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NicholasSynovic
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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 modern 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 had been s in which as it was her she possibly had died the 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 corner 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 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 well beloved up went away and later on came back to live in this little cottage which was his wife s by inheritance there he remained till his 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 he said a young man of forty and 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 house 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 well beloved 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	45
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 v a young man of forty swaying the and boughs in the front the only shrubs that could weather the 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 the takes place having returned to london he mechanically resumed his customary life but he was not really living there the phantom of now grown to be warm flesh and blood 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 well 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 t ra 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 a young 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 lis the ocean bound that make the risk to craft like ours if you happen to be in their course under you go 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 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 river allowing for the pause to take 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 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	45
about to play him or rather the capricious divinity behind that ideal lady a young 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 how best to do this recollected that as was customary when the summer time approached ia 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 the 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 well beloved 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 corner 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 t 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 accompanied 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 but think that 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	45
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 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 the well beloved 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 w the mother at the daughter s present age 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 m 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 feel with their commerce and their politics their glasses and their pipes they had got past the currents of passionate ness and were in the calm waters of middle aged 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 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 a vice 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	45
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 forgot in his curiosity that the lady turned her head 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 himself if it should indeed be she the end of the service saw his attention again concentrated on to such a degree that at the 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 the well beloved 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 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 the well beloved 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 t a young man of forty seized her fingers to examine the damage done no sir you haven t she cried allowing him to retain her hand without the least objection why 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 sewing 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 women with who were drawing water from the fountains by the and took the direction of the church with the i 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	45
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 but i think he was a wicked 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 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 hold which the absolute indifference of that little brown eyed representative only seemed to 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 the well beloved 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 for 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 viii his own soul him from his castle 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 him in the of whom all sordid details were disregarded among other things he observed that she was often anxious when it rained if after a 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 puzzled 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 her cottage and tripped off in the direction of the under hill he set out by the same route resolved to await her return along the 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 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 corner 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 behind a stone	45
you passed and brushed my frock without seeing me and when on my l the well beloved way i saw you waiting again i slipped over the wall and ran past you if i had not stopped and looked round at ee 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 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 as 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 i follow and then what i admire out of him and springs up somewhere else and so i i a young man of forty low on and never fix to one i have loved fifteen a ready yes fifteen i am almost ashamed to say she repeated laughing i can t help it sir i assure you of course it is really to me the same one all through on 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 man 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 organization puzzled all the while at her own instinct he suddenly thought of its bearing upon himself and said with a sinking heart am i one of them she pondered you was for a week when i first saw you only a week about that what made the being of your fancy 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 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 the well beloved 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 afternoon 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 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 well beloved to the right to the left there is also another ascending road modern almost as steep as the first and perfectly straight this is the road to the arrived at the of the ways	45
