his clothes and brought them into yesterday thereupon a strange fire lighted up s eye and his face flushed with the suppressed excitement of an unutterable thought everybody s glance was now u on him and the unconscious he lifted her bodily off the ground and smoothed down the folds of her dress as a child might have taken a storm beaten bird and arranged its ruffled and bore her along the pavement to the king s arms inn here he passed with her under the into a private room and by the time he had deposited so the precious burden upon a sofa had opened her eyes remembering all that had occurred she murmured i want to go home left the room he stood for a moment ia doubts arise the passage to recover his senses the experience had been too much for his consciousness to keep up with and now that he had grasped it it had gone again for those few heavenly golden moments she had been in his arms what did it matter about her not knowing it she had been close to his breast he had been close to hers he started onward again and sending a woman to her went out to ascertain all the facts of the case these appeared to be limited to what he had already heard he then ordered her horse to be put into the and when all was ready returned to inform her he found that though still pale and she had in the meantime sent for the man who brought the tidings and learnt from him all there was to know being hardly in a condition to drive home as she had driven to town with every delicacy of manner and feeling offered to get her a driver or to give her a seat in his which was more comfortable than her own conveyance these proposals gently declined and the farmer at once departed about half an hour later she herself by an effort and took her seat and the reins as usual in external appearance much as if nothing had happened she went out of the town by a back street and drove slowly along unconscious of the road and the scene the first shades of evening were showing themselves when reached home where silently and leaving the horse in the hands of the boy she proceeded at once upstairs met her on the landing the news had preceded to by half an hour and looked into her mistress s face had nothing to say she entered her bedroom and sat by the window and thought and thought till night enveloped her and the extreme lines only of her shape were visible somebody came to the door knocked and opened it c far from the crowd well what is it she said i was thinking there must be something got for you wear said with hesitation what do you mean mourning said but i suppose there i be something done for not at	45
present i think it is not necessary why not ma am p because he s still alive how do you know that said amazed i don t know it but wouldn t it have been different or shouldn t i have heard more or wouldn t they have found him or i don t know how it is but death would have been different from how this is i am full of a feeling that he is still alive remained firm in this opinion till monday when two circumstances to shake it the first was a short paragraph in the local newspaper which beyond making by a pen formidable evidence of s death by drowning contained the important testimony of a young mr m d of who spoke to being an of the accident in a letter to the editor in this he stated that he was passing over the cliff on the side of the just as the sun was setting at that time he saw a carried along in the current outside the mouth of the and guessed in an instant that there was but a poor chance for him unless he should be possessed of unusual muscular powers he drifted behind a of the coast and mr followed along ihe shore in the same direction but by the time that he could reach an elevation sufficiently great o command a of the sea beyond dusk had set in and nothing further was to be seen j doubts vanish the other circumstance was the arrival of his clothes when it became necessary for her to examine and identify them though this had been done long before by those who the letters in his pockets it was so evident to her in the midst of her agitation that had in the full conviction of dressing again almost immediately that the notion that anything but death could have prevented him was never entertained then said to herself that others were assured in their opinion and why should not she be a strange reflection occurred to her causing her face to flush had left her and followed into another world had he done this yet contrived to make his death appear like an accident oddly enough this thought of how the apparent might differ from the real made vivid by her jealousy of and the remorse he had shown that night blinded her to the perception of any other possible difference less tragic but to herself far more terrible when alone late that evening beside a small fire and much down took tree s watch into her hand which had been restored to her with the rest of the articles belonging to him she opened the case as he had opened it before her a week ago there was the little of pale hair which had been as the to this great explosion he was hers and she was his and they are gone together she said i am nothing to either of them and why should i keep her hair she took it in her hand and held it over the fire no i ll not burn it i ll keep it in memory of her poor thing she back her hand c far from the crowd oak s a great hope he later autumn and the winter drew on and the leaves lay thick upon the turf of the and the of the woods having previously been living in a state of suspended feeling which was not suspense now lived in a mood of which was not precisely while she had known him to be alive she could have thought of his death with but now that she believed she had lost him she regretted that he was not hers still she kept the farm going in her profits without caring keenly about them and expended money on because she had done so in days which though not long gone by seemed infinitely removed from her present she looked back upon that past over a great gulf as if she were now a dead person having the faculty of meditation still left in her by means of which like the of the poet s story she could sit and what a gift life used to be however one excellent result of her general was the long delayed of oak as but he having exercised that function for a long time already the change beyond the substantial in f oak s advancement of wages it brought was little more than a one addressed to the outside world lived secluded and much of his wheat and all his of that season had been spoilt by the rain it grew into intricate and was ultimately thrown to the pigs in the strange neglect which had produced this ruin and waste became the subject of whispered talk among all the people round and it was from one of s men that forgetfulness had nothing to do with it for he had been reminded of the danger to his corn as many times and as persistently as dared to do the sight of the pigs turning in disgust from the rotten ears seemed to arouse and he one evening sent for oak whether it was suggested by s recent act of promotion or not the farmer proposed at the interview that should undertake the of the lower farm as well as of s because of the necessity felt for such aid and the impossibility of discovering a more man s malignant star was assuredly setting fast when she learnt of this proposal for oak was obliged to consult her at first languidly objected she considered that the two farms together were too extensive for the observation of one man who was apparently determined by personal rather than commercial reasons suggested that oak should be furnished with a horse tor his sole use when the plan	45
would present no difficulty the two farms lying side by side did not directly communicate with her during these only speaking to oak who was the go between throughout all was arranged at last and we now see oak mounted on a strong and daily trotting the length and breadth of about two thousand acres in a cheerful spirit of as if the crops all r far from the crowd belonged to him the actual mistress of the one half and the master of the other sitting in their respective homes in gloomy and sad seclusion out of this there arose during the spring succeeding a talk in the parish that oak was his nest fast whatever d ye think said tall oak is coming it quite the he now wears shining boots with hardly a in em two or three times a week and a tall hat a sundays and a hardly knows the name of when i see people enough to be cut up into i stand with wonder and says no more it was eventually known that though paid a fixed by independent of the of agricultural profits had made an engagement with by which oak was to receive a share of the a small share certainly yet it was money of a higher than mere wages and capable of in a way that wages were not some were beginning to consider oak a near man for though his condition had thus far improved he lived in no better style than before occupying the same cottage his own potatoes mending his stockings and sometimes even making his bed with his own hands but as oak was not only indifferent to public opinion but a man who clung persistently to old habits and simply because they were old there was room for doubt as to his motives a great hope had in whose devotion to could only be as a fond madness which neither time nor circumstance evil good report could or destroy this hope had grown up again like a grain of seed during the quiet which followed the universal belief that was a great hope drowned he nourished it fearfully and almost the contemplation of it in earnest lest facts should reveal the of the dream having at last been persuaded to wear mourning her appearance as she entered the church in that guise was in itself a weekly addition to his faith that a time was coming very far off perhaps yet surely when his waiting on events should have its reward how long he might have to wait he had not yet closely considered what he would try to recognize was that the severe she had been subjected to had made much more considerate than she had formerly been of the feelings of others and he trusted that should she be willing at any time in the future to marry any man at all that man would be himself there was a of good feeling in her her self reproach for the injury she had done him might be depended upon now to a much greater extent than before her and disappointment it would be possible to approach her by the channel of her good nature and to suggest a friendly business like compact between them for fulfilment at some future day keeping the passionate side of his desire entirely out of her sight such was s hope to the eyes of the middle aged was perhaps charming just now her of spirit was down the original phantom of delight had shown herself to be not too bright for human nature s daily food and she had been able to enter this second poetical phase without losing much of the first in the process s return from a two months visit to her old aunt at afforded the impassioned and yearning farmer a pretext for inquiring directly after her now in the ninth month of her and endeavouring to get a notion of her far from the crowd state of mind regarding him this occurred in the middle of the and contrived to be near who was assisting in the fields i am glad to see you out of doors he said pleasantly she and wondered in her heart why he should speak so frankly to her i hope mrs is quite well after her long absence he continued in a manner expressing that the hearted neighbour could scarcely say less about her she is quite well sir and cheerful i suppose yes cheerful fearful did you say oh no i merely said she was cheerful tells you all her affairs no sir some of them yes sir mrs puts much confidence in you and very wisely perhaps she do sir i ve been her all through her troubles and was with her at the time of mr s death and all and if she were to marry again i expect i should bide with her she promises that you shall quite natural said the lover throbbing throughout him at the presumption which s words appeared to warrant that his darling had thought of re marriage no she doesn t promise it exactly i merely judge on my own account yes yes i understand when she to the possibility of marrying again you conclude she never do allude to it sir said thinking how very stupid mr was getting of course not he returned hastily his hope falling a great hope again you needn t take quite such long reaches with your short and quick ones are best well perhaps as she is absolute mistress again now it is wise of her to resolve never to give up her freedom my mistress did certainly once say though not seriously that she supposed she might marry again at the end of seven years from last year if she wished ah six years from the present	45
time said that she might she might marry at once in every reasonable person s opinion whatever the lawyers may say to the contrary have you been to ask them said innocently not i said bold wood red you needn t stay here a minute later than you wish so mr oak says i am now going on a little farther he went away vexed with himself and ashamed of having for this one time in his life done anything which could be called poor had no more skill in than a ram and he was uneasy with a sense of having made himself to appear stupid and what was worse mean but he had after all lighted upon one fact by way of it was a singularly fresh and fascinating fact and though not without its sadness it was and real in little more than six years from this time might certainly marry him there was definite in that hope for admitting that there might have been no deep thought in her words to about marriage they showed at least her creed on the matter this pleasant notion was now continually in his mind six years were a long time but how much shorter than never the idea he had for so long been obliged to endure jacob had served twice seven years for what were six for such a woman as this he tried to like the notion of waiting for her better than far from the crowd that of winning her at once felt his love to be so deep and strong and eternal that it was possible she had never yet known its full volume and this patience in delay would afford him an opportunity of giving sweet proof on the point he would the six years of his life as if they were minutes so little did he value his time on earth beside her love he would let her see all those six years of ethereal courtship how little care he had for anything but as it bore upon the meanwhile the early and the late summer brought round the week in which fair was held this fair was frequently attended by the folk of j the sheep fair the sheep fair touches his wife s hand was the of south and the day of the whole number was the day of the sheep fair this yearly gathering was upon the summit of a hill which retained in good preservation the remains of an ancient consisting of a huge and of an oval form the top of the hill though somewhat broken down here and there to each of the two chief on opposite sides a winding road ascended and the level green space of twenty or thirty acres enclosed by the bank was the site of the fair a few permanent dotted the spot but the majority of visitors canvas alone for resting and feeding under during the time of their here who attended with their flocks from long distances started from home two or three days or even a week before the fair driving their charges a few miles each day not more than ten or twelve and resting them at night in hired fields by the at previously chosen points where they fed having since morning the shepherd of each flock marched behind a bundle containing his for the week upon his shoulders and in his hand his which he used as the staff of his pilgrimage several of the sheep would get worn and lame and occasionally a occurred on the road to meet these there was frequently provided to accompany the flocks from the points a pony and into which the weakly ones were taken for the remainder of the journey the farms however were no such long distance from the hill and those arrangements were not necessary in their case the large united flocks of and farmer formed a valuable and imposing multitude which demanded much attention and on this account in addition to s shepherd and accompanied them along the way through the decayed old town of and upward to the old george the dog of course behind them when the autumn sun over this morning and lighted the flat upon its crest clouds of dust were to be seen floating the pairs of hedges which the wide prospect around in all directions these gradually upon the base of the hill and the flocks became visible climbing the ways wliich led to the top thus in a slow procession they entered the opening to which the roads tended multitude after multitude and blue flocks and red flocks flocks and brown flocks even green and salmon tinted flocks according to the fancy of the and custom of the farm men were shouting dogs were barking with greatest animation but the travellers in so long a journey had grown nearly indifferent to such terrors though they still at the of their experiences a tall shepherd rising here and there in the midst of them like a gigantic idol amid a crowd of prostrate the sheep fair the great mass of sheep in the fair consisted of south downs and the old to the latter class s and farmer s mainly belonged these filed in about nine o clock their horns gracefully on each side of their cheeks in perfect a small pink and white ear under each horn before and behind came other varieties perfect as to the full rich substance of their coats and only lacking the spots there were also a few of the breed whose wool was beginning to curl like a child s hair though surpassed in this respect by the which were in turn less curly than the but the most picturesque by far was a small flock of which chanced to be there this year their faces and legs dark and heavy horns of wool hanging round their	45
his that he fell he had not half enough considered the point she looked so charming and fair that his cool mood about people was changed he had not expected her to exercise this power over him in ihe twinkling of an eye should he go on and care nothing he could not bring to do that beyond a wish to remain unknown there suddenly arose in him now a sense of shame at the possibility that his far from the crowd attractive young wife who already despised him should despise him more by discovering him in so mean a condition after so long a time he actually blushed at the thought and was vexed beyond measure that his sentiments of dislike towards should have led him to daily about the country in this way but was never more clever than when absolutely at his wit s end he hastily thrust aside the curtain dividing his own little dressing space from that of the manager and proprietor who now appeared as the individual called tom king as far down as his waist and as the respectable manager thence to his toes here s the devil to pay said how s that why there s a in the tent i don t want to see who ll discover me and me as sure as satan if i open my mouth what s to he done vou must appear now i think i can t but the play must proceed do you give out that has got a bad cold and can t speak his part but that he ll perform tt just the same without speaking the proprietor shook his head anyhow play or no play i won t open my mouth said firmly very well then let see i tell you how we ll manage said the other who perhaps felt it would be extremely awkward to offend his leading man just at this time i won t tell em anything about your keeping silence go on with the piece and say nothing doing what you can by a judicious wink now and then and a few in the heroic places you know they ll never find out that the speeches are omitted this seemed enough for s speeches were not many or long the fascination of the piece the sheep fair lying entirely in the action and accordingly the play began and at the appointed time black into the grassy circle amid the of the spectators at the scene where and are hotly pursued at midnight by the officers and the half awake in his that any has passed uttered a broad well done which could be heard all over the fair above the and smiled with a nice sense of dramatic contrast between our hero who coolly leaps the gate and halting justice in the form of his enemies who must needs pull up and wait to be let through at the death of tom king he could not refrain from seizing by the hand and whispering with tears in his eyes f course he s not really shot only seemingly and when the last sad scene came on and the body of the gallant and faithful had to be carried out on a by twelve from among the spectators nothing could restrain from a hand exclaiming as he asked to join him be something to tell of at s in future years and hand down to our children for many a year in joseph told with the air of a man who had had experiences in his time that he touched with his own hand the of as she lay upon the board upon his shoulder if as some hold immortality consists in being in others memories then did black become immortal that day if she never had done so before meanwhile had added a few touches to his ordinary make up for the character the more effectually to disguise himself and though he had felt faint on first entering the effected by his face with a wire rendered him safe from the eyes of and her men nevertheless he was relieved when it was got through r far from the crowd there was a second performance in tlie evening and the tent was lighted up had taken his part very quietly this time venturing to introduce a few speeches on occasion and was just concluding it when whilst standing at the edge of the circle to the first row of spectators he observed within a yard of him the eye of a man darted keenly into his side features hastily shifted his position after having recognized in the the s his wife s enemy who hung about the outskirts of at first resolved to take no notice and abide by circumstances that he had been recognized by this man was highly probable yet there was room for a doubt then the great objection he had felt to allowing news of his to him to in the event of his return based on a feeling that knowledge of his present occupation would him still further in his wife s eyes returned in full force moreover should he resolve not to return at all a tale of his being alive and being in the neighbourhood would be awkward and he was anxious to acquire a knowledge of his wife s affairs before deciding which to do in this at once went out to it occurred to him that to find and make a friend of him if possible would be a very wise he had put on a thick beard borrowed from the establishment and in this he wandered about the it was now almost dark and respectable people were getting their carts and ready to go home the largest refreshment in the fair was provided by an from a neighbouring town this was considered an place for obtaining the necessary food and rest host as he	45
was called by the local newspaper being a substantial man of high lor through all the the sheep fair country round the tent was divided into first and second class and at the end of the division was a yet further for the most exclusive off from the body of the lent by a luncheon bar behind which the host himself stood bustling about in white apron and shirt sleeves and looking as if he had never lived anywhere but under canvas all his life in these were chairs and a table which on candles being lighted made quite a and luxurious show with an um silver tea and coffee pots china and cakes stood at the entrance to the where a woman was over a little fire of sticks and selling them at a penny a piece and looked over the heads of the people within he could see nothing of but he soon discerned through an opening into the reserved space at the further end thereupon retreated went round the tent into the darkness and listened he could hear s voice immediately inside the canvas she was conversing with a man a warmth his face surely she was not so as to in a fair i he wondered if then she reckoned upon his death as an absolute certainty to get at the root of the matter took a from his pocket and softly made two little cuts in the cloth which by folding back the corners left a hole the size of a close to this he placed his face withdrawing it again in a movement of surprise for his eye had been twelve inches of the top of s head it was too near to be convenient he made another hole a little to one side and lower down in a shaded place beside her chair from which it was easy and safe to survey her by looking took in the scene completely now she was leaning back a cup of tea that she held in her hand and the owner of the male voice was tar from the crowd who had just brought the cup to her being in a mood so idly against the canvas that it was pressed to the shape of her shoulder and she was in fact as good as in s arms and he was obliged to keep his breast carefully backward that she might not feel its warmth through the cloth as he gazed in found unexpected of feeling to be stirred again within him as they had been stirred earlier in the day she was handsome as ever and she was his it was some minutes before he could his sudden wish to go in and claim her then he thought how the proud girl who had always looked down upon him even whilst it was to love him would hate him on discovering him to be a strolling player were he to make himself known that chapter of his life must at all risks be kept for ever from her and from the people or his name would be a throughout the i he would be as long as he lived assuredly before he could claim her these few past months of his existence must be entirely blotted out shall i get you another cup before you start ma am said farmer thank you said but i must be going at once it was great neglect in that man to keep me waiting here till so late should have gone two hours ago if it had not been for him i had no idea of coming in here but there s nothing so refreshing as a cup of tea though i should never have got one if you hadn t helped me her cheek as lit by the candles and watched each varying shade and the white shell like of her little ear she took out her purse and was to on paying for her for herself when at this moment entered the tent trembled here was his scheme for respectability red at once he was about the sheep fair to leave his hole of to follow and find out if the ex had recognized him when he was arrested by the conversation and found he was too late excuse me ma am said ive some private information for your ear alone i cannot hear it now she said coldly that could not endure this man was evident in fact he was continually coming to her with some tale or other by which he might creep into favour at the expense of persons i ll write it down said confidently he stooped over the table pulled a leaf from a pocket book and wrote upon the paper in a round hand your husband is here seen him the fool now this he folded small and handed towards her would not read it she would not even put out her hand to take it then with a laugh of derision tossed it into her lap and turning away left her from the words and action of though he had not been able to see what the ex wrote had not a moment s doubt that the note referred to him nothing that he could think of could be done to check the exposure curse my luck he whispered and added which in the gloom like a wind meanwhile said taking up the note from her lap don t you wish to read it mrs if not i ll destroy it oh well said carelessly perhaps it is unjust not to read it but i can guess what it is about he wants me to recommend him or it is to tell me of some little scandal or another connected with my he s always doing that far from the crowd held th note in her right hand handed towards her a plate of cut bread when	45
in order to take a she put the note into her left hand where she was still holding the purse and then allowed her hand to drop beside her close to the canvas the moment had come for saving his game and that he would play the card for yet another time he looked at the fair hand and saw the pink finger tips and the blue veins of the wrist encircled by a of coral which she wore how familiar it all was to him then with the action in which he was such an he noiselessly slipped his hand under the bottom of the tent cloth which was far from being pinned tightly down lifted it a little way keeping his eye to the hole snatched the note from her fingers dropped the canvas and ran away in the gloom towards the bank and ditch smiling at the scream of astonishment which burst from her then slid down on the outside of the hastened round in the bottom of the to a distance of a hundred yards ascended again and crossed boldly in a slow walk towards the front entrance of the tent his object was now to get to and prevent a repetition of the announcement until such lime as he should choose reached the tent door and standing among the groups there gathered looked anxiously for evidently not wishing to make himself prominent by inquiring for him one or two men were speaking of a daring attempt that had just been made to rob a young lady by lifting the canvas of the tent beside her it was supposed that the rogue had imagined a slip of paper which she held in her hand to be a bank note for he had seized it and made off with it leaving her purse behind his and disappointment at discovering its would be a good it was said however the occurrence seemed to have touches his wife s hand known to few for it had not interrupted a who had lately begun playing by the door of the tent nor the four bowed old men with grim countenances and walking sticks in hand who were dancing major s to the tune behind these stood ways glided up to him beckoned and whispered a few words and with a mutual glance of the two men went into the night together far from the crowd talks with her li he arrangement for getting back again to had been that oak should take the place of in s conveyance and drive her home it being discovered late in the afternoon that joseph was suffering from his old complaint a eye and was therefore hardly as coachman and protector to a woman but oak had found himself so occupied and was full of so many cares relative to those portions of s flocks that were not disposed of that without telling oak or anybody resolved to drive home herself as she had many times done from market and trust to her good angel for performing the journey but having fallen in with farmer accidentally on her part at least at the she found it impossible to refuse his offer to ride on horseback beside her as escort it had grown twilight before she was aware but assured her that there was no cause for uneasiness as the moon would be up in half an hour immediately after the incident in the tent she had risen to go now absolutely alarmed and really grateful for her old lover s protection though absence whose company she would have much preferred talks with her as being more proper as well as more pleasant since he was her own managing man and servant this however could not be helped she would not on any consideration treat bo id wood harshly having once already ill used him and the moon having and the being ready she drove across the hill top in the ways which led downwards to obscurity as it seemed for the moon and the hill it with light were in appearance on a level the rest of the world lying as a vast shady between them mounted his horse and followed in close attendance behind thus they descended into the and the sounds of those left on the hill came like voices from the sky and the lights were as those of a camp in heaven they soon passed the merry in the immediate vicinity of the hill traversed and got upon the high road the keen instincts of had perceived that the farmer s devotion to herself was still and she deeply the sight had quite depressed her this evening had reminded her of her folly she wished anew as she had wished many months ago for some means of making for her fault hence her pity for the man who so persistently loved on to his own injury d permanent gloom had betrayed into n of manner which appeared almost like tenderness and gave new vigour to the exquisite dream of a jacob s seven years service in poor s mind he soon found an excuse for advancing from his position in the rear and rode close by her side they had gone two or three miles in the moonlight speaking across the wheel of her concerning the fair farming oak s usefulness to them both and other subjects when said suddenly and simply l far the crowd mrs you will many again some day this point blank confused her and it was not till a minute or had elapsed that she said i have not seriously thought of any such subject i quite understand that yet your late husband has been dead nearly one year and you forget that his death was never absolutely proved and so i suppose i am not a widow she said catching at the straw of escape that the fact afforded not	45
absolutely proved perhaps but it was proved a man saw him drowning too no reasonable person has any doubt of his death not have you ma am i should imagine i have none now or i should have acted differently she said gently i certainly at first had a strange unaccountable feeling that he could not have perished but i have been able lo explain that in several ways since but though i am fully persuaded that i shall see no more i am far from thinking of marriage with another i should be very contemptible to indulge in such a thought they were silent now awhile and having struck into an track is a common the of s saddle and her springs were all sounds to be heard ended the pause do you remember when carried you fainting in my arms into the king s arms in every dog has his day that was mine know i know it all she said hurriedly i for one shall never cease that events so fell out as to deny you lo me i too am very sorry she said and then checked herself i mean you know i am sorry you thought i have always this dreary pleasure in thinking over talks with her those past times with you that i was something to you before he was anything and that you belonged almost to me but of course that s nothing you never liked me i did and respected you too do you now yes which how do you mean which do you like me or do you respect me i don t know at least i cannot tell you it is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs my treatment of you was thoughtless wicked i shall regret it if there had been anything i could have done to make amends i would most gladly have done it there was nothing on earth i so longed to do as to repair the error but that was not possible don t blame yourself you were not so far in the wrong as you suppose suppose you had real complete proof that you are what in fact you are a widow would you repair the old wrong to me by marrying me i cannot say i shouldn t yet at any rate but you might at some future time of your life h yes i might at some time well then do you know that without further proof of any kind you may marry again in about six years from the present subject to nobody s objection or blame oh yes she said quickly i know all that but don t talk of it seven or six years where may we all be by that time they will soon glide by and it will seem an short time to look back upon when they are past much less than to look forward to now far from the crowd yes yes i have found that in my own experience now listen once more pleaded if i wait time will you marry me you own that you owe me amends let that be your way of making them but mr six years do you want to be the wife of any other man no indeed i mean that i don t like to talk about this matter now perhaps it is not proper and i ought not to allow it let us drop it for the present please do of course i ll drop the subject if you wish propriety has nothing to do with reasons i am a middle aged man willing to protect you for the remainder of our lives on your side at least there is no passion or haste on mine perhaps there is but i can t help seeing that if you choose from a feeling of pity and as you say a wish to make amends to make a bargain with me for a far ahead time an agreement which will set all things right and make me happy late though it may be there is no fault to be found with you as a woman hadn t i the first place beside you haven t you been almost mine once already surely you can say to me as much as this you will have me back again should circumstances permit now pray speak o promise it is only a little promise that if you marry again you will marry me i his tone was so excited that she almost feared him at this moment even whilst she it was a simple physical the weak of the strong there was no aversion or inner she said with some distress in her voice for she remembered vividly his outburst on the road and shrank from a repetition of his anger will never marry another man whilst you wish to be your wife whatever comes but to say more you have taken me so by surprise talks with her but let it stand in these simple words that in six years time you will be my wife unexpected accidents we ll not mention because those of course must be given way to now this time i know you will keep your word that s why i hesitate to give it but do give it remember the past and be kind she breathed and then said mournfully oh what shall i do i don t love you and i much fear that i never shall love you as much as a woman ought to love a husband if you sir know that and i can yet give you happiness by a mere promise without feeling and just in friendliness to marry at the end of six	45
years it is a great honour to me and if you value such an act of friendship from a woman who doesn t esteem herself as she did and has little love left why i i will promise consider if i cannot promise soon but soon is perhaps never oh no it is not i mean soon christmas we ll say christmas he said nothing further till he added well i ll say no more to you about it till that time was in a very peculiar state of mind which showed how entirely the soul is the slave of the body the ethereal spirit dependent for its quality upon the flesh and blood it is hardly too much to say that she felt by a force stronger than her own will not only into the act of promising upon this singularly remote and vague matter but into the emotion of that she ought to promise when the weeks intervening between the night of this conversation and christmas day began to her anxiety and perplexity increased b ar from the one day she was led by an accident into an oddly confidential dialogue with about her difficulty il afforded her a uttle relief of a dull and cheerless kind they were accounts and something occurred in the course of their labours which led oak to say speaking of he ll never forget you ma am never then out came her trouble before she was aware and she told him how she had again got into the toils what had asked her and how he was expecting her assent the most mournful reason of all for my agreeing to it she said sadly and the true reason why think to do so for good or for evil is this it is a thing have not breathed to a living soul as yet i that if i don t give my word he ll go out of his mind really do said gravely i believe this she continued with reckless frankness and heaven i say it in a spirit the very reverse of vain i am grieved and troubled to my soul about it i believe i hold that man s future in my hand his career depends entirely upon my treatment of him o i tremble at my responsibility for it is terrible i well i think this much ma am as i told you years ago said oak that his life is a total blank whenever he isn t hoping for ee but i can t suppose i hope that nothing so dreadful hangs on to it as you fancy his natural manner has always been dark and strange you know but since the case is so sad and odd like why don t ye give the promise i think i would but is it right some rash acts of my past life have taught me hat a watched woman must have very much to retain only a very little credit and i do want and long to be discreet in this i and six why we may all be in our by that talks with oak time indeed the long time and the uncertainty of the whole thing give a sort of absurdity to the scheme now isn t it preposterous however he came to dream of it i cannot think but is it wrong you know you are older than i eight years older ma am yes eight and is it wrong perhaps it would be an uncommon agreement for a man and woman to make i don t see anything really wrong about it said oak slowly in fact the very thing that makes it doubtful if you ought to marry en under any condition that is your not caring about him for i mid suppose yes you may suppose that love is wanting she said shortly love is an utterly miserable thing with me for him or any one else well your want of love seems to me the one thing that takes away harm from such an agreement with him if wild heat had to do wi it making ye long to overcome the awkwardness about your husband s death it mid be wrong but a cold hearted agreement to oblige a man seems different somehow the real sin ma am in my mind lies in thinking of ever wedding wi a man you don t love honest and true that i m willing to pay the penalty of said firmly you know this is what i cannot get off my conscience that i once seriously injured him in sheer idleness if i had never played a trick upon him he would never have wanted to marry me oh if could only pay some heavy in money to him for the harm did and so get the sin off my sou that way well there s the debt which can only be discharged in one way and i believe i am bound to do it if it honestly lies in my power without any consideration of my own future at all when a away his expectations the fact that it is an inconvenient debt doesn t make him the less r k far from the crowd i ve been a and the single point i ask you is con that my own scruples and the fact that in the eye of the law my husband is only missing will keep any man from marrying me until seven years have passed am i to u such an idea even though tis a sort of penance for it will be that i hate the act of marriage under such circumstances and the class of women i should seem to belong to by doing it seems to that all depends upon you think as everybody else do that your husband is dead yes	45
i ve long ceased to doubt that i well know what would have brought him back long before this lime if he had lived well then in a religious sense you must be as free to think o marrying again as any other widow of one year s standing but why don t ye ask mr s advice on how to treat mr no when want broad d opinion for general distinct from special advice never go to a man who in the subject so i like the parson s opinion on law the lawyer s on the doctor s on business and my business man s that is on morals and on love my own i m afraid there s a in that ment said oak with a grave smile she did not reply at and then saying good evening mr oak went away she had spoken frankly and neither asked nor expected any reply from more satisfactory than that she had obtained yet in the parts of her heart there existed at this minute a little pang of disappointment for a reason she would not allow herself to recognize oak had not once talks with oak wished her free that he might marry her himself had not once said i could wait for you as well as he that was the insect sting not that she would have listened to any such oh no for wasn t she saying all the time that such thoughts of the future were improper and wasn t far too poor a man to speak sentiment to her yet he might have just hinted about that old love of his and asked in a playful off hand way if he might speak of it it would have seemed pretty and sweet no more and then she would have shown how kind and a woman s no can sometimes be but to give such cool advice the very advice she had asked for it ruffled our heroine all the afternoon far from the crowd courses christmas eve came and a party that was to give in the evening was the great subject of talk in it was not that the of christmas parties in the parish made this one a wonder but that should be the the announcement had had an and sound as if one should hear of playing in a cathedral aisle or that some much respected judge was going upon the stage that the party was intended to be a truly jovial one there was no room for doubt a large bough of had been brought from the woods that day and suspended in the hall of the bachelor s home and ivy had followed in from six that morning till past noon the huge wood fire in the kitchen roared and sparkled at its highest the kettle the and the three legged pot appearing in the midst of the flames like and moreover and operations were continually carried on in front of the genial blaze as it grew later the fire was made up in the large long hall into which the staircase descended and all were cleared out for dancing the log courses was to the back brand of the evening fire the trunk of a tree so that it could be neither brought nor rolled to its place and accordingly four men were to be observed dragging and heaving it in by chains and as the hour of assembly drew near in spite of all this the spirit of was wanting in the atmosphere of the house such a thing had never been attempted before by its owner and it was now done as by a intended would insist upon appearing like solemn the organization of the whole effort was carried out coldly by and a shadow seemed to move about the rooms saying that the proceedings were unnatural to the place and the lone man who lived therein and hence not good ii was at this time in her room dressing for the event she had called for candles and entered and placed one on each side of her mistress s don t go away said almost timidly am foolishly agitated i cannot tell why wish i had not been obliged to go to this dance but there s no escaping now i have not spoken to mr since the autumn when i promised to see him at christmas on business but i had no idea there was to be anything of this kind but i would go now said who was going with her for bad been in his invitations yes i shall make my appearance of course said but i am cause of the party and that me don t tell oh no ma am you the cause of it ma am yes i am the reason of the party i if it had far from th not been for me there would never have been one i can t explain any more there s no more to be explained i wish i had never seen that s wicked of you to wish to be worse off than you are no have never been free from trouble since i d here and this party is likely to bring me more now fetch my black silk dress and see how it sits upon me but you will leave off that surely ma am you have been a widow lady fourteen months and ought to up a little on such a night as this is it necessary no i will appear as usual for if i were to wear any light dress people would say things about me and i should seem to be rejoicing when am solemn all the time the party doesn t suit me a bit but never mind stay and help to finish me off ill was dressing also at this	45
him i t been able to learn there s a deal of feeling on his side seemingly but i don t answer for her i didn t know a word about any such thing till yesterday and all i heard then was that she was to the party at his house to night this is the first time she has ever gone there they say and they say that she ve not so much as spoke to him since they were at fair but what can folk believe o t how far from the crowd ever she s not fond of ham quite and quite less i know i m not so sure of that she s a handsome woman is she not own that you never saw a finer or more splendid creature in your hfe upon my honour when i set eyes upon her that day wondered what i could have been made of to be able to leave her by herself so long and then i was with that show which i m free of at last thank the stars he smoked on awhile and then added how did she look when you passed by yesterday oh she took no great heed of me ye may well fancy j but she looked well enough far s i know just flashed her haughty eyes upon poor body and then let them go past me to what was much as if i d been no more than a tree she had just got off her mare to look at the last down of for the year she had been riding and so her colours were up and her breath rather quick so that her bosom and fell and every time plain to my eye ay and there were the round her wringing down the cheese and bustling about and sayings ware o the ma am spoil yer gown never mind me says she then brought her some of the new and she must needs go drinking it through a and not in a way at all says she bring indoors a few and i ll make some wine i was no more to her than a morsel of in the i i must go and find her out at once oh yes i see that i must go oak is head man still isn t he yes a b and at little he everything him to n of her or any other b courses i don t know about that she can t do him and knowing it well he s pretty independent and she ve a few soft corners to her mind though i ve never been able to get into one the devil s in t ah she s a above you and you must own it a higher class of animal a finer however stick to me and neither this haughty goddess dashing piece of womanhood wife of mine was a goddess you know nor anybody else shall hurt you but all this wants looking into i perceive what with one thing and another i see that my work is weu cut out for me how do i look to night said giving a final to her dress before leaving the glass i never saw you look so well before yes i ll tell you when you looked like it that night a year and a half ago when you came in so wild like and us for making remarks about you and mr everybody will think that i am setting myself to mr bold wood i suppose she murmured at least they ll say so can t my hair be brushed down a little flatter i dread going yet i dread the risk of him by staying away anyhow ma am you can t well be dressed than you are unless you go in at once tis your excitement is what makes you look so noticeable to night i don t know what s the matter i feel wretched at one time and at another i wish i could have continued quite alone as i have been for the last year or so with no hopes and no fears and no pleasure and no grief now just suppose mr should ask you far from the crowd only just suppose it to run away with him what would you do ma am none of that said gravely mind i won t hear joking on any such matter do you hear i beg pardon ma am but knowing what rum things we women be i just said however won t speak of it again no marrying for me yet for many a year if ever be for reasons very very different from those you think or others will believe i now get my cloak for it is time to go vi oak said before go i want to mention what has been passing in my mind lately that little arrangement we made about your share in the farm i mean that share is small loo small considering how little i attend to business now and how much time and thought you give to it well since the world is brightening for me want to show my sense of it by increasing your proportion in the i ll make a of the arrangement which struck me as likely to be convenient for i haven t lime lo talk about it now and then we ll discuss it at our leisure my intention is ultimately to retire from the management and until you can lake all the expenditure upon your shoulders i ll be a sleeping partner in the then if i marry her and hope i feel i shall why pray don t speak of it sir said oak we don t know what may happen so many may befall ee there	45
s many a slip as they say and i would advise you i know you ll pardon me this once i know i know but the feeling i have about increasing your share is on account of what i know of you courses oak i have learnt a about your secret your interest in her is more than that of for an employer but you have behaved hke a man and i as a sort of successful rival successful partly through your goodness of heart should ike definitely to show my sense of your friendship under what must have been a great pain to you oh that s not necessary thank ee said oak hurriedly i must get used to such as that other men have and so i oak then left him he was uneasy on s account for he saw anew that this constant passion of the farmer made him not the man he once had been as continued awhile in his room alone ready and dressed to receive his company the mood of anxiety about his appearance seemed to pass away and to be succeeded by a deep solemnity he looked out of the window and regarded the dim outline of the trees upon the sky and the twilight deepening to darkness then he went to a locked closet and took from a locked drawer therein a small circular case the size of a box and was about to put it into his pocket but he lingered to open the cover and take a momentary glance inside it contained a woman s finger ring set all the way round with small diamonds and from its appearance had evidently been recently purchased s eyes dwelt upon its many a long time though that its material aspect concerned him little was plain from his manner and mien which were those of a mind following out the presumed thread of that jewel s future history the noise of wheels at the front of the house became audible closed the box it away carefully in his pocket and went out upon the landing the old man who was his came at the same moment to the foot of the stairs doing crowd they be coming sir lots of era a foot and ad i was coming down this moment those wheels i heard is it mrs no sir tis not she yet a reserved and sombre expression had returned to s face again but it poorly his feelings when he pronounced s name and his feverish anxiety continued to show its existence by a galloping motion of his fingers upon the side of his as he went down the stairs vii how does this cover me said to nobody would recognize me now i m sure he was on a heavy grey overcoat of cut with cape and high collar the latter being erect and rigid like a wall and nearly reaching to the verge of a travelling cap which was pulled down over his ears the candle and then looked up and deliberately you ve made up your mind to go then he said made up my mind yes of course have why not write to her tis a very queer comer that you have got into you see all these things will come to light if you go back and they won t sound well at all faith if i was you i d even bide as you be a single man of the name of francis a good wife is good but the best wife is not so good as no wife al all now that s my mind and i ve been called a long headed here and there all nonsense said angrily there she is with plenty of money and a house and farm and horses and comfort and here am i living from hand to courses mouth a adventurer besides it is no use talking now it is too late and i am glad of it i ve been seen and recognized here this very afternoon i should have gone back to her the day after the fair if it hadn t been for you talking about the law and rubbish about getting a separation and i don t put it off any longer what the deuce put it into my head to run away at all i can t think sentiment that s what it was but what man on earth was to know that his wife would be in such a hurry to get rid of his name i should have known it she s bad enough for anything mind who you are talking to well all i say is this that if i were you i d go abroad again where i came from t too late to do it now i wouldn t stir up the business and get a bad name for the sake of living with her for all that about your play acting is sure to come out you know although you think otherwise my eyes and limbs there ll be a if you go back just now in the middle of s h m yes i expect i shall not be a very welcome guest if he has her there said the with a slight laugh a sort of the brave and when i go in the guests will sit in silence and fear and all laughter and pleasure will be hushed and the lights in the chamber burn blue and the worms horrible ring for some more brandy n i felt an awful shudder just then well what is there besides a stick i must have a walking stick now felt himself to be in something of a difficulty for should and become reconciled it would be necessary to regain her good opinion if he would	45
secure the patronage of her husband i sometimes think she likes you yet and is a good woman at bottom he said as a saving sentence but there s no telling to a certainty from a body s outside well far from the crowd do as you like about going of course and as for me i ll do as you tell me now let me see what the time is said after his glass in one draught as he stood six o clock i shall not hurry along the road and shall be there then before nine c outside the front of s house a group of men stood in the dark with their faces towards the door which occasionally opened and closed for the passage of some guest or servant when a golden rod of light would the ground for the moment and vanish again leaving nothing outside but the shine of the pale lamp amid the over the door he was seen in this afternoon so the boy said one of them remarked in a whisper and i for one believe it his body was never found you know tis a strange story said the next you may depend upon t that she knows nothing about it not a word perhaps he don t mean that she shall said another man if he s alive and here in the neighbourhood he means mischief said the first poor young thing i do pity her if tis true he ll drag her to the dogs oh no he ll settle down quiet enough said one disposed to take a more hopeful view of the case what a fool she must have been ever to have had anything to do with the man she is so self willed and independent too that one is more minded to say it serves her right than pity her far from the crowd no no i don t hold with ye there she was no otherwise than a girl mind and how could she tell what the man was made of if tis really true tis too hard a punishment and more than she ought to who s that this was to some footsteps that were heard approaching william said a dim figure in the shades coming up and joining them dark as a hedge tonight isn t it i all but missed the plank over the river art there in the bottom never did such a thing before in my life be ye any of s he peered into their faces yes all o us we met here a few minutes ago h i hear now that s sam thought i the voice too going in presently but i say william whispered have ye heard this strange tale what that about being seen d ye mean souls said also lowering his voice ay in yes i have tall named a hint of it to me but now but i don t think it hark here comes himself a b a footstep drew near yes tis i said tall have ye heard any more about that no said tall joining the group and i m inclined to think we d better keep quiet if so be tis not true her and do her much harm to repeat it and if so be tis true do no good to her time o trouble god send that it mid be a lie for though and some of em do speak against h she s never been anything but fair to me she s hot and hasty but she s a brave girl who ll never tell a lie however much the truth may harm her and i ve no cause to wish her evil she never do tell women s little lies that s true and tis a thing that can be said of very few ay all the harm she thinks she says to yer face there s nothing wi her they stood silent then every man busied with his own thoughts during which interval sounds of merriment could be heard within then the front door again opened the rays streamed out the well known form of was seen in the area of light the door closed and walked slowly down the path tis master one of the men whispered as he them we d better stand quiet he ll go in again directly he would think it o us to be here came on and passed by the men without seeing them they being under the bushes on the grass he paused over the gate and breathed a long breath they heard low words come from him i hope to god she ll come or this night will be nothing but misery to me oh my darling my darling why do you keep me in suspense like this he said this to himself and they all distinctly heard it remained silent after that and the noise from indoors was again just audible until a few minutes later light wheels could be distinguished coming down the hill they drew nearer and ceased at the gate hastened back to the door and opened it and the light shone upon coming up the path compressed his emotion to mere welcome the men marked her light laugh and apology as she met him he took her into the house and the door closed again gracious heaven i didn t know it was like that with him said one of the men i thought that fancy of his was over long ago you don t know much of master if you thought that said sam way far from the crowd i wouldn t he should know we heard what a said for the world remarked a third i wish we had told of the report at once the first uneasily continued more harm may come of this than we know	45
of poor mr it will be hard upon en i wish was in well god forgive me for such a wish a scoundrel to play a poor wife such tricks nothing has pro in since he came here and now i ve no heart to go in let s look into s shall as neighbours tall and agreed to go to s and went out at the gate the remaining ones house the three soon drew near the house approaching it from the adjoining orchard and not by way of the street the pane of glass was illuminated as usual was a little in advance of the rest when pausing he turned suddenly to his companions and said see there the light from the pane was now perceived to be shining not upon the wall as usual but upon some object close to the glass it was a human face let s come closer whispered and they approached on there was no the report any longer s face was almost close to the pane and he was looking in not only was he looking in but he appeared to have been arrested by a conversation which was in s in the house the voices of the being those of oak and the the is all in her honour isn t it hey said the old man although he made believe tis only keeping up o christmas i cannot say replied oak oh tis true enough faith i cannot understand being such a fool at his time of hfe as to ho and after woman in the way a and she not care a bit about en the men after s features withdrew across the orchard as quietly as they had come the air was big with s fortunes to night every word everywhere concerned her when they were quite out of all by one instinct paused it gave me quite a turn his face said tall breathing and so it did me said what s to be done i don t see that tis any business of ours murmured oh yes tis a thing which is everybody s business said we know very well that master s on a wrong tack and that she s quite in the dark and we should let em know at once you know her best you d better go and ask to speak to her i t fit for any such thing said nervously i should think william ought to do it if anybody he s oldest i shall have nothing to do with it said tis a business altogether why he ll go on to her himself in a few minutes ye ll see we don t know that he will come very well if i must i must i suppose tall reluctantly answered what must i say just ask to see master oh no i shan t speak to mr if i tell anybody be mistress very well said then went to the door when he opened it the hum of bustle rolled out as a wave upon a still strand the assemblage being immediately inside the hall and was to a murmur as he closed it again each man waited intently and looked around at the dark tree tops gently rocking against the sky and occasionally shivering in a slight wind as if he took interest in the scene which neither did one of them far from the crowd began walking up and and then came to where ho started from and stopped again with a sense that was a thing not worth doing now i should think must have seen mistress by this lime said breaking the silence perhaps she won t come and speak to him the door opened ta l appeared and joined them well said both i didn t like to ask for her after all faltered out they were all in such a stir trying to put a little spirit into the party somehow the fun seems to hang fire though everything s there that a heart can desire and i couldn t for my soul interfere and throw damp upon it if twas to save my life i couldn t i suppose we had better all go in together said gloomily perhaps i may have a chance of saying a word to master so the men entered the hall which was the room selected and arranged for the gathering because of its size the younger men and maids were at last just beginning a dance had been perplexed how lo act for she was not much more than a slim young maid herself and the weight of heavy upon her sometimes she thought she ought not to have come under any circumstances then she considered what cold that would have been and finally resolved upon the middle course of staying for about an hour only and gliding off unobserved having from the first made up her mind that she could on no account dance sing or take any active part in the proceedings her allotted hour having been passed in and looking on told not to hurry herself and went to the small to prepare for departure which like the hall was decorated with and ivy and well lighted up nobody was in the room but she had hardly been there a moment when the master of the house entered mrs you are not going he said hardly begun if you ll excuse me i should like to go now manner was for she remembered her promise and imagined what he was about to say but as it is not late she added i can walk home and leave my man and to come when they choose i ve been trying to get an opportunity of speaking to you said you know perhaps what i long to say silently looked on the floor you do give	45
it he said eagerly what she whispered now that s why the promise i don t want to intrude upon you at all or to let it become known to anybody but do give your word a mere business compact you know between two people who are beyond the influence of passion knew how false this picture was as regarded himself but he had proved that it was the only tone in which she would allow him to approach her a promise to marry me at the end of five years and three quarters you owe it to me i feel that i do said that is if you demand it but i am a changed woman an unhappy woman and not not you are still a very beautiful woman said honesty and pure conviction suggested the remark by any perception that it might have been adopted by blunt flattery to soothe and win her however it had not much effect now for she said in a murmur which was in itself a proof of her words i have no feeling in the matter at all and i don t at all know what is right to do in my difficult position and i have nobody to advise me but far from the crowd i give ray promise if i must i give it as the rendering of a debt you ll marry me between five and six years hence don t press me too hard i ll marry nobody but surely you will name the time or there s nothing in the promise at all oh i don t know pray let me go she said her bosom beginning to rise i am afraid what to do i want to be just to you and to be that seems to be myself and perhaps it is breaking the there is a shadow of a doubt of his death and then it is dreadful let me ask a mr if i say the words dear one and the subject shall be dismissed a loving intimacy of six years and then say them he begged in a voice unable to sustain the forms of mere friendship any longer promise yourself to me i deserve it indeed i do for i have loved you more than anybody in the world and if i said hasty words and showed for heat of manner towards you believe me dear i did not mean to distress you i was in agony and i did not know what i said you wouldn t let a dog suffer what i have suffered could you but know it sometimes i shrink from your knowing what i have felt for you and sometimes i am distressed that all of it you never will know be gracious and give up a little to me when i would give up my life for you the of her dress as they quivered against the light showed how agitated she was and at last she burst out crying and you ll not press me about anything more if i say in five or six years she when she had power to frame the words yes then i ll leave it to time she waited a moment very well i ll marry you li six years from this day if we both live she said solemnly and you ll take this as a token from me had come close to her side and now he clasped one of her hands in both his own and lifted it to his breast what is it oh i cannot wear a ring she exclaimed on seeing what he held besides i wouldn t have a soul know that it s an engagement perhaps it is improper besides we are not engaged in the usual sense are we don t insist mr don t in her trouble at not b ing able to get her hand away from him at once she stamped passionately on the flour with one foot and tears crowded to her eyes again it means simply a pledge no sentiment the seal of a practical compact he said more quietly but still retaining her hand in his firm grasp come now and slipped the ring on her finger i cannot wear it she said weeping as if her heart would break you frighten me almost so wild a scheme please let me go home only to night wear it just to night to please me sat down in a chair and buried her face in her handkerchief though kept her hand yet at length she said in a sort of hopeless whisper very well then i to night if you wish it so earnestly now my hand i will indeed i will wear it to night and it shall be the beginning of a pleasant secret courtship of six years with a wedding at the end p it must be i suppose since you will have it so i she said fairly beaten into non resistance pressed her hand and allowed it to drop in her lap i am happy now he said god bless you he the room and when he thought she might be sufficiently composed sent one of the maids to her far from the crowd the effects of the late scene as she best could followed the girl and iii a few moments came downstairs with her hat and cloak on ready to go to get to ihe door it was necessary to pass through the hall and b doing so she paused on the of the staircase which into one corner to take a last look at the gathering there was no music or dancing in progress just now at the lower end which had arranged for the specially a group conversed in whispers and with clouded looks was standing by the fireplace and he too though so absorbed	45
in visions arising from her promise that he scarcely saw anything seemed at that moment to have observed their peculiar manner and their looks what is it you are in doubt about men he said one of them turned and replied uneasily it was something heard of that s all sir news anybody married or engaged born or dead inquired ihe gaily tell it to us tall one would think from your looks and mysterious ways that it was something very dreadful indeed oh no sir nobody is dead said tall i wish somebody was said in a whisper what do you say asked somewhat sharply if you have anything to say speak out if not get up another dance mrs has come downstairs said lo tall if you want to tell her you had better do it now do you know what they mean the farmer asked across the room i don t in the least said there was a smart at the door one of ihe men opened it instantly and went outside mrs is wanted he said on returning lid i i didn t quite i tell them lo send it is a stranger ma am said the man by the door a stranger she said ask him to come in said the message was given and wrapped up to his eyes as we have seen him stood in the doorway there was an silence all looking towards the those who had just learnt that he was in the neighbourhood recognized him instantly those who did not were perplexed nobody noted she was leaning on the stairs her brow had heavily contracted her whole face was pallid her lips apart her eyes rigidly staring at their visitor was among those who did not notice that he was come in come in he repeated cheerfully and drain a christmas with us stranger next advanced into the middle of the room took off his cap turned down his coat collar and looked in the face even then did not recognize that the of heaven s persistent irony towards him who had once before broken in upon his bliss him and snatched his delight away had come to do these things a second time began to laugh a mechanical laugh recognized him now turned to the poor girl s wretchedness at this time was beyond all fancy or she had sunk down on the lowest stair and there she sat her mouth blue and dry and her dark eyes fixed upon him as if she wondered whether it were not all a terrible illusion then spoke i come here for you she made no reply come home with me come moved her feet a little but did not rise went across to her far from the crowd madam do you hear what i say he said a strange voice came from the fireplace a voice sounding far off and confined as if from a hardly a soul in the assembly recognized the thin tones to be those of sudden despair had transformed him go with your husband nevertheless she did not move the truth was that was beyond the pale of activity and yet not in a she was in a state of mental ai her mind was for the minute totally deprived of light at the same time that no was apparent from without stretched out his hand to pull her towards him when she quickly shrank back this visible dread of him seemed to and he seized her arm and pulled it sharply whether his grasp pinched her or whether his mere touch was the cause was never known but at the moment of his she and gave a quick low scream the scream had been heard but a few seconds when it was by a sudden report that echoed through the room and them all the oak shook with the and the place was filled with grey smoke in bewilderment they turned their eyes to at his back as he stood before the fireplace was a as is usual in constructed to hold two guns when had cried out in her husband s grasp bo s face of despair had changed f he veins had swollen and a look had gleamed in his eye he had turned quickly taken one of the guns cocked it and at once ed it at fell the distance apart of the two men was so small that the charge of shot did not spread in least but passed like a bullet into his body he uttered a long sigh there was a an extension then his muscles relaxed and he lay still was seen through the smoke to be now again engaged with the gun it was double and he had meanwhile in some way fastened his handkerchief to the and with his foot on the other end was in the act of turning the second barrel upon himself his man was the first to see this and in the midst of the general horror darted up to him had already the handkerchief and the exploded a second time sending its contents by a blow from into the beam which crossed the ceiling well it makes no difference gasped there is another way for me to die then he broke from crossed the room to and kissed her hand he put on his hat opened the door and went into the darkness nobody thinking of preventing him far from the crowd after the shock passed into the high road and turned in the direction of here he walked at an even steady pace over hill along the dead level beyond mounted hill and between eleven and twelve o clock crossed the into the town the streets were nearly deserted now and the waving lamp flames only lighted up rows of grey shop shutters and of white upon his step echoed as he passed along he turned	45
to the right and halted before an of heavy which was closed by an iron studded pair of doors this was the entrance to the and over it a lamp was fixed the light the wretched traveller to find a bell pull the small at last opened and a porter appeared stepped forward and said something in a low tone when after a delay another man came entered and the door was closed behind him and he walked the world no more long before this time had been thoroughly aroused and the wild deed which had terminated s became known to all of those out of the house oak was one of the first to hear of the catastrophe and when he entered the room which was about fi minutes after s after the shock exit the scene was terrible all the female guests were huddled aghast against the walls like sheep in a storm and the men were bewildered as to what to do as for she had changed she was sitting on the floor beside the body of his head in her lap where she had herself lifted it with one hand she held her handkerchief to his breast and covered the wound though scarcely a single drop of blood had flowed and with the other she tightly clasped one of his the household had made her herself again the temporary had ceased and activity had come with the necessity for it deeds of endurance which seem ordinary in philosophy are rare in conduct and was astonishing all around her now for her philosophy was her conduct and she seldom thought practicable what she did not practise she was of the stuff of which great men s mothers are made she was indispensable to high generation hated at tea parties feared in shops and loved at in his wife s lap formed now the sole spectacle in the middle of the spacious room she said when he entered turning up a face of which only the well known lines remained to tell him it was hers all else in the picture having faded quite ride to instantly for a surgeon it is i believe useless but go mr has shot my husband her statement of the fact in such quiet and simple words came with more force than a tragic and had somewhat the effect of setting the distorted images in each mind present into proper oak almost before he had comprehended anything beyond the abstract of the event hurried out of the room a horse and rode away not till he had ridden more than a mile did it occur to him that he would have done better by sending some other man on this errand remaining himself in the house what g loo w th far from the crowd had become of he should have been looked after was he mad had there been a quarrel then how had got there where had he come from how did this remarkable effect itself when he was supposed to be at the bottom of the sea oak had in some measure been prepared for the presence of by hearing a rumour of his return just before entering s house but before he had weighed that information this fatal event had been however it was too late now to think of sending another messenger and he rode on in the excitement of these self inquiries not when about three miles from a square figured passing along under the dark hedge in the same direction as bis own the miles necessary to be traversed and other to the of the hour and the darkness of the night delayed the arrival of mr the surgeon and more than three hours passed between the time at which the shot was fired and that of his entering the house oak was detained in having to give notice to the authorities of what had happened and he then found that had also entered the town and up in the meantime the surgeon having hastened into the hall at s found it in darkness and quite deserted he went on to the back of the where he discovered in the kitchen an old man of whom he made inquiries she s had him took away to her own sir said his who has said the doctor mrs a was quite dead sir this was astonishing information she had no right to do that said the doctor there will have after the shock to be an and she should have waited to know what to do yes sir it was hinted to her that she had better wait till the law was known but she said law was nothing to her and she wouldn t let her dear husband s corpse bide neglected for folks to stare at for all the in england mr drove at once back again up the hill to s the first person he met was poor who seemed literally to have smaller in these few latter hours what has been done he said i don t know sir said with suspended breath my mistress has done it all where is she upstairs with him sir when he was brought home and taken upstairs she said she wanted no further help from the men and then she called me and made me fill the bath and after that told me i had better go and lie down because i looked so ill then she locked herself into the room alone with him and would not let a nurse come in or anybody at all but i thought i d wait in the next room in case she should want me i heard her moving about inside for more than an hour but she only came out once and that was for more candles because hers had burnt down into the she said we were to let her know when	45
you or mr came sir oak entered with the parson at this moment and they all went upstairs together preceded by everything was silent as the grave when they paused on the landing knocked and s dress was heard rustling across the room the key turned in the lock and she opened the door her looks were calm and nearly rigid like a slightly animated bust of h mr you have come at last she far from the crowd murmured from her lips merely and threw back the door ah and mr i well all is done and anybody in the world may see him now she then passed by him crossed the landing and entered another room looking into the chamber of death she had they saw by the light of the candles which were on the drawers a tall straight shape lying at the further end of the bedroom wrapped in white everything around was quite orderly the doctor went in and after a few minutes returned to the landing again where oak and the parson still waited it is all done indeed as she says remarked mr in a subdued voice the body has been and properly laid out in grave clothes gracious heaven this mere girl she must have the nerve of a i the heart of a wife merely floated in a whisper about the ears of the three and turning they saw in the midst of them then as if at that instant to prove that her fortitude had been more of will than of she silently sank down between them and was a heap of on the floor the simple consciousness that strain was no longer required had at once put a period to her power to continue il they took her away into a further room and the medical attendance which had been useless in s case was invaluable in s who fell into a series of fainting fits that had a serious aspect for a time the sufferer was got to bed and oak finding from the that nothing really dreadful was to be apprehended on her score left the house kept watch in s chamber where she heard her mistress moaning in whispers through the dull slow hours of that wretched night oh it is my fault how can i live oh heaven how can i live i the march following the march following bold wood we pass rapidly on into the month of march to a day without sunshine frost or dew on hill about between and where the road passes over the crest a numerous of people had gathered the eyes of the greater number being frequently stretched afar in a direction the groups consisted of a throng of a party of men and two and in the midst were carriages one of which contained the high with the many of whom had mounted to the top of a cutting formed for the road were several men and boys among others and ball at the end of half an hour a faint dust was seen in the expected quarter and shortly after a bringing one of the two judges on the western circuit came up the hill and halted on the top the judge changed carriages whilst a flourish was blown by the big and a procession being formed of the and men they all proceeded towards the town excepting the men who as soon as they had seen the judge move off returned home again to their work far from the crowd joseph i you close to the carriage said as they walked did ye notice my lord judge s face i did said i looked hard at en as if i would read his very soul and there was mercy in his eyes or to speak with the exact truth required of us at this solemn time in the eye that was towards well i hope for the best said though bad that must be however i shan t go to the trial and i d advise the rest of ye t wanted to bide away disturb his mind more than anything to see us there staring at as if he were a show the very thing i said this morning observed joseph is come to weigh him in the balance i said in my way and if he s found warning so be it unto him and a said hear hear a man who can talk like that ought to be heard but i don t like dwelling upon it for my few words are my few words and not much though the speech of some men is abroad as though by nature formed for such so tis joseph and now neighbours as said every man bide at home the resolution was to and all waited anxiously for the news next day their suspense was diverted however by a discovery which was made in the afternoon throwing more light on s conduct and condition than any details which had preceded it that he had been from the time of fair until the fatal christmas eve in excited and unusual moods was known to those who had been with him but nobody imagined that had shown in him symptoms of the mental which and alone of all others and at different times had suspected ba a locked closet was now discovered an extraordinary of articles there were several sets of ladies dresses in the piece of sundry expensive materials and and all of colours which from s style of dress might have been judged to be her there were two and above all there was a case of containing four heavy gold and several and rings all of fine quality and manufacture these things had been bought in bath and other towns from time to time and brought home by they were all carefully packed in paper and each was a	45
date being six years in advance in every instance these somewhat pathetic evidences of a mind with care and love were the subject of discourse in s house when oak entered from with tidings of the sentence he came in the afternoon and his face as the glow shone upon it told the tale sufficiently well as every one supposed he would do had pleaded guilty and had been to death the conviction that had not been morally responsible for his later acts n ow became general facts previous to the trial had pointed strongly in the same direction but they had not been of sufficient weight to lead to an order for an examination into the state of s mind it was astonishing now that a presumption of insanity was raised how many circumstances were remembered to which a condition of mental disease seemed to afford the only explanation among others the neglect of his corn in the previous summer a petition was addressed to the home secretary advancing the circumstances which appeared to justify request for a of the sentence it was far from the crowd not signed by the inhabitants of as is usual in such cases for had never made many friends over the counter the shops thought it very natural that a man who by direct from the had set aside the first great principle of provincial existence namely that god made country villages to supply customers to country towns should have confused ideas about the the were a few merciful men who had perhaps too considered the facts and the result was that evidence was taken which it was hoped might remove the crime ill a moral point of view out of the of wilful murder and lead it to be regarded as a sheer of madness the of the petition was waited for in with interest the execution had been fixed for eight o clock an a morning about a fortnight after the sentence was passed and up to friday afternoon no answer had been received at that time came from whither he had been to wish good bye and turned down a by street to avoid the town when past the last house he heard a and lifting his bowed head he looked back for a moment over the chimneys he could see the upper part of the entrance rich and glowing in the afternoon sun and some moving figures were there they were lifting a post into a position within the he withdrew his eyes quickly and hastened on it was dark when he reached home and half the village was out to meet him no tidings said wearily and i m afraid there s no hope i ve been with him more than two hours do ye think he was out of his mind when be did it said i can t honestly say that i do oak replied however that we can talk of another time has there been any change in mistress this afternoon none at all is she downstairs no and getting on so nicely as she was too she s but very little better now again than she was a christmas she keeps on asking if you be come and if there s news till one s wearied out wi answering her shall i go and say you ve come no said oak there s a chance yet but i couldn t stay in town any longer after seeing him too so is here isn t he yes said tall what i ve arranged is that you shall ride to town the last thing to night leave here about nine and wait a while there getting home about twelve if nothing has been received by eleven to night they say there s no chance at all i do so hope his life will be spared said if it is not shell go out of her mind too poor thing her sufferings have been dreadful she deserves anybody s pity is she altered much said if you haven t seen poor mistress since christmas you wouldn t know her said her eyes are so miserable that she s not the same woman only two years ago she was a girl and now she s this departed as directed and at eleven o clock that night several of the villagers strolled along the road to and awaited his arrival among them oak and nearly all the rest of s men s anxiety was great that might be saved even though in his conscience he felt that he ought to die for there had been qualities in the farmer which oak loved at last when they all were weary the tramp of a horse was heard in the distance far from the crowd first dead as if on turf it then on the village road in other pace than forth he we shall soon know now one way or other said and they all stepped down from the bank on which they had been standing into the road and the rider into the midst of them is that you said yes tis come he s not to die tis confinement during her majesty s pleasure said with a swelling heart gk d s above the devil yet i beauty in loneliness be a in loneliness after all revived with the spring the utter that had followed the low fever from which she had suffered diminished when all uncertainty upon every subject had come to an end but she remained alone now for the greater part of her time and stayed in the house or at went into the garden she every one even and could be brought to make no confidences and to ask for no sympathy as the summer drew on she passed more of her time ih the open air and began to examine into farming matters from sheer necessity	45
though she never rode out or personally as at former times one friday evening in august she walked a little way along the road and entered the village for the first time since the sombre event of the preceding christmas none of the old colour had as yet come to her cheek and its absolute was heightened by the jet black of her gown till it appeared when she reached a little shop at the other end of the place which stood nearly opposite to the churchyard heard singing inside the church and she knew that the singers were she crossed the road opened the gate and entered the the high far from the crowd of the church windows her from the eyes of those gathered within her stealthy walk was to the nook wherein had worked at planting flowers upon robin s grave and she came to the marble a motion of satisfaction her face as she read the complete inscription first came the words ot himself erected by francis in beloved memory of robin who died october aged years underneath this was now inscribed in new letters in the same grave lie the remains of the francis who died december th aged z years whilst she stood and read and meditated the tones of the organ began again in the church and she went with the same light step round to the porch and listened the door was closed and the choir was learning a new hymn was stirred by emotions which she had assumed to be dead within her the little voices of the children brought to her ear in distinct utterance the words they sang without thought or comprehension the s feeling was always to some extent dependent upon her whim as is the case with many other women something big came into her throat and an to her eyes and she thought that she would beauty in loneliness allow the imminent tears to flow if they wished they did flow and and one fell upon the stone bench beside her once that she had begun to cry for she hardly knew what she could not leave off for crowding thoughts she knew too well she would have given anything in the world to be as those children were at the meaning of their words because too innocent to feel the necessity for any such expression all the impassioned scenes of her brief experience seemed to revive with added emotion at that moment and those scenes which had been without emotion during had emotion then yet grief came to her rather as a luxury than as the of former times owing to s face being buried in her hands she did not notice a form which came quietly into the porch and on seeing her first moved as if to retreat then paused and regarded her did not raise her head for some time and when she looked round her face was wet and her eyes drowned and dim mr oak exclaimed she disconcerted how long have you been here a few minutes ma am said oak respectfully are you going in said and there came from within the church as from a i loved the day and spite of fears pride ruled my will remember not past years i was said i am one of the bass singers you know i have sung bass for several months indeed wasn t aware of that i ll leave you then which i have loved long since and lost awhile sang the children don t let me drive you away mistress i think i won t go in to night oh no you don t drive me away far from the crowd then they stood in a state of some trying to wipe her dreadfully face without his noticing her at length oak said i ve not seen i spoken to you since ever so long have i but he feared to bring ing memories back and interrupted himself with were you going into church no she said i came to see the privately to see if ihey had cut the inscription as i wished mr oak you needn t mind speaking to me if you wish to on the matter which is in both our minds at this moment and have they it as you wished said oak yes come and see it if you have not already so together they went and read the tomb eight months ago murmured when he saw the date it seems like yesterday to me and to me as if it were years ago long years and i had been dead between and now am going home mr oak oak walked after her i wanted to name a small matter to you as soon as i could he said with hesitation merely about business and i think i may just mention il now if you ll allow me oh yes certainly it is that i may soon have to give up the management of your farm mrs the fact is i am thinking of leaving england not yet you know next spring leaving england i she said in surprise and genuine disappointment why what are you going to do that for well i ve thought it best oak stammered out is the spot i ve had in my mind to try but it is understood everywhere that you are going to lake poor mr s farm on your own account i ve had the refusal o it tis true bu t i beauty in loneliness settled yet and i have reasons for up i shall finish out my year there as manager for the but no more and what shall i do without you oh i don t think you ought to go away you ve been with me so long through bright times and dark	45
times such old friends as we are that it seems unkind almost i had fancied that if you the other farm as master you might still give a helping look across at mine and now going away i would have willingly yet now that i am more helpless than ever you go away yes that s the ill fortune o it said in a distressed tone and it is because of that very helplessness that i feel bound to go good afternoon ma am he concluded in evident anxiety to get away and at once went out of the churchyard by a path she could follow on no pretence whatever went home her mind occupied with a new trouble which being rather than deadly was calculated to do good by her from the gloom of her life she was set thinking a great deal about oak and of his wish to her and there occurred to several incidents of her latter intercourse with him which trivial when singly viewed amounted together to a perceptible for her society it broke upon her at length as a great pain that her last old was about to her and flee he who had believed in her and argued on her side when all the rest of the world was against her had at last like the others become weary and of the old cause and was leaving her to fight her battles alone three weeks went on and more evidence of his want of interest in her was she noticed that instead of entering the small parlour or office far from the crowd where the farm accounts were kept and waiting or leaving a as he had hitherto done during her seclusion oak never came at all when she was likely to be there only entering at hours when her presence in that part or the house was least to be expected whenever he wanted directions he sent a message or note with neither heading nor signature lo which she was obliged to reply in the same off hand style poor began to suffer now from the most sting of all a sensation that she was despised the autumn wore away gloomily enough amid these melancholy conjectures and christmas day came a year of her legal and two years and a quarter of her life alone on examining her heart it appeared beyond measure strange that the subject of which the season might have been supposed suggestive the event in the hall at s was not her at all but instead an conviction that everybody her for what she could not tell and that oak was the of the coming out of church that day she looked round in hope that oak whose bass voice she had heard rolling out from the gallery overhead in a most manner might chance to linger in her path in the old way there he was as usual coming down the path behind her but on seeing turn he looked aside and as soon as he got beyond the gate and there was the excuse for a he made one and d the next morning brought the stroke she had been expecting it long il was a formal notice by letter from him that he should not renew his engagement with her for the lady day actually sat and cried over this letter most bitterly she was and wounded that the possession of hopeless love from which she had after all grown to regard as hei right for life should have been withdrawn just at his own pleasure in this way she was bewildered too by the prospect of having to rely on her own resources again it seemed to herself that she never could again acquire energy sufficient to go to market and sell since s death oak had attended all and for her her business at the same time with his own what should she do now her life was becoming a desolation so desolate was this evening that in an absolute hunger for pity and sympathy and miserable in she appeared to have the only true friendship she had ever owned she put on her bonnet and cloak and went down to oak s house just after sunset guided on her way by the pale rays of a moon a few days old a lively shone from the window but nobody was visible in the room she tapped nervously and then thought it doubtful if it were right for a single woman to call upon a bachelor who lived alone although he was her manager and she might be supposed to call on business without any real opened the door and the moon shone upon his forehead mr oak said faintly yes i am mr oak said who have i the honour oh how stupid of me not to know you mistress i shall not be your mistress much longer shall i she said in pathetic tones well no i suppose but come in ma am oh and i ll get a light oak replied with some awkwardness no not on my account it is so seldom that i get a lady visitor that i m afraid i haven t proper accommodation will you sit down please here s a chair and there s one loo i am sorry that my chairs all have wood seats and are s h par from the crowd rather but i was thinking of getting some new ones oak placed two or for her they are quite easy enough for me so down she sat and down sat he the fire dancing in their faces and upon the old furniture all a wi long years o that formed oak s array of household possessions which sent back a dancing reflection in reply it was very odd to these two persons who knew each other passing well	45
that the mere circumstance of their meeting in a new place and in a new way should make them so awkward and constrained in the fields or at her house there had never been any embarrassment but now that oak had become the their lives seemed to be back again to days when they were strangers you ll think it strange that i have come but oh no not at all but i thought i have been uneasy in the belief that i have offended you and that you are going away on that account it grieved me very much and i couldn t help coming offended me a if you could do that haven t i she asked gladly what are you going away for else p am not going to you know i wasn t aware thai you would wish me not to when i told ee or i shouldn t ha thought of doing it he said simply i have arranged for little farm and shall have it in my own hands at lady day vou know i ve had a share in it for some time still that wouldn t prevent my attending to your business as before hadn t it been that things have been said about us what said in surprise things said about you and me what are they w j after all i cannot tell you it would be wiser if you were to i think you have played the part of to me many times and i don t see why you should fear to do it now it is nothing that you have done this time the top and tail o t is this that i am about here and waiting for poor s farm with a thought of getting you some day getting me what does that mean marrying o ee in plain british you asked me to tell so you mustn t blame me did not look quite so alarmed as if a cannon had been discharged by her ear which was what oak had expected marrying me i didn t know it was that you meant she said quietly such a thing as that is too absurd too soon to think of by far yes of course it is too absurd i don t desire any such thing i should think that was plain enough by this time surely surely you be the last person in the world i think of marrying it is too absurd as you say too s s soon were the words i used i must beg your pardon for you but you said too absurd and so do i i beg your pardon too she returned with tears in her eyes too soon was what i said but it doesn t matter a bit not at all but i only meant too soon indeed i didn t mr oak and you must believe me looked her long in the face but the being faint there was not much to be seen he said tenderly and in surprise and coming closer if i only knew one thing whether you would allow me to love you and win you and marry you after all if i only knew that but you never will know she murmured why because you never ask an far from the crowd oh oh said with a low laugh of my own dear you ought not to have sent me that harsh letter this morning she interrupted it shows you didn t care a bit about me and were ready to desert me all the rest of them it was very cruel of you considering i was the first sweetheart that you ever had and you were the first i ever had and i shall not forget it now was ever anybody so provoking he said laughing you know it was purely that i as an unmarried man carrying on a business for you as a very taking young woman had a proper hard part to play more particular that people knew i had a sort of feeling for ee and i fancied from the way we were mentioned together that it might injure your good name nobody knows the heat and fret i have been caused by it and was that all all oh how glad am i came she exclaimed as she rose from her seat i have thought so much more of you since i fancied you did not want even to see me again but i must be going now or i shall be missed why she said with a slight laugh as they went to the door it seems exactly as if i had come you how dreadful and quite right too said oak i ve danced at your heels my beautiful for many a long mile and many a long day and it is hard to me this one visit he accompanied her up the hill explaining to her the details of his of the other they spoke very little of their mutual feelings pretty phrases and warm expressions being probably unnecessary between such tried friends theirs was that substantial affection which arises if any arises at all when the two who are thrown together begin first by after all knowing the sides of each other s character and not the best till further on the romance growing up in the of a mass of hard reality this good fellowship usually through of pursuits is unfortunately seldom to love between the sexes because men and women associate not in their labours but in their pleasures merely where however happy circumstance its development the feeling proves itself to be the only love which is strong as death that love which many waters cannot nor the floods drown beside which the passion usually called by the name is as steam far	45