he continued think i may this one said she in a meaning tone that he failed to he deserted me once but he won t again i suppose he s a wonderful sort of fellow he s good enough for me so handsome no doubt handsome enough for me so refined and respectable refined and respectable enough for me he could not disturb her and let her pass the next day was sunday and the well beloved having chosen his view at the other end of the island determined in the afternoon to see s lover he found that she had left her cottage and went on towards the at the turning back when he had reached the nearest he saw on the lonely road between the a young man 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 would have guarded as the apple of his eye how could she estimate him so the mortification of having 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 young man of forty man upon whose arm she hung was not a soldier what then became of her gaze at the she could hardly have transferred her affections 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 of 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 love was as if by set intention of his destiny at the door of the grounds about the castle there stood a carriage he observed that it 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 when 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 she explained 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 op 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 the well beloved as they reached the he told her that he should be back in town himself again soon 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 indifference 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	45
s whole personality perhaps saw it for she said mournfully 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 she fails to vanish still had not turned 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 r 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 fc a young man of 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 and 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 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 relation 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 the well beloved 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 corner 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 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 risked 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 the well beloved 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 til 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 lover 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	45
you mean from the island yes reflected his presence in london had been desired for some time yet he 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 mind and developing it while it k 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 a vice 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 the 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 off 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 pro 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 i d ha got the place ready ye being out of a man too 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	45
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 up 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 a vice 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 of 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 of 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 the well beloved oh no 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 out than would have recalled them he had 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 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 i ll 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	45
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 my 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 well beloved 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 the well beloved looked at her the girl s eyes grew rebellious and at last she wept i don 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 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	45
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 a young man of 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 the glowing of such fire t that on the ashes of his youth doth lie as the death bed whereon it must t consumed with that which it was d by shakespeare 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 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 well beloved 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	45
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 turned 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 friendship with him now in the even if he were to take the trouble to discover her the well beloved thus much the other thread of his 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 man 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 the well beloved here as he stayed on his local interests revived 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 begun to run and he was never tired of standing on the occupied deck of one of these as it 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 his vague promise to seek out and in the meantime he was surprised by the arrival of another letter from her by a 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	45
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 the well beloved 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 tall girl in fact went past and on till 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 ii on the re had been about to 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 thought that the renewed might come into the house made his himself an act of he forgot that twenty years earlier he had called the now mrs an 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 something 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 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	45