from the crowd a night and morning conclusion he most private secret wedding that it is possible to have those had been s words to oak one evening some time after the event of the preceding chapter and he meditated a full hour by the clock upon how to carry out her wishes to the letter a license oh yes it must be a license he said to himself at last very well then first a license on a dark night a few days later oak came with mysterious steps from the s door in on the way home he heard a heavy tread in front of him and the man found him to be they walked together into the village until they came to a little lane behind the church leading down to the cottage of tall who had lately been as clerk of the parish and was yet in mortal terror at church on sundays when he heard his lone voice among certain hard words of the whither no man ventured to follow him well good night said oak i m going down this way oh said surprised what s going on tonight then make so bold mr oak it seemed rather not to tell a night and morning under the circumstances for had been true as steel all through the time of about and said you can keep a secret you ve proved me and you know yes i have and i do know well then mistress and i mean to get married to morrow morning heaven s high tower and yet ive thought of such a thing from time to time true i have but keeping it so close well there tis no of mine and i wish ee joy o her thank you but i assure ee that this great hush is not what i wished for at all or what either of us would have wished if it hadn t been for certain things that would make a gay wedding seem hardly the thing has a great wish that all the parish shall not be in church looking at her she s shy like and nervous about it in fact so i be doing this to humour her ay i see quite right too i suppose i must say and you be now going down to the clerk yes you may as well come with me i am your labour in keeping it close will be away said as they walked along tail s old woman will horn it all over parish in half an hour so she will upon my life i never thought of that said oak pausing yet i must tell him tonight i suppose for he s working so far off and leaves early i ll tell ee how we could tackle her said i ll knock and ask to speak to outside the door you standing in the background then he ll come out and you can tell yer tale she ll never guess what i want en for and i ll make up a few words about the farm work as a blind this scheme was considered and far from the crowd advanced boldly and at mrs tail s door mrs tall herself opened it i wanted to have a word with he s not at home and won t be this side of eleven o clock he ve been forced to go over to since shutting out work i shall do quite as well i hardly think you will stop a moment and stepped round the corner of the porch to consult oak s t man then said mrs tall only a friend said say he s wanted to meet mistress near church to morrow morning at ten said oak in a whisper that he must come without fail and wear his best clothes the clothes will floor us as safe as houses said it can t be helped said oak her so delivered the message mind or wet blow or snow he must come added tis very particular indeed the fact is tis to witness her sign some law work about taking shares wi another farmer for a long span o years there that s what tis and now i ve told ee mother tall in a way i shouldn t ha done if i hadn t loved ee so hopeless well retired before she could ask any further and next they called at the s in a manner which excited no curiosity at all then went home and prepared for the morrow said on going to bed that night i want you to call me at seven o clock to morrow in case i shouldn t wake but you always do wake afore then ma am but i have something important to do which i ll tell you of when the time comes and it s beat to make sure jl conclusion however awoke voluntarily at four nor could she by any contrivance get to sleep again about six being quite positive that her watch had stopped during the night she could wait no longer she went and tapped at s door and after some labour awoke her but i thought it was i who had to call you said the bewildered and it isn t six yet indeed it is how can you tell such a story i know it must be ever so much past seven come to my room as soon as you can i want you to give my hair a good brushing when came to s room her mistress was already waiting could not understand this extraordinary whatever is going on ma am she said well i ll tell you said with a mischievous smile in her bright eyes farmer oak is coming here to dine with me to day farmer oak and nobody else you two alone yes but is it safe ma am	45
her kiss and said my pretty little how do you do after so long for a few seconds her impulsive innocence hardly noticed his start of surprise but mrs the girl s mother had observed it instantly with a pained flush she turned to her daughter my dear why what are you doing don t you know that grown up to be a woman since mr a young if an of twenty was last down here of course you mustn t do now as you used to do three or four years ago the awkwardness which had arisen was hardly removed by s assurance that he quite expected her to keep up the practice of her childhood followed by several minutes of conversation on general subjects he was vexed from his soul that his unaware movement should so have betrayed him at his leaving he repeated that if regarded him otherwise than as she used to do he would never forgive her but though they parted good friends her regret at the incident was visible in her face passed out into the road and onward to his father s house hard by the mother and daughter were left alone i was quite amazed at ee my child exclaimed the elder a young man from london and foreign cities used now to the company manners and ladies who almost think it vulgar to smile broad how could ye do it i i didn t think about how i was altered said the conscience stricken girl i used to kiss him and he used to kiss me before he went away the well beloved but that was years ago my dear oh yes and for the moment i forgot he seemed just the same to me as he used to be well it can t be helped now you must be careful in the future he s got lots of young women i ll warrant and has few thoughts left for you he s what they call a and he means to be a great genius in that line some day they do say well i ve done it and it can t be mended moaned the girl meanwhile the of fame had gone onward to the house of his father an man of trade and commerce merely from whom nevertheless accepted a yearly allowance the famous days to come but the elder having received no warning of his son s intended visit was not at home to receive him looked round the familiar premises glanced across the common at the great yards within which eternal were going to and fro upon eternal blocks of stone the very same and the very same blocks that he had seen there when last in the island so it seemed to him and then passed through the dwelling into the back garden a young man of twenty like all the gardens in the isle it was surrounded by a wall of dry and at its farther extremity it ran out into a comer which the garden of the he had no sooner reached this spot than he became aware of a murmuring and sobbing on the other side of the wall the voice he recognized in a moment as s and she seemed to be confiding her trouble to some young friend of her own sex oh what shall i do what shall i do she was saying bitterly so bold as it was so how could i think of such a thing he will never forgive me never never like me again he ll think me a forward and yet and yet i quite forgot how much i had grown but that he ll never believe the accents were those of one who had for the first time become conscious of her womanhood as an unwonted possession which and frightened her did he seem angry at it inquired the friend oh no not angry worse cold and haughty oh he s such a fashionable person now not at all an island man but there s no use in talking of it i wish i was dead the well retreated as quickly as he could he grieved at the incident which had brought such pain to this innocent soul and yet it was beginning to be a source of vague pleasure to him he returned to the house and when his father had come back and welcomed him and they had shared a meal together again went out full of an earnest desire to soothe his young neighbor s sorrow in a way she little expected though to tell the truth his affection for her was rather that of a friend than of a lover and he felt by no means sure that the he called his love who ever since his boyhood had flitted from human shell to human shell an indefinite number of times was going to take up her abode in the body of ii the is assumed to be true it was difficult to meet her again even though on this lump of rock the difficulty lay as a rule rather in than in meeting but had been transformed into a very different kind of young woman by the self consciousness of her impulsive greeting and notwithstanding their near neighborhood he could not encounter her try as he would no sooner did he appear an inch beyond his father s door than she was to earth like a fox she bolted up stairs to her room anxious to soothe her after his slight he could not stand these long the manners of the isle were primitive and straightforward even among the well to do and noting her disappearance one day he followed her into the house and onward to the foot of the stairs t he called ii the well yes mr why do you run up stairs like	45
that oh only because i wanted to come up for something well if you ve got it can t you come down again no i can t very well come dear that s what you are you know there was no response well if you won t you won t he continued i don t want to bother you and went away he was stopping to look at the old fashioned flowers under the garden walls when he heard a voice behind him mr i wasn t angry with you when you were gone i thought you might mistake me and i felt i could do no less than come and assure you of my friendship still turning he saw the blushing immediately behind him you are a good dear girl said he and seizing her hand set upon her cheek the kind of kiss that should have been the response to hers on the day of his coming darling forgive me for the slight a young man of twenty that day say you do come now and then i ll say to you what i have never said to any other woman living or dead will you have me as your husband ah mother says i am only one of many you are not dean you knew me when i was young and others didn t somehow or other her objections were got over and though she did not give an immediate assent she agreed to meet him later in the afternoon when she walked with him to the southern point of the island called the or by strangers the bill pausing over the treacherous known as cave hole into which the sea roared and now as it had done when they visited it together as children to steady herself while looking in he offered her his arm and she took it for the first time as a woman for the time as his companion they on to the light house where they would have lingered longer if had not suddenly remembered an engagement to poetry from a platform that very evening at the street of wells the village commanding the entrance to the island the village that has now advanced to be a town the well beloved said he who d have thought anybody or could down here except the we hear away there the never speechless sea oh but we are quite intellectual now in the winter particularly but don t come to the will you it would spoil my performance if you were there and i want to be as good as the rest i won t if you really wish me not to but i shall meet you at the door and bring you home yes i she said looking up into his face was perfectly happy now she could never have believed on that day of his coming that she would be so happy with him when they reached the east side of the isle they parted that she might be soon enough to take her place on the platform went home and after dark when it was about the hour for accompanying her back he went along the middle road northward to the street of wells he was full of he had known so well of old that his feeling for her now was rather than love and what he had said to her in a moment of im a young man of twenty pulse that morning rather appalled him in its consequences not that any of the more and accomplished women who had attracted him would be likely to rise between them for he had quite his mind of the assumption that the idol of his fancy was an part of the personality in which it had for a long or a short while to his well beloved he had always been faithful but she had had many each individuality known as jane or what not had been merely a transient condition of her he did not recognize this as an excuse or defence but as a fact simply essentially she was perhaps of no substance a spirit a dream a frenzy a conception an an sex a light of the eye a parting of the lips god only knew what she really was did not she was indescribable never much considering that she was a phenomenon by the weird influences of his descent and the discovery of her of her independence the well beloved of physical laws and had occasionally given him a sense of fear he never knew where she next would be whither she would lead him having herself instant access to all ranks and classes to every abode of men sometimes at night he dreamed that she was the weaving daughter of high in person bent on him for his sins against her beauty in his art the herself indeed he knew that he loved the creature wherever he found her whether with blue eyes black eyes or brown whether presenting herself as tall fragile or plump she was never in two places at once but hitherto she had never been in one place long by making this clear to his mind some time before to day he had escaped a good deal of ugly self reproach it was simply that she who always attracted him and led him whither she would as by a silken thread had not remained the of the same in her career so far whether she would ultimately settle down to one he could not say had he felt that she was becoming manifest in he would have tried to believe that i a young man of twenty this was the spot of her and have been content to abide by his words but did he see the well beloved in at all the question was somewhat disturbing he had reached the brow of	45
the hill and descended towards the village where in the long straight roman street he soon found the lighted hall the performance was not yet over and by going round to the side of the building and standing on a mound he could see the interior as far down as the platform level s turn or second turn came on almost immediately her pretty embarrassment on facing the audience rather won him away from his doubts she was in truth what is called a nice girl attractive certainly but above all things nice one of the class with whom the risks of matrimony most nearly to her intelligent eyes her broad forehead her thoughtful carriage one thing that of all the girls he had known he had never met one with more charming and solid qualities than s this was not a mere conjecture he had known her long and thoroughly her every mood and temper a heavy wagon passing without drowned b the well beloved her small soft voice for him but the audience were pleased and she blushed at their applause he now took his station at the door and when the people had done pouring out he found her within awaiting him they climbed homeward slowly by the old road dragging himself up the steep by the hand rail and pulling after him upon his arm at the top they turned and stood still to the left of them the sky was like a fan with the rays and under their front at periods of a quarter of a minute there arose a deep hollow stroke like the single beat of a drum the intervals being filled with a long drawn rattling as of bones between huge jaws it came from the vast of s bay rising and falling against the the evening and night winds here were to s mind charged with a something that did not burden them elsewhere they brought it up from that sinister bay to the west whose movement she and he were hearing now it was a presence an imaginary shape or essence from the human multitude lying below those who had gone down in i a young man of twenty vessels of war east and ships of the select people common and whose interests and hopes had been as wide asunder as the poles but who had rolled each other to on that restless sea bed there could almost be felt the brush of their huge ghost as it ran a figure over the isle shrieking for some good god who would it again the twain wandered a long way that night amid these influences so far as to the old hope church yard which lay in a formed by a ages ago the church had slipped down with the rest of the cliff and had long been a ruin it seemed to say that in this last local of the pagan where pagan customs lingered yet christianity had established itself at best in that solemn spot kissed her the kiss was by no means on s this time her former seemed to have increased her present reserve that day was the beginning of a pleasant month passed mainly in each other s society he found that she could not only poetry the well beloved at intellectual but play the piano fairly and sing to her own accompaniment he observed that every aim of those who had brought her up had been to get her away mentally as far as possible from her natural and individual life as an of a peculiar island to make her an exact copy of of thousands of other people in whose there was nothing special or picturesque to teach her to forget all the experiences of her ancestors to drown the local by songs purchased at the fashionable music and the local by a tongue of no country at all she lived in a house that would have been the fortune of an artist and learned to draw london from printed copies had seen all this before he pointed it out but with a girl s had by constitution she was local to the bone but she could not escape the tendency of the age the time for s departure drew near and she looked forward to it sadly but serenely their engagement being now a settled thing thought of the native custom on such ao a young man of twenty occasions which had prevailed in his and her family for centuries both being of the old stock of the isle the of or foreigners as strangers from the of were called had led in a large measure to its but underneath the of s education many an idea lay and he wondered if in her natural melancholy at his leaving she regretted the changing manners which made the formal of a according to the precedent of their and m the appointment well said he here we are arrived at the end of my holiday what a pleasant surprise my old home which i have not thought worth coming to see for three or four years had in store for me you must go to morrow she asked uneasily yes something seemed to them something more than the natural sadness of a parting which was not to be long and he decided that instead of leaving in the as he had intended he would his departure till night and go by the mail train from this would give him time to look into his father s and enable her if she chose to walk with him along the beach as far as to henry the eighth s castle above the sands where they could linger and watch the moon d a young man op twenty rise over the sea she said she thought she could come so after spending the next day with his father in the prepared to	45
leave and at the time appointed set out from the stone house of his birth in this stone isle to walk to by the path along the beach having some time earlier gone down to see some friends in the street of wells which was half way towards the spot of their the descent soon brought him to the bank and leaving behind him the last houses of the isle and the ruins of the village destroyed by the november gale of he struck out along the narrow thread of land when he had walked a hundred yards he stopped turned aside to the ridge which walled out the sea and sat down to wait for her between him and the lights of the ships rid ing at anchor in the two men passed slowly in the direction he intended to pursue one of them recognized and bade him good night adding wish you joy sir of your choice and hope the will be soon thank you well we shall see the well beloved what christmas will do towards bringing it about my wife opened upon it this please god i ll up and see that there says she knowing em both from their crawling days the men moved on and when they were out of s hearing the one who had not spoken said to his friend who was that young he don t seem one o we oh he is though every inch o en he s mr the merchant s only son up at east he s to be married to a young body her mother a widow woman carries on the same business as well as she can but their trade is not a twentieth part of s he s worth thousands and thousands they say though a do live on in the same way up in the same house this son is great things in london as a image and i can mind when as a boy a first took to carving soldiers out o bits o from the soft bed of his father s and then a made a set o men and so a got on he s quite the in london they tell me and the wonder is that a cared to come back here a young man of and pick up little nice maid as she is there s to be a change in the weather soon meanwhile the subject of their remarks waited at the appointed place till seven o clock the hour named between himself and his had struck almost at the moment he saw a figure coming forward from the last lamp at the bottom of the hill but the figure speedily resolved itself into that of a boy who advancing to inquired if he were mr and handed him a note iv ly when the boy had gone his steps to the last lamp and read in s hand my dearest i shall be sorry if i grieve you at all in what i am going to say about our arrangement to meet to night in the ruin but i have fancied that my seeing you again and again lately is your father to insist and you as his heir to feel that we ought to carry out island custom in our your people being such old inhabitants in an unbroken line truth to say mother that your father for natural reasons may have hinted to you that we ought now the thing is contrary to my feelings it is nearly left off and i do not think it good even where there is property as in your case to justify it in a measure i would rather trust in providence on the whole therefore it is best that i should not if only for appearances and meet you at a time and place suggesting the custom to others than ourselves at least if known a young man op twenty i am sure that this decision will not disturb you much that you will understand my modem feelings and think no worse of me for them and dear if it were to be done and we were unfortunate in it we might both have enough old family feeling to think like our forefathers and possibly your father that we could not marry and hence we might be made unhappy however you will come again shortly will you not dear and then the time will soon draw on when no more good will be required always and ever yours having read the letter was surprised at the it showed and at and her mother s simplicity in supposing that to be still a grave and principle which was a to himself and other from the island his father as a money maker might have practical wishes on the matter of descendants which lent to the conjecture of and her mother but to he had never expressed himself in favor of the ancient ways old fashioned as he was amused therefore at her regard of herself as modern was disappointed and a little vexed that such an reason a the well beloved should have deprived him of her company how the old ideas survived under the new education the reader is asked to remember that the date though recent in the history of the isle of was more than forty years ago finding that the evening seemed lowering yet to go back and hire a vehicle he went on quickly alone in such an exposed spot the night wind was and the sea behind the barrier kicked and in complex which could be translated equally well as of battle or shouts of presently on the pale road before him he discerned a figure the figure of a woman he remembered that a woman passed him while he was reading s letter by the last lamp and now he was her he did hope	45
for a moment that it might be with a changed mind but it was not she nor anybody like her it was a taller form than that of his and although the season was only autumn she was wrapped in or in thick and heavy clothing of some kind a young man of twenty he soon advanced abreast of her and could get glimpses of her against the lights it was dignified that of a very nothing more classical had he ever seen she walked at a swinging pace yet with such ease and power that there was but little difference in their rate of speed for several minutes and during this time he regarded and however he was about to pass her by when she suddenly turned and addressed him mr i think of east he assented and could just discern what a handsome commanding imperious face it was quite of a piece with the proud tones of her voice she was a new t altogether in his experience and her accent was not so local as s can you tell me the time please he looked at his watch by the aid of a light and in telling her that it was a quarter past seven observed by the momentary gleam of his match that her eyes looked a little red and as if with weeping mr will you forgive what will appear very strange to you i dare say that is may i ask you to lend me some money for a the well beloved day or two i have been so foolish as to leave my purse on the dressing table it did appear strange and yet there were features in the young lady s personality which assured him in a moment that she was not an he yielded to her request and put his hand in his pocket here it remained for a moment how much did she mean by the words some money the quality of her form and manner made him throw himself by an impulse into harmony with her and he responded he scented a romance he handed her five pounds his caused her no apparent surprise it is quite enough thank you she remarked quietly as he announced the sum lest she should be unable to see it for herself while and conversing with her he had not observed that the rising wind which had proceeded from puffing to growling and from growling to with the accustomed suddenness of its changes here had at length brought what it promised by these rain the drops which had at first hit their left cheeks like the of a soon assumed the character of a from the bank adjoining one shot of a young man of twenty which was sufficiently smart to go through s sleeve the tall girl turned and seemed to be somewhat concerned at an which she had plainly not foreseen before her starting we must take shelter said but where said she to was the long monotonous bank too piled to a screen over which they could hear the of pebbles by the sea without on their right stretched the inner bay or the distant riding lights of the ships now dim and glimmering behind them a faint spark here and there in the lower sky showed where the island rose before there was nothing definite and could be nothing till they reached a precarious wood bridge a mile farther on henry the eighth s castle being a little farther still but just within the summit of the bank whither it had apparently been hauled to be out of the way of the waves was one of the local boats called bottom upward as soon as they saw it the pair ran up the slope towards it by a impulse they then perceived that it had lain there a long time and were comforted to find it the well beloved ble of affording more protection than anybody would have expected from a distant view it formed a shelter or store for the the boom of the being as a roof by creeping under the bows which the bank on to they made their way within where upon some oars and other lay a mass of dry a whole upon this they scrambled and sat down through inability to stand upright a charge the rain fell upon the of the old like corn thrown in by some colossal and darkness set in to its full shade they crouched so close to each other that he could feel her against him neither had spoken since they left the till she said with attempted this is unfortunate he admitted that it was and found after a few further remarks had passed that she certainly had been weeping there being a suppressed gasp of in her utterance now and then it is more unfortunate for you perhaps than for me he said and i am very sorry that it should be so she replied nothing to this and he added that it was rather a desolate place for a woman alone and he hoped nothing serious c the well had happened to drag her out at such an time at first she seemed not at all disposed to show any on her own affairs and he was left to conjecture as to her history and name and how she could possibly have known him but as the rain gave not the least sign of he observed i think we shall have to go back never said she and the firmness with which she closed her lips was audible in the word why not he inquired there are good reasons i cannot understand how you should know me while i have no knowledge of you oh but you know me about me at least indeed i don t how should i you are a i am not i am a real	45
or was rather haven t you heard of the best bed stone company i should think so they tried to ruin my father by getting away his trade or at least the founder of the company did old he s my father a man of twenty indeed i am sorry i should have spoken so of him for i never knew him personally after making over his large business to the company he retired i believe to london yes our house or rather his not mine is at south we have lived there for years but we have been tenants of castle on the island here this season we took it for a month or two of the owner who is away then i have been staying quite near you miss my fathers is a comparatively humble residence hard by but he could afford a much bigger one if he chose you have heard so i don t know he doesn t tell me much of his affairs my father she burst out suddenly is always scolding me for my extravagance and he has been doing it to day more than ever he said i go in town to simply a extent and exceed my allowance was that this evening yes and then it reached such a storm of passion between us that i pretended to re the well beloved tire to my room for the rest of the evening but i slipped out and i am never going back home again what will you do i shall go first to my aunt in london and if she won t have me i ll work for a living i have left my father forever what i should have done if i had not met you i cannot tell i must have walked all the way to london i suppose now i shall take the train as soon as i reach the if you ever do in this i must sit here till it stops and there on the they sat knew of old as his father s bitterest enemy who had made a great fortune by up the small stone merchants but had found s a trifle too big to the latter being in fact the chief rival of the best bed company to that day thought it strange that he should be thrown by fate into a position to play the son of the to this daughter of the as they talked there was a mutual instinct to drop their voices and on this account the roar of the storm their drawing quite close together something tender came a young man of into their tones as quarter hour after went on and they forgot the lapse of time it was quite late when she started up alarmed at her position rain or no rain i can stay no longer she said do come back said he taking her hand i ll return with you my train has gone no i shall go on and get a lodging in town if ever i reach it it is so late that there will be no house open except a little place near the station where you won t care to stay however if you are determined i will show you the way i cannot leave you it would be too awkward for you to go there alone she persisted and they started through the and spinning storm the sea rolled and rose so high on their left and was so near them on their right that it seemed as if they were its bottom like the children of nothing but the frail bank of pebbles divided them from the raging gulf without and at every bang of the tide against it the ground shook the the spray rose and was blown over their heads quantities of sea water the beloved through the wall and ran in across their path to join the sea within the island was an island still they had not realized the force of the elements till now had often been blown into the sea and drowned owing to a sudden breach in the bank which however had something of a supernatural power in being able to close up and join itself together again after such like satan s form when cut in two by the sword of michael the ethereal substance closed not long her clothing offered more resistance to the wind than his and she was consequently in the greater danger it was impossible to refuse his proffered aid first he gave his arm but the wind tore them apart as easily as coupled he her bodily by her waist with his arm and she made no objection somewhere about this time it might have been sooner it might have been later he became conscious of a sensation which in its in a young man of twenty and form had within him from some unnoticed moment when he was sitting close to his new friend under the though a young man he was too old a hand not to know what this was and felt alarmed even dismayed it meant a possible of the well beloved the thing had not however taken place and he went on thinking how soft and warm the lady was in her fur covering as he held her so tightly the only dry spots in the clothing of either being her left side and his right where they excluded the rain by their mutual pressure as soon as they had crossed the bridge there was a little more shelter but he did not his hold till she requested him they passed the ruined castle and having left the island far behind them trod mile after mile till they drew near to the outskirts of the neighboring watering place into it they without pause crossing the harbor bridge about midnight wet to the skin	45
he pitied her and while he wondered at it admired her determination the houses facing the bay now sheltered them completely and they reached the vicinity of the new rail the well beloved way which the station was at this date without difficulty as he had said there was only one house open a little inn where the people stayed up for the arrival of the morning mail and passengers from the channel boats their application for admission led to the of a bolt and they stood within the of the passage he could see now that though she was such a fine figure quite as tall as himself she was but in the bloom of young womanhood in years her face was certainly striking though rather by its than its beauty and the beating of the wind and rain and spray had her cheeks to hues she persisted in the determination to go on to london by an early morning train and he therefore offered advice on lesser matters only in that case he said you must go up to your room and send down your things that they may be dried by the fire immediately or they will not be ready i will tell the servant to do this and send you up something to eat she assented to his proposal without how a young man of twenty ever showing any marks of gratitude and when she had gone despatched her the light supper promised by the sleepy girl who was night porter at this establishment he felt hungry himself and set about drying his clothes as well as he could and eating at the same time at first he was in doubt what to do but soon decided to stay where he was till the morrow by the aid of some temporary and some slippers from the cupboard he was to make himself comfortable when the maid servant came downstairs with a damp of woman s withdrew from the fire the knelt down before the blaze and held up with extended arms one of the of the upstairs from which a cloud of steam began to rise as she knelt the girl nodded forward recovered herself and nodded again you are sleepy my girl said yes sir i have been up a long time when nobody comes i lie down on the couch in the other room then til relieve you of that go and lie down in the other room just as if we were not the well beloved here dry the clothing and put the articles here in a heap which you can take up to the young lady in the morning the night porter thanked him and left the room and he soon heard her from the adjoining apartment then opened proceedings the robes and extending them one by one as the steam went up he fell into a reverie he again became conscious of the change which had been during the walk the well beloved was moving house had gone over to the of this attire in the course of ten minutes he adored her and how about little he did not think of her as before he was not sure that he had ever seen the real beloved in that friend of his youth as he was for her welfare but loving her or not he perceived that the spirit which called itself his love was flitting stealthily from some figure to the near one in the chamber overhead had not kept her engagement to meet him in the lonely ruin fearing her own im a a young man of twenty but he in fact more than she had been educated out of the island innocence that had old manners and this was the strange consequence of s vi on the brink miss was leaving the hotel for the railway which was quite near at hand and had only recently been opened as if on purpose for this event at s suggestion she wrote a message to inform her father that she had gone to her aunt s with a view to anxiety and pursuit they walked together to the platform and bade each other good bye each obtained a ticket and got his luggage from the cloak room on the platform they encountered each other again and there was a light in their glances at each other which said as by a flash telegraph we are bound for the same town why not enter the same they did she took a comer seat with her back to the engine he sat opposite the guard looked i i i a young man op twenty in thought they were lovers and did not show other travellers into that they talked on strictly ordinary matters what she thought he did not know but at every stopping station he dreaded intrusion before they were half way to london the event he had just begun to realize was a patent fact the beloved was again embodied she filled every fibre and curve of this woman s form drawing near the great london station was like drawing near how should he leave her in the turmoil of a crowded city street she seemed quite unprepared for the rattle of the scene he asked her where her aunt lived said miss he called a cab and proposed that she should share it till they arrived at her aunt s whose residence lay not much out of the way to his own try as he would he could not ascertain if she understood his feelings but she assented to his offer and entered the vehicle we are old friends he said as they drove onward indeed we are she answered without smiling s the well beloved but we are mortal enemies dear yes what did you say i said she laughed in a half proud way and murmured your father is my father s	45
do it she said i can t bend my pride to such a job will you write for me i i don t see why i should be the one particularly as i think it premature but you have not quarrelled with my father as i have done well no but there is a long standing which would make it odd in me to write wait till we are married and then i will write not till then then i suppose i must you don t know my father he might forgive me marrying into any other family without his knowledge but he thinks so of yours on account the well beloved of the trade that he would never pardon till the day of his death my becoming a secretly i didn t see it at first this remark caused an unpleasant jar on the mind of despite his independent artistic position in london he was to the simple old parent who had held out for so many years against s trade and whose money had educated and maintained as an art student in the best schools so he begged her to say no more about his family and she silently resumed her letter giving an address at a post office that their quarters might not be discovered at least just yet no reply came by return of post but rather some letters for that had arrived at her father s since her departure were sent on in silence to the address given she opened them one by one till on reading the last she exclaimed good gracious and burst into laughter what is it asked began to read the letter aloud it came from a faithful lover of hers a youthful gentleman who stated that he was soon a young man of twenty going to start for england to claim his darling according to her word she was half half concerned what shall i do she said do my dear girl it seems to me that there is only one thing to do and that a very obvious thing tell him as soon as possible that you are just on the point of marriage thereupon wrote out a reply to that effect helping her to shape the phrases as gently as possible i repeat her letter concluded that i had quite forgotten i am deeply sorry but that is the truth i have told my intended husband everything and he is looking over my shoulder as i write said when he saw this set down you might leave out the last few words they are rather an extra for the poor boy it is not that dear why does he want to come me you ought to be very proud that i have put you in my letter at all you said yesterday that i was conceited in declaring i might have married that science man i told you of but now you see there was yet another available the well beloved he gloomily well i don t care to hear about that to my mind this sort of thing is decidedly unpleasant though you treat it so lightly well she i have only done half what you have done what s that i have only proved false through but you have while remembering oh yes of course you can use as a retort but don t vex me about her and make me do such an unexpected thing as regret the she shut her mouth tight and her face flushed the next morning there did come an answer to the letter asking her parents consent to her union with him but to s amazement her father took a line quite other than the one she had expected him to take whether she had herself or whether she had not seemed a question for the future rather than the present with him a native born when old island e views prevailed in families he was fixed in his of her marriage with a hated he did not consent he would not say more till he a young man of twenty could see her if she had any sense at all she would if still unmarried return to the home from which she had evidently been he would then see what he could do for her in the desperate circumstances she had made for herself otherwise he would do nothing could not help being sarcastic at her father s evidently low estimate of him and his and took at his i am the one deserving of satire if anybody she said i begin to feel i was a foolish girl to run away from a father for such a reason as a little scolding because i had exceeded my allowance i advised you to go back in a sort of way not in the right tone you spoke most contemptuously of my father as a merchant i couldn t speak otherwise of him than i did i m afraid knowing what what have you to say against him nothing to you beyond what is matter of common everybody knows that at one time he made it the ness of his life to ruin my father and the way thb he to me in that letter shows that his enmity still continues that ruined by an open handed man like my father said she it is like your people s to say that s eyes flashed and her face burned with an angry heat the beauty which this warmth might have brought being killed by the of countenance that came this temper is too i could give you every step of the proceeding in detail anybody could the getting the one by one and everything my father only holding his own by the most desperate courage there is no facts our parents relations are an ugly fact in the circumstances of us two people who	45
want to marry and we are just beginning to perceive it and how we are going to get over it i cannot tell she said steadily i don t think we shall get over it at all we may not we may not altogether as he gazed at the fine picture of scorn presented by his s classical face and dark eyes a young man op twenty unless you beg my pardon for having behaved so could not quite bring himself to see that he had behaved badly to his too imperious lady and declined to ask forgiveness for what he had not done she thereupon left the room later in the day she re entered and broke a silence by saying bitterly i showed temper just now as you told me but things have causes and it is perhaps a mistake that you should have deserted for me instead of wedding must needs go with it was a fortunate thing for the affections of those two lovers that they died when they did in a short time the enmity of their families would have proved a fruitful source of would have gone back to her people he to his the subject would have split them as much as it us laughed a little but was painfully serious as he found at tea time when she said that since his refusal to beg her pardon she had been thinking over the matter and had resolved to go to her aunt s after all at any rate till her father could be induced to the well beloved agree to their union was as chilled by this resolve of hers as he was surprised at her independence in circumstances which usually make women the reverse but he put no obstacles in her way and with a kiss strangely cold after their recent the of the went out of the hotel to avoid even the appearance of his of the rival house when he returned she was gone a correspondence began between these too hastily pledged ones and it was carried on in terms of serious reasoning upon their awkward situation on account of the family they saw their recent love as what it was too rash too too sudden too like the lightning they saw it with an eye whose calmness coldness and it must be added wisdom did not promise well for their their were by a final letter from sent from no other place than her recently left home in the isle she informed him that her father had appeared suddenly at her aunt s and had induced her to a young man of twenty go home with him she had told her father all the circumstances of their and what mere accidents had caused it he had persuaded her on what she had almost been convinced of by their that all thought of their marriage should be at least postponed for the present any awkwardness and even scandal being better than that they should immediately unite themselves for life on the strength of a two or three days passion and be the wretched victims of a situation they could never change saw plainly enough that he owed it to her father being a born with all the ancient island notions of the sexes lying underneath his acquired that the stone merchant did not immediately insist upon the usual remedy for a daughter s of action but preferred to await issues but the young man still thought that herself when her temper had quite cooled and she was more conscious of her real position would return to him in spite of the family hostility there was no social reason against such a step in birth the pair were about on one plane and though s family had gained a start in the of wealth the well beloved and in the of social distinction which lent color to the feeling that the advantages of the match would be mainly on one side was a who might rise to fame so that their marriage could not be considered for a woman who beyond being the probable to a considerable fortune had no exceptional opportunities thus though he felt bound in honor to remain on call at his london address as long as there was the slightest chance of s or of the arrival of some message him to join her that they might after all go to the altar together yet in the night he seemed to hear voices and laughter in the wind at this development of his little romance and during the slow and days he had to sit and behold the mournful departure of his well beloved from the form he had lately cherished till she had almost vanished away the exact moment of her complete knew not but not many lines of her were longer in s remembered nor many sounds of her in s recalled accents their acquaintance though a young man of twenty so had been too brief for such lingering there came a time when he learned through a channel two pieces of news affecting himself one was the marriage of with her cousin the other that the had started on a tour round the world which was to include a visit to a relation of mr s who was a banker in san since retiring from his former large business the stone merchant had not known what to do with his leisure and finding that travel his health he had decided to indulge himself thus although he was not so informed concluded that had accompanied her parents and he was more than ever struck with what this signified her father s obstinate to her union with one of his blood and name familiar in the distance by degrees began to trace again the customary lines of his existence and his profession occupied him much as of old the next year	45
humor and was quickly sympathetic she then began to tell him of a scandal in the political side to which she belonged one that had come out of the present crisis and that as for herself she had sworn to politics forever on account of it so that he was to regard her forthwith as a more than ever by this time some more people had upstairs and prepared to move on you are looking for somebody i can see that said she a lady said tell me her name and tu try to think if she s here i cannot i don t know it he said indeed what is she like i cannot describe her not even her com or dress the well beloved lady looked a as if she thought he were her and he moved on in the current the fact was that for a moment fancied he had made the discovery that the one he was in search of in the person of the very hostess he had conversed with who was charming always and particularly charming to night he was just feeling an consternation at the possibility of such a s trick in his beloved who had once before chosen to herself as a married woman though happily at that time with no serious results however he felt that he had been mistaken and that the fancy had been solely owing to the highly charged electric condition in which he had arrived by reason of his recent the whole set of rooms formed one great utterance of the opinions of the hour the gods of party were present with their but the brilliancy of manner and form in the handling of public questions was only less conspicuous than the of original ideas no principles of wise government had place in any mind a blunt and jolly as to the ins and all but s interest did not run in this a young man of forty stream he was like a stone in a brook waiting for some peculiar floating object to be brought towards him and to stick upon his mental surface thus looking for the next new version of the fair figure he did not consider at the moment though he had done so at other times that this of meeting her was of all just the sort of one to work out its own fulfilment he looked for her in the knot of persons gathered round a past prime minister who was standing in the middle of the largest room in the genial almost jovial manner natural to him at these times the two or three ladies forming his audience had been joined by another in black and white and it was on her that s attention was directed as well as the great s whose first sheer gaze at her expressing who are you almost audibly changed into an interested listening look as the few words she spoke were uttered for the minister differed from many of his standing in being extremely careful not to interrupt a timid speaker giving way in an instant if anybody else began with him nobody knew better than himself that the well beloved ail may learn and his manner was that of an man who could catch an idea readily even if he could not undertake to create one the lady told her little story whatever it was could not hear it the laughed the lady blushed wrought up to a high by the that his one shape of many names was about to paid little heed to the others watching for a full view of the lady who had won his attention that lady remained for the present partially by her neighbors a diversion was caused by lady bringing up somebody to present to the ex minister the ladies got mixed and m lost sight of the one whom he was beginning to suspect as the stealthily returned he looked for her in a kindly young lady of the house his hostess s relation who appeared to more advantage that night than she had ever done before in a sky blue dress which had nothing between it and the fair skin of her neck her an unusually soft and aspect she saw him and they a young man of forty her look of what do you think of me now f was suggested he knew by the thought that the last time they met she had appeared under the disadvantage of mourning clothes on a wet day in a country house where everybody was cross i have some new photographs and i want you to tell me whether they are good she said mind you are to tell me truly and no favor she produced the pictures from an adjoining drawer and they sat down together upon an for the purpose of examination the portraits taken by the last fashionable were very good and he told her so but as he spoke and compared them his mind was fixed on something else than the mere judgment he wondered whether the one were indeed in the frame of this girl he looked up at her to his surprise her mind too was on other things bent than on the pictures her eyes were glancing away to distant people she was apparently considering the effect she was producing upon them by this t te k t te with and upon one in particular a man of thirty of military appearance whom did not know the well beloved quite convinced now that no phantom belong ing to him was contained in the outlines of the present young lady he could coolly survey her as he responded they were both doing the same thing each was pretending to be deeply interested in what the other was talking about the attention of the two alike flitting away to other comers of the room	45
even when the very point of their discourse was no he had not seen her yet he was not going to see her apparently to night she was scared away by the political atmosphere but he still moved on hardly certain other than who always haunted these places and pointed out that under the white hair of this or that old man with a forehead grown wrinkled over which had swayed the fortunes of europe with a voice which had numbered sovereigns among its respectful listeners might be a heart that would go inside a that beneath this or that white rope of pearl and pink bosom might lie the half which had by hook or by to sustain its possessor above ground till the wedding lay at that moment he encountered his amiable a young man of forty host and almost simultaneously caught sight of the lady who had at first attracted him and then had disappeared their eyes met far off as they were from each other laughed inwardly it was only in excitement as to whether this was to prove a true and with no instinct to mirth for when under the eyes of his o the he was more inclined to like a sheep in a fair however for the minute he had to converse with his host lord and almost the first thing that friend said to him was who is that pretty woman in the black dress with the white about it and the pearl i don t know said with jealousy i was just going to ask the same thing oh we shall find out presently i suppose i dare say my wife knows they had parted when a hand came upon his shoulder lord had turned back for an instant i find she is the of my father s old friend the last lord her name is mrs mrs pine she lost her husband two or three years ago very shortly after their marriage the w ll beloved lord became absorbed into some adjoining of the church and was left to pursue his quest alone a young friend of his the lady who appeared in a cloud of muslin and was going on to a ball had been brought against him by the tide a warm hearted girl was lady who laughed at the of being alive she asked him whither he was bent and he told her oh yes i know her very well said lady eagerly she told me one day that she particularly wished to meet you poor thing so sad she lost her husband well it was a long time ago now certainly women ought not to marry and lay themselves open to such ought they mr never shall i am determined never to run such a risk now do you think i shall marry oh no never said that s very comforting but was scarcely comfortable under the answer even though returned and she added but sometimes i think i may just for the fun of it now we ll steer across to her and catch her and introduce you but we shall never get to her at this rate a young man of forty never unless we adopt the ugly rush like the citizens who follow the lord mayor s show they talked and towards the desired one who as she with a neighbor seemed one of those female forms whose gestures beam with mind seen by the poet in his vision of the golden city of their progress was continually checked was as he had sometimes seemed to be in a dream unable to advance towards the object of pursuit unless he could have gathered up his feet into the air after ten minutes given to a regard of shoulder blades back hair glittering neck pearl powder cut into of rays stays the seven of elbow and arm the thirteen varieties of ear and by using the toes of his dress boots as with which he his way and that of lady in the direction they were at he drew near to mrs pine who was drinking a cup of tea in the back drawing room the well beloved my dear we thought we should never get to you because it is worse to night owing to these dreadful politics but we ve done it and she proceeded to tell her friend of s existence hard by it seemed that the widow really did wish to know him and that lady had not indulged in one of the too frequent inventions of that kind when the youngest of the had made the pair acquainted with each other she left them to talk to a younger man than the mrs pine s black and with their white finely set off the exceeding of her neck and shoulders which though were without a speck or of the least degree the gentle thoughtful creature she had looked from a distance she now proved herself to be she held also sound rather than current op s on the arts and was the first intellectual woman he had seen there that night except one or two as they soon became well acquainted and at a pause in their conversation noticed the new excitement caused by the arrival of some late a young man of forty comers with more news the latter had been brought by a rippling bright eyed lady in black who made the men listen to her whether they would or no i am glad i am an said s acquaintance now seated on a sofa beside which he was standing i wouldn t be like my cousin over there for the world she thinks her husband will be turned out at the next election and she s quite wild yes it is mostly the women who are the the men only the cards the pity is that politics are looked on as	45
being a game for just as is a game for not as the serious duties of political how few of us ever think or feel that the nation of every country dwells in the cottage as somebody says yes though i wonder to hear you quote that n n oh i am of party though my relations are there can be only one best course at all times and th wisdom of the nation should be directed to finding it instead of in two courses according to the will of the party which happens to have the upper hand c the having started thus they found no difficulty in agreeing on many points when went down stairs from that assembly at a quarter to one and passed under the steaming nostrils of an s horses to a which waited for him against the railing of the square he had an impression that the beloved had re emerged from the shadows without any hint or from to whom indeed such re was an unquestionably awkward thing in this he was aware however that though it might be now as heretofore the loved who danced before him it was the goddess behind her who pulled the string of that jumping he had lately been trying his artist hand again on the s form in every conceivable phase and mood he bad become a one part man a of her only but his efforts had resulted in failures in her vanity she might be him anew for presenting her so ii she draws close and he could not forget mrs pine s eyes though he remembered nothing of her other details they were round inquiring luminous how that chestnut hair of hers had shone it required no to set it off like that of the he had seen there who had put ten thousand pounds upon her head to make herself look worse than she would have appeared with the muslin cap of a servant woman now the question was ought he to see her again he had his doubts but unfortunately for discretion just when he was coming out of the rooms he had encountered an old lady of seventy his friend mrs the honorable mrs and she had hastily asked him to dinner for the day after the morrow stating in the honest way he knew so well that she had heard the he was out of town or she would have asked him two or three weeks ago now of all social things that liked it was to be asked to dinner as a stop gap in place of some bishop lord or under secretary who couldn t come and when the invitation was by the tidings that the lady who had so impressed him was to be one of the guests he had promised instantly at the dinner he took down mrs pine upon his arm and talked to nobody else during the meal afterwards they kept apart awhile in the drawing room for form s sake but eventually together again and finished the evening in each other s company when shortly after eleven he came away he felt almost certain that within those luminous gray eyes the one of his eternal fidelity had verily taken lodgings and for a long lease but this was not all at parting he had almost involuntarily given her hand a pressure of a peculiar and indescribable kind a little response from her like a mere of the same sort told him that the impression she had made upon him was she was in a word willing to go on but was he able a young man of forty there had not been much harm in the thus far but did she know his history the curse upon his nature that he was the wandering jew of the love world how ideal his fancies were how the artist in him had consumed the how he was in constant dread lest he should wrong some woman twice as good as himself by seeming to mean what he fain would mean but could not how useless he was likely to be for practical steps towards though he was all the while for domestic life he was now over forty she was probably thirty and he dared not make love with the careless selfishness of a younger man it was unfair to go further without telling her even though hitherto such had not been absolutely demanded he determined to call immediately on the new she lived not far from the long fashionable square and he went hither with expectations of having a highly time at least but somehow the very seemed cold although she had so earnestly asked him to come as the house spoke so spoke the loi the well much to the astonishment of the the doors he passed through seemed as if they had not been opened for a month and entering the large drawing room he beheld in an easy chair in the far distance a lady whom he across the carpet to reach and ultimately did reach to be sure it was mrs pine but over raising her eyes in a slightly inquiring manner from the book she was reading she leaned back in the chair as if herself in luxurious sensations which had nothing to do with him and replied to his greeting with a few commonplace words the unfortunate though to a degree was at first terribly upset by this reception he had distinctly begun to love and he felt sick and almost but happily his affection was as yet and a sudden sense of the ridiculous in his own position carried him to the verge of during the scene she signified a chair and began the critical study of some rings she wore they talked over the day s news and then an organ began to grind outside the tune was a	45
air he had heard at some a man of forty music hall and by way of a diversion he asked her if she knew the composition no i don t she replied now ril tell you all about it said he gravely it is based on a sound old melody called the s just as they turn into port in the space of a single night so this old air has been taken and and twisted about and brought out as a new popular indeed if you are in the habit of going much to the music halls or the theatres yes you would find this is often done with excellent she a little and then they went on to talk about her house which had been newly painted and decorated with blue satin up to the height of a person s head an arrangement that somewhat improved her slightly faded though still pretty face and was helped by the over the windows yes i have had my house some years she observed complacently and i like it better every year t you feel lonely in it sometimes the well beloved oh never r however before he rose she grew friendly to some degree and when he left just after the arrival of three young ladies she seemed she asked him to come again and he thought he would tell the truth no i shall not care to come again he answered in a tone to the young ladies she followed him to the door what an thing to say she murmured in surprise it is rather good bye said as a punishment she did not ring the bell but left him to find his way out as he could now what the devil this means i cannot tell he said to himself reflecting stock still for a moment on the stairs and yet the meaning was staring him in the face meanwhile one of the three young ladies had said what interesting man was that with his lovely head of hair i saw him at lady s the other night oh that is too bad to let him go in that shabby way when i would have a young man of forty given anything to know him i have wanted to know him ever since i found out how much his experiences had dictated his and i discovered them by seeing in a paper notice of the marriage of a person supposed to be his wife who ran off with him many years ago don t you know and then wouldn t marry him in obedience to some novel social principles she had invented for herself oh didn t he marry her said mrs pine with a start why i heard only yesterday that he did though they have lived apart ever since quite a mistake said the young lady how i wish i could run after him but was receding from the pretty widow s house with long strides he went out very little during the next few days but about a week later he kept an engagement to dine with lady whom he never neglected because she was the brightest hostess in london by some accident he arrived rather early lady had left the drawing room for a moment to see that all was right in the and when he was shown in there stood alone in the pine los the well beloved she had been the first arrival he had not in the least expected to meet her there further than that in a general sense at lady s you expected to meet everybody she had just come out of the cloak room and was so tender and even that he had not the heart to be other than friendly as the other guests dropped in the pair re treated into a shady corner and she talked beside him till all moved off for the eating and drinking he had not been appointed to take her across to the dining room but at the table found her exactly opposite she looked very charming between the candles and then suddenly it dawned upon him that her previous manner must have originated in some false report about of whose existence he had not heard for years anyhow he was not disposed to resent an in having found that it usually arose of fact reason probability or his own deserts so he dined on catching her eyes and the few pretty words she made opportunity to project across the table to him now and then he was courteously only but mrs io a young man of forty pine herself distinctly made he her while at the same time her conduct in her own house had been enough to check his enough even to make him doubt if the well beloved really resided within those or had ever been more than the most passenger through that interesting and accomplished soul he was pondering this question yet growing decidedly moved by the playful pathos of her attitude when by chance searching his pocket for his handkerchief something and he felt there an letter which had arrived at the moment he was leaving his house and he had slipped into his coat to read in the cab as he drove along drew it sufficiently forth to observe by the post mark that it came from his isle having hardly a correspondent in that part of the world now he began to conjecture on the possible the lady on his right whom he had brought in was a leading of the town indeed of the united kingdom and america for that matter a creature in airy clothing like a or sea without shadows and in movement as as some highly many machine the well beloved which if one presses a particular spring flies open and its works the spring in the present case was the artistic she deserved at	45
being nothing else for them to do a long contemplation of the likeness completed in his emotions what the letter had begun he loved the woman dead and inaccessible as he had never loved her in life he had thought of her but at distant intervals during the twenty years since that parting occurred and only as somebody he could have wedded yet now the times of youthful friendship with her in which he had learned every note of her innocent nature up into a yearning and passionate attachment by regret beyond words that kiss which had offended his dignity which she had so given him before her consciousness of womanhood had been awakened what he would have offered to have a quarter of it now was almost angry with himself for h the his feelings of this night so strong were they towards the lost young how senseless of me he said as he lay in his lonely bed she had been another man s wife almost the whole time since he was from her and now she was a corpse yet the absurdity did not make his grief the less and the consciousness of the almost radiant purity of this new sprung affection for a flown spirit forbade him to check it the flesh was absent altogether it was love and refined to its highest he had felt nothing like it before the next afternoon he went down to the club not his large club where the men hardly spoke to each other but the homely one where they told stories of an afternoon and were not ashamed to confess among themselves to personal weaknesses and follies knowing well that such secrets would go no farther but he could not tell this so and was the story that to convey it in words would have been as hard as to cage a perfume they observed his altered manner and said he was in love admitted that he a young man of forty was and there it ended when he reached home he looked out of his bedroom window and began to consider in what direction from where he stood that darling little figure lay it was straight across there under the young pale moon the symbol signified well the divinity of the silver bow was not more pure than she the lost had been under that moon was the island of ancient and on the island a house framed from to chimney top like the isle itself of stone inside the window the moonlight her winding sheet lay reached only by the faint noises inherent in the isle the of the in the the of the tides in the bay and the grumbling of the currents in the never race he began to divine the truth the departed one though she had come short of inspiring a passion had yet possessed a absent from her rivals without which it seemed that a fixed and full rounded constancy to a woman could not flourish in him like his own her family had been for centuries from roman british times hence in her nature the well beloved as in his was some mysterious sucked from the isle otherwise a instinct necessary to the absolute of a pair thus though he might never love a woman of the island race for lack in her of the desired refinement he could not love long a a woman other than of the island race for her lack of this of character such was s view of things another fancy of his an artist s superstition merely may be mentioned the like some other local families suggested a roman more or less on the stock of the their features recalled those of the italian to any one as familiar as he was with them and there were evidences that the roman had been and in and near this comer of britain tradition urged that a temple to once stood at the top of the roman road leading up into the isle and possibly one to the of the this what so natural as that the true star of his soul would be found nowhere but in one of the old island breed after dinner his old friend came in to smoke and when they had talked a little ii a young man of forty while alluded casually to some place at which they would meet on the morrow i sha n t be there said but you promised i yes but i shall be at the island looking at a dead woman s grave as he spoke his eyes turned and remained fixed on a table near followed the direction of his glance to a photograph on a stand is that she he asked yes rather a affair then acknowledged it she s the only sweetheart i ever alfred he said because she s the only one i ought to have cared for that s just the fool i have always been but if she s dead and buried you can go to her grave at any time as well as now to keep up the sentiment i don t know that she s buried but to morrow the academy night of all days why go then i don t care about the academy you are our only inspired you are our or rather our you are almost the only man of the well beloved this generation who has been able to mould and forms living enough to draw the idle public away from the popular paintings into the usually deserted lecture room and people who have seen your last pieces of stuff say there has been nothing like them since sixteen hundred and since the of the great race lived and died whenever that was well then for the sake of others you ought not to rush off to that forgotten sea rock just when you are	45
wanted in town all for a woman you last saw a hundred years ago it was only nineteen and three quarters replied his friend with abstracted he went the next morning since the days of his youth a railway had been constructed along the bank so that except when the rails were washed away by the tides which was rather often the was quickly accessible at two o clock in the afternoon he was rattled along by this new means of under the familiar monotonous line of colored stones and he soon emerged from the station standing as a strange among the black the ruins of the washed away village and the white il a young man of forty of just come to view after burial through years in entering upon the beach the train had passed close to the ruins of henry the s or castle whither was to have accompanied him on the night of his departure had she appeared the primitive would probably have taken place and as no had ever been known to break that compact she would have become his wife ascending the steep incline to where the were just as they had formerly done and within sound of the great stone he looked southward towards the the level line of the sea horizon rose above the surface of the isle a ruffled patch in as usual marking the race whence many a had gone visiting the bottom of the monstrous world but had not been blessed with a poet as a friend against the stretch of water where a school of in the afternoon light was defined in addition to the distant a church with its tower standing the well beloved about a quarter of a mile off near the edge of the cliff the church yard could be seen in against the same vast spread of watery and among the graves moved the form of a man clothed in a white sheet which the wind blew and sadly every now and then near him moved six men bearing a long box and two or three persons in black followed the coffin with its twelve legs crawled across the isle while around and beneath it the flashing lights from the sea and the school of were reflected a fishing boat far out in the channel being under the also the procession wandered round to a particular corner and halted and paused there a long while in the wind the sea behind them the of the priest still blowing stood with his hat off he was present though he was a quarter of a mile off and he seemed to hear the words that were being said though nothing but the wind was audible he instinctively knew that it was none other than whom he was seeing his as he now began to call a young man of forty her presently the little group withdrew from before the sea shine and disappeared he felt himself unable to go farther in that direction and turning aside went across the open land visiting the various spots that he had formerly visited with her but as if to the church yard by a cord he was still conscious of being at the end of a whose was the grave of and as the dusk he closed upon his centre and entered the church yard gate not a soul was now within the the grave newly shaped was easily behind the church and when the same young moon arose which he had observed the previous evening from his window in london he could see the yet fresh foot marks of the and the breeze had fallen to a calm with the setting of the sun the had opened its glaring eye and to leave a spot both by early association and present regret he moved back to the church wall warm from the afternoon sun and sat down upon a window sill facing the grave z i iv she to resume substance the of the sea beneath the cliffs were all the sounds that reached for the were silent now how long he sat here lonely and thinking he did not know neither did he know though he felt drowsy whether sadness that gentle him into a short sleep so that he lost count of time and consciousness of incident but during some minute or minutes he seemed to see herself bending over and then withdrawing from her grave in the light of the moon she seemed not a y ar older not a less slender not a line more than when he had parted from her twenty years earlier in the lane hard by a on the impossibility of such a phenomenon as this being more than a dream fancy roused him with a start from his a young man of forty i must have been asleep he said yet she had seemed so real however dismissed the strange ion arguing that even if the information sent him of s death should be false a thing incredible that sweet friend of his youth despite the effects of moonlight would not now look the same as she had appeared nineteen or twenty years ago were what he saw substantial flesh it must have been some other person than having satisfied his sentiment by coming o the there was nothing more for him to do in the island and he decided to return to london that night but some remaining still on his hands by a natural instinct turned his feet in the direction of east the village of his birth and of hers passing the market square he pursued the arm of road to castle a private mansion of comparatively modem date in whose grounds stood the single plantation of trees of which the isle could boast the cottages extended close to the walls of the and one of the last of these dwellings	45
had be n s in which as it was her she possibly had died thb well beloved to reach it he passed the gates of and observed above the lawn wall a board announcing that the house was to be let furnished a few steps farther revealed the cottage which with its quaint and massive stone features of two or three centuries antiquity was capable even now of longer resistance to the of time than ordinary new his attention was drawn to the window still though a lamp lit the room he stepped back against the wall opposite and gazed in at a table covered with a white cloth a young woman stood putting tea things away into a comer cupboard she was in all respects the he had lost the girl he had seen in the church yard and had fancied to be the illusion of a dream and though there was this time no doubt about her reality the of her position in the silent house lent her a curiously startling aspect the explanation he waited for footsteps and in a few moments a passed him on his journey home inquired of the man concerning the spectacle oh yes sir that s poor mrs s only daughter and it must be lonely for her there ia a young man of forty to night poor maid yes good now she s the very of her mother that s what everybody says but how does she come to be so lonely one of her brothers went to sea and was drowned and t other is in america they were owners at one time the pitched his and explained to the seeming stranger that there had been three families in the stone trade who had got much involved with each other in the last generation they were the the and the the strained their utmost to the other two and partially succeeded they grew rich sold out and disappeared altogether from the island which had been their making the kept a dogged middle course without show or noise and also retired in their turn the were pulled completely down in the competition with the other two and when widow s daughter married her cousin jim he tried to regain for the family its original place in the struggle he took at less than he could profit by more and more till at last the crash came he was sold the up went away and later on came back to live in this little cottage which was his wife s by in there he remained till hi death and now his widow was gone hardships had helped on her end the proceeded on his way and deeply knocked at the door of the minute the girl herself opened it lamp in hand he said tenderly even now unable to get over the strange feeling that he was twenty years younger addressing the forsaken ann sir said she ah your name is not the same as your mother s my second name is and my poor mother married her cousin as everybody does here well ann or otherwise you are to me and you have lost her now i have sir she spoke in the very same sweet voice that he had listened to a score of years before and bent eyes of the same familiar upon him i knew your mother at one time be a man of forty learning of her death and burial i took the liberty of calling upon you you will forgive a stranger doing that yes she said and glancing round the room this was mother s own and now it is mine i am sorry not to be in mourning on the night of her funeral but i have just been to put some flowers on her grave and i took it off afore going that the damp mid not spoil the you see she was bad a long time and i have to be careful and do washing and for a living she hurt her side with wringing up the large sheets she had to wash for the castle folks here i hope you won t hurt yourself doing it my dear oh no that i sha n t there s and and ted and lots o young they ll anything for me if they happen to come along but i can hardly trust em sam t other day twisted a linen table cloth into two pieces for all the world as if it had been a pipe light they never know when to stop in their wringing the voice truly was his s but the the second was clearly more fact less cultivated than her mother had been this would never poetry from any platform local or other with enthusiastic appreciation of its fire there was a disappointment in his recognition of this yet she touched him as few had done he could not bear to go away how old are you he asked going in nineteen it was about the age of her double the first when he and she had strolled together over the cliffs during the engagement but he was now forty if a day she before him was an and he was a and a royal with a fortune and a reputation yet why was it an unpleasant sensation to him just then to recollect that he was two score he could find no further excuse for remaining and having still half an hour to spare he went round by the road to the other or west side of the last century castle and came to the farthest house out there on the cliff it was his early home used in the summer as a lodging house for visitors it now stood empty and silent the evening wind x a young man of forty swaying the and boughs in the front the only shrubs that could weather the	45
salt which sped past the walls opposite the house far out at sea the familiar light ship winked from the sand bank and all at once there came to him a wild wish that instead of having an artist s reputation he could be living here an and unknown man and in a fair way of winning the pretty in the cottage hard by v the takes having returned to london he his mary life but he was not really living there the phantom of now grown to be warm flesh and bloody held his mind afar he thought of nothing but the isle and the second dwelling therein its salt breath by its singing rains and by the haunted atmosphere of roman about and around the site of her perished temple there the very defects in the country girl became charms as viewed from town nothing now pleased him so much as to spend that portion of the afternoon which he devoted to exercise in haunting the of the along the thames where the stone of his native rock was from the craft that had brought it thither he would pass inside a young man of forty the great gates of these landing places on the right or left bank contemplate the white and their associations call up the genius whence they came and almost forget that he was in london one afternoon he was walking away from the mud entrance to one of the when his attention was drawn to a female form on the opposite side of the way going towards the spot he had just left she was somewhat small slight and graceful her attire alone would have been enough to attract him being simple and to but he was more than attracted by her strong resemblance to the younger ann as she had said she was called before she had a hundred yards he felt certain that it was indeed and his mood of the afternoon was now so intense that the lost and the found seemed essentially the same person their external likeness to each other probably owing to the between the elder and her husband went far to the he hastily turned and the girl among the she kept on the beloved her way to the wharf where looking around her for a few seconds with the manner of one to the locality she opened the gate and disappeared also went up to the gate and entered she had crossed to the landing place beyond which a craft lay l nearer he discovered her to be engaged in conversation with the and an elderly woman both come straight from the isle as was apparent in a moment from their accent felt no hesitation in making himself known as a native the engagement between s mother and himself twenty years before having been known to few or none now living the present of recognized him and with the of her race and years explained the situation though that was rather his duty as an intruder than hers this is cap n sir a distant relation of father s she said and this is mrs we ve come up from the island wi en just for a trip and are going to sail back wi en wednesday oh i see and where are you staying z a man of forty here on board what you live on board entirely yes lord sir broke in mrs i should be o my life to my eyes among these here at night time and even by day if so be i venture into the streets i forget how many to the right and to the left tis to get back to job s vessel do i job the nodded confirmation you are safer ashore than afloat said especially in the channel with these winds and those heavy blocks of stone well said cap n after privately clearing something from his mouth as to the winds there much danger in them at this time o year tis the ocean bound that make the risk to craft like ours if you happen to be in their course under you cut in two pieces and they never lying to to haul in your and nobody to tell the tale turned to wanting to say much to her yet not knowing what to say he remarked at last you go back the same way the well beloved yes sir well take care of yourself afloat oh yes i hope i may see you again soon and talk to you i hope so sir he could not get further and after a while left them and went away thinking of more than ever the next day he mentally timed them down the allowing for the pause to in and on the wednesday pictured the sail down the open sea that night he thought of the little craft under the bows of the huge steam vessels powerless to make itself seen or heard and now growing dear sleeping in her little berth at the mercy of a thousand chance catastrophe honest perception had told him that this fairer than her mother in face and form was her inferior in soul and understanding yet the which the first could never in him was almost to his alarm burning up now he began to have as to some queer trick that his beloved was about to play him or rather the capricious divinity behind that ideal a man of forty a gigantic satire upon the of his during the past twenty years seemed in the distance a of the accomplished and well connected mrs pine for the little under the of some mystic which had nothing to do with reason surely that was the form of the satire but it was pleasant to leave the suspicion as yet and follow the lead in thinking	45
how best to do this recollected that as was customary when the summer time approached castle had been advertised for letting furnished a solitary like himself whose wants all lay in an artistic and ideal direction did not require such gaunt accommodation as the residence offered but the spot was all and the expenses of a few months of therein he could well afford a letter to the agent was despatched that night and in a few days found himself the temporary possessor of a place which he had never seen the inside of since his childhood and had then deemed the abode of unpleasant ghosts vi thb past shines in the present it was the evening of s arrival at castle an ordinary house on the brink of the cliffs and he had walked through the rooms about the lawn and into the surrounding plantation of elms which on this island of rock lent a unique character to the in name nature and the property within the wall formed a complete to everything in its to find other trees between bank and it was necessary to a little in time to dig down to a loose of the stone beds where a forest of lay as their heads all in one direction as blown down by a gale in the secondary epoch dusk had closed in and he now proceeded with what was after all the real business of his the two servants who had been a young man of forty left to take care of the house were in their own quarters and he went out unobserved crossing a hollow by the boughs he approached an empty garden house of design which stood on the outer wall of the grounds and commanded by a window the fronts of the nearest cottages among them was the home of the he had chosen this moment for his outlook through knowing that the villagers were in no hurry to pull down their blinds at nightfall and as he had divined the inside of the young woman s living room was visible to him as formerly illuminated by the rays of its own lamp a subdued came every now and then from the apartment she was linen on a flannel table cloth a row of such apparel hanging on a clothes horse by the fire her face had been pale when he encountered her but now it was warm and pink with her exertions and the heat of the stove yet it was in perfect and repose which imparted a cast to the when she glanced up her seemed to have all the soul and heart that had the her mother s and had been with her a true index of the spirit within could it be possible that in this case the was he had met with many such examples of hereditary without the qualities signified by the traits he unconsciously hoped that it was at least not entirely so here the room was less furnished than when he had last beheld it the bo or double comer cupboard where the china was formerly kept had disappeared its place being taken by a plain board the tall old clock with its ancient oak arched brow and humorous mouth was also not to be seen a cheap white specimen doing its work what these might his humanity less than it cheered his primitive instinct in pointing out how her necessities might bring them together having fixed his residence near her for some time he felt in no hurry to his presence just now and went indoors that this girl s frame was doomed to be a real of that one that dream creature who had never seen fit to the mother s image till it be a young man of forty came a mere memory after dissolution he doubted less every moment there was an uneasiness in such there was something in his present a certain had after all ac his former passions the beloved had seldom informed a personality which while his soul simultaneously shocked his intellect a change perhaps had come it was a fine morning on the morrow walking in the grounds towards the gate he saw entering his hired castle with a broad oval basket covered with a white cloth which burden she bore round to the back door of course she washed for his own household he had not thought of that in the morning sunlight she appeared rather as a than as a and he could not but think that the of her figure was as ill adapted to this occupation as her mother s had been but after all it was not the that he saw now in front of her on the surface of her was shining out that more real more being whom he knew so well the occupation of the the well beloved the of the temporary creature who formed the background were of the same account in the of the indispensable one as the supporting posts and in a display she left the house and went homeward by a path of which he was not aware having probably changed her course because she had seen him standing there it meant nothing for she had hardly become acquainted with him yet that she should have avoided him was a new experience he had no opportunity for a further study of her by distant observation and hit upon a pretext for bringing her face to face with him he found fault with his linen and directed that the should be sent for she is rather young poor little thing said the but since her mother s death she has enough to do to keep above water and we make shift with her but i ll tell her sir i will see her myself send her in when she comes said one morning accordingly when he was answering a criticism of	45
a late work of his he was told that she waited his pleasure in the hall he went out a young man of forty about the washing said the stiffly i am a very particular person and i wish no preparation of lime to be used i didn t know folks used it replied the maiden in a scared and reserved tone without looking at him that s all right and then the the buttons i haven t got a sir she murmured ah that s satisfactory and i object to so much in the i don t put any returned in the same close way never heard the name o t afore oh i see all this time was thinking of the girl or as the scientific might say nature was working her plans for the next generation under the cloak of a dialogue on linen he could not read her individual character owing to the effect of her likeness to a woman whom he had valued too late he could not help seeing in her all that he knew of another and in her all that did not with his sense of the girl seemed to think of nothing but the business in hand she had answered to the x thb point and was hardly aware of his sex or of his shape i knew your mother he said you remember my telling you so yes well i have taken this house for two or three months and you will be very useful to me you still live just outside the wall yes sir said the self contained girl and she turned to leave this pretty creature with features so still there was something strange in seeing move off thus that form which he knew passing well she who was once so alive to his presence that not many yards from this spot she had flung her arms round him and given him a kiss which despised in its freshness had revived in him as the dearest kiss of all his life and now this of her mother as they called her in the dialect here this perfect copy why did she turn away your mother was a refined and well informed woman i think i remember she was sir everybody said so i hope you resemble her a young man of forty she shook her head and drew away oh one thing more i have not brought much linen so you must come to the house every day very good sir you won t forget that oh no then he let her go he was a town man and she an yet he had opened himself out like a sea without disturbing the of her nature it was monstrous that a maiden who had assumed the personality of her of his tenderest memory should be so perhaps it was he who was wanting might be passion as indifference because he was so many years older in outward show this brought him to the root of it in his heart he was not a day older than when he had the mother at the daughter s present his record moved on with the years his sentiments stood still when he beheld those of his fellows who were defined as and matter of fact slightly ridiculous beings past masters in the art of the well beloved ing homes schools and and present in the science of giving away how he envied them assuming them to feel as they appeared to fed with their commerce and their politics their glasses and their pipes they had got past the currents of and were in the calm waters of middle ed philosophy but he their contemporary was tossed like a cork hither and thither upon the crest of every fancy precisely as he had been tossed when he was half his present age with the burden now of double pain to himself in his growing vision of all as vanity had gone and he saw her no more that day since he could not again call upon her she was as inaccessible as if she had entered the military on the beyond them in the evening he went out and paced down the lane to the red king s castle overhanging the cliff beside whose age the castle he occupied was but a thing of yesterday below the castle precipice lay enormous blocks which had fallen from it and several of them were carved over with names and he knew the spot and the old trick well and by searching a young man of forty in the faint moon rays he found a pair of names which as a boy he himself had cut they were and s and his own the letters were now nearly worn away by the weather and the but close by in quite fresh letters stood ann coupled with the name they could not have been there more than two or three years and the ann was probably the second who was some boy admirer of her child time doubtless he his steps and passed the house towards his own the animated the dwelling and the light within the room fell upon the window she was just inside that blind whenever she unexpectedly came to the castle he started and lost it was not at her presence as such but at the new condition which seemed to have something sinister in it on the other hand the most abrupt encounter with him moved her to no emotion as it had moved her in the old days she was indifferent to almost un conscious of his he was no more k the well beloved than a statue to her she was a growing fire to him a sudden terror of love would ever and anon come upon the when his reflecting powers would insist upon informing him of the fearful lapse from	45
that lay in this it threw him into a sweat what if now at last he were doomed to do penance for his past wanderings in a material sense by being chained in fatal fidelity to an object that his intellect despised one night he dreamed that he saw dimly behind that young countenance the of herself with all her subtle face laughing aloud however the well beloved was alive again had been lost and was found he was amazed at the change of front in himself she had worn the guise of strange women she had been a woman of every class from the dignified daughter of some or peer to a with her handkerchief to the beats of the tom tom but all these had been endowed with a certain either of the flesh or spirit some with wit a few with talent and even genius but the new had ap a young man of forty nothing beyond sex and she knew not how to sport a fan or handkerchief hardly how to pull on a glove but her limited life was innocent and that went far poor little her mother s image there it all lay after all her was as good as his own it vas misfortune that had sent her down to this odd as it seemed to him her were largely what he loved her for her power over him had charm he felt as he had felt when standing beside her but alas he was twenty years farther onward into the shade vii the new established a few mornings later he was an upper back window over a part of the garden the door beneath him opened and a figure appeared forth she went round out of sight to where the gardener was at work and presently returned with a bunch of green stuff fluttering in each hand it was her dark hair now up under a cap she sailed on with a and unconscious face her thoughts a thousand from him how she had suddenly come to be an of his own house he could not understand till he recalled the fact that he had given the castle servants a whole holiday to attend a review of the in the watering place over the bay on their stating that they could provide a temporary substitute to stay in the house they had evidently called in to his s a young man of forty great pleasure he discovered their opinion of his to be such a mean one that they had called in no one else the spirit as she seemed to him brought his lunch into the room where he was writing and he beheld her it she went to the window to a blind which had slipped and he had a good view of her it was not unlike that of one of the three in s judgment of paris and in was nigh perfection but it was in her full face that the vision of her mother was most apparent did you cook all this he asked himself she turned and half smiled merely murmuring yes sir well he knew the arrangement of those white teeth in the of two of the upper ones there was a slight no stranger would have noticed it nor would he but that he knew of the same mark in her mother s mouth and looked for it here till the second had revealed it this moment by her smile he had never beheld that mark since the parting from the first when she had smiled under his kiss as the copy had done now the well beloved next morning when dressing he heard her through the floor of the building engaged in conversation with the other servants having by this time regularly herself as the of the long pursued as one who by no of his own had been chosen by some superior power as the vehicle of her next d but she attracted him by the of her voice she would suddenly drop it to a rich whisper of when the slight rural monotony of its narrative speech disappeared and soul and heart or what seemed soul and heart the charm lay in the intervals using that word in its musical sense she would say a few in one note and end her sentence in a soft upwards then downwards then into her own note again the curve of sound was as artistic as any line of beauty ever struck by his pencil as satisfying as the curves of her who was the world s the subject of her discourse he cared nothing about it was no more his interest than his concern he took special pains that in catching her voice he might not comprehend her words to the tones he had a right none a young man of forty to the by degrees he could not exist long without this sound on sunday evening he found that she went to church he followed behind her over the open road keeping his eye on the little hat with its bunch of cock s feathers as on a star when she had passed in observed her position and took a seat behind her engaged in the study of her ear and the of her white neck he suddenly became aware of the presence of a lady still farther ahead in the aisle whose attire though of black materials in the form was of a cut which rather suggested london than this for the minute he in his curiosity that the lady turned her bead somewhat and though she was veiled with unusual thickness for the season he seemed to recognize pine in the form why should mrs pine be there asked if it should indeed be she the end of the service saw his attention again concentrated on to such a degree that at the	45