far ahead of her own generation and as the growing darkness obscured him more and more he a young man turned sixty adopted her assumption of his age with increasing boldness of tone the harmless freedom of the watering place miss which had plainly acquired during her at the school helped greatly in this r e of which he was not to play not a word did he say about being a native of the island still more carefully did he conceal the fact of his having her grandmother and engaged himself to marry that attractive lady he found that she had come out upon the rocks through the same little private door from the lawn of the modern castle which had frequently afforded him to the same spot in years long past accompanied her across the grounds almost to the entrance of the mansion the place being now far better kept and planted than when he had it as a lonely tenant almost indeed restored to the order and neatness which had it when he was a boy like her she was too inexperienced to be reserved and during this little climb leaning upon his arm there was time for a great deal of confidence when he had the well beloved her farewell and she had entered leaving him in the dark a rush of sadness through s soul swept down all the temporary pleasure he had found in the charming girl s company had sprung from the ground there and then with an offer to of restoration to youth on the usual terms of his firm the might have consented to sell a part of himself which he felt less immediate need of than of a ruddy lip and cheek and an brow but what could only have been treated as a folly by was almost a sorrow for him why was he born with such a temperament and this interest could hardly have arisen even with but for a of circumstances only possible here the three the second something like the first the third a of the first at all events were the of the island customs of and of union under which conditions the type of feature was almost uniform from parent to child through generations so that till quite to have seen one native man and woman was to have seen the whole population of that isolated rock so nearly cut a young man turned sixty off from the his own and the sense of his early did all the rest he turned gloomily away and let himself out of the before walking along the couple of miles of road which would conduct him to the little station on the shore he to the rocks whereon he had found her and searched about for the which had made a prisoner of this terribly edition of the beloved kneeling down beside the spot he inserted his hand and ultimately by much withdrew the little boot he mused over it for a moment put it in his pocket and followed the stony route to the street of wells ill the renewed image burns itself in there was nothing to hinder in calling upon the new s mother as often as he should choose beyond the five miles of intervening railway and additional mile or two of over the heights of the island two days later therefore he repeated his journey and knocked about tea time at the widow s door as he had feared the daughter was not at home he sat down beside the old sweetheart who having her mother in past days had now herself in her child produced the girl s boot from his pocket then tis you who helped out of her said mrs with surprise yes my dear friend and perhaps i shall ask you to help me out of mine before i have done but never mind that now what did she tell you about the adventure a young man turned sixty mrs was looking thoughtfully upon him well tis rather strange it should have been you sir she replied she seemed to be a good deal interested i thought it might have been a younger man a much younger man it might have been as far as feelings were concerned now i ll to the point at once i have known your daughter any number of years when i talk to her i can anticipate every turn of her thought every sentiment every act so long did i study those things in your mother and in you therefore i do not require to learn her she was learned by me in her previous now don t be shocked i am willing to marry her i should be to do it if there would be nothing preposterous about it or that would seem like a man making himself too much of a fool and so degrading her in i can make her comparatively rich as you know and i would indulge her every whim there is the idea put it would set right something in my mind that has been wrong for forty years after my death she would have plenty of freedom and plenty of means to enjoy it the well beloved mrs seemed only a little surprised certainly not shocked well if i didn t think you might be a bit taken with her she said with an arch simplicity which could hardly be called unaffected knowing the set of your mind from my little time with you years ago nothing you could do in this way would astonish me but you don t think badly of me for it not at all by the bye did you ever guess why i asked you to come but never mind it now the matter is past of course it would depend upon what felt perhaps she would rather marry a younger man and suppose a satisfactory younger	45
man should not appear mrs showed in her face that she fully recognized the difference between a rich bird in hand and a young bird in the bush she looked him curiously up and down i know you would make anybody a very nice husband she said i know that you would be than many men half your age and though there is a great deal of difference between you and her there have been more a young man turned sixty unequal marriages that s true speaking as her mother i can say that i shouldn t object to you sir for her provided she liked you that is where the difficulty will lie i wish you would help me to get over that difficulty he said gently remember i brought back a husband to you twenty years ago yes you did she assented and though i may say no great things as to happiness came of it i ve always seen that your intentions towards me were none the less noble on that account i would do for you what i would do for no other man and there is one reason in particular which me to help you with that i should feel absolutely certain i was helping her to a kind husband well that would remain to be seen i would at any rate try to be worthy of your opinion come for old times sake you must help me you never felt anything but friendship in those days you know and that makes it easy and proper for you to do me a good turn now after a little more conversation his old friend promised that she really would do everything that lay in her power she did the well beloved not say how simple she thought him not to perceive that she had already by writing to him been doing everything that lay in her power had created the feeling which prompted his entreaty and to show her good faith