critical moment of moving out he forgot the mysterious lady in front of her and found that she had left the church by the side ths door supposing it to have been mrs pine she would probably be discovered staying at one of the hotels at the watering place over the bay and to have come along the bank to the island as so many did for an evening drive for the present however the explanation was not and he did not seek it when he emerged from the church the great placid eye of the at the point was open and he moved a few steps to escape or her double and the rest of the congregation turning at length he hastened homeward along the now deserted intending to overtake the but he could see nothing of her and concluded that she had walked too fast for him arrived at his own gate he paused a moment and perceived that s little was still in darkness she had not come he his steps but could not find her the only persons on the road being a man and his wife as he knew them to be though he could not see them from the words of the man if you had not already married me you d i a young man of forty cut my acquaintance that s a pretty thing for a wife to say the remark struck his ear and by and by he went back again s cottage was now lighted she must have come round by the other road satisfied that she was safely for the night he opened the gate of castle and retired to his room also eastward from the grounds the cliffs were rugged and the view of the opposite coast picturesque in the extreme a little door from the lawn gave him immediate access to the rocks and shore on this side without the door was a dip well of pure water which possibly had supplied the inmates of the adjoining and now red king s castle at the time of its on a sunny morning he was meditating here when he discerned a figure on the shore below spreading white linen upon the strand descended as he had supposed had now returned to her own occupation her pink arms though slight were plump enough to show at the elbows and were set off by her purple cotton thb well print which the shore breeze licked and he stood near without speaking the wind dragged a shirt sleeve from the or which held it down stooped and put a heavier one in its place thank you she said quietly she turned up her eyes and seemed gratified to perceive that her assistant was she had plainly been so wrapped in her own thoughts gloomy thoughts by their signs that she had not considered him till then the young girl continued to converse with him in friendly frankness showing neither nor shyness as for love it was evidently farther from her mind than even death and dissolution when one of the sheets became said do you hold it down and i ll put the she and in placing a his hand touched hers it was a young hand rather long and thin a little damp and from her in setting down the last stone he laid it by a pure accident rather heavily on her fingers i am very very sorry exclaimed oh i have bruised the skin he a man of seized her fingers to examine the damage done no air you haven t she cried allowing him to retain her hand without the least objection that s where i scratched it this morning with a pin you didn t hurt me a bit with the stone although her gown was purple there was a little black bow upon each arm he knew what it meant and it him do you ever visit your mother s grave he asked yes sir sometimes i am going there tonight to water the she had now finished here and they parted that evening when the sky was red he emerged by the garden door and passed her house the blinds were not down and he could see her within while he paused she sprang up as if she had forgotten the hour and tossed on her hat strode ahead and round the corner and was half way up the straggling street before he discerned her little figure behind him he hastened past the lads and young en with who were drawing water from the fountains by the and took the direction of the church with the us the well beloved disappearance of the sun the had again set up its flame against the sky the dark church rising in the here he allowed her to overtake him you loved your mother much said i did sir of course i did said the girl who tripped so lightly that it seemed he might have carried her on his hand wished to say so did i but did not like to disclose events which she apparently did not guess fell into thought and continued mother had a very sad life for some time when she was about as old as i i should not like mine to be as hers her young man proved false to her because she wouldn t agree to meet him one night and it grieved mother almost all her life i wouldn t ha fretted about him if i d been she she would never name his name ut i think he was a cruel man and i hate to think of him after this he could not go into the churchyard with her and walked onward alone to the south of the isle he was wretched all night yet he would not have stood where he did stand in the ranks of an imaginative a young	45
man of forty profession if he had not been at the mercy of every of the fancy that can beset man it was in his weaknesses as a citizen and a national that his strength lay as an artist and he felt it childish to complain of not only innate but cultivated but he was paying dearly enough for his he saw a terrible vengeance ahead what had he done to be tormented like this the beloved after flitting from pine to the phantom of a dead woman whom he never adored in her lifetime had taken up her abode in the living representative of the dead with a of h old which th e absolute indifference of that little brown eyed representative on ly d to int did he really wish to proceed to marriage with this of a girl he did the wish had come at last it was true that as he studied her he saw defects in addition to her social judgment as it was told him that she was colder in nature in character than that bright little woman the first but twenty years make a difference in and the added demands of middle age in physical form are more than balanced by its thb as to the spiritual content he looked at himself in the glass and felt glad at those inner in which formerly would have impelled him to reject her there was a strange difference in his regard of his present folly and of his love in his youthful time now he could be mad with method knowing it to be madness then he was compelled to make believe his madness wisdom in those days any flash of reason upon his loved one s was over hastily and with fear such vision now did not cool him he knew he was the creature of a tendency and to use a practical eye it appeared that as he had once thought this family though it might not centuries or ever up an individual nature which would exactly his own imperfect one and round with it the perfect whole was yet the only family he had ever met or was likely to meet which possessed the materials for her making it was as if the had found the clay but not the while other families whose daughters might attract him had found the but not the clay we viii his own soul him his and its grounds and the cliffs hard by he could command every move and aspect of her who was the spirit of the past to in the of whom all sordid details were disregarded among other things he observed that she was anxious when it rained if after k wet day a golden streak appeared in the sky over s bay under a lid of cloud her manner was joyous and her tread light this him and he found that if he endeavored to encounter her at these times she him stealthily and but one evening when she had left cottage and tripped off in the direction of the hill he set out by the same route resolved to await her return along the m the well beloved high which stretched between that place and east he reached the top of the old road where it makes a sudden descent to the but she did not appear turning back he sauntered along till he had nearly reached his own house again then he his steps and in the dim night he walked backward and forward on the bare and lofty of the isle the stars above and around him the on duty at the distant point the light ship from the sand bank the of the beach by the tide beneath the church away where the island fathers lay he walked the wild summit till his legs ached and his heart ached till he seemed to hear on the upper wind the stones of the past and the voices of the who them and married their wives and daughters and produced as the ultimate flower of the combined stocks still she did not come it was more than foolish to wait yet he could not help waiting at length he discerned a dot of a figure which he knew to be hers rather by its motion than by its shape z o a young man of forty how the dream the of substantial things when here between those three the sky the rock and the ocean the minute personality of this girl filled his consciousness to its boundary and the scene shrank to a comer therein but all at once the approaching figure had disappeared he looked about she had certainly vanished at one side of the road was a low wall but she could not have gone behind that without considerable trouble and singular conduct he looked behind him she had reappeared farther on the road hurried after and his movement stood still when he came up she was shaking with restrained laughter well what does this mean my dear girl he asked her inner mirth escaping in spite of her she turned and said when you was following me to street o wells two hours ago i looked round and saw you and huddled behind a stone you passed and brushed my frock without seeing me and when on my l x i the w ll way i saw you waiting i slipped over the wall and ran past you if i had not stopped and looked round at you would never have me what did you do that for you that you shouldn t find me that s not exactly a reason give another dear he said as he turned and walked beside her homeward she hesitated come he urged again twas because i thought you wanted to be my young man she answered what a wild thought of yours supposing i did	45
wouldn t you have me not now and not for long even if it had been sooner than now why if i tell you you won t laugh at me or let anybody else know never then i will tell you she said quite seriously tis because i get tired o my lovers soon as i get to know them well what i see in one young man for a while soon leaves him and goes into another yonder and follow and then what i admire out of and springs up somewhere else and so i fl a of low on and never fix to one i have loved fifteen yes fifteen i am ashamed to say she repeated laughing i can t help it sir i assure you of it is really to the same one all through oh y i can t catch him she added anxiously you won t tell anybody o this in me will you sir because if it were known i am afraid no would like me was surprised into stillness here was this obscure and almost girl engaged in the pursuit of the impossible ideal just as he had been himself doing for the last twenty years she was doing it quite involuntarily by sheer necessity of her puzzled all the while at her own instinct he suddenly thought of its bear ing upon himself and said with a sinking heart am i one of them she pondered you was for a week hen i first saw you only a week about that what made the being f your fancy fo sake my form and go elsewhere the well beloved well though you seemed handsome and gentlemanly at first yes i found ee too old soon after you are a candid young person but you asked me sir she i did and having been answered i won t intrude upon you longer so cut along home as fast as you can it is getting late when she had passed out of he also followed homeward this seeking of the well beloved was then of the nature of a knife which could cut two ways to be the was one thing to be one of the from which the ideal had departed was another and this was what he had become now in the mockery of new days drawing near his own gate he tobacco and could discern two figures in the side lane leading past s door they did not however enter her house but strolled onward to the narrow pass conducting to red king s castle and the sea he was in momentary at the thought that they might be with a worthless lover but a faintly x a young man of forty tone from the man informed him that they were the same married couple going homeward whom he had encountered on a previous occasion the next day he gave the servants a to get the pretty into the castle again for a few hours the better to observe her while she was pulling down the blinds at sunset a whistle of peculiar quality came from some point on the cliffs outside the lawn he observed that her color rose slightly though she about as if she had noticed nothing suddenly suspected that she had not only fifteen past admirers but a current one still he might be mistaken stimulated now by ancient memories and present tenderness to use every effort to make her his wife despite her conventional he strung himself up to this mystery if he could only win her and how could a country girl refuse such an opportunity he could pack her off to school for two or three years marry her her mind by a little travel and take his chance of the rest as to her want of for him so sadly in contrast with her mother s affection a man tin twenty years older than his bride could expect no better and he would be well content to put up with it in the pleasure of possessing one in whom seemed to linger as an all the charm of his youth and his early home ix it was a sad and leaden and paced up the long steep pass or street of wells on either side of the road young girls stood with at the fountains which t there and behind the houses forming the of the rock rose the massive forehead of the isle at this part with its enormous as with a crown as you approach the upper end of the street all progress seems about to be checked by the almost face of the into it your track apparently runs a mass which if it were to slip down would the whole town but in a moment you find that the road the old roman highway into the turns at a sharp angle when it reaches the base of the scrap and in the of in the to the right to the left there is also another ascending road modem almost as steep as the first and perfectly straight this is the road to the arrived at the of the ways and paused for breath before turning to the right his proper and picturesque course he looked up the uninteresting left road to the it was new long white regular to a vanishing point like a lesson in perspective about a quarter of the way up a girl was resting beside a basket of white linen and by the shape of her hat and the nature of her burden he recognized her she did not see him and the right hand course he slowly ascended the incline she had taken he observed that her attention was absorbed by something aloft he followed the direction of her gaze above them the green gray mountain of grassy stone here at the top by military art	45
evidently connected with the stone trade with the second upon his arm she looked prettily guilty and blushed a little under his glance the man s was one of the typical island his features energetic and wary in their expression and half covered with a close crisp black beard fancied that out of his keen dark eyes there a dry sense of humor at the situation if so must have told him of s symptoms of tenderness this girl whom for her dear mother s sake more than for her own he have guarded as the apple of his eye bow could she estimate him so the mortification of brought himself to this position with the by his early slight of the type blinded him for the moment to what struck him a short time after the a ma of man upon arm she hung w not a then became t her g e the she could hardly have her so promptly or to give her the benefit of his own theory her beloved could scarcely have flitted from frame to frame in so very brief an interval and which df them had been he who whistled softly in the dusk to her without further attempt to find alfred walked homeward thinking that the desire to make to the original woman by wedding and the copy which lent such an to his new gas if by set intention of at the door of the the castle there stood a carriage he observed that tt was not one of the homely from the under hill town but apparently from the fashionable town across the bay wondering why the visitor had not driven in he entered to find in the drawing room pine at his first glance upon her dressed and graceful in movement she seemed beautiful at the second he observed that her face was pale and agitated she the well beloved seemed pathetic likewise altogether she was now a very different figure from her who sitting in her chair with such finished composure had him in her drawing room in square you are surprised at this of course you are she said in a low pleading voice languidly lifting her heavy eyelids while he was holding her hand but i couldn t help it i know i have done something to offend you have i not oh what can it be that you have come away to this rock to live with in the midst of the london season you have not offended me dear mrs pine he said how sorry i am that you should have supposed it yet i am glad too that your fancy should have done me the good turn of bringing you here to see me i am staying at s she ex r then i did see you at a church service here a little while back she blushed faintly upon her and she sighed their eyes met well she said at last i don t know why i shouldn t show the virtue of you know what it means a young man of forty i was the stronger once now i am the weaker whatever pain i may have given you in the and downs of our acquaintance i am sorry for and would willingly repair all errors of the past by being to reason in the future it was impossible that should not feel a tender towards this attractive and once independent woman who from every worldly point of view was an excellent match for him a superior match indeed except in money he took her hand again and held it awhile and a faint wave of gladness seemed to flow through her but no he could go no further that island girl in her sunday frock and little hat with its bunch of cock s feathers held him as by of rope he dropped s hand i am leaving to morrow she said that was why i felt i must call you did not know i had been there all through the holidays i did not indeed or i should have come to see you i didn t like to write i wish i had now i wish you had too dear mrs pine but it was that she wanted to be m tht well as they reached the he told her that he should be back in town himself again and would call immediately at the moment of his words now alone passed close along by the carriage on the other side towards her house hard at hand she did not turn head or eye to the pair they seemed to be in her view objects of became cold as a stone the chill towards that the presence of the girl witch that she was brought with it came like a doom he knew what a fool he was as he had said but he was powerless in the grasp of the passion he cared more for s finger tips than for mrs pine s whole personality perhaps saw it for she said fully now i have done all i could i felt that the only to my cruelty to you in my drawing room would be to come as a to yours it is most handsome and noble of you my very dear friend said he with an emotion of courtesy rather than of enthusiasm then were spoken and she drove away but saw only the retreating and knew that he was helpless in her a young man of forty hands the church of the island had risen near the foundations of the pagan temple and a christian from the former might be him through the very false gods to whom he had devoted himself both in his craft like of and in his heart perhaps divine punishment for his had come x she fails to vanish still had not turned	45
far back towards the castle when he was overtaken by and the man who carried his painting lumber they paced together to the door the man deposited the articles and went away and the two walked up and down before entering i met an extremely interesting woman in the road out there said the painter ah she is a a indeed i was struck with her it shows how beauty will out through the guise yes it will though not always and this case doesn t prove it for the lady s attire was in the latest and most approved taste oh you mean the lady who was driving of course what were you thinking of i q a man of forty the pretty little cottage girl outside here i did meet her but what s she very well for one s picture though hardly for one s fireside this is mrs pine a kind proud woman who ll do what people with no pride would not condescend to think of she is leaving to morrow and she drove across to see me you know how things seemed to be going with us at one time but i am no good to any woman she s been very generous towards me which i ve not been to her she ll ultimately throw herself away upon some wretch unworthy of her no doubt do you think so murmured after a while he said abruptly i ll marry her myself if she ll have me i like the look of her i wish you would alfred or rather could she has long had an idea of slipping out of the world of fashion into the world of art she is a woman of individuality and earnest instincts i am in real trouble about her i won t say she can be won it would be of me to say that but try i can bring you together easily z x thb her if she s with the that was part of added when you have decided to marry take the first nice woman you meet they are all alike you don t know her yet replied who could give praise where he could not give love but you do and til take her on the strength of your is she really handsome i had but the glance but i know she is or she wouldn t have caught your eye you may take my word for it she looks as well at hand as afar what color are her eyes her eyes i don t go much into color being sworn to form but let me see gray and her hair rather light than dark brown i wanted something darker said there are so many fair models among native still are useful property well well this is but i liked the look of hen had gone back to town it was a i i a op forty wet day on the little but walked out as far as the garden house of his hired castle where he sat down and smoked this being on the boundary wall of his property his ear could now a nd then catch the tones of s voice from her cottage in the lane which skirted his fence and he noticed that there were no in it he knew why that was she wished to go out and could not he had observed before that when she was planning an a particular note would come into her voice during the preceding hours a dove s of sound no doubt the effect upon her voice of her thoughts of her lover or lovers yet the latter it could not be she was pure and single hearted half an eye could see that whence then the two men possibly the was a there seemed reason in this when going out into the lane he encountered one of the red he had been thinking of soldiers were seldom seen in this outer part of the isle their beat from the when on pleasure was in the opposite direction and this man must have had a special reason for coming hither surveyed him he was thb a round faced good fellow to look at having two little pieces of on his upper lip like a pair of and small black eyes over which the cap flat it was a hateful idea that her tender cheek should be kissed by the lips of this heavy young man who had never been by a single battle even with savages the soldier went before her house looked at the door and moved on down the crooked way to the cliffs where there was a path back to the but he did not adopt it returning by the way he had come this showed his wish to pass the house again she gave no sign however and the soldier disappeared could not be satisfied that was in the house and he crossed over to the front of her little and tapped at the door which stood nobody came hearing a slight movement within he crossed the threshold was there alone sitting on a low stool in a dark comer as though she wished to be unobserved by any casual by she looked up at him without emotion or apparent surprise but he could then see that she was a young man of forty crying the view for the first time of distress in an young girl towards whom he felt drawn by ties of extraordinary delicacy and tenderness moved beyond measure he entered without ceremony my dear girl he said something is the matter she looked assent and he went on now tell me all about it perhaps i can help you come tell me i can t she murmured is upstairs and she ll hear mrs was the old woman who had come to live with the girl for	45
company since her mother s death then come into my garden opposite there we shall be quite private she rose put on her hat and accompanied him to the door here she asked him if the lane were empty and on his assuring her that it was she crossed over and entered with him through the garden wall the place was a shady and secluded one though through the boughs the sea could be seen quite near at hand its being distinctly audible a water drop from a tree thb fell here and there but the rain was not enough to hurt them now let me hear it he said soothingly you may tell me with the greatest freedom i was a friend of your mother s you know that is i knew her and i ll be a friend of yours the statement was if he wished her not to suspect him of being her mother s false one but that s name appeared to be unknown to the present i can t tell you sir she replied unwillingly except that it has to do with my own the rest is the secret of somebody else i am sorry for that said he i am getting to care for one i ought not to think of and it means ruin i ought to get away you mean from the island yes reflected his presence in london had been desired for some time yet be had delayed going because of his new here but to go and take her with him would afford him opportunity of watching over her tending her and developing it while it is a young man of forty might remove her from some danger it was a somewhat awkward for him as a lonely man to carry out still it could be done he asked her abruptly if she would really like to go away for a while i like best to stay here she answered still i should not mind going somewhere because i think i ought to would you like london s face lost its weeping shape how could that be she said i have been thinking that you could come to my house and make yourself useful in some way i rent just now one of those new places called which you may have heard of and i have a at the back i haven t heard of em she said without interest well i have two servants there and as my man has a holiday you can help them for a month or two would furniture be any good i can do that i haven t much furniture that requires but you can clear away plaster and clay in the and of stone and help me in and dust l thb well beloved all my failures and hands and heads and feet and bones and other objects she was startled yet attracted by the novelty of the proposal only for a time she said only for a time as short as you like and as long the deliberate manner in which after the first surprise discussed the arrangements that he suggested might have told him how far was any feeling for himself beyond friendship and possibly gratitude from her breast yet there was nothing extravagant in the between their ages and he hoped after her to himself to win her what had grieved her to tears she would not more particularly tell she had naturally not much need of preparation but she made even less preparation than he would have expected her to require she seemed eager to be immediately and not a soul was to know of her departure why if she were in love and at first averse to leave the island she should be so now he failed to understand but he took great care to compromise in no way a girl in whom his interest was as a young man of forty as it was passionate he accordingly left her to get out of the island alone awaiting her at a station a few miles up the railway where discovering himself to her through the carriage window he entered the next his frame pervaded by a glow which was almost joy at having for the first time in his charge one who inherited the flesh and bore the name so early associated with his own and at the prospect of putting things right which had been wrong through many years xi the image it was dark when the four wheeled cab wherein he had brought from the station stood at the entrance to the pile of of which occupied one floor then as in london than they are now leaving to alight and get the luggage taken in by the porter went up stairs to his surprise his floor was silent and on entering with a latch key the rooms were all in darkness he descended to the hall where was standing helpless beside the luggage while the porter was outside with the do you know what has become of my servants asked what and ain t they there ah then my belief is that what i suspected is you didn t leave your wine cellar unlocked did you by no mistake a young man of forty considered he thought he might have left the key with his elder servant whom he had believed he could trust especially as the cellar was not well ah then it was so she s been very queer this last week or two oh yes sending messages down the which were like madness itself and ordering us this and that till we would take no notice at all i see them both go out last night and possibly they went for a holiday not expecting ye or maybe for good if ye d written td ha got the place ready ye being out of a man too	45
though it s not me duty at all when got to his floor again he found that the cellar door was open some bottles were standing empty that had been full and many abstracted altogether all other articles in the house however appeared to be his letter to his housekeeper lay in the box as the had left it by this time the luggage had been sent up in the lift and like so much more luggage stood at the door the hall porter behind offering his assistance come here said the the well beloved what shall we do now here s a pretty state of affairs could suggest nothing till she was struck with the bright thought that she should light a fire light a fire ah yes i wonder if we could manage this is an odd coincidence and awkward he murmured very well light a fire is this the kitchen sir all mixed up with the yes then i think i can do all that s wanted here for a bit at any rate till you can get help sir at least i could if i could find the fuel house tis no such big place as i thought that s right take courage said he with a tender smile now i ll dine out this evening and leave the place for you to arrange as best you can with the help of the porter s wife down stairs this accordingly did and so their common residence began feeling more and more strongly that some danger awaited her in her native island he determined not to send her back till the lover or lovers who seemed a young man of forty to trouble her should have cooled off he was quite willing to take the risk of his action thus far in his regard for her it was a solitude indeed for though and were the only two people in the flat they did not keep each other company the former being as fearful of going near her now that he had the opportunity as he had been prompt to seek her when he had none they lived in silence his messages to her being frequently written on scraps of paper deposited where she could see them it was not without a pang that he noted her of their isolated position a position to which had she experienced any of sentiment she would readily have been alive considering that though not profound she was hardly a matter of fact girl as that phrase is commonly understood she was in the matter of fact quality of her to the friendly remarks which would escape him in spite of himself as well as in her general conduct whenever he formed some excuse for walking across the few yards of hall which separated his room n the beloved from the kitchen and spoke through the doorway to her she answered yes sir or no sir without turning her eyes from the particular work that she was engaged in in the usual course he would have obtained a couple of properly qualified servants immediately but he lived on with the one or rather the less than one that this cottage girl afforded it had been his almost invariable custom to dine at one of his clubs now he sat at home over the miserable chop or to which he limited himself in dread lest she should complain of there being too much work for one person and demand to be sent home a came every two or three days an extraordinary consumption of food and yet it was not for this that dreaded her presence but lest in conversing with she should open the girl s eyes to the of her situation could see for herself that there must have been two or three servants in the flat during his former residence there but his reasons for doing without them seemed never to strike hen his intention had been to keep her occupied exclusively at the but accident had modified this however he sent her round a young man of forty one morning and entering himself shortly after found her engaged in wiping the of dust from the casts and models the color of the dust never ceased to her it is like the hold of a she said and the beautiful faces of these clay people are quite spoiled by it i suppose you ll marry some day remarked as he regarded her thoughtfully some do and some don t she said with a reserved smile still attending to the casts you are very said he she weighed that remark without further speech it was conduct in the face of his instinct to cherish her especially when he regarded the charm of her bending the well though softly lined nose the round chin with as it were a second leap in its curve to the throat and the sweep of the over the rosy cheek during the lowered glance how he had labored to express the character of that face in clay and while catching it in substance had yet lost something that was essential i that evening at dusk in the stress of writing the letters he sent her out for she had been absent some quarter of an hour when suddenly drawing himself up from over his it flashed upon him that he had absolutely forgotten her total ignorance of london the head post to which he had sent her because it was late was two or three streets off and he had made his request in the most general manner which she had to with alacrity enough how could he have done such an thing went to the window it was about nine o clock and owing to her absence the blinds were not down he opened the and stepped out upon the balcony the green shade of his lamp its rays from the	45
gloom without over the opposite square the moon hung and to the right there stretched a long street filled with a array of lamps some single some in clusters among them an occasional blue or red one from a comer came the notes of a piano organ out a stirring march of s the shadowy black figures of moved up down and across the above the roofs was a bank of livid mist and higher a blue sky in which stars were a young man of forty visible though its lower part was still pale with daylight against which rose chimney pots in the form of elbows and fists from the whole scene proceeded a ground miles in extent upon which individual voices a tin whistle the bark of a dog rode like on a sea the whole noise impressed him with the sense that no one in its enormous mass ever required rest in this ocean of humanity there was a of existence his wandering alone looked at his watch she had been gone half aa hour it was impossible to distinguish her at this distance even if she approached he came inside and putting on his hat determined to go out and seek her he reached the end of the street and there was nothing of her to be seen she had the of two or three from this point to the post office yet he plunged at random into one till he reached the office to find it quite deserted almost distracted now by his anxiety for her he retreated as rapidly as he had come home only to find that she had not returned he recollected telling her that if she should the well ever lose her way she must call a cab and drive home it occurred to him that this was what she would do now he again went out upon the balcony the dignified street in which he lived was almost vacant and the lamps stood like placed awaiting some procession which long at a point under him where the road was torn up there stood a red light and at the comer two men were talking in leisurely repose as if themselves at lovers of a disposition who were never seen by daylight and darted at each other in and out of area gates his attention was fixed on the and he held his breath as the hollow clap of each horse s hoofs drew near the front of the house only to go onward into the square the two lamps of each vehicle afar dilated with its near approach and seemed to towards him it was surely no it passed by almost frantic he again descended and let himself out of the house moving towards a more central part where the roar still continued before emerging into the noisy he observed a small figure approaching leisurely along the opposite side and hastened across to find it was she xii a between oh he cried with the tenderly subdued scolding of a mother what is this you have done to alarm me so she seemed unconscious of having done anything and was altogether surprised at his anxiety in his relief he did not speak further till he asked her suddenly if she would take his arm since she must be tired oh no sir she assured him i am not a bit tired and i don t require any help at all thank you they went up stairs without using the lift and he let her and himself in with his latch key she entered the kitchen and he following sat down in a chair there where have you been he said with almost concern on his face you ought not to have been absent more than ten minutes the well beloved i knew there was nothing for me to do and thought i should like to see a little of london she replied so when i had got the i went on into the fashionable streets where folks are all walking about just as if it were twas for all the world like coming home by night from fair at the street o wells only more genteel oh you must not go out like this don t you know that i am responsible for your safety i am your well guardian in fact and am bound by law and morals and i don t know what all to deliver you up to your native island without a scratch or and yet you indulge in such a midnight as this but i am sure sir the people in the street were more respectable than they are anywhere at home they were dressed in the latest fashion and would have scorned to do me any harm and as to their love making i never heard anything so polite before well you must not do it again i ll tell you some day why what s that you have in your hand a mouse trap there are lots of in q a young man of forty this kitchen not clean like and i thought try to catch them that was what i went so far to buy as there were no shops open just about here fu set it now she proceeded at once to do so and remained in his seat regarding the operation which seemed entirely to her it was extraordinary indeed to observe how she limited her interests with what content she received the ordinary things that life offered and persistently refused to behold what an infinitely extended life lay open to her through him if she had only said the word he would have got a license and married her the next morning was it possible that she did not perceive this tendency in him she could hardly be a woman if she did not and in her airy she was very much of a woman indeed it	45
only holds one mouse he said but i shall hear it throw in the night and set it again he sighed and left her to her own resources and retired to rest though he felt no tendency to sleep at some small hour of the darkness owing possibly to some intervening door being left open he heard the mouse trap click the another light must have heard it too for almost immediately after the pit pat of naked feet accompanied by the brushing of was audible along the passage towards the kitchen after her absence in that apartment long enough to the trap he was startled by a scream from the same quarter sprang out of bed jumped into his dressing gown and hastened in the direction of the cry and wrapped in a shawl was standing on a chair the mouse trap lay on the floor the mouse running round and round in its neighborhood i was trying to take en out said she excitedly and he got away from me secured the mouse while she remained standing on the chair then having set the trap anew his feeling burst out a girl like you to throw yourself away upon such a commonplace fellow as that why do you do it her mind was so intently fixed upon the matter in hand that it was some moments before she caught his subject because i am a foolish girl she said quietly a young man of forty what don t you love him said with a surprised stare at her as she stood in her concern appearing the very who had kissed him twenty years earlier it is not much use to talk about that said she then is it the soldier yes though i have never spoken to him never spoken to the soldier never has either one treated you badly deceived you no certainly not well i can t make you out and i don t wish to know more than you choose to tell me come why not tell me exactly how things are not now sir she said her pretty pink face and brown eyes turned in simple appeal to him from her i will tell you all to morrow an that i will he retreated to his own room and lay down meditating some quarter of an hour after she had retreated to hers the mouse trap again and raised himself on his elbow to listen the place was so still and the built door so thin that he could the well beloved hear the mouse jumping about inside the wires of the trap but he heard no footstep this time as he was and restless he again arose proceeded to the kitchen with a light and removing the mouse the trap returning he listened once more he could see in the far distance the door of s room but that thoughtful had not heard the second capture from the room came a soft breathing like that of an infant he entered his own chamber and himself gloomily enough her lack of all consciousness of him the aspect o the deserted kitchen the cold grate impressed him with a deeper sense of loneliness than he had ever felt before foolish he was indeed to be so devoted to this young woman her her freedom from the least thought that there a danger in their were in fact secondary not much less strong than that of her being her mother s image against risk to her from him yet it was out of this that his depression came at sight of her the next morning felt that he must put an end to such a state of things he sent off to the wrote a young man op forty to an agent for a couple of servants and then went round to his work was busy all that she was allowed to touch it was the girl s delight to be occupied among the models and casts which for the first time she regarded with the wistful interest of a soul struggling to receive ideas of beauty vaguely discerned yet ever her that brightness in her mother s mind which might have descended to the second with the maternal face and form had been by with the of her father s and by one who remembered like the organization the could be often seen they were alone in the and his feelings found vent putting his arms round her he said my darling sweet little i want to ask you something surely you guess what i want you to know this will you be married to me and live here with me always and ever oh mr what nonsense nonsense said he shrinking somewhat yes sir well why am i too old surely there s no serious difference ao the well beloved oh i should not mind that if it came to marrying the difference is not much for husband and wife though it is rather much for keeping company she struggled to get free and when in the movement she knocked down the s head he did not try to retain her he saw that she was not only surprised but a little alarmed you haven t said why it is nonsense he remarked why i didn t know you was thinking of me like that i hadn t any thought of it and all alone here what shall i do say yes my pretty we ll then go out and be married at once and nobody be any the wiser she shook her head i couldn t sir it would be well for you you don t like me perhaps yes i do very much but not in that sort of way quite still i might have got to love you in time if well then try he said warmly your mother did no sooner had the words slipped	45
out than would have recalled them he had ao a young man of forty felt in a moment that they his cause mother loved you said gazing at him yes he murmured you were not her false young man surely that one yes yes say no more about it who ran away from her almost then i can never y never like you again i didn t know it was a gentleman i i it wasn t a gentleman then oh sir please go away i can t bear the sight of ee at this moment perhaps i shall get to to like you as i did but no i m d d if til go away said thoroughly irritated i have been candid with you you ought to be the same with me what do you want me to tell enough to make it clear to me why you don t accept this offer everything you have said yet is a reason for the reverse now my dear i am not angry yes you are the well beloved no i m not now what is your reason the name of it is down home how i mean he me and led me on to island custom and then i went to chapel one morning and married him in secret because mother didn t care about him and i didn t either by that time and then he quarrelled with me and just before you and i came to london he went away to then i saw a soldier i never knew his name but i fell in love with him because i am so quick at that still as it was wrong i tried not to think of him and wouldn t look at him when he passed but it made me cry very much that i mustn t i was then very miserable and you asked me to come to london i didn t care what i did with myself and i came heaven above us said his pale and distressed face showing with what a shock this announcement had come why have you done such extraordinary things or rather why didn t you tell me of this before then at the present moment you are the wife of a man who is in whom you do a young man of forty not love at all but instead of him love a soldier whom you have never spoken to while i have nearly brought scandal upon us both by your letting me love you really you are a very wicked woman no i am not she still looked pale and rather frightened and did not lift her eyes from the floor i said it was nonsense in you to want to have me she went on and even if i hadn t been married to that horrid i couldn t have married you after you told me that you was the man who ran away from mother i have paid the penalty he said sadly men of my sort always get the worst of it somehow now i ll call you dear for your mother s sake and not for your own i must see what i can do to help you out of the difficulty that unquestionably you are in why can t you love your husband now you have married him looked aside at the as if the of her organization were not very easy to define was he that black bearded typical local character i saw you walking with one the day the same as mine though of course you don t notice that in a place where there are only half a dozen yes that was ike it was that evening we he me again and i answered him and the next day he went away well as i say i must consider what it will be best to do for you in this the first thing it seems to me will be to get your husband home she impatiently shrugged her shoulders i don t like him then why did you marry him i was obliged to after we d proved each other you shouldn t have thought of such a thing it is ridiculous and out of date nowadays ah he s so old fashioned in his notions that he doesn t think like that however he s gone ah it is only a between you i dare say i ll start him in business if he ll come is the cottage at home still in your hands yes it is my is taking care o it for me a young man of forty good and back there you go straightway my pretty madam and wait till your husband comes to make it up with you i won t go i don t want him to come she sobbed i want to stay here or anywhere except where he can come you will get over that now go back to the flat there s a dear and be ready in one hour waiting in the hall for me i don t want to but i say you shall she found it was no use to precisely at the moment appointed he met her there himself only with a and umbrella she with a box and other things directing the porter to put and her into a four wheeled cab for the railway station he walked out of the door and kept looking behind till he saw the cab approaching he then entered beside the astonished girl and onward they went together they sat opposite each other in an empty and the tedious railway journey began regarding her closely now by the light of her revelation he wondered at himself for never her secret whenever he an the well beloved looked at her the girl s eyes grew rebellious and at last she wept i don	45
t want to go to him she sobbed in a repressed voice was almost as much distressed as she why did you put yourself and me in such a position he said bitterly it is no use to regret it now and i can t say that i do it affords me a way out of a trying position even if you had not been married to him you would not have married me yes i would sir what you would you said you wouldn t not long ago i like you better now i like you more and more sighed for he was not much older than she that in his development rendering him the most of god s creatures was his standing misfortune a proposal to her which crossed his mind was dismissed as particularly to an inexperienced fellow and one who was by race and traditions almost a little more passed between the twain on that wretched never to be forgotten day or whoever the ia a young man of forty love queen of his isle might have been was him sharply as she knew but too well how to punish her when they from the to the stable mood when was it to end this curse of his heart not while his frame moved naturally onward perhaps only with life his first act the day after her in her own house was to go to the chapel where by her statement the marriage had been and make sure of the fact perhaps he felt an hope that she might be free even then in the condition which such freedom would have involved however there stood the words distinctly ann son and daughter of so and so married on such a day signed by the parties the minister and the two witnesses xiii is from sight one evening in early winter when the air was dry and the dark little lane which divided the grounds of castle from the cottage of and led down to the adjoining ruin of red king s castle was paced by a solitary man the cottage was the centre of his beat its western limit being the gates of the former residence its eastern the of the ruin the few other cottages all as if carved from the solid r were in darkness but from the upper window of s tiny a light its rays were repeated from the sea by the light ship lying over the mysterious which brought and into due position as balanced the sea moaned more than moaned among the below the ruins a a young man of forty of its tide being timed to regular intervals these sounds were accompanied by an equally moan from the interior of the cottage chamber so that the articulate heave of water and the articulate heave of life seemed but of the self same troubled being which in one sense they were for the man in the lane was he would look from light ship to cottage window then back again as he waited there between the of the sea without and the of the woman within soon an infant s wail of the very was also audible in the house he started from his easy pacing and went again westward standing at the elbow of the lane a long time then the peace of the sleeping village which lay that way was broken by light wheels and the trot of a horse went back to the cottage gate and awaited the arrival of the vehicle it was a light cart and a man jumped down as it stopped he was in a broad hat under which no more of him could be perceived than that he wore a black beard like a fence a typical aspect in the island the you are s husband asked the quickly the man replied that he was in the local accent i ve just come in by to day s boat he added i couldn t here i had contracted for the job at peter port and had to see to t to the end well said your coming means that you are willing to make it up with her ay i don t know but i be said the man mid so well do that as anything else if you do thoroughly a good business in your old line you here in the island wi all my heart then said the man his voice was energetic and though slightly it showed on the whole a disposition to set things right the driver of the trap was paid off and and undoubtedly of a common stock in this isle of though they had no proof of it entered the house nobody was in the ground floor room in the centre of which stood a square table in the centre of the table a little wool mat and in the centre of the mat a lamp the apartment having the appear a young man of forty ance of being rigidly swept and set in order for an event of interest the woman who lived in the house with now came down stairs and to the inquiry of the comers she replied that matters were but that nobody could be allowed to go up stairs just then after placing chairs and for them she retreated and they sat down the lamp between them the lover of the sufferer above who had no right to her and the man who had every right to her but did not love her engaging in and conversation they listened to the of feet on the floor boards overhead full of anxiety and ike awaiting the course of nature calmly soon they heard the feeble repeated and then the local descended and entered the room how is she now said the mo e ike looking up with him for	45