in this promise she asked him to wait till later in the evening when might possibly run across to see her who fancied he had won the younger s interest at least by the part he had played upon the rocks the week before had a dread of her in full light till he should have advanced a little further in her regard he accordingly was perplexed at this proposal and seeing his hesitation mrs suggested that they should walk together in the direction whence would come if she came at all he welcomed the idea and in a few minutes they started strolling along under the now strong moonlight and when they reached the gates of castle turning back again towards the house after two or three such walks up and down the gate of the castle grounds and a form came forth which proved to be the expected one as soon as they met the girl recognized in a young man turned sixty her mother s companion the gentleman who had helped her on the shore and she seemed really glad to find that her assistant was claimed by her parent as an old friend she remembered hearing at divers times about this worthy london man of talent and position whose were people of her own isle and possibly from the name of a common stock with her own and you have actually lived in castle yourself mr asked the daughter with her innocent young voice was it long ago yes it was some time ago replied the with a sinking at his heart lest she should say how long it must have been when i was away or when i was very little i don t think you were away but i don t think i could have been here no perhaps you couldn t have been here i think she was hiding herself in the bed said s mother they talked in this general way till they reached mrs s house but resisted both the widow s invitation and the desire of his own heart and went away with the well beloved out entering to risk by visibly her the advantage that he had already gained or fancied he had gained with the required more courage than he could claim in his present mood such evening as these were frequent during the of that summer moon on one occasion as they were all good it was arranged that they should meet half way between the island and the town in which had lodgings it was impossible that by this time the pretty young should not have guessed the ultimate reason of these to be a matrimonial intention but she inclined to the belief that the widow rather than herself was the object of s regard though why this educated and apparently wealthy man should be attracted by her mother whose was apparent enough to the girl s more modern training 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	45
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 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 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 and simple inhabitants of the isle her intensely the well beloved modern 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 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 rome when he had wished each night that he might never wake again this wrinkled corner 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 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	45
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 well 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 off her guard i thought mr was the well beloved 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 daughters 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 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 the well beloved 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	45
possible tragedy lurking in this wedding project a young man turned sixty he determined that at any cost to his heart there should be no about him from this moment miss he said as they sat down since it is well you should know all the truth before we go any further that there may be no awkward discoveries afterwards i am going to tell you something about myself if you are not too distressed to hear it let me hear it i was once the lover of your mother and wanted to marry her only she wouldn t or rather couldn t marry me oh how strange said the girl looking from him to the breakfast things and from the breakfast things to him mother has never told me that yet of course you might have been i mean you are old enough he took the remark as a satire she had not intended oh yes quite old enough he said grimly almost too old too old for mother how s that because i belonged to your grandmother no how can that be i was her lover likewise i should have married her if i had gone straight on instead of round the corner s the well beloved but you couldn t have been mr you are not old enough why how old are you you have never told me i am very old my mother s and my grandmother s said she looking at him no longer as at a possible husband but as a strange in human form saw it but meaning to give up the game he did not care to spare himself your mother s and your grandmother s young man he repeated and were you my great grandmother s too she asked with an expectant interest in his case as a drama that overcame her personal considerations for a moment no not your great grandmother s your imagination beats even my but i am very old as you see i did not know it said she in an appalled murmur you do not look so and i thought that what you looked you were and you you are very young he continued a stillness followed during which she sat in a troubled regarding him now and then with something in her open eyes and a young man turned sixty large pupils that might have been sympathy or ate scarce any breakfast and rising abruptly from the table said he would take a walk on the cliffs as the morning was fine he did so proceeding along the heights for nearly a mile he had given up but not formally his intention had been to go back to the house in half an hour and pay a morning visit to the invalid but by not returning the plans of the previous evening might be allowed to lapse silently as mere that had come to nothing in the face of s want of love for him accordingly went straight along and in the course of an hour was at his lodgings nothing occurred till the evening to inform him how his absence had been taken then a note arrived from mrs it was written in pencil evidently as she lay i am alarmed she said at your going so suddenly seems to think she has offended you she did not mean to do that i am sure it makes me dreadfully anxious will you send a line surely you will not the well beloved desert us now my heart is so set on my child s welfare desert you i won t said it is too much like the original case but i must let her desert me on his return with no other object than that of wishing mrs good bye he found her painfully agitated she clasped his hand and it with her tears oh don t be offended with her she cried she s young we are one people don t marry a it will break my heart if you her now the girl came my manner was hasty and thoughtless this morning she said in a low voice please pardon me i wish to abide by my promise her mother still tearful again joined their hands and the engagement stood as before went back to but dimly seeing how curiously through his being a rich ideas of and were retaining him in the course arranged by her mother and urged by his own desire in the face of his understanding on the verge of possession in anticipation of his marriage had taken a new red house of the approved pattern with a new at the back as large as a barn hither in with the elder whose health had mended somewhat he invited mother and daughter to spend a week or two with him thinking thereby to exercise on the latter s imagination an influence which was not practicable 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	45
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 beloved 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 m it was not necessary 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 his cause the house had decidedly impressed her almost her and though he 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 n 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	45
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 beloved 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 a young man turned sixty oh yes and i needn t go with you for com 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 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	45
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 them 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 a vice 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 corner stood a walking stick his own where did that come from v 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 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	45
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 gray 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 well beloved 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 knew we shouldn t be drowned said 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 well beloved 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 then as he came to himself their voices grew fainter they had all gone off on their different and he was left here alone the probable ridicule that would result to a young man turned sixty him from the events of the day he did not mind in itself at all but he would fain have removed the on which it would be based that however was impossible nobody would ever know the truth about him it was he had sought that had so and escaped him what it was that had led him such a dance and had at last as he believed just now in the freshness of his loss been discovered in the girl who had left him it was not the flesh he had never knelt low to that not a woman in the	45
world had been wrecked by him though he had been impassioned by so many nobody would guess the further sentiment the cordial loving kindness which had lain behind what had seemed to him the fulfilment of a pleasing destiny postponed for forty years his attraction to the third would be regarded by the world as the selfish designs of an elderly man on a maid his life seemed no longer a professional man s experience but a ghost story and he would fain have vanished from his haunts on this critical afternoon as the rest had done he desired to sleep away his tendencies to make something happen which would the well beloved put an end to his bondage to beauty in the ideal so he sat on till it was quite dark and a light was brought there was a chilly wind blowing outside and the light ship on the afar looked harassed and forlorn the haggard solitude was broken by a ring at the door heard a voice below the accents of a woman they had a ground quality of familiarity a superficial of strangeness only one person in all his experience had ever possessed precisely those tones rich as if they had once been powerful explanations seemed to be asked for and given and in a minute he was informed that a lady was down stairs whom perhaps he would like to see who is the lady asked the servant hesitated a little mrs the mother of the young gentleman miss has run off with yes i ll see her said he covered the face of the dead and descended he said to himself his ears had known that name before to day it was the name those travelling americans he a young man turned sixty had met in rome gave the woman he supposed might be a sudden light burst upon many familiar things at that moment he found the visitor in the drawing room standing up veiled the carriage which had brought her being in waiting at the door by the dim light he could see nothing of her features in such circumstances mr am mr you represent the late mrs do though i am not one of the family know it i am after forty years was as much may the lines have fallen to you in pleasant places since we last met but of all moments of my life why do you choose to hunt me up now why r i am the and only relation of the young man your bride with this morning was just that too as i came down stairs but and i am naturally making inquiries yes let us take it quietly and shut the door the well beloved sat down and he learned that the of old things and new was no accident what mrs had discussed with her nurse and neighbor as vague intelligence was now revealed to at first hand by herself how many years after their separation and when she was left poor by the death of her father she had become the wife of that lover of hers who wanted a tender nurse and mother for the infant left him by his first wife recently deceased how he had died a few years later leaving her with the boy whom she had brought up at st and in paris him as well as she could with her limited means till he became the french master at a school in and how a year ago she and her son had got to know mrs and her daughter on their visit to the island to ascertain she added more deliberately not entirely for sentimental reasons what had become of the man with whom i in the first flush of my young womanhood and only missed marrying by my own will bowed well that was how the acquaintance between the