the answer that he felt would serve for two as well as for one doing well remarkably well replied the professional gentleman with a manner of having said it in other places and his vehicle not ai the well being at the door he sat down and shared some refreshment with the others when he had departed mrs again stepped down and informed them that ike s presence had been made known to his wife the seemed rather inclined to stay where he was and finish the of ale but quickened him and he ascended the staircase as soon as the lower room was empty leaned with his elbows on the table and covered his face with his hands ike was absent no great time descending with a mien that had been lacking before he invited to ascend likewise since she had stated that she would like to see him went up the crooked old steps the husband remaining below though white as the sheets looked brighter and happier than he had expected to find her and was apparently very much fortified by the pink little lump at her side she held out her hand to him i just wanted to tell ee she said striving against her i thought it would be no harm to see you though tis rather soon to tell ee how very much i thank you for get x a young man op forty ting me settled again with ike he is very glad to come home again too he says yes you ve done a good many kind things for me sir whether she were really glad or whether the words were expressed as a matter of duty did not attempt to learn he merely said that he valued her thanks now he added tenderly i resign my of you i hope to see your husband in a sound little business here in a very short time i hope so for baby s sake she said with a bright sigh would you like to see her sir the baby oh yes your baby you must her yes so i will she murmured readily and disclosed the infant with some timidity i hope you forgive me sir for concealing my thoughtless marriage if you forgive me for making love to you yes how were you to know i wish bade her good bye kissing her hand turned from her and the being whom he was to meet again under very altered the well beloved conditions and left the with a tear in his eye here that dream said he in secret or guise seemed to haunt just at this time with mockery which rather of than of the torch bearer two days after parting in a lone island from the girl he had so loved he met in his friend wonderfully up and hastening along with a face my dear fellow said what do you think i was charged not to tell you but hang it i may just as well make a clean breast of it now as later what you are not going to began with yes what i said on impulse six months back i am about to carry out in cold blood and i began in jest and ended in earnest we are going to take one another next month for good and all part third a young man turned sixty in me thou seat the glowing of such fire that on the ashes of his youth doth lie as the death bed whereon it consumed with that which it was nourished iy she returns for the new season twenty years had spread their over the events which wound up with the of the second and her husband and the called an island looked just the same as before though many who had formerly projected their daily shadows upon its summer whiteness ceased now to disturb the sunlight there the general change nevertheless was small the silent ships came and went from the wharf the in the file after file of brown horses in strings of eight or ten painfully dragged down the hill the square blocks of stone on the wooden wheels just as usual the light ship winked every night from the to the lantern and the lantern glared through its eye glass on the ship the audible on the bank had been the well beloved repeated ever since at each tide but the pebbles remained men drank smoked and in the with only a little more in their and a trifle less dialect in their speech than of but one figure had never been seen on the channel rock in the interval the form of the whose first use of the that rock had he had lived abroad a great deal and in fact at this very date he was staying at a hotel in rome though he had not once set eyes on since parting from her in the room with her first born he had managed to obtain tidings of her from time to time during the interval in this way learned that shortly after their of a common life in her house ike had ill used her till fortunately the business to which had assisted him to prosper he became in its details and allowed to pursue her household courses without interference that kind of domestic reconciliation which is so calm and having as its chief neither hate nor love but an all embracing indifference a young man turned sixty at first had sent her sums of money privately fearing lest her husband should deny her material comforts but he soon found to his great relief that such help was unnecessary social ambition ike to set up as quite a gentleman and to allow a scope for show which he would never have allowed in mere kindness being in rome as returned one evening to his	45
hotel to dine after spending the afternoon among the in the long gallery of the the unconscious habit common to so many people of tracing likes in had often led him to discern or to fancy he discerned in the roman atmosphere in its lights and shades and particularly in its reflected or secondary lights something resembling the atmosphere of his native perhaps it was that in each case the eye was mostly resting on stone that the of ruins in the eternal city reminded him of the of maiden rock at home this being in his mind when he sat down to dinner at the common table he was surprised to hear an american gentleman who sat opposite mention the name of s the place the american was talking to a friend about a lady an english widow whose acquaintance they had renewed somewhere in the channel islands during a recent tour after having known her as a young woman who came to san with her father and mother many years before her father was then a rich man just retired from the business of a stone merchant in england but he had engaged in large speculations and had lost nearly all his fortune further gathered that the daughter s name was mrs that she had a her husband having been a gentleman a and that the seemed to be a promising and interesting young man was instantly struck with the perception that these and other allusions though general were in accord with the history of his long lost he hardly felt any desire to hunt her up after nearly two score years of separation but he was impressed enough to resolve to exchange a word with the strangers as soon as he could get opportunity he could not well attract their attention through the plants upon the wide table and even if he had been able he was to a young man sixty ask questions in public he waited on till dinner was over and when the strangers withdrew withdrew in their rear they were not in the drawing room and he found that they had gone out there was no chance of them but to restlessness by their remarks wandered up and down the adjoining di thinking they might return the streets below were in shade the front of the church at the top was with orange light the gloom of evening gradually upon the broad long flight of steps which foot passengers incessantly ascended and descended with the of the dusk wrapped up the house to the left in which had lived and that to the right in which had died getting back to the hotel he learned that the americans had only dropped in to dine and were staying elsewhere he saw no more of them and on reflection he was not deeply concerned for what earthly woman going off in a as had done and keeping silence so long would care for a friend ship with him now in the even if he were to take the trouble to discover her the j thus much the other thread of his i connection with the ancient isle of was stirred by a letter he received from a little after this date in which she stated that her husband ike had been killed in his own by an accident within the past year that she herself had been ill and though well again and left amply provided for she would like to see him if he ever came that way as she had not communicated for several long years her expressed wish to see him now was likely to be prompted by something more something than memories of him yet the manner of her writing all suspicion that she was thinking of him as an old lover whose suit events had now made practicable he told her he was sorry to hear that she had been ill and that he would certainly take an early opportunity of going down to her home on his next visit to england he did more her request had revived thoughts of his old home and its associations and instead of awaiting other reasons for a return he made her the one about a week later he stood once again at the foot of the familiar steep whereon the houses at the a young ma turned sixty entrance to the isle were perched like gray on a roof side at top o hill as the summit of the rock was mostly called he stood looking at the busy doings in the beyond where the numerous black scattered over the central had the appearance of a swarm of flies resting there he went a little farther made some general inquiries about the accident which had carried off s husband in the previous year and learned that though now a widow she had plenty of friends and about her which rendered any immediate attention to her on his part unnecessary considering therefore that there was no great reason why he should call on her so soon and without warning he turned back perhaps after all her request had been dictated by a momentary feeling only and a considerable strangeness to each other must naturally be the result of a score of dividing years descending to the bottom he took his seat in the train on the shore which soon carried him along the bank and round to the watering place five miles off at which he had taken up his quarters for a few days thb here as he stayed on his local interests re whenever he went out he could see the island that was once his home lying like a great upon the sea across the bay it was the spring of the year local had to run and he was never tired of standing on the occupied deck of one of these as it	45
skirted the island and revealed to him on the cliffs far up its height the ruins of red king s castle behind which the little village of east lay thus matters went on if they did not rather stand still for several days before re deemed his vague promise to seek out and in the meantime he was surprised by the arrival of another letter from her by a round about route she had heard she said that he had been on the island and imagined him therefore to be staying somewhere near why did he not call as he had told her he would do she was always thinking of him and wishing to see him her tone was anxious and there was no doubt that she really had something to say which she did not wish to write he wondered what it could be and started the same afternoon a young man turned sixty who had been little in his mind of late years began to renew for herself a distinct position therein he was fully aware that since his earlier manhood a change had come over his regard of once the individual had been nothing more to him than the temporary abiding place of the typical or ideal now his heart showed its bent to be a growing fidelity to the specimen with all her pathetic of detail which so far from sending him farther increased his tenderness this feeling if finer and higher was less convenient than the old of passion could be felt as in youth without the intervals which had accompanied the first sensation was to find that she had long ceased to live in the little cot she had occupied of old in answer to his inquiries he was directed along the road to the west of the modern castle past the entrance on that side and onward to the very house that had once been his own home there it stood as of facing up the channel a comfortable structure the and other shrubs which alone would stand in the teeth of the salt wind living on t i thb at about the same stature in front of it but the paint work much renewed a man had resided there of late evidently the widow in mourning who received him in the front parlor was alas but the shadow of the second how could he have fancied otherwise after twenty years yet he had been led to fancy otherwise almost without knowing it by feeling himself indeed curiously enough nearly the first words she said to him were why you are just the same just the same yes i am he answered sadly for this inability to with the rest of his generation threw him out of proportion with the time moreover while wearing the aspect of comedy it was of the nature of tragedy it is well to be you sir she went on i have had troubles to take the bloom off me yes i have been sorry for you she continued to regard him curiously with humorous interest and he knew what was passing in her mind that this man to whom she had formerly looked up as to a person far in advance of her along the lane of life seemed a young man turned sixty now to be a well adjusted contemporary the pair of them observing the world with fairly level eyes he had come to her with warmth for a vision which on reaching her he found to have departed and though fairly by the natural reality he was so far as to linger they talked of past his old attachment which she had then despised being now far more absorbing and present to her than to himself she won upon him as he sat on a curious between them had been produced in his imagination by the discovery that she was passing her life within the house of his own childhood her similar meant little here but it was also his and added to the identity of lent a strong to the accident this is where i used to sit when my parents occupied the house he said placing himself beside that comer of the fireplace which commanded a view through the window i could see a bough of wave outside at that time and beyond the bough the same abrupt grassy waste towards the sea and at night the same old light ship far out thb there place yourself on the spot to please me she set her chair where he indicated and stood close beside her directing her gaze to the familiar objects he had regarded thence as a boy her head and face the ter thoughtful and worn enough poor thing to suggest a married life none too comfortable were close to his breast and with a few inches further incline would have touched it and now you are the i the visitor he said i am glad to see you here so glad you are fairly well provided for i think i may assume that he looked round the room at the solid mahogany furniture and at the modem piano and show yes ike left me comfortable twas he who thought of moving from my cottage to this larger house he bought it and i can live here as long as i choose to apart from the decline of his adoration to friendship there seemed to be a general con of positions which suggested that he might make amends for the original desertion by proposing to this when a meet time should arrive if he did not love her as ha a young man turned sixty had done when she was a slim thing catching in his rooms in london he could surely be content at his age with after all she was only forty to his sixty the feeling that he really could be thus	45
content was so convincing that he almost believed the luxury of getting old and was coming to his restless wandering heart at last well you have come at last sir she went on and i am grateful to you i did not like writing and yet i wanted to be straightforward have you guessed at all why i wished to see you so much that i could not help sending twice to you i have tried but cannot try again it is a pretty reason which i hope you ll forgive i am sure i sha n t it but say this on my own account before you tell me i have always taken a lingering interest in you which you must value for what it is worth it originated so far as it concerns you personally with the sight of you in that cottage round the corner nineteen or twenty years ago when i became tenant of the castle but that was not the very beginning the very beginning was a score of years the beloved before that when i a young fellow of one coming home here from london to see my father encountered a tender woman as like you as your double was much attracted by her as i saw her day after day past this window till i made it my business to accompany her in her walks awhile i as you know was not a fellow and it all ended badly but at any rate her daughter and i are friends ah there she is suddenly exclaimed whose attention had wandered somewhat from his discourse she was looking from the window towards the cliffs where upon the open ground quite near at hand a slender female form was seen rambling along she is out for a walk continued i wonder if she is going to call here this afternoon she is living at the castle opposite as oh she s yes her education was very thorough better even than her grandmother s i was the neglected one and and myself both vowed that there should be no complaint on that score about her we her to keep up the name as you requested i wish a young man turned sixty you could speak to her i am sure you would like her is that the baby faltered yes the baby the person signified now much nearer was a still more up to date edition of the two of that blood with whom he had been involved more or less for the last forty years a creature was she almost elegant she was altogether finer in figure than her mother or grandmother had ever been which made her more of a woman in appearance than in years she wore a sun hat with a brim like a wheel whose were folds of muslin the brim a black margin beyond the muslin being the beneath this brim her hair was low upon her brow the color of the thick being obviously from her complexion repeated in the of her large deep eyes her rather nervous lips were thin and closed so that they only appeared as a delicate red line a temperament was shown by that mouth quick from affection to aversion from a to a smile it was the third ths and the second continued to gaze at her ah she is not coming in now she hasn t time murmured the mother with some disappointment perhaps she means to run across in the evening the girl in fact went past and on tiu she was out of sight stood as in a dream it was the very she in all essential particulars and with an of general charm who had kissed him forty years before when he turned his head from the window his eyes fell again upon the at his side before but the of the well beloved she had now become its empty shrine warm friendship indeed he felt for her but whatever that might have done towards the of a former dream was now hopelessly barred by the of the thing itself in the guise of a successor n on the re had been about tb leave but he sat down again on being asked if he would stay and have a cup of tea he hardly knew for a moment what he did a dim though that the renewed might into the house made his himself ah act of he forgot that twenty years he had called the now mrs ail a witch and that lapse of time had probably not diminished the implied by those he did not know that she had noted every impression that her daughter had made upon him how he contrived to and the rather tender he had opened up with the new s mother never exactly defined perhaps she saw more than he thought she saw read in the well beloved his face knew that about his nature which he gave her no credit for knowing anyhow the conversation took the form of a friendly gossip from that minute his remarks being often given while his mind was turned elsewhere but a chill passed through when there had been time for reflection the renewed study of his art in rome without any practical pursuit had nourished and developed his natural to impressions he now felt that his old trouble his doom his curse indeed he had sometimes called it was come back again his divinity was not yet for that original sin against her image in the person of the first and now at the age of sixty he was urged on and on like the jew or in the phrase of the themselves like a blind ram the goddess an abstraction to the general was a fairly real personage to he had watched the marble images of her which stood in his working room	45
under all changes of light and shade in the brightening of morning in the of eve in moonlight in every line and curve of her body none naturally knew better than a young man turned sixty he and though not a belief it was as has been stated a a superstition that the three were with her essence and the next your daughter he said she is you say a at the castle opposite mrs the fact adding that the girl often slept at home because she her mother was so lonely she often thought she would like to keep her daughter at home altogether she plays that instrument i suppose said regarding the piano yes she plays beautifully she had the best instruction that masters could give her she was educated at which room does she call hers when at home he asked curiously the little one over this it had been his own strange he murmured he finished tea and sat after tea but the youthful did not arrive with the present he conversed as the old friend no more at last it grew dusk and could not find an excuse for staying longer q the well i hope to make the acquaintance of your daughter he said in leaving knowing that he might have added with truth of my new tenderly beloved i hope you will she answered this evening she evidently has gone for a walk instead of coming here and by the bye you have not told me what you especially wanted to see me for ah no i will put it off very well i don t pretend to guess i must tell you another time if it is any little business in with your late husband s affairs do command me i ll do anything i can thank you and i shall see you again soon certainly quite soon when he was gone she looked at the spot where he had been standing and said best hold my tongue it will work of itself without my telling went from the house but as the white road passed his feet he felt in no mood to get back to his in the town on the he lingered about upon the ground for a long while think a young man turned sixty ing of the extraordinary the original girl in thi new form he had seen of himself as of a foolish in being so suddenly by the j in a personality not one third hi age as a physical fact no doubt the preservation of the likeness was no uncommon thing here it helped the dream passing round the walls of the new castle he from his homeward track by turning down the familiar little lane which led to the ruined castle of the red king it took him past the cottage in which the new born whose he had heard her first cry pausing he saw near the west behind him the new moon growing distinct upon the glow he was subject to gigantic still spite of himself the sight of the new moon as representing one who by her so called acted up to his own idea of a well beloved made him feel as if his in a changed sex had suddenly looked the horizon at him in a crowd secretly or in solitude boldly he had often bowed the knee three times to this divinity on t appearance monthly and a the well beloved kiss towards her shining shape the curse of his qualities if it were not a blessing was far from having spent itself yet in the other direction the castle ruins rose square and dusky against the sea he went on towards these around which he had played as a boy and stood by the walls at the edge of the cliff pondering there was no wind and but little tide and he thought he could hear from years ago a voice that he knew it certainly was a voice but it came from the rocks beneath the castle ruin mrs a silence followed and nobody came the voice spoke again john neither was this summons attended to the cry continued with more entreaty william the voice was that of a there could be no doubt of it young s surely something or other seemed to be her down there against her will a sloping path beneath the cliff and the castle walls rising sheer from its summit led down to the lower level whence the voice proceeded followed the pathway and soon beheld a girl in light clothing the same he had a young man sixty seen through the window standing upon one of the rocks apparently unable to move hastened across to her oh thank you for coming she murmured with some timidity i have met with an awkward i live near here and am not frightened really my foot has become in a of the rock and i cannot get it out try how i will what shall i stooped and examined the cause of discomfiture i think if you can take your boot off he said your foot might slip out leaving the boot behind she tried to act upon this advice but could not do so effectually then by slipping his hand into the till he could just reach the buttons of her boot which however he could not any more than she taking his from his pocket he tried again and cut off the buttons one by one the boot and out slipped the foot oh how glad i am she cried joyfully i was fearing i should have to stay here all night how can i thank you enough he was to withdraw the boot but tht well no force that he could exercise would move it at last she said don t try any longer it is not far to the	45
she could not comprehend they met accordingly in the middle of the bank coming from the and the women from the rock crossing the wooden bridge which connected the bank with the shore proper a young man turned sixty they moved in the direction of henry the eighth s castle on the verge of the cliff like the red king s castle on the island the interior was open to the sky and when they entered and the full moon streamed down upon them over the edge of the the whole present reality faded from s mind under the press of memories neither of his companions guessed what was thinking of it was in this very spot that he was to have met the grandmother of the girl at his side and in which he would have met her had she chosen to keep the appointment a meeting which might nay must have changed the whole current of his life instead of that forty years had passed forty years of from till a secondly renewed copy of his sweetheart had arisen to fill her place but he alas was not renewed and of all this the pretty young thing at his side knew nothing taking advantage of the younger woman s retreat to view the sea through an opening of the walls appealed to her mother in a whisper have you ever given her a hint of what my meaning is no then i r the well beloved think you might if you really have no objection mrs as the widow was far from being so coldly disposed in her own person towards her friend as in the days when he wanted to marry her had she now been the object of his wishes he would not have needed to ask her twice but like a good mother she stifled all this and said she would sound there and then my dear she said advancing to where the girl mused in the window gap what do you think of mr paying his addresses to you coming as call it in my old fashioned way supposing he were to would you encourage him to me mother said with an inquiring laugh i thought he meant you oh no he doesn t mean me said her mother hastily he is nothing more than my friend i don t want any addresses said the daughter he is a man in society and would take you to an elegant house in london suited to your education instead of leaving you to here a young man turned sixty i should like that well enough replied carelessly then give him some encouragement i don t care enough about him to do any encouraging it is his business i should think to do all she spoke in her vein but the result was that when who had withdrawn returned to them she walked though perhaps gloomily beside him her mother dropping to the rear they came to a rugged descent and took her hand to help her she allowed him to retain it when they arrived on level ground altogether it was not an unsuccessful evening for the man with the heart though possibly success meant worse for him in the long run than failure there was nothing marvellous in the fact of her thus far in his modern dress and style under the rays of the moon he looked a very gentleman indeed while his knowledge of art and his travelled manners were not without their attractions for a girl who with one hand touched the educated middle class and with the other the rude arid simple inhabitants of the isle her intensely the well beloved modem sympathies were quickened by her peculiar outlook would have regarded his interest in her as selfish if there had not existed a quality in the of old pathetic memory by which such love had been created which still it rendering it the tenderest most anxious most instinct he had ever known it may have had in its composition too much of the boyish that had such affection when he was cherry and light in the foot as a girl but if it was all this feeling of youth it was more mrs in fearing to be frank lest she might seem to be for his fortune did not fully divine his cheerful readiness to offer it if by so doing he could make amends for his to her family forty years back in the past time had not made him and it had his and though his wish to wed was not entirely a wish to her the knowledge that she would be enriched beyond anything that she could have anticipated was what allowed him to indulge his love he was not exactly old he said to himself a o a young man turned sixty the next morning as he beheld his face in the glass and he looked considerably younger than he was but there was history in his face distinct chapters of it his brow was not that blank page it once had been he knew the origin of that line in his forehead it had been traced in the course of a month or two by past troubles he remembered the coming of this pale hair it had been brought by the illness in when he had wished each night that he might never wake again this wrinkled comer that drawn bit of skin they had resulted from those months of despondency when all seemed going against his art his strength his happiness you cannot live your life and keep it he said time was against him and love and time would probably win when i went away from the first he continued with misery i had a that i should ache for it some day and i am aching have ached ever since this of	45
an ideal learned the trick of one image only upon the whole he was not without a that it would be folly to press on iv a dash for the last this courtship of a young girl which had been brought about by her mother s contrivance was interrupted by the appearance of and his wife and family on the alfred once the youthful picturesque as his own paintings was now a middle aged family man with spectacles spectacles worn too with the single object of seeing through them and a row of daughters off to infancy who at present added to the income of the women established along the sands mrs once the intellectual mrs pine had now to the petty and timid mental position of her mother and grandmother giving sharp strict regard to the current literature and art that reached the innocent presence of her long perspective of girls with the view of hiding every a young man turned sixty skull and skeleton of life from their dear eyes she was another illustration of the rule that succeeding generations of women are seldom marked by progress their advance as girls being lost in their as so that they move up and down the stream of intellectual development like in a and this perhaps not by reason of their faults as individuals but of their misfortune as child the landscape painter now an like himself rather popular than distinguished had given up that peculiar and personal taste in subjects which had marked him in times past instead many pleasing aspects of nature addressed to the furnishing through the critic and really very good of their kind in this way he received many large from persons of wealth in england and america out of which he built himself a and an awkward house around it and paid for the education of the growing maidens the vision of s humble position as to this lion of a family and house and and social reputation to the beloved whom strange and wild were departed joys never to return led as the painter s contemporary to feel that he ought to be one of the likewise and to put on an air of he refrained from entering s for the whole fortnight of s stay in the neighboring town although its gray poetical outline along the sea greeted his eyes every and eve across the when the painter and his family had gone back from their bathing holiday he thought that he too would leave the neighborhood to do so however without wishing at least the elder good bye would be considering the extent of their acquaintance one evening knowing this time of day to suit her best he took the few minutes journey to the rock along the thin connecting string of and arrived at mrs s door just after dark a light shone from an upper chamber on asking for his acquaintance he was informed that she was ill seriously though not while learning that her daughter was with her and further a young man turned sixty and doubting if he should go in a message was sent down to ask him to enter his voice had been heard and mrs would like to see him he could not with any humanity refuse but there flashed across his mind the recollection that the youngest had never yet really seen him had seen nothing more of him than an outline which might have as easily to a man thirty years his junior as to himself and a countenance so by faint moonlight as to fairly correspond it was with therefore that the ascended the staircase and entered the little upper sitting room now arranged as a mrs on a sofa her face to a surprising for the comparatively short interval since her attack come in sir she said as soon as she saw him holding out her hand don t let me frighten you was seated beside her reading the girl jumped up hardly seeming to recognize him oh it s mr she said in a moment adding quickly with evident surprise and her guard i thought mr was the well what she had thought he was did not pass her lips and it remained a riddle for until a new departure in her manner towards him showed that the words much younger would have accurately ended the sentence had not now confronted her anew he might have endured her changed opinion of him but he was seeing her again and a rooted feeling was revived now learned for the first time that the widow had been visited by sudden attacks of this sort not of late years they were said to be due to the latter having been the most severe she was at the present moment out of pain though weak exhausted and nervous she would not however converse about herself but took advantage of her daughter s absence from the room to the subject most in her thoughts no had stirred her as they had her visitor on the of his suit in view of his years her fever of anxiety lest after all he should not come to see again had been not without an effect upon her health and it made her more candid than she had intended to be a young man turned sixty troubles and sickness raise all sorts of fears mr she said what i felt only a wish for when you first named it i have hoped for a good deal since and i have been so anxious that that it should come to something i am glad indeed that you are come my wanting to marry you mean dear mrs yes that s it i wonder if you are still in the same mind you are then i wish something could be done to make her	45
agree to it so as to get it settled i dread otherwise what will become of her she is not a practical girl as i was she would hardly like now to settle down as an s wife and to leave her living here alone would trouble me nothing will happen to you yet i hope my dear old friend well it is a complaint and the attacks when they come are so that to endure them i ought to get rid of all outside anxieties folk say now do you want her sir with all my soul but she doesn t want me i don t think she is so against you as you thb will imagine i fancy if it were put to her plainly now i am in this state it might be done they into conversation on the early days of their acquaintance until mrs s daughter re entered the room said her mother when the girl had been with them a few minutes about this matter that i have talked over with you so many times since my attack here is mr and he wishes to be your husband he is much older than you but in spite of it that you will ever get a better husband i don t believe now will you take him seeing the state i am in and how naturally anxious i am to see you settled before i die but you won t die mother you are getting better just for the present only come he is a good man and a clever man and a rich man i want you oh so much to be his wife i can say no more looked at the and then on the floor does he really wish me to she asked almost turning as she spoke to he has never quite said so to me my dear one how can you doubt it said a young man turned sixty quickly but i won t press you to marry me as a favor against your feelings i thought mr was younger she murmured to her mother that counts for little when you think how much there is on the other side think of our position and of his a with a mansion and a full of and statues that i have in my time and of the beautiful studies you would be able to take up surely the life would just suit you your expensive education is wasted down here did not care to argue she was outwardly gentle as her grandmother had been and it seemed just a question with her of whether she must or must not very well i feel i ought to agree to marry him since you tell me to she answered quietly after some thought i see that it would be a wise thing to do and that you wish it and that mr really does like me so so that was not backward at this critical juncture despite unpleasant sensations but it was the historic in this passion if its through three generations may be so described which appealed to his perseverance at the expense of thb well beloved his wisdom the mother was holding the daughter s hand she took s and laid s in it no more was said in and the thing was regarded as determined afterwards a noise was heard upon the window panes as of fine sand thrown and lifting the blind saw that the distant light ship winked with a and indistinct eye a rain had come on with the dark and it was striking the window in he had intended to walk the two miles back to the station but it meant a to do it now he waited and had supper and finding the weather no better accepted mrs s invitation to stay over the night thus it fell out that again he lodged in the house he had been accustomed to live in as a boy before his father had made his fortune and before his own name had been heard of outside the boundaries of the isle he slept but little and in the first movement of the dawn sat up in bed why should he ever live in london or any other fashionable city if this plan of marriage could be carried out surely with this young wife the island would be the best place for him it a young man turned sixty might be possible to rent castle as he had formerly done better still to buy it if life could offer him anything worth having it would be a home with there on his native cliffs to the end of his days as he sat thus thinking and the daylight increased he discerned a short distance before him a movement of something ghostly his position was facing the window and he found that by chance the looking glass had swung itself so that what he saw was his own shape the recognition startled him the person he appeared was too far in advance of the person he felt himself to be did not care to regard the figure him so its voice seemed to say there s tragedy hanging on to this but the question of age being he could not give the up and ultimately got out of bed under the weird fascination of the reflection whether he had himself lately or what he had done he knew not but never had he seemed so aged by a score of years as he was represented in the glass in that cold gray morning light while his soul was what it was why should he have been with thb beloved that withering without the ability to shift it off for another as his ideal beloved had so frequently done by reason of her mother s illness was now living in	45
while he was a guest at their house and by interesting his in the fitting and furnishing of this residence to create in her an ambition to be its mistress it was a pleasant time to be in town there was nobody to interrupt them in their proceedings and it being out of the season the largest were as attentive to their wants as if those had never before been honored with a single customer the well beloved whom they really liked and his guests almost equally inexperienced for the had nearly forgotten what knowledge of he had acquired earlier in life could consider and practise thoroughly a species of skeleton in receiving visitors when the pair should announce themselves as married and at home in the coming winter season was charming even if a little cold he congratulated himself yet again that time should have reserved for him this final chance for one of the line she was somewhat like her mother whom he had loved in the flesh but she had the soul of her grandmother whom he had loved in the spirit and for that matter loved now only one criticism had he to pass upon his choice though in outward semblance her she had not the first s but rather her mother s he never knew exactly what she was thinking and feeling yet he seemed to have such rights in women of her blood that her occasional want of confidence did not deeply trouble him it was one of those ripe and mellow that sometimes color london with their a young man turned sixty golden light at this time of the year and produce those marvellous sunset effects which if they were not known to be made up of kitchen coal smoke and animal would be applauded behind the perpendicular and curved tall boys that formed a gray pattern not unlike early against the sky the men and women on tops of saw an of hues darkened here and there into richest there had been a sharp shower during the afternoon and who had to take care of himself had worn a pair of on his short walk in the street he noiselessly entered the inside which some of the same mellow light had managed to creep and where he guessed he should find his wife and mother in law awaiting him with tea but only was there seated beside the of brown which as artists they affected her back being towards him she was holding her handkerchief to her eyes and he saw that she was weeping silently in another moment he perceived that she was weeping over a book by this time she the well had heard him and came forward he made it appear that he had not noticed her distress and they discussed some arrangements of furniture when he had taken a cup of tea she went away leaving the book behind her took it up the volume was an old school book s lectures with her name in it as a pupil at high school and date lessons taken at a comparatively recent time for had been but a as when he discovered her for a school girl which she was to weep over a school book was strange could she have been affected by some subject in the impossible fell to thinking and zest died for the process of furnishing which he had undertaken so somehow the bloom was again disappearing from his approaching marriage yet he loved more and more tenderly he feared sometimes that in the of his affection he was her by indulging her every whim he looked round the large and ambitious apartment now becoming clouded with shades out of which the white and a young man turned sixty of his studies casts and other lumber peered at him as if they were saying what are you going to do now old boy they had never looked like that while standing in his past homely where all the real labors of his life had been carried out what should a man of his age who had not for years done anything to speak of certainly not to add to his reputation as an artist want with a new place like this it was all because of the elect lady and she apparently did not want him did not observe anything further in to cause him till one dinner time a week later towards the end of the visit then as he sat himself between her and her mother at their limited table he was struck with her and was tempted to say why are you troubled my little dearest in tones which disclosed that he was as troubled as she am i troubled she said with a start turning her gentle eyes upon him yes i suppose i am it is because i have received a letter from an old friend you didn t show it to me said her mother i tore it up the well beloved why it was not to keep it so i destroyed it mrs did not press her further on the subject and showed no disposition to continue it they retired rather early as they always did but remained pacing about his a long while musing on many things not the least being the perception that to wed a woman may be by no means the same thing as to be united with her the old friend of s remark had sounded very much like lover otherwise why should the letter have so greatly disturbed her there seemed to be something after all about london in its relation to his contemplated marriage when she had first come up she was easier with him than now and yet his bringing her there had helped bis cause the house had decidedly impressed her almost her and though he	45
owned that by no law of nature or reason had her mother or himself any right to urge on with him against her inclination he resolved to make the most of having her under his influence by getting the wedding a young man turned sixty details settled before she and her mother left the next morning he proceeded to do this when he encountered there was a trace of apprehension on her face but he set that down to a fear that she had offended him the night before by her directly he requested her mother in s presence to get her to fix the day quite early mrs became brighter and she too plainly had doubts about the wisdom of delay and turning to her daughter said now my dear do you hear it was ultimately agreed that the widow and her daughter should go back in a day or two to await s arrival on the wedding eve immediately after their return in of the arrangement found himself on the south shore of england in the gloom of the evening the isle as he looked across at it with his approach being just as a countenance a creature sullen with a sense that he was about to withdraw from its keeping the object it had ever owned he had come alone not to them and had the will intended to halt a couple of hours in the neighboring to some orders relating to the wedding but the little railway train being in waiting to take him on he proceeded with a natural impatience to do his business here by messenger from the isle he passed the ruins of the castle and the long of grinding pebbles that off the outer sea which could be heard lifting and dipping in the wide of the bay at the under hill island of the wells there were no and leaving his things to be brought on as he often did he climbed the eminence on foot half way up the part of the pass he saw in the dusk a figure pausing the single person on the incline though it was too dark to identify faces gathered from the way in which the halting stranger was supporting himself by the hand rail which here bordered the road to assist that the person was exhausted anything the matter he said oh no not much was returned by the other but it is steep just here the accent was not quite that of an a young man turned sixty and struck him as from one of the channel islands can t i help you up to the top he said for the voice though that of a young man seemed faint and shaken no thank you i have been ill but i thought i was all right again and as the night was fine i walked into the island by the road it turned out to be rather too much for me as there is some weakness left still and this stiff incline brought it out naturally you d better take hold of my arm at any rate to the brow here thus pressed the stranger did so and they went on towards the ridge till reaching the lime standing there the stranger abandoned his hold saying thank you for your assistance sir good night i don t think i recognize your voice as a native s no it is not i am a man sir good night if you are sure you can get on here take this stick it is no use to me saying which put his walking stick into the young man s hand thank you again i shall be quite the beloved covered when i have rested a minute or two don t let me detain you please the stranger as he spoke turned his face towards the south where the light had just come into view and stood regarding it with an obstinate as he evidently wished to be left to himself went on and troubled no more about him though the desire of the young man to be rid of his company after accepting his walking stick and his arm had come with a suddenness that was almost and as was no less now than in youth he was for a minute by the sense that there were people in the world who did not like even his sympathy however a pleasure which all this arose when drew near to the house that was likely to be his dear home on all future visits to the isle perhaps even his permanent home as he grew older and the associations of his youth themselves it had been too his father s house the house in which he was born and he amused his fancy with plans for its under the of and himself it was a still greater pleasure to behold a tall and a young man turned sixty figure standing against the light of the open door and awaiting him who it was gave a little jump when she recognized him but allowed him to kiss her when he reached her side though her was only too apparent and was like a child s towards a parent who may prove stern how dear of you to guess that i might come on at once instead of later says well if i had stayed in the town to go to the shops and so on i could not have got here till the last train how is mother our mother as i shall call her soon said that her mother had not been so well she feared not nearly so well since her return from london so that she was obliged to keep her room the visit had perhaps been too much for her but she will not acknowledge that she is much weaker because she will not disturb my happiness was	45