children began and their passionate a young man turned sixty attachment to each other she detailed how had induced her mother to let her take lessons in french of young rendering their meetings easy had never thought of their intimacy for in her recent years of affliction she had acquired a new interest in the name she had refused to take in her purse proud young womanhood and it was not until she knew how determined mrs was to make her daughter s wife that she had objected to her son s acquaintance with but it was too late to hinder what had been begun he had lately been ill and she had been frightened by his not returning home the night before the note she had received from him that day had only informed her that and himself had gone to be married immediately whither she did not know what do you mean to do she asked i do nothing there is nothing to be done it is how i served her grandmother one of time s served her so for me yes now she me for your son paused a long while thinking that over till herself she resumed but the well beloved can t we inquire which way they went out of the island or gather some particulars about them yes we will and found himself as in a dream walking beside along the road in their common quest he discovered that almost every one of the neighboring inhabitants knew more about the lovers than he did himself at the corner some men were engaged in conversation on the occurrence it was only but knowing the dialect and gathered its import easily as soon as it had got light that morning one of the boats was discovered missing from the creek below and when the flight of the lovers was made known it was inferred that they were the unconsciously turned in the direction of the creek without regarding whether followed him	45
and though it was darker than when and had descended in the morning he pursued his way down the incline till he reached the water side is that you the inquiry came from she was behind him about half way down a young man turned sixty yes he said noticing that it was the first time she had called him by his christian name i can t see where you are and i am afraid to follow afraid to follow how strangely that altered his conception of her till this moment she had stood in his mind as the imperious invincible of old there was a strange pathos in this revelation he went back and felt for her hand i ll lead you down he said and he did so they looked out upon the sea and the shining as if it had quite forgotten all about the i am so uneasy said do you think they got safely to land yes replied some one other than it was a smoking in the shadow of the boat house he informed her that they were picked up by the light ship men and afterwards at their request taken across to the opposite shore where they landed proceeding thence on foot to the nearest railway station and entering the train for london this intelligence had reached the island about an hour before the well beloved they ll be married to morrow morning said so much the better don t regret it he shall not lose by it i have no relation in the world except some twentieth cousins in this isle of whom her father was one and i ll take steps at once to make her a good match for him as for me i have lived a day too long viii alas for this gray shadow once a man in the month of november which followed was lying ill of a fever at his house in london the funeral of the second had happened to be on one of those of the autumn when the raw rain flies level as the of the ancient inhabitants across the which has formed the scene of this narrative scarcely except against the upright sides of things sturdy enough to stand erect one person only followed the corpse into the church as chief lover in the brief faithful friend in the long run no means had been found of communicating with before the though the death had been advertised in the local and other papers in the hope that it might catch her eye x the well beloved so when the pathetic procession came out of the porch and moved round into the a hired vehicle from was seen coming at great speed along the open road from top o hill it stopped at the churchyard gate and a young man and woman alighted and entered the vehicle waiting they glided along the path and reached s side just as the body was deposited by the grave he did not turn his head he knew it was with by this time he supposed her husband her grief though silent seemed to the atmosphere with its perceiving that they had not expected him to be there edged back and when the service was over he kept still farther aloof an act of which she seemed to appreciate thus by his own contrivance neither nor the young man held communication with by word or by sign after the burial they returned as they had come it was supposed that his exposure that day in the church yard in telling upon a distracted mental and bodily condition had thrown into the chill and fever a young man turned sixty which held him swaying for weeks between life and death shortly after his return to town when he had passed the crisis and began to know again that there was such a state as mental and physical calm he heard a whispered conversation going on around him and the touch of footsteps on the carpet the light in the chamber was so subdued that nothing around him could be seen with any distinctness two living figures were present a nurse moving about softly and a visitor he discerned that the latter was feminine and for the time this was all he was recalled to his surroundings by a voice murmuring the inquiry does the light try your eyes the tones seemed familiar they were spoken by the woman who was visiting him he recollected them to be s and everything that had happened before he fell ill came back to his mind are you helping to nurse me he asked yes i have come up to stay here till you are better as you seem to have no other woman friend who cares whether you are dead or alive i am living quite near i am glad you the well beloved have got round the corner we have been very anxious how good you are and have you heard of the others they are married they have been here to see you and are very sorry she sat by you 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	45
definite sentiment to images of beauty recalled from the past his was capable of itself only on matters a young man turned sixty 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 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 beloved 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 announcement 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 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 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 considering the lapse of years i am vexed he said turning his head aside impatiently you are fair and five not a day more you still suggest beauty you won t do as a the well beloved 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 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 i ll 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 but she was a woman and her lips quivered and there was a tear in her eye as she exposed the treatment to which she had subjected herself the cruel morning rays as with under s scrutiny showed in their full by addition by the arts of color and shade the thin remains of what had once been s majestic bloom she stood the image and of age an old woman pale and her forehead her cheek hollow her hair white as snow to this the face he once kissed had been brought by the of forty years by the of more than half a lifetime i am sorry if i shock you she went on but firmly as he did not speak but	45
the eats the garment somewhat in such an interval the well beloved yes yes you are a brave woman you have the courage of the great women of history i can no longer love but i admire you from my soul don t say i am great say i have begun to be honest it is more than enough well i ll say nothing then more than how wonderful it is that a woman should have been able to put back the clock of time thirty years it me now i shall never do it any more as soon as he was strong enough he got her to take him round to his in a carriage the place had been kept but the shutters were shut and they opened them themselves he looked round upon the familiar objects some complete and the main of them and of beauty waiting for a mind to grow to perfection in no i don t like them he said turning away they are as to me i don t feel a single touch of kin with or interest in any one of them whatever a young man turned sixty this is sad no not at all he went again towards the door now let me look round he looked back remaining silent the how i insulted her fair form by those failures the the and and other innumerable well i want to see them never any more instead of sweet smell there shall be and there shall be burning instead of beauty said the prophet and they came away on another afternoon they went to the national gallery to test his taste in paintings which had formerly been good as she had expected it was just the same with him there he saw no more to move him he declared in the time of and other than in the work of the pavement artist they had passed on their way it is strange said she i don t regret it i have lost a faculty which has after all brought me my greatest sorrows if a few little pleasures let us be gone he was now so well advanced in i the well beloved that it was deemed a most desirable thing to take him down into his native air agreed to accompany him i don t see why i shouldn t said she an old woman like me and you an old man yes thank heaven i am old at last the curse is removed it may be shortly stated here that after his departure for the isle never again saw his or its contents he had been down there but a brief while when finding his sense of beauty in art and nature absolutely extinct he directed his agent in town to the whole collection which was done his lease of the building was sold and in the course of time another won admiration there from those who knew not joseph the next year his name figured on the retired list of as time went on he grew as well as one of his age could expect to be after such a illness but remained on the isle in the only house he now possessed a comparatively small one at the top of the street of wells a growing sense of friendship which it would a a young man turned sixty be foolish to interrupt led him to take a somewhat similar house for quite near and remove her furniture thither from whenever the afternoon was fine he would call for her and they would take a stroll together towards the or the ancient castle seldom going the whole way his and her effectually preventing them except in the he had now changed his style of dress entirely appearing always in a homely suit of local make and of the fashion of thirty years before the achievement of a at east he also let his iron gray beard grow as it would and what little hair he had left from the which had followed the fever and thus in years but two and sixty he might have passed for seventy five though their early adventure as lovers had happened so long ago its history had become known in the isle with mysterious rapidity and fulness of detail the gossip to which its bearing on their present friendship gave rise was the subject of their conversation on one of these walks along the cliffs it is extraordinary what an interest our the well beloved neighbors take in our affairs he observed they say those old folk ought to marry better late than never that s how people are wanting to round off other people s histories in the best machine made conventional manner yes they keep on about it to me too indirectly do they i believe a will wait upon us some morning in the interests of match making that we will please to get married as soon as possible how near we were to doing it forty years ago only you were so independent i thought you would have come back and was much surprised that you didn t my independent ideas were not in me as an though as a young lady perhaps they would have been there was simply no reason from an point of view why i should come back and i didn t my father kept that view before me and i bowed to his judgment and so the island ruled our though we were not on it yes we are in hands not our own did you ever tell your husband a young man turned sixty no did he ever hear anything not that i am aware calling upon her one day he found her in a state of great discomfort in certain winds the chimneys of the little house she had taken	45