in a mood to let trifles of manner pass and he took no notice of the which had accompanied the last word they went up stairs to mrs whose obvious relief and at sight of him were grateful to her visitor the well beloved i am so oh so glad you are come she said as she held out her thin hand and stifled a sob i have been so she could get no further for a moment and turned away weeping and abruptly left the room i have so set my heart on this mrs went on that i have not been able to sleep of late for i have feared i might drop off suddenly before she is yours and lose the comfort of seeing you actually united your being so kind to me in old times has made me so sure that she will find a good husband in you that i am over anxious i know indeed i have not liked to let her know quite how anxious i am thus they talked till bade her good night it being noticeable that mrs by her illness maintained no longer any reserve on her gladness to acquire him as her son in law and her feelings destroyed any remaining scruples he might have had from perceiving that s consent was rather an obedience than a desire as he went down stairs and found awaiting his descent he wondered if anything had occurred here during his absence to give mrs a young man turned sixty new uneasiness about the marriage but it was an inquiry he could not address to a girl whose actions could alone be the cause of such uneasiness he looked round for her as he but though she had come into the room with him she was not there now he remembered her telling him that she had had supper with her mother and sat on quietly musing and his wine for something near half an hour wondering then for the first time what had become of her he rose and went to the door was quite near him after all only standing at the front door as she had been doing when he came looking into the light of the full moon which had risen since his arrival his sudden opening of the door seemed to her what is it dear he asked as mother is much better and doesn t want me i ought to go and see somebody i promised to take a parcel to i feel i ought and yet as you have just come to see me i suppose you don t approve of my going out while you are here who is the person somebody down that way she said in t the well definitely it is not very far off i am not afraid i go out often by myself at night he reassured her good if you really wish to go my dear of course i don t object i have no authority to do that till to morrow and you know that if i had it i shouldn t use it oh but you have mother being an invalid you are in her place apart from tomorrow nonsense darling run across to your friend s house by all means if you want to and you ll be here when i come in no i am going down to the inn to see if my things are brought up but hasn t mother asked you to stay here the spare room was got ready for you dear me i am afraid i ought to have told you she did ask me but i have some things coming directed to the inn and i had better be there so i ll wish you good night though it is not late i will come in quite early tomorrow to inquire how your mother is going on and to wish you good morning you will be back again quickly this evening ago a young man turned sixty oh yes and i needn t go with you for company oh no thank you it is no distance then departed thinking how entirely her manner was that of one to whom a question of doing anything was a question of permission and not of judgment he had no sooner gone than took a parcel from a cupboard put on her hat and cloak and following by the way he had taken till she reached the entrance to castle there stood still she could hear s footsteps passing down east to the inn but she went no farther in that direction turning into the lane on the right of which mention has so often been made she went quickly past the last cottage and having entered the beyond she into the ruin of the red king s or bow and arrow castle standing as a square black mass against the indefinite sea vi the well beloved is where mrs passed a restless night but this she let nobody know nor what was painfully evident to herself that her was increased by anxiety and suspense about the wedding on which she had too much set her heart during the very brief space in which she came into her room as it was not for her daughter to look in upon her thus she took little notice merely saying to assure the girl i am better dear don t come in again get to sleep yourself the mother however went thinking anew she had no apprehensions about this marriage she felt perfectly sure that it was the best thing she could do for her girl not a young woman on the island but was at that moment for was young for three score a good looking a young man turned sixty man one whose history was generally known here as also were the exact figures of the	45
fortune he had inherited from his father and the social standing he could claim a standing however which that fortune would not have been large enough to procure by his reputation in his art but had been weak enough as her mother knew to indulge in fancies for local youths from time to time and mrs could not help herself that her daughter had been so in the circumstances yet to every one except perhaps herself was the most romantic of lovers indeed was there ever such a romance as that man embodied in his relations to her house the first the second had rejected him and to rally to the third with final achievement was an artistic and tender finish to which it was ungrateful in anybody to be blind the widow thought that the second might probably not have rejected on that occasion in the london so many years ago if destiny had not arranged that she should have been secretly united to another when the proposing moment came the well beloved but what had come was best my god she said at times that night to think my aim in writing to him should be itself like this when all was right and done what a success upon the whole her life would have been she who had begun her career as a cottage girl a small owner s daughter had sunk so low as to the position of had engaged in various occupations had made an unhappy marriage for love which had however in the long run thanks to s management much improved her position was at last to see her daughter secure what she herself had just missed securing and established in a home of and refinement thus the sick woman excited herself as the hours went on at last in her it seemed to her that the time had already come at which the household was stirring and fancied she heard conversation in her daughter s room but she found that it was only five o clock and not yet daylight her state was such that she could see the of the bed tremble with her she had declared that she did not require any one to sit up with her but she a young man turned sixty now rang a little hand bell and in a few minutes a nurse appeared an island woman and a neighbor whom mrs knew well and who knew all mrs s history i am so nervous that i can t stay by myself said the widow and i thought i heard dressing miss in her wedding things oh no not yet ma am there s nobody up but i ll get you something when mrs had taken a little nourishment she went on i can t help myself with thoughts that she won t marry him you see he is older than yes he is said her neighbor but i don t see how anything can the now you know had fancies at least one fancy for another man a young fellow of five and twenty and she s been very secret and odd about it i wish she had and cried and had it out but she s been quite the other way i know she s fond of him still what that young frenchman mr o i ve heard a little of it the well beloved but i should say there much between em i don t think there was but i ve a sort of conviction that she saw him last night i believe it was only to bid him good bye and return him some books he had given her but i wish she had never known him he is rather an impulsive young man and he might make mischief he isn t a frenchman though he has lived in france his father was a gentleman and on his becoming a he married as his second wife a native of this very island that s mainly why the young man is so at home in these parts ah now i follow ee she was a his i heard something about her years ago yes her father had the biggest on the island at one time but the name is forgotten here now he retired years before i was born however mother used to tell me that she was a handsome young woman who tried to catch mr when he was a young man and herself a bit with him she went off abroad with her father who had made a fortune here but when he got over there he lost it nearly all in a young man turned sixty some way years after she married this man mr who had been fond of her as a girl and she brought up his child as her own mrs paused but as did not ask any question she presently resumed her self murmur how miss got to know the young man was in this way when mrs s husband died she came from to live at and made it her business one day to cross over to this place to make inquiries about mr as my name was she called upon me with her son and so and he got acquainted when she went back to to the finishing school they kept up the acquaintance in secret he taught french somewhere there and does still i believe well i hope shell forget en he good enough i hope so i hope so now try to get a little nap went back to her room where finding it would not be necessary to get up for another hour she lay down again and soon slept her bed was close to the staircase from which it was divided by a only and her consciousness either was or seemed to be aroused by light brushing touches on the	45
outside of the as of fingers feeling the way down stairs in the dark the slight noise passed and in a few seconds she dreamed or fancied she could hear the of the back door she had nearly sunk into another sound sleep when precisely the same phenomena were repeated fingers brushing along the wall close to her head down downward the soft opening of the door its close and silence again she now became clearly awake the repetition of the process had made the whole matter a singular one early as it was the first sounds might have been those of the descending though why she should have come down so stealthily and in the dark did not make itself clear but the second performance was inexplicable got out of bed and lifted her blind the dawn was hardly yet pink and the light from the was not yet extinguished but the bushes of against the white of the front garden could be seen also the a young man turned sixty light surface of the road winding away like a ribbon to the north entrance of castle thence round to the village the cliffs and the behind upon the road two dark figures could just be discerned one a little way behind the other but and joining the foremost as looked after all they might be or from the south of the island or just landed from a night s work there being nothing to connect them with the noises she had heard indoors she dismissed the whole subject and went to bed again had promised to pay an early visit to ascertain the state of mrs s health after her night s rest her precarious condition being more obvious to him than to and making him a little anxious subsequent events caused him to remember that while he was dressing he casually observed two or three standing near the cliff beyond the village and apparently watching with deep interest what seemed to be a boat far away towards the opposite shore of south at half past eight he came from the door of the inn and went straight to mrs s the on approaching he discovered that a strange expression which seemed to hang about the house front that morning was more than a fancy gate door and two windows being open though the blinds of other windows were not drawn up the whole a vacant dazed look to the as of a person gaping in sudden nobody answered his knock and walking into the dining room he found that no breakfast had been laid his flashing thought was mrs is dead while standing in the room somebody came down stairs and encountered an open letter fluttering in her hand oh mr mr the lord what mrs no no miss she is gone yes gone read ye this sir it was left in her bedroom and we be fairly out of our senses he took the letter and beheld that it was in two the first section being in s mv dear mother how ever will you forgive me for what i have done so as it seems a young man turned sixty and yet till this night i had no idea of deceiving either you or mr last night at ten o clock i went out as you may have guessed to see mr for the last time and to give him back his books letters and little presents to me i went only a few steps to arrow castle where we met as we had agreed to do since he could not call when i reached the place i found him there waiting but quite ill he had been at his mother s house for some days and had been obliged to stay in bed but he had got up on purpose to come and bid me good bye the of the journey upset him and though we stayed and stayed till twelve o clock he felt quite unable to go back home unable indeed to move more than a few yards i had tried so hard not to love him any longer but i loved him so now that i could not desert him and leave him out there to catch his death so i helped him nearly carrying on and on to our door and then round to the back here he got a little better and as he could not stay there and everybody was now asleep i helped him up stairs into the room we had prepared for mr if he should have wanted one i got him into bed and then fetched some brandy and a little of your did you see me come into your room for it or were you asleep i sat by him all night he improved slowly and we talked over what we had better do i felt that though i had intended to give him up i could not now marry any other man and that i the well beloved ought to marry him we decided to do it at once before anybody could hinder us so we came down before it was light and have gone away to get the ceremony tell mr it was not but the result of an accident i am sincerely sorry to have treated him with what he will think but though i did not love him i meant to obey you and marry him but god sent this necessity of my having to give shelter to my love to prevent i think my doing what i am now convinced would have been wrong ever your loving daughter the second was in a man s hand dear mother as you will soon be to me a vice has clearly explained above how it happened that i have not been able to give her up to mr i think i should have	45
died if i had not accepted the hospitality of a room in your house this night and your daughter s tender nursing through the dark dreary hours we love each other beyond expression and it is obvious that if we are human we cannot resist marrying now in spite of friends wishes will you please send the note lying beside this to my mother it is merely to explain what i have done yours with warmest regard turned away and looked out of the window a young man turned sixty mrs thought she heard some talking in the night but of course she put it down to fancy and she remembers miss coming into her room at one o clock in the morning and going to the table where the medicine was standing a sly girl all the time her young man within a yard or two in the very room and a using the very clean sheets that you sir were to have used they are our best linen ones got up beautiful and a kept wi really sir one would say you stayed out o your o purpose to oblige the young man with a bed don t blame don t blame them said in an even and voice don t blame her particularly she didn t make the circumstances i did it was how i served her grandmother well she s gone you needn t make a mystery of it tell it to all the island say that a man came to marry a wife and didn t find her at home tell everybody that she s run away it must be known sooner or later one of the servants said after waiting a few moments we sha n t do that sir oh why won t you we liked her too well with all her faults the well beloved ah did you said he and he sighed he perceived that the younger maids were secretly on s side how does her mother bear it asked is she awake mrs had hardly slept and having learned the tidings became so distracted and as to be like a person in a delirium till a few moments before he arrived all her excitement ceased and she lay in a weak quiet silence let me go up said and send for the doctor passing s chamber he perceived that the little bed had not been slept on at the door of the spare room he looked in in one comer stood a walking stick his own where did that come from we found it there sir ah yes i gave it to him tis like me to play another s game it was the last of bitterness that let escape him he went on towards mrs s room preceded by the servant mr has come ma am he heard her say to the invalid but as the latter took no notice the woman rushed forward to the a young man turned sixty bed what has happened to her mr oh what do it mean the second was lying placidly in the position in which the nurse had left her but no breath came from her lips and a of feature was accompanied by the precise expression which had her face when had her as a girl in his he saw that it was death though she appeared to have breathed her last only a few moments before s composure deserted her tis the shock of finding miss gone that has done it she cried she has killed her mother don t say such a terrible thing exclaimed but she ought to have obeyed her mother a good mother as she was how she had set her heart upon the wedding poor soul and we couldn t help her knowing what had happened oh how ungrateful young folk be that girl will this morning s work we must get the doctor said mechanically hastening from the room when the local came he merely confirmed their own verdict and thought her u the well beloved death had undoubtedly been hastened by the shock of the ill news upon a feeble heart following a long strain of anxiety about the wedding he did not consider that an would be necessary the two shadowy figures seen through the gray of the morning by five hours before this time had gone on to the open place by the north entrance of castle where the lane to the ruins of the old castle off a listener would not have gathered that a single word passed between them the man walked with difficulty supported by the woman at this spot they stopped and kissed each other a long while we ought to walk all the way to if we wish not to be discovered he said sadly and i can t even get across the island even by your help darling it is two miles to the foot of the hill she who was trembling tried to speak if you could walk we should have to go down the street of wells where perhaps somebody would know me now if we get below here to the can t we push off one a young man turned sixty of the little boats i saw there last night and along close to the shore till we get to the north side then we can walk across to the station very well it is quite calm and as the tide sets in that direction it will take us along of itself without much i ve often got round in a boat that way this seemed to be the only plan that offered and the straight road they wound down the farther on by the old castle arch and forming the original of the fortress the stroke of their own footsteps lightly as these fell was back to them with impertinent by the faces of	45
the rock so still was everything around a little farther and they emerged upon the open ledge of the lower tier of cliffs to the right being the sloping pathway leading down to the secluded creek at their base the single practicable spot of exit from or entrance to the isle on this side by a sea going craft once an active wharf whence many a fine public building had sailed including st paul s cathedral the shadowy shapes descended the one at least of them knowing the place so well that she found it scarcely the well beloved to guide herself down by touching the natural wall of stone on her right hand as her companion did thus with quick they arrived at the bottom and trod the few yards of which on the forbidding shore could be found at this spot alone it was so solitary as to be often for four and twenty hours by a living soul upon the confined beach were drawn up two or three fishing and a couple of smaller ones beside them being a rough for and a boat house of boards the two lovers united their strength to push the smallest of the boats down the slope and floating it they scrambled in the girl broke the silence by asking where are the oars he felt about the boat but could find none i forgot to look for the oars he said they are locked in the boat house i suppose now we can only steer and trust to the current the currents here were of a complicated kind it was true as the girl had said that the tide ran round the north but at a special moment in every flood there set in along the a young man turned sixty shore a narrow contrary to the general outer flow called the southern by the local sailors it was produced by the peculiar curves of coast lying east and west of the these bent southward in two back streams the up channel flow on each side of the which two streams united outside the and there met the direct flow the of the three currents making the surface of the sea at this point to boil like a pot even in weather the disturbed area as is well known is called the race thus although the outer sea was now running northward to the and the of the southern ran in full force towards the and the race beyond it caught the lovers boat in a few moments and unable to row across it mere river s width that it was they beheld the rocks near them and the grim wrinkled forehead of the isle above sliding away northward they gazed helplessly at each other though in the long living faith of youth without distinct fear the increased in magnitude and swung them higher and lower the boat rocked received a smart slap of the waves now and then and wheeled round so the that the light ship which winked at them from the the single object which told them of their bearings was sometimes on their right hand and sometimes on their left nevertheless they could always discern from it that their course whether or was steadily south a bright idea occurred to the young man he pulled out his handkerchief and striking a light set it on fire she gave him hers and he made that up also the only available fuel left was the small umbrella the girl had brought this was also kindled in an opened state and he held it up by the stem till it was consumed the light ship had loomed quite large by this time and a few minutes after they had burned the handkerchiefs and umbrella a colored flame replied to them from the vessel they flung their arms around each other i knew we shouldn t be drowned said i thought we shouldn t too said he with the appearance of day a boat put off to their assistance and they were towards the heavy red with the large white letters on its side vii an old in a new aspect the october day into dusk and sat musing beside the corpse of mrs having gone away nobody knew whither he had acted as the nearest friend of the family and attended as well as he could to the sombre duties by her mother s it was doubtful indeed if anybody else were in a position to do so of the second s two brothers one had been drowned at sea and the other had while her only child besides the present had died in infancy as for her friends she had become so absorbed in her ambitious and nearly accomplished design of marrying her daughter to that she had gradually completed that between herself and the other which had been begun so long ago as when a young woman she had herself been asked by to marry him the on her inability to accept the honor offered she and her husband had been set up in a matter of fact business in the by her patron but that request in the london had made her feel ever since a refined with and a from mere which was perhaps no more than a weakness in the second her daughter s objection to she could never understand to her own eye he was no older than when he had proposed to her as he sat here the ghostly outlines of former shapes taken by his love came round their sister the unconscious corpse him from the wall in sad array like the pictured women beheld by on the walls of many of them he had in bust and in figure from time to time but it was not as such that he remembered and them now rather was it in all their natural circumstances weaknesses and and	45
but you did not know her she was broken down when she discovered her mother s death which had never once occurred to her as being imminent they have gone away again i thought it best she should leave now that you are out of danger now you must be quiet till i come and talk again was conscious of a singular change in himself which had been revealed by this slight discourse he was no longer the same man that he had hitherto been the malignant fever or his experiences or both had taken away something from him and put something else in its place during the next days with further intellectual he became clearly aware of what this was the artistic sense had left him and he could no longer attach a definite sentiment to images of beauty recalled from the past his was capable of itself only on matters a and recollections of s good qualities alone had any effect on his mind of her appearance none at all at first he was appalled and then he said thank god r who with something of her old came to his house continually to inquire and give orders and to his room to see him every afternoon found out for herself in the course of his this strange death of the side of s nature she had said that was getting handsome and that she did not wonder her lost his heart to her an remark which she immediately regretted in fear lest it should him he merely answered however yes i suppose she is handsome she s more a wise girl who will make a good in time i wish you were not handsome why i don t quite know why well it seems a stupid quality to me i can t understand what it is good for any more oh i as a woman think there s good in it is there then i have lost all conception the well of it i don t know what has happened to me i only know i don t regret it robinson lost a day in his illness i have lost a faculty for which loss heaven be praised there was something pathetic in this and sighed as she said perhaps when you get strong it will come back to you shook his head it then occurred to him that never since the of had he seen her in full daylight or without a bonnet and veil which she always retained on these frequent visits and that he had been unconsciously regarding her as the of their early time a fancy which the small change in her voice well sustained the stately figure the good color the classical the rather large handsome nose and somewhat prominent regular teeth the full dark eye formed still the of his imagination the creature who had him when the first was despised and her unknown it was this old idea which in his revolt from beauty had led to his words on her he began wondering now how much remained of that after forty years a young man turned sixty why don t you ever let me see you he asked oh i don t know you mean without my bonnet you have never asked me to and i am obliged to wrap up my face with this wool veil because i suffer so from in these cold winter winds though a thick veil is awkward for any one whose sight is not so good as it was the s sight not so good as it was and her face in the aching stage of life i these simple things came as sermons to but certainly i will gratify your curiosity she resumed good it is really a compliment that you should still take that sort of interest in me she had moved round from the dark side of the room to the lamp for the daylight had gone and she now suddenly took off the bonnet veil and all she stood revealed to his eyes as remarkably good looking the lapse of years i am vexed he said turning his head aside impatiently you arc fair and five not a day more you still suggest beauty you won t do as a the ah but i may to think that you know woman no better after all this time how to be so easily deceived think it is and your sight is weak at present and well i have no reason for being anything but candid now god knows so i will tell you my husband was younger than myself and he had an absurd wish to make people think he had married a young and fresh looking woman to fall in with his vanity i tried to look it we were often in paris and i became as skilled in as any pass e wife of the st since his death i have kept up the practice partly because the vice is almost and partly because i found that it helped me with men in bringing up his boy on small means at this moment i am made up but i can cure that come in to morrow morning if it is bright just as i really am you ll find that time has not disappointed you remember i am as old as yourself and i look it the morrow came and with it quite early as she had promised it happened to be sunny and shutting the bedroom door she a young man turned sixty went round to the window where she uncovered immediately in his full view and said see if i am satisfactory now to you who think beauty vain the rest of me and it is a good deal lies on my dressing table at home i shall never put it on again never	45
moment quite involuntarily and there was some in the manner in which he returned her kiss and said my pretty little how do you do after so long for a few seconds her impulsive innocence hardly noticed his start of surprise but mrs the girl s mother had observed it instantly with a pained flush she turned to her daughter my dear why what are you doing don t you know that you ve grown up to be a woman since mr k a young man of twenty was last down here of course you mustn t do now as you used to do three or four years ago the awkwardness which had arisen was hardly removed by s assurance that he quite expected her to keep up the practice of her childhood followed by several minutes of conversation on general subjects he was vexed from his soul that his unaware movement should so have betrayed him at his leaving he repeated that if regarded him otherwise than as she used to do he would never forgive her but though they parted good friends her regret at the incident was visible in her face passed out into the road and onward to his father s house hard by the mother and daughter were left alone i was quite amazed at ee my child exclaimed the elder a young man from london and foreign cities used now to the company manners and ladies who almost think it vulgar to smile broad how could ye do it i i didn t think about how i was altered said the conscience stricken girl i used to kiss him and he used to kiss me before he went away the well beloved but that was years ago my dear oh yes and for the moment i forgot he seemed just the same to me as he used to be well it can t be helped now you must be careful in the future he s got lots of young women i ll warrant and has few thoughts left for you he s what they call a and he means to be a great genius in that line some day they do say well i ve done it and it can t be mended moaned the girl meanwhile the of fame had gone onward to the house of his father an man of trade and commerce merely from whom nevertheless accepted a yearly allowance the famous days to come but the elder having received no warning of his son s intended visit was not at home to receive him looked round the familiar premises glanced across the common at the great yards within which eternal were going to and fro upon eternal blocks of stone the very same and the very same blocks that he had seen there when last in the island so it seemed to him and then passed through the dwelling into the back garden a young man of twenty like all the gardens in the isle it was surrounded by a wall of dry and at its farther extremity it ran out into a corner which the garden of the he had no sooner reached this spot than he became aware of a murmuring and sobbing on the other side of the wall the voice he recognized in a moment as s and she seemed to be confiding her trouble to some young friend of her own sex oh what shall i do what shall i do she was saying bitterly so bold as it was so how could i think of such a thing he will never forgive me never never like me again he ll think me a forward and yet and yet i quite forgot how much i had grown but that he ll never believe the accents were those of one who had for the first time become conscious of her womanhood as an unwonted possession which and frightened her did he seem angry at it inquired the friend oh no not angry worse cold and haughty oh he s such a fashionable person now not at all an island man but there s no use in talking of it i wish i was dead the well beloved retreated as quickly as he could he grieved at the incident which had brought such pain to this innocent soul and yet it was beginning to be a source of vague pleasure to him he returned to the house and when his father had come back and welcomed him and they had shared a meal together again went out full of an earnest desire to soothe his young neighbor s sorrow in a way she little expected though to tell the truth his affection for her was rather that of a friend than of a lover and he felt by no means sure that the he called his love who ever since his boyhood had flitted from human shell to human shell an indefinite number of times was going to take up her abode in the body of ii the is assumed to be true it was difficult to meet her again even though on this lump of rock the difficulty lay as a rule rather in than in meeting but had been transformed into a very different kind of young woman by the self consciousness of her impulsive greeting and notwithstanding their near neighborhood he could not encounter her try as he would no sooner did he appear an inch beyond his father s door than she was to earth like a fox she bolted up stairs to her room anxious to soothe her after his slight he could not stand these long the manners of the isle were primitive and straightforward even among the well to do and noting her disappearance one day he followed her into the house and onward to the foot of	45
the stairs he called ii the well beloved yes mr why do you run up stairs like that oh only because i wanted to come up for something well if you ve got it can t you come down again no i can t very well come dear that s what you are you know there was no response well if you won t you won t he continued i don t want to bother you and went away he was stopping to look at the old fashioned flowers under the garden walls when he heard a voice behind him mr i wasn t angry with you when you were gone i thought you might mistake me and i felt i could do no less than come and assure you of my friendship still turning he saw the blushing immediately behind him you are a good dear girl said he and seizing her hand set upon her cheek the kind of kiss that should have been the response to hers on the day of his coming darling forgive me for the slight a young man of twenty that day say you do come now and then i ll say to you what i have never said to any other woman living or dead will you have me as your husband ah mother says i am only one of many you are not dear you knew me when i was young and others didn t somehow or other her objections were got over and though she did not give an immediate assent she agreed to meet him later in the afternoon when she walked with him to the southern point of the island called the or by strangers the bill pausing over the treacherous known as cave hole into which the sea roared and now as it had done when they visited it together as children to steady herself while looking in he offered her his arm and she took it for the first time as a woman for the time as his companion they on to the light house where they would have lingered longer if had not suddenly remembered an engagement to poetry from a platform that very evening at the street of wells the village commanding the entrance to the island the village that has now advanced to be a town the well beloved said he who d have thought anybody or anything could down here except the we hear away there the never speechless sea oh but we are quite intellectual now in the winter particularly but don t come to the will you it would spoil my performance if you were there and i want to be as good as the rest i won t if you really wish me not to but i shall meet you at the door and bring you home yes she said looking up into his face was perfectly happy now she could never have believed on that day of his coming that she would be so happy with him when they reached the east side of the isle they parted that she might be soon enough to take her place on the platform went home and after dark when it was about the hour for accompanying her back he went along the middle road northward to the street of wells he was full of he had known so well of old that his feeling for her now was rather than love and what he had said to her in a moment of im a young man of twenty pulse that morning rather appalled him in its consequences not that any of the more and accomplished women who had attracted him would be likely to rise between them for he had quite his mind of the assumption that the idol of his fancy was an part of the personality in which it had for a long or a short while to his well beloved he had always been faithful but she had had many each individuality known as jane or what not had been merely a transient condition of her he did not recognize this as an excuse or as a defence but as a fact simply essentially she was perhaps of no substance a spirit a dream a frenzy a conception an an sex a light of the eye a parting of the lips god only knew what she really was did not she was indescribable never much considering that she was a phenomenon by the weird influences of his descent and the discovery of her of her independence the well beloved of physical laws and had occasionally given him a sense of fear he never knew f she next would be whither she would lead him having herself instant access to all ranks and classes to every abode of men sometimes at night he dreamed that she was the weaving daughter of high in person bent on him for his sins against her beauty in his art the herself indeed he knew that he loved the creature wherever he found her whether with blue eyes black eyes or brown whether presenting herself as tall fragile or plump she was never in two places at once but hitherto she had never been in one place long by making this clear to his mind some time before to day he had escaped a good deal of ugly self reproach it was simply that she who always attracted him and led him whither she would as by a silken thread had not remained the of the same in her career so far whether she would ultimately settle down to one he could not say had he felt that she was becoming manifest in he would have tried to believe that a young man of twenty this was the spot of her and have been content to abide by his words but did	45
he see the well beloved in at all the question was somewhat disturbing he had reached the brow of the hill and descended towards the village where in the long straight roman street he soon found the lighted hall the performance was not yet over and by going round to the side of the building and standing on a mound he could see the interior as far down as the platform level s turn or second turn came on almost immediately her pretty embarrassment on facing the audience rather won him away from his doubts she was in truth what is called a nice girl attractive certainly but above all things one of the class with whom the risks of matrimony most nearly to her intelligent eyes her broad forehead her thoughtful carriage one thing that of all the girls he had known he had never met one with more charming and solid qualities than s this was not a mere conjecture he h id known her long and thoroughly her every mood and temper a heavy wagon passing without drowned b the well beloved her small soft voice for him but the audience were pleased and she blushed at their applause he now took his station at the door and when the people had done pouring out he found her within awaiting him they climbed homeward slowly by the old road dragging himself up the steep by the hand rail and pulling after him upon his arm at the top they turned and stood still to the left of them the sky was like a fan with the rays and under their front at periods of a quarter of a minute there arose a deep hollow stroke like the single beat of a drum the intervals being filled with a long drawn rattling as of bones between huge jaws it came from the vast of s bay rising and falling against the the evening and night winds here were to s mind charged with a something that did not burden them elsewhere they brought it up from that sinister bay to the west whose movement she and he were hearing now it was a presence an imaginary shape or essence from the human multitude lying below those who had gone down in is a young man of twenty vessels of war east and ships of the select people common and whose interests and hopes had been as wide asunder as the poles but who had rolled each other to on that restless sea bed there could almost be felt the brush of their huge ghost as it ran a figure over the isle shrieking for some good god who would it again the twain wandered a long way that night amid these influences so far as to the old hope church yard which lay in a formed by a ages ago the church had slipped down with the rest of the cliff and had long been a ruin it seemed to say that in this last local of the pagan where pagan customs lingered yet christianity had established itself at best in that solemn spot kissed her the kiss was by no means on s this time her former seemed to have increased her present reserve that day was the beginning of a pleasant month passed mainly in each other s society he found that she could not only poetry the well beloved at intellectual but play the piano fairly and sing to her own accompaniment he observed that every aim of those who had brought her up had been to get her away mentally as far as possible from her natural and individual life as an of a peculiar island to make her an exact copy of of thousands of other people in whose circumstances there was nothing special or picturesque to teach her to forget all the experiences of her ancestors to drown the local by songs purchased at the fashionable music and the local by a tongue of no country at all she lived in a house that would have been the fortune of an artist and learned to draw london from printed copies had seen all this before he pointed it out but with a girl s had by constitution she was local to the bone but she could not escape the tendency of the age the time for s departure drew near and she looked forward to it sadly but serenely their engagement being now a settled thing thought of the native custom on such a young man of twenty occasions which had prevailed in his and her family for centuries both being of the old stock of the isle the of or foreigners as strangers from the of were called had led in a large measure to its but underneath the of s education many an idea lay and he wondered if in her natural melancholy at his leaving she regretted the changing manners which made the formal of a according to the precedent of their and ill the appointment well said he here we are arrived at the end of my holiday what a pleasant surprise my old home which i have not thought worth coming to see for three or four years had in store for me you must go to morrow she asked uneasily yes something seemed to them something more than the natural sadness of a parting which was not to be long and he decided that instead of leaving in the as he had intended he would his departure till night and go by the mail train from this would give him time to look into his father s and enable her if she chose to walk with him along the beach as far as to henry the eighth s castle above the sands where they could linger and watch the moon k a young man of twenty rise over the sea she	45
passed him while he was reading s letter by the last lamp and now he was her he did hope for a moment that it might be with a changed mind but it was not she nor anybody like her a taller form than that of his and although the season was only autumn she was wrapped in or in thick and heavy clothing of some kind a young man of twenty he soon advanced abreast of her and could get glimpses of her against the lights it was dignified that of a very nothing more classical had he ever seen she walked at a swinging pace yet with such ease and power that there was but little difference in their rate of speed for several minutes and during this time he regarded and however he was about to pass her by when she suddenly turned and addressed him mr i think of east he assented and could just discern what a handsome commanding imperious face it was quite of a piece with the proud tones of her voice she was a new type altogether in his experience and her accent was not so local as s can you tell me the time please he looked at his watch by the aid of a light and in telling her that it was a quarter past seven observed by the momentary gleam of his match that her eyes looked a little red and as if with weeping mr will you forgive what will appear very strange to you i dare say that is may i ask you to lend me some money for a the well beloved day or two i have been so foolish as to leave my purse on the dressing table it did appear strange and yet there were features in the young lady s personality which assured him in a moment that she was not an he yielded to her request and put his hand in his pocket here it remained for a moment how much did she mean by the words some money the quality of her form and manner made him throw himself by an impulse into harmony with her and he responded he scented a romance he handed her five pounds his caused her no apparent surprise it is quite enough thank you she remarked quietly as he announced the sum lest she should be unable to see it for herself while and conversing with her he had not observed that the rising wind which had proceeded from puffing to growling and from growling to with the accustomed suddenness of its changes here had at length brought what it promised by these rain the drops which had at first hit their left cheeks like the of a soon assumed the character of a from the bank adjoining one shot of a young man of twenty which was sufficiently smart to go through s sleeve the tall girl turned and seemed to be somewhat concerned at an which she had plainly not foreseen before her starting we must take shelter said but where said she to was the long monotonous bank too piled to afford a screen over which they could hear the of pebbles by the sea without on their right stretched the inner bay or the distant riding lights of the ships now dim and glimmering behind them a faint spark here and there in the lower sky showed where the island rose before there was nothing definite and could be nothing till they reached a precarious wood bridge a mile farther on henry the eighth s castle being a little farther still but just within the summit of the bank whither it had apparently been hauled to be out of the way of the waves was one of the local boats called bottom upward as soon as they saw it the pair ran up the slope towards it by a impulse they then perceived that it had lain there a long time and were comforted to find it the well beloved ble of affording more protection than anybody would have expected from a distant view it formed a shelter or store for the the boom of the being as a roof by creeping under the bows which the bank on to they made their way within where upon some oars and other lay a mass of dry a whole upon this they scrambled and sat down through inability to stand upright a charge the rain fell upon the of the old like corn thrown in by some colossal and darkness set in to its full shade they crouched so close to each other that he could feel her against him neither had spoken since they left the till she said with attempted this is unfortunate he admitted that it was and found after a few further remarks had passed that she certainly had been weeping there being a suppressed gasp of in her utterance now and then it is more unfortunate for you perhaps than for me he said and i am very sorry that it should be so she replied nothing to this and he added that it was rather a desolate place for a woman alone and he hoped nothing serious c the well beloved had happened to drag her out at such an time at first she seemed not at all disposed to show any on her own affairs and he was left to conjecture as to her history and name and how she could possibly have known him but as the rain gave not the least sign of he observed i think we shall have to go back never said she and the firmness with which she closed her lips was audible in the word why not he inquired there are good reasons i cannot understand how you should know me while i have no knowledge of you oh but you know me	45
about me at least indeed i don t how should i you are a i am not i am a real or was rather haven t you heard of the best bed stone company i should think so they tried to ruin my father by getting away his trade or at least the founder of the company did old he s my father a young man of twenty indeed i am sorry i should have spoken so of him for i never knew him personally after making over his large business to the company he retired i believe to london yes our house or rather his not mine is at south we have lived there for years but we have been tenants of castle on the island here this season we took it for a month or two of the owner who is away then i have been staying quite near you miss my father s is a comparatively humble residence hard by but he could afford a much bigger one if he chose you have heard so i don t know he doesn t tell me much of his affairs my father she burst out suddenly is always scolding me for my extravagance and he has been doing it to day more than ever he said i go in town to simply a extent and exceed my allowance was that this evening yes and then it reached such a storm of passion between us that i pretended to re the well beloved tire to my room for the rest of the evening but i slipped out and i am never going back home again what will you do i shall go first to my aunt in london and if she won t have me i ll work for a living i have left my father forever what i should have done if i had not met you i cannot tell i must have walked all the way to london i suppose now i shall take the train as soon as i reach the if you ever do in this i must sit here till it stops and there on the they sat knew of old as his father s bitterest enemy who had made a great fortune by up the small stone merchants but had found s a trifle too big to the latter being in fact the chief rival of the best bed company to that day thought it strange that he should be thrown by fate into a position to play the son of the to this daughter of the as they talked there was a mutual instinct to drop their voices and on this account the roar of the storm their drawing quite close together something tender came a young man of twenty into their tones as quarter hour after went on and they forgot the lapse of time it was quite late when she started up alarmed at her position rain or no rain i can stay no longer she said do come back said he taking her hand i ll return with you my train has gone no i shall go on and get a lodging in town if ever i reach it it is so late that there will be no house open except a little place near the station where you won t care to stay however if you are determined i will show you the way i cannot leave you it would be too awkward for you to go there alone she persisted and they started through the and spinning storm the sea rolled and rose so high on their left and was so near them on their right that it seemed as if they were its bottom like the children of nothing but the frail bank of pebbles divided them from the raging gulf without and at every bang of the tide against it the ground shook the the spray rose and was blown over their heads quantities of sea water the well beloved through the wall and ran in across their path to join the sea within the island was an island still they had not realized the force of the elements till now had often been blown into the sea and drowned owing to a sudden breach in the bank which however had something of a supernatural power in being able to close up and join itself together again after such like satan s form when cut in two by the sword of michael the ethereal substance closed not long her clothing offered more resistance to the wind than his and she was consequently in the greater danger it was impossible to refuse his proffered aid first he gave his arm but the wind tore them apart as easily as coupled he her bodily by her waist with his arm and she made no objection somewhere about this time it might have been sooner it might have been later he became conscious of a sensation which in its in a young man of twenty and form had within him from some unnoticed moment when he was sitting close to his new friend under the though a young man he was too old a hand not to know what this was and felt alarmed even dismayed it meant a possible of the well beloved the thing had not however taken place and he went on thinking how soft and warm the lady was in her fur covering as he held her so tightly the only dry spots in the clothing of either being her left side and his right where they excluded the rain by their mutual pressure as soon as they had crossed the bridge there was a little more shelter but he did not his hold till she requested him they passed the ruined castle and having left the island far behind them trod mile after mile till they	45