places by the story of by mrs the cloak by for freedom s sake by arthur by f sir by mrs ward master beggars ay l cope the by thomas hardy i mrs martin s company by jane tom by f smith the inn by the shore bv old memories by by mrs e m his honour and a lady by s j by a years of by a recollections of a literary man by a kings in exile by a of the by a of by a disturbing elements by m c the by h s by s r the judge of the four comers by g b the release by m the s mass etc by h de old by h de mr s widow by hope the courtship of by a e w where cross by j s a by bv mary a modem man by s by a lost endeavour by in love by w the old pastures by mrs s girl by mrs martin by h de the quest of the absolute by h de etc by soldiers three etc by many inventions etc by ufe s etc by rd the light that failed by plain tales from the hills by the country doctor by h de the by h de by h de at the sign of the cat and by h de the wild ass s skin by h de the story of a marriage by mrs a the wonderful visit bv h g a youth of by l smith a sweet disorder by the education of by f s for love of by the of by mrs j k s captain by not exactly by e m a set of by minor by w ridge my honey by the author of the shoulder of by by p m the salt of the earth by p the s word by the wild rose by the crooked stick by the by adam s son by p m red by a steel a son of the plains by arthur mount by richard price the lovely by the by james prisoners of silence by mary a neighbours of ours by h w by mrs i thirteen doctors by mrs k the burden of a woman by richard peter the by h g the great dominion by g r the by p days by c in the lion s by c chapters from some by mrs the by margaret l woods peter im by george du by sir henry k c le two on a tower by thomas hardy a by thomas hardy the hand of by thomas hardy life s little by thomas hardy a group of noble by thomas hardy the trumpet major by thomas hardy the return of the native by thomas hardy far from the crowd by thomas h a pair of blue eyes by thomas hardy desperate by thomas hardy of the d by thomas hardy the prisoner of by hope the story of dan by m e francis by p m the by s r by rt hon sir g o elements of by eh paul the well beloved this edition is intended for circulation only in india and the british colonies the a sketch of a temperament and co limited new york the company all rights no v o f college library from the estate of charles s march richard clay and sons limited london and r preface he carved by time out of a single stone whereon most of the following scenes are laid has been for centuries the home of a curious and well nigh distinct people strange and singular customs now for the most part fancies uke certain soft wooded plants which cannot bear the silent inland but by the sea in the of weather seem to grow up naturally here in particular amongst those natives who have no active concern in the labours of the isle hence it is a spot apt to a type of personage like the character imperfectly in these pages a native of natives whom some may choose to call a if they honour him with their consideration so far but whom others may see only as one that gave and a name to a delicate dream which in a form is more or less common to all men and is by no means new to philosophers to those who know the rocky of england here overlooking the great channel highway with all its and standing out so far into that touches of the gulf stream soften the air till preface february it is matter of surprise that the place has not been more frequently chosen as the retreat of artists and poets in search of inspiration for at least a month or two in the year the rather than the fine seasons by preference to be sure one nook therein is the retreat at their country s expense of other from a distance i but their presence is hardly yet perhaps it is as well that the artistic visitors do not come or no more would be heard of little houses being bought and sold there for a couple of hundred pounds built of solid stone and from the sixteenth century and earlier with and complete these transactions by the way are carried out and or were till lately in the parish church in the face of the congregation such being the ancient custom of the isle the present is the first publication of this tale in an independent form and a few chapters have been since it was issued in the press in t h contents part first a young man of twenty pack i a op her ii the is assumed to be true iii the appointment iv a lonely v a charge vi on the brink vii her earlier viii too like the lightning ix familiar phenomena in the distance ii contents	45
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 where they would have lingered longer if had not suddenly remembered an engagement to the well beloved 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 said he who d have thought anybody or could down here except the we hear away there the never speechless sea o 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 for accompanying her back he went along the middle road northward to the street of wells he was full of he had known a sketch of a temperament so well of old that bis feeling for her now was rather than love and what he had said to her in a moment of impulse 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 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 h ad many ts each 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 the well beloved never much considering that she was a phenomenon by the weird influences of his descent and the discovery of her of her independence 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 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 i a sketch of a temperament 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 this was the spot of 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 the hill and descended towards the village where in the long straight roman street he soon found the lighted hall the performance wag 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 pr em 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 b the well beloved not a mere conjecture he had known her long and thoroughly her every mood and temper a heavy wagon passing without drowned her small soft voice for him but the audience were 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	45
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 i a sketch of a temperament the human multitude lying below those who had gone down in 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 churchyard 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 the well beloved found that she could not only poetry 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 to teach her to forget all the 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 learnt 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 sketch of a temperament 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 old fashioned 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 the precedent of their and i the well beloved the appointment i iii 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 