drew near to the outskirts of the neighboring watering place into it they without pause crossing the harbor bridge about midnight wet to the skin he pitied her and while he wondered at it admired her determination the houses facing the bay now sheltered them completely and they reached the vicinity of the new rail the well beloved way which the station was at this date without difficulty as he had said there was only one house open a little inn where the people stayed up for the arrival of the morning mail and passengers from the channel boats their application for admission led to the of a bolt and they stood within the of the passage he could see now that though she vas such a fine figure quite as tall as himself she was but in the bloom of young womanhood in years her face was certainly striking though rather by its than its beauty and the beating of the wind and rain and spray had her cheeks to hues she persisted in the determination to go on to london by an early morning train and he therefore offered advice on lesser matters only in that case he said you must go up to your room and send down your things that they may be dried by the fire immediately or they will not be ready i will tell the servant to do this and send you up something to eat she assented to his proposal without how a young man of twenty ever showing any marks of gratitude and when she had gone despatched her the light supper promised by the sleepy girl who was night porter at this establishment he felt hungry himself and set about drying his clothes as well as he could and eating at the same time at first he was in doubt what to do but soon decided to stay where he was till the morrow by the aid of some temporary and some slippers from the cupboard he was to make himself comfortable when the maid servant came downstairs with a damp of woman s withdrew from the fire the knelt down before the blaze and held up with extended arms one of the of the upstairs from which a cloud of steam began to rise as she knelt the girl nodded forward recovered herself and nodded again you are sleepy my girl said yes sir i have been up a long time when nobody comes i lie down on the couch in the other room then i ll relieve you of that go and lie down in the other room just as if we were not the well beloved here i ll dry the clothing and put the articles here in a heap which you can take up to the young lady in the morning the night porter thanked him and left the room and he soon heard her from the adjoining apartment then opened proceedings the robes and extending them one by one as the steam went up he fell into a reverie he again became conscious of the change which had been during the walk the well beloved was moving house had gone over to the of this attire in the course of ten minutes he adored her and how about little he did not think of her as before he was not sure that he had ever seen the real beloved in that friend of his youth as he was for her welfare but loving her or not he perceived that the spirit which called itself his love was flitting stealthily from some figure to the near one in the chamber overhead had not kept her engagement to meet him in the lonely ruin fearing her own im a young man of twenty but he in fact more than she had been educated out of the island innocence that had old manners and this was the strange consequence of a vice s vi on the brink miss was leaving the hotel for the railway which was quite near at hand and had only recently been opened as if on purpose for this event at s suggestion she wrote a message to inform her father that she had gone to her aunt s with a view to anxiety and pursuit they walked together to the platform and bade each other good bye each obtained a ticket and got his luggage from the cloak room on the platform they encountered each other again and there was a light in their glances at each other which said as by a flash telegraph we are bound for the same town why not enter the same they did she took a corner seat with her back to the engine he sat opposite the guard looked i a young man of twenty in thought they were lovers and did not show other travellers into that they talked on strictly ordinary matters what she thought he did not know but at every stopping station he dreaded intrusion before they were half way to london the event he had just begun to realize was a patent fact the beloved was again embodied she filled every fibre and curve of this woman s form drawing near the great london station was like drawing near how should he leave her in the turmoil of a crowded city street she seemed quite unprepared for the rattle of the scene he asked her where her aunt lived said miss he called a cab and proposed that she should share it till they arrived at her aunt s whose residence lay not much out of the way to his own try as he would he could not ascertain if she understood his feelings but she assented to his offer and entered the vehicle we are old friends he said as they drove onward indeed we are she answered without smiling the well beloved but we are mortal	45
much for the principle good go on well the first of her occurred so nearly as i can recollect when i was about the age of nine her vehicle was a little girl of eight or so one of a family of eleven with hair about her shoulders which attempted to curl but failed hanging like chimney only this defect used rather to trouble me and was i believe one of the main reasons of my beloved s departure from that i cannot remember with any when the departure occurred i know it was after i had kissed my little friend in a garden seat on a hot under a blue umbrella which we had opened over us as we sat that through east might not observe our marks of affection forgetting that our screen must attract more attention than our persons when the whole dream came to an end through her father leaving the island i thought a young man of twenty my well beloved had gone forever being then in the condition of adam at sight of the first sunset but she had not had gone forever but not my beloved for some months after i had done crying for the haired edition of her my love did not then she came suddenly unexpectedly in a situation i should never have predicted i was standing on the of the pavement in outside the preparatory school looking across towards the sea when a middle aged gentleman on horseback and beside him a young lady also mounted passed down the street the girl turned her head and possibly because i was gaping at her in awkward admiration or smiling smiled at me having ridden a few paces she looked round again and smiled it was enough more than enough to set me on fire i understood in a moment the information conveyed to me by my emotion the well beloved had reappeared this second form in which it had pleased her to take up her abode was quite a grown young woman s darker in complexion than the first her hair also worn in a knot was of an or the well beloved brown and so i think were her eyes but the of her features were not to be gathered so however there sat my one re embodied and bidding my a hasty farewell as soon as i could do so without suspicion i hurried along the in the direction she and her father had ridden but they had put their horses to a and i could not see which way they had gone in the greatest misery i turned down a side street but was elevated to a state of excitement by seeing the same pair galloping towards me flushing up to my hair i stopped and faced her as she passed she smiled again but alas upon my love s cheek there was no blush of passion for me paused and drank from his glass as he lived for a brief moment in the scene he had up reserved his comments and continued that afternoon i about the streets looking for her in vain when i next saw one of the boys who had been with me at her first passing i stealthily reminded him of the incident and asked if he knew the a young man of twenty oh yes he said that was colonel and his daughter how old do you think she is said i a sense of in our ages disturbing my mind oh nineteen i think they say she s going to be married the day after to morrow to captain of the st and they are ordered off to india at once the grief which i experienced at this intelligence was such that at dusk i went away to the edge of the harbor intending to put an end to myself there and then but i had been told that had been found clinging to the dead faces of persons who had fallen in leisurely eating them and the idea of such an unpleasant me i should state that the marriage of my beloved concerned me little it was her departure that broke my heart i never saw her again though i had already learned that the absence of the matter did not involve the absence of the informing spirit i could scarce bring myself to believe that in this case it was possible for her to return to my view without the form she had last inhabited the well beloved but she did it was not however till after a good space of time during which i passed through that age in boys their early when girls are their especial contempt i was about seventeen and was sitting one evening over a cup of tea in a s at the very same watering place when opposite me a lady took her seat with a little girl we looked at each other a while the child made advances till i said she s a good little thing the lady assented and made a further remark she has the soft fine eyes of her mother said i do you think her eyes are good asks the lady as if she had not heard what she had heard most the last three words of my opinion yes for copies said i regarding her after this we got on very well she informed me that her husband had gone out in a and i said it was a pity he didn t take her with him for the she gradually disclosed herself in the character of a deserted young wife and later on i met her in the street without the child she was going to a young man of twenty the landing stage to meet her husband so she told me but she did not know the way i offered to show her and did so i will	45
her union with one of his blood and name ix familiar phenomena in the distance by degrees began to trace again the customary lines of his existence and his profession occupied him much as of old the next year or two only once brought him tidings through some at his former home of the movements of the the extended voyage of s parents had given them quite a zest for other scenes and countries and it was said that her father a man still in vigorous health except at brief intervals was the outlook which his afforded him by capital in foreign what he had supposed turned out to be true was with them and thus the separation of himself and his nearly married wife by common consent was likely to be a permanent one it seemed as if he would scarce ever again discover the dwelling place of the a young man of twenty haunting of his imagination having gone so near to matrimony with as to apply for a license he had felt for a long while morally bound to her by the contract and would not look about him in search of the vanished thus during the first year of miss s absence when absolutely bound to keep faith with the one s late if she should return to claim him this man of the odd fancy would sometimes tremble at the thought of what would become of his solemn intention if the phantom were suddenly to disclose herself in an unexpected quarter and him before he was aware once or twice he imagined that he saw her in the distance at the end of a street on the far sands of a shore in a window in a meadow at the opposite side of a railway station but he turned on his heel and walked the other way during the many seasons that followed s stroke of independence for which he was not without a secret admiration at times threw into that ever spring of emotion which without some into space will the well beloved upward and ruin all but the greatest men it was probably owing to this certainly not on account of any care or anxiety for such a result that he was successful in his art successful by a seemingly sudden which carried him at one bound over the of years he without effort he was a r a but of this sort social distinctions which he had once so keenly seemed to have no utility for him now by the accident of being a bachelor he was floating in society without any soul or shrine that he could call his own and for want of a domestic centre round which honors might they dispersed without and adding weight to his material well being he would have gone on working with his with just as much zest if his had been doomed to meet no mortal eye but his own this indifference to the popular reception of his dream figures lent him a curious artistic that carried him through the of opinion without suffering them to disturb his inherent bias a young man of twenty the study of beauty was his only joy for years onward in the streets he would observe a face or a of a face which seemed to express to a hair s breadth in flesh what he was at that moment wishing to express in shape he would and follow the owner like a in in cab in through crowds into shops churches theatres and mostly when at close quarters to be disappointed for his pains in these professional beauty he sometimes cast his eye across the thames to the on the south side and to that particular one his father s tons of were daily landed from the of the south coast he could occasionally discern the white blocks lying there vast so persistently by his parent from his island rock in the english channel that it seemed as if in time it would be all away one thing it passed him to understand on what field of observation the poets and philosophers based their assumption that the passion of love was in youth and burned lower as maturity advanced it was possibly the well beloved because of his utter domestic loneliness that during the productive interval which followed the first years of s departure when he was drifting along from five and twenty to eight and thirty occasionally loved with an though it is true also with a self control unknown to him when he was green in judgment his isle bred fancy had grown to be such an emotion that the well beloved now again visible was always existing somewhere near him for months he would find her on the stage of a theatre then she would away leaving the poor empty that had lodged her to on as best it could without her a sorry lay figure to his eyes heaped with and with commonplace she would it might be in an at first unnoticed lady met at some fashionable evening party exhibition or dinner to from her in turn after a few months and stand as a graceful shop girl at some large into which he had strayed on an errand then she would this figure and herself in the guise of a young man of twenty some popular piano player or at whose shrine he would worship for perhaps a once she was a dancing girl at the royal palace of varieties though during her whole continuance at that establishment he never once exchanged a word with her nor did she first or last ever dream of his existence he knew that a ten minutes conversation in the wings with the substance would send the fearfully away into some other even less accessible mask figure she was a a tall straight full	45
only one quality remained her of in borne s phrase nothing was permanent in her but change it is odd he said to himself that this experience of mine or or whatever it is which would be sheer waste of time for other men sober business for me for all these dreams he translated into plaster and found that by them he was a public taste he had never deliberately aimed at and mostly despised he was in short in danger of drifting away from a solid artistic reputation to a popularity which might the well beloved be as brief as it would be brilliant and exciting you will be caught some day my friend would occasionally observe to him i don t mean to say entangled in anything for i admit that you are in practice as ideal as in theory i mean the process will be reversed some woman whose well beloved about as yours does now will catch your eye and you ll stick to her like a while she follows her phantom and leaves you to ache as you will you may be right but i think you are wrong said as flesh she dies daily like the s self because when i with the reality she s no longer in it so that i cannot stick to one if i would wait till you are older said part second a young man of forty since love will needs that i shall love of very force i must agree and since no chance may it remove in arid in i shall myself apply to serve and suffer patiently sir t the old phantom becomes distinct in the course of these long years s artistic emotions were abruptly suspended by the news of his father s sudden death at whither the stone merchant had gone for a change of air by the advice of his physician mr senior it must be admitted had been something in his home life as had so reminded his son but he had never he had been rather a hard though as a a ready money man just and to every one s surprise the capital he had accumulated in the stone trade was of large amount for a business so carried on much larger than had ever regarded as possible while the son had been and his fancies into the well beloved shapes the father had been persistently for half a century at the crude original matter of those shapes the stern isolated rock in the channel and by the aid of his and his and his boats had sent off his spoil to all parts of great britain when had wound up everything and disposed of the business as recommended by his father s will he found himself enabled to add about eighty thousand pounds to the twelve thousand which he already possessed from professional and other sources after arranging for the sale of some properties in the island other than for he did not intend to reside there he returned to town he often wondered what had become of he had promised never to trouble her nor for a whole twenty years had he done so though he had often sighed for her as a friend of sterling common sense in practical difficulties her parents were he believed dead and she he knew had never gone back to the isle possibly she had formed some new tie abroad and had made it next to impossible to discover her by her old name a time ensued almost his first a young man of forty entry into society after his father s death occurred one evening when for want of knowing what better to do he responded to an invitation sent by one of the few ladies of rank whom he numbered among his friends and set out in a cab for the square wherein she lived during three or four months of the year the turned the corner and he obtained a view of the houses along the north side of which hers was one with the familiar at the door there were chinese too on the balcony he perceived in a moment that the customary small and early reception had resolved itself on this occasion into something very like great and late he remembered that there had just been a political crisis which accounted for the of the of s assembly for hers was one of the or non political houses at which party politics are more freely agitated than at the party there was such a string of carriages that did not wait to take his turn at the door but alighted some yards off and walked forward he had to pause a moment behind the wall of spectators which the well beloved barred his way and as he paused some ladies in white crossed from their carriages to the door on the carpet laid for the purpose he had not seen their faces nothing of them but vague forms and yet he was suddenly seized with a its was that he might be going to re encounter the well beloved that night after her recent long hiding she meant to and him that liquid sparkle of her eye that music that turn of the head how well he knew it all despite the many superficial changes and how instantly he would recognize it under whatever complexion accent height or carriage it might choose to s other conjecture that the night was to be a lively political one received confirmation as soon as he reached the hall where a of excitement was perceptible as or from above down the staircase a feature which he had always noticed to be present when any climax or sensation had been reached in the world of party and and where have you been keeping yourself so long young man said his hostess a young man of	45
forty when he had shaken hands with her was always regarded as a young man though he was now about forty oh yes of course i remember she added looking serious in a moment at thought of his loss the was a woman with a manner on that oft claimed feminine quality humor and was quickly sympathetic she then began to tell him of a scandal in the political side to which she belonged one that had come out of the present crisis and that as for herself she sworn to politics forever on account of it so that he was to regard her forthwith as a more than ever by this time some more people had upstairs and prepared to move on you are looking for somebody i can see that said she yes a lady said tell me her name and i ll try to think if she s here i cannot i don t know it he said indeed what is she like i cannot describe her not even her complexion or dress the well beloved lady looked a as if she thought he were her and he moved on in the current the fact was that for a moment fancied he had made the discovery that the one he was in search of in the person of the very hostess he had conversed with who was charming always and particularly charming to night he was just feeling an consternation at the possibility of such a s trick in his beloved who had once before chosen to her self as a married woman though happily at that time with no serious results however he felt that he had been mistaken and that the fancy had been solely owing to the highly charged electric condition in which he had arrived by reason of his recent the whole set of rooms formed one great utterance of the opinions of the hour the gods of party were present with their but the brilliancy of manner and form in the handling of public questions was only less conspicuous than the of original ideas no principles of wise government had place in any mind a blunt and jolly as to the ins and all but s interest did not run in this a young man of forty stream he was like a stone in a brook waiting for some peculiar floating object to be brought towards him and to stick upon his mental surface thus looking for the next new version of the fair figure he did not consider at the moment though he had done so at other times that this of meeting her was of all just the sort of one to work out its own fulfilment he looked for her in the knot of persons gathered round a past prime minister who was standing in the middle of the largest room in the genial almost jovial manner natural to him at these times the two or three ladies forming his audience had been joined by another in black and white and it was on her that s attention was directed as well as the great s whose first sheer gaze at her expressing who are you almost audibly changed into an interested listening look as the few words she spoke were uttered for the minister differed from many of his standing in being extremely careful not to interrupt a timid speaker giving way in an instant if anybody else began with him nobody knew better than himself that the well beloved all may learn and his manner was that of an man who could catch an idea readily even if he could not undertake to create one the lady told her little story whatever it was could not hear it the laughed the lady blushed wrought up to a high by the that his one shape of many names was about to paid little heed to the others watching for a full view of the lady who had won his attention that lady remained for the present partially by her neighbors a diversion was caused by lady bringing up somebody to present to the ex minister the ladies got mixed and lost sight of the one whom he was beginning to suspect as the stealthily returned he looked for her in a kindly young lady of the house his hostess s relation who appeared to more advantage that night than she had ever done before in a sky blue dress which had nothing between it and the fair skin of her neck her an unusually soft and aspect she saw him and they a young man of forty her look of what do you think of me now was suggested he knew by the thought that the last time they met she had appeared under the disadvantage of mourning clothes on a wet day in a country house where everybody was cross i have some new photographs and i want you to tell me whether they are good she said mind you are to tell me truly and no favor she produced the pictures from an adjoining drawer and they sat down together upon an for the purpose of examination the portraits taken by the last fashionable were very good and he told her so but as he spoke and compared them his mind was fixed on something else than the mere judgment he wondered whether the one were indeed in the frame of this girl he looked up at her to his surprise her mind too was on other things bent than on the pictures her eyes were glancing away to distant people she was apparently considering the effect she was producing upon them by this k with and upon one in particular a man of thirty of military appearance whom did not know the well beloved quite convinced now that no phantom belonging to him was contained in the outlines of	45
t be like my cousin over there for the world she thinks her husband will be turned out at the next election and she s quite wild yes it is mostly the women who are the the men only the cards the pity is that politics are looked on as being a game for just as is a game for not as the serious duties of political how few of us ever think or feel that the nation of every country dwells in the cottage as somebody says yes though i wonder to hear you quote that oh i am of no party though my relations are there can be only one best course at all times and the wisdom of the nation should be directed to finding it instead of in two courses according to the will of the party which happens to have the upper hand o the well beloved having started thus they found no difficulty in agreeing on many points when went down stairs from that assembly at a quarter to one and passed under the steaming nostrils of an s horses to a which waited for him against the railing of the square he had an impression that the beloved had re emerged from the shadows without any hint or from him to whom indeed such re was an unquestionably awkward thing in this he was aware however that though it might be now as heretofore the loved who danced before him it was the goddess behind her who pulled the string of that jumping he had lately been trying his artist hand again on the s form in every conceivable phase and mood he had become a one part man a of her only but his efforts had resulted in failures in her vanity she might be him anew for presenting her so ii she draws close and he could not forget mrs pine s eyes though he remembered nothing of her other details they were round inquiring luminous how that chestnut hair of hers had shone it required no to set it off like that of the he had seen there who had put ten thousand pounds upon her head to make herself look worse than she would have appeared with the muslin cap of a servant woman now the question was ought he to see her again he had his doubts but unfortunately for discretion just when he was coming out of the rooms he had encountered an old lady of seventy his friend mrs the honorable mrs and she had hastily asked him to dinner for the day after the morrow stating in the honest way he knew so well that she had heard jo y the well beloved he was out of town or she would have asked him two or three weeks ago now of all social things that liked it was to be asked to dinner as a stop gap in place of some bishop lord or under secretary who couldn t come and when the invitation was by the tidings that the lady who had so impressed him was to be one of the guests he had promised instantly at the dinner he took down mrs pine upon his arm and talked to nobody else during the meal afterwards they kept apart awhile in the drawing room for form s sake but eventually together again and finished the evening in each others company when shortly after eleven he came away he felt almost certain that within those luminous gray eyes the one of his eternal fidelity had verily taken lodgings and for a long lease but this was not all at parting he had almost involuntarily given her hand a pressure of a peculiar and indescribable kind a little response from her like a mere of the same sort told him that the impression she had made upon him was she was in a word willing to go on but was he able a young man of forty there had not been much harm in the thus far but did she know his history the curse upon his nature that he was the wandering jew of the love world how ideal his fancies were how the artist in him had consumed the how he was in constant dread lest he should wrong some woman twice as good as himself by seeming to mean what he fain would mean but could not how useless he was likely to be for practical steps towards though he was all the while for domestic life he was now over forty she was probably thirty and he dared not make love with the careless selfishness of a younger man it was unfair to go further without telling her even though hitherto such had not been absolutely demanded he determined to call immediately on the new she lived not far from the long fashionable square and he went hither with expectations of having a highly time at least but somehow the very seemed cold although she had so earnestly asked him to come as the house spoke so spoke the the well beloved much to the astonishment of the the doors he passed through seemed as if they had not been opened for a month and entering the large drawing room he beheld in an easy chair in the far distance a lady whom he across the carpet to reach and ultimately did reach to be sure it was mrs pine but over raising her eyes in a slightly inquiring manner from the book she was reading she leaned back in the chair as if herself in luxurious sensations which had nothing to do with him and replied to his greeting with a few commonplace words the unfortunate though to a degree was at first terribly upset by this reception he had distinctly begun to love and he felt sick and almost but happily his affection	45
was as yet and a sudden sense of the ridiculous in his own position carried him to the verge of during the scene she signified a chair and began the critical study of some rings she wore they talked over the day s news and then an organ began to grind outside the tune was a air he had heard at some a young man of forty music hall and by way of a diversion he asked her if she knew the composition no i don t she replied now i ll tell you all about it said he gravely it is based on a sound old melody called the s just as they turn into port in the space of a single night so this old air has been taken and and twisted about and brought out as a new popular indeed if you are in the habit of going much to the music halls or the theatres yes you would find this is often done with excellent effect she a little and then they went on to talk about her house which had been newly painted and decorated with blue satin up to the height of a person s head an arrangement that somewhat improved her slightly faded though still pretty face and was helped by the over the windows yes i have had my house some years she observed complacently and i like it better every year don t you feel lonely in it sometimes the well beloved oh never however before he rose she grew friendly to some degree and when he left just after the arrival of three young ladies she seemed she asked him to come again and he thought he would tell the truth no i shall not care to come again he answered in a tone to the young ladies she followed him to the door what an thing to say she murmured in surprise it is rather good bye said as a punishment she did not ring the bell but left him to find his way out as he could now what the devil this means i cannot tell he said to himself reflecting stock still for a moment on the stairs and yet the meaning was staring him in the face meanwhile one of the three young ladies had said what interesting man was that with his lovely head of hair i saw him at lady s the other night oh that is too bad to let him go in that shabby way when i would have a young man of forty given anything to know him i have wanted to know him ever since i found out how much his experiences had dictated his and i discovered them by seeing in a paper notice of the marriage of a person supposed to be his wife who ran off with him many years ago don t you know and then wouldn t marry him in obedience to some novel social principles she had invented for herself oh didn t he marry her said mrs pine with a start why i heard only yesterday that he did though they have lived apart ever since quite a mistake said the young lady ii how i wish i could run after him but was receding from the pretty widow s house with long strides he went out very little during the next few days but about a week later he kept an engagement to dine with lady whom he never neglected because she was the brightest hostess in london by some accident he arrived rather early lady had left the drawing room for a moment to see that all was right in the and when he was shown in there stood alone in the pine the well beloved she had been the first arrival he had not in the least expected to meet her there further than that in a general sense at lady s you expected to meet everybody she had just come out of the cloak room and was so tender and even that he had not the heart to be other than friendly as the other guests dropped in the pair retreated into a shady corner and she talked beside him till all moved off for the eating and drinking he had not been appointed to take her across to the dining room but at the table found her exactly opposite she looked very charming between the candles and then suddenly it dawned upon him that her previous manner must have originated in some false report about of whose existence he had not heard for years anyhow he was not disposed to resent an in having found that it usually arose of fact reason probability or his own deserts so he dined on catching her eyes and the few pretty words she made opportunity to project across the table to him now and then he was courteously only but mrs a young man of forty pine herself distinctly made advances he read her while at the same time her conduct in her own house had been enough to check his confidence enough even to make him doubt if the well beloved really resided within those or had ever been more than the most passenger through that interesting and accomplished soul he was pondering this question yet growing decidedly moved by the playful pathos of her attitude when by chance searching his pocket for his handkerchief something and he felt there an letter which had arrived at the moment he was leaving his house and he had slipped into his coat to read in the cab as he drove along drew it sufficiently forth to observe by the post mark that it came from his isle having hardly a correspondent in that part of the world now he began to conjecture on the possible the lady on his right whom he had brought in was a leading of	45
the town indeed of the united kingdom and america for that matter a creature in airy clothing like a or sea without shadows and in movement as as some highly many machine the well beloved which if one presses a particular spring flies open and its works the spring in the present case was the artistic she deserved at this particular moment she was engaged with the man on her right a representative of family who talked positively and as if shouting down a vista of five hundred years from the past the lady on s left wife of a lord justice of appeal was in like manner talking to her companion on the outer side so that for the time he was left to himself he took advantage of the opportunity drew out his letter and read it as it lay upon his nobody observing him so far as he was aware it came from the wife of one of his father s former workmen and was concerning her son whom she begged to recommend as candidate for some post in town that she wished him to fill but the end of the letter was what arrested him you will be sorry to hear sir that dear little as we used to call her in her maiden days is dead she married her cousin if you do mind and went away from here for a good few years but was left a widow and came back a ago since when she faltered and faltered and now she is gone ill she becomes an inaccessible ghost by and slow degrees the scene at the dinner table into the background behind the vivid of and the old old scenes on isle which were inseparable from her personality the dining room was real no more under the bold stony and the west sea the handsome in red and diamonds who was visible to him on his host s right hand opposite became one of the glowing that he had watched so many times over s bay with the form of in the between his eyes and the judge who sat next to with a chin so raw that he must have shaved every quarter of an hour during the day the face of as she had glanced at him in their last parting the features of the old so the well beloved lady who if she had been a few years older would have been as old fashioned as her daughter shaped themselves to the dusty of his and s parents down which he had with hundreds of times the ivy trailing about the the lights in the tall and the of flowers were into the of the cliff built castle the of and the on the isle the salt airs of the ocean killed the smell of the and instead of the clatter of voices came the of the tide off the more than all pine lost the blooming radiance which she had acquired she became a woman of his acquaintance with no traits she seemed to grow material a of flesh and bone merely a person of lines and she was a language in living no more when the ladies had withdrawn it was just the same the soul of the only woman he had never loved of those who had loved him surrounded him like a art drew near to him in the person of one of the most distinguished of portrait painters but there was only one painter for his own no a young man of forty memory all that was eminent in european addressed him in the person of that harmless and whose hands had been inside the bodies of hundreds of living men but the lily white corpse of an obscure country girl chilled the interest of discourse with such a king of reaching the drawing room he talked to his hostess though she had entertained twenty guests at her table that night she had known not only what every one of them was saying and doing throughout the but what every one was thinking so being an old friend she said quietly what has been troubling you something has i know i have been travelling over your face and have seen it there nothing could less express the meaning his recent news had for him than a statement of its facts he told of the opening of the letter and the discovery of the death of an old acquaintance the only woman whom i never valued i may almost say he added and therefore the only one i shall ever regret whether she considered it a sufficient explanation or not the woman of experiences the well beloved accepted it as such she was the single lady of his circle whom nothing in his doings could surprise and he often gave her stray ends of his confidence thus with perfect safety he did not go near mrs pine again he could not and on leaving the house walked along the streets till he found himself at his own door in his own room he sat down and placing his hands behind his head thought his thoughts anew at one side of the room stood an and from a lower drawer therein he took out a small box tightly nailed down he forced the cover with the the box contained a variety of odds and ends which had thrown into it from time to time in past years for future an intention that he had never carried out from the melancholy mass of papers faded photographs withered flowers and such like drew a little portrait one taken on glass in the primitive days of and framed with in the commonest way it was as she had appeared during the summer month or two which he had spent with her on the island twenty years a young man of forty	45
before this time her young lips up her hands meekly folded the effect of the glass was to lend to the picture much of the softness characteristic of the original he remembered when it was taken during one afternoon they had spent together at a neighboring watering place when he had suggested her sitting to a artist on the sands there being nothing else for them to do a long contemplation of the likeness completed in his emotions what the letter had begun he loved the woman dead and inaccessible as he had never loved her in life he had thought of her but at distant intervals during the twenty years since that parting occurred and only as somebody he could have wedded yet now the times of youthful friendship with her in which he had learned every note of her innocent nature up into a yearning and passionate attachment by regret beyond words that kiss which had offended his dignity which she had so given him before her consciousness of womanhood had been awakened what he would have offered to have a quarter of it now was almost angry with himself for h the well beloved his feelings of this night so strong were they towards the lost young how senseless of me he said as he lay in his lonely bed she had been another man s wife almost the whole time since he was from her and now she was a corpse yet the absurdity did not make his grief the less and the consciousness of the almost radiant purity of this new sprung affection for a flown spirit forbade him to check it the flesh was absent altogether it was love and refined to its highest he had felt nothing like it before the next afternoon he went down to the club not his large club where the men hardly spoke to each other but the homely one where they told stories of an afternoon and were not ashamed to confess among themselves to personal weaknesses and follies knowing well that such secrets would go no farther but he could not tell this so and was the story that to convey it in words would have been as hard as to cage a perfume they observed his altered manner and said he was in love admitted that he a young man of forty was and there it ended when he reached home he looked out of his bedroom window and began to consider in what direction from where he stood that darling little figure lay it was straight across there under the young pale moon the symbol signified well the divinity of the silver bow was not more pure than she the lost had been under that moon was the island of ancient and on the island a house framed from to chimney top like the isle itself of stone inside the window the moonlight her winding sheet lay reached only by the faint noises inherent in the isle the of the in the the of the tides in the bay and the muffled grumbling of the currents in the never race he began to divine the truth the departed one though she had come short of inspiring a passion had yet possessed a absent from her rivals without which it seemed that a fixed and full rounded constancy to a woman could not flourish in him like his own her family had been for centuries from roman british times hence in her nature the well beloved as in his was some mysterious sucked from the isle otherwise a instinct necessary to the absolute of a pair thus though he might never love a woman of the island race for lack in her of the desired refinement he could not love long a a woman other than of the island race for her lack of this of character such was s view of things another fancy of his an artist s superstition merely may be mentioned the like some other local families suggested a roman more or less on the stock of the their features recalled those of the italian to any one as familiar as he was with them and there were evidences that the roman had been and in and near this corner of britain tradition urged that a temple to once stood at the top of the roman road leading up into the isle and possibly one to the of the this what so natural as that the true star of his soul would be found nowhere but in one of the old island breed after dinner his old friend came in to smoke and when they had talked a little a young man of forty while alluded casually to some place at which they would meet on the morrow i sha n t be there said but you promised yes but i shall be at the island looking at a dead woman s grave as he spoke his eyes turned and remained fixed on a table near followed the direction of his glance to a photograph on a stand is that she he asked yes rather a affair then acknowledged it she s the only sweetheart i ever alfred he said because she s the only one i ought to have cared for that s just the fool i have always been but if she s dead and buried you can go to her grave at any time as well as now to keep up the sentiment i don t know that she s buried but to morrow the academy night of all days why go then i don t care about the academy you are our only inspired you are our or rather our you are almost the only man of the well beloved this generation who has been able to mould and forms living enough to draw the idle public away from the popular	45
paintings into the usually deserted lecture room and people who have seen your last pieces of stuff say there has been nothing like them since sixteen hundred and since the of the great race lived and died whenever that was well then for the sake of others you ought not to rush off to that god forgotten sea rock just when you are wanted in town all for a woman you last saw a hundred years ago no it was only nineteen and three quarters replied his friend with abstracted he went the next morning since the days of his youth a railway had been constructed along the bank so that except when the rails were washed away by the tides which was rather often the was quickly accessible at two o clock in the afternoon he was rattled along by this new means of under the familiar monotonous line of colored stones and he soon emerged from the station standing as a strange among the black the ruins of the washed away village and the white a young man of forty of just come to view after burial through years in entering upon the beach the train had passed close to the ruins of henry the eighth s or castle whither was to have accompanied him on the night of his departure had she appeared the primitive would probably have taken place and as no had ever been known to break that compact she would have become his wife ascending the steep incline to where the were just as they had formerly done and within sound of the great stone he looked southward towards the the level line of the sea horizon rose above the surface of the isle a ruffled patch in as usual marking the race whence many a had gone visiting the bottom of the monstrous world but had not been blessed with a poet as a friend against the stretch of water where a school of in the afternoon light was defined in addition to the distant a church with its tower standing x the well beloved about a quarter of a mile off near the edge of the cliff the church yard could be seen in against the same vast spread of watery and among the graves moved the form of a man clothed in a white sheet which the wind blew and sadly every now and then near him moved six men bearing a long box and two or three persons in black followed the coffin with its twelve legs crawled across the isle while around and beneath it the flashing lights from the sea and the school of were reflected a fishing boat far out in the channel being under the coffin also the procession wandered round to a particular corner and halted and paused there a long while in the wind the sea behind them the of the priest still blowing stood with his hat off he was present though he was a quarter of a mile off and he seemed to hear the words that were being said though nothing but the wind was audible he instinctively knew that it was none other than whom he was seeing his as he now began to call a young man of forty her presently the little group withdrew from before the sea shine and disappeared he felt himself unable to go farther in that direction and turning aside went across the open land visiting the various spots that he had formerly visited with her but as if to the church yard by a cord he was still conscious of being at the end of a whose was the grave of and as the dusk he closed upon his centre and entered the church yard gate not a soul was now within the the grave newly shaped was easily behind the church and when the same young moon arose which he had observed the previous evening from his window in london he could see the yet fresh foot marks of the and the breeze had fallen to a calm with the setting of the sun the had opened its glaring eye and to leave a spot both by early association and present regret he moved back to the church wall warm from the afternoon sun and sat down upon a window sill facing the grave iv she to resume substance the of the sea beneath the cliffs were all the sounds that reached him for the were silent now how long he sat here lonely and thinking he did not know neither did he know though he felt drowsy whether sadness that gentle him into a short sleep so that he lost count of time and consciousness of incident but during some minute or minutes he seemed to see herself bending over and then withdrawing from her grave in the light of the moon she seemed not a year older not a less slender not a line more than when he had parted from her twenty years earlier in the lane hard by a reasoning on the impossibility of such a phenomenon as this being more than a dream fancy roused him with a start from his a young man of forty i must have been asleep he said yet she had seemed so real however dismissed the strange impression arguing that even if the information sent him of s death should be false a thing incredible that sweet friend of his youth despite the effects of moonlight would not now look the same as she had appeared nineteen or twenty years ago were what he saw substantial flesh it must have been some other person than having satisfied his sentiment by coming to the there was nothing more for him to do in the island and he decided to return to london that night but some time remaining still on his hands by a	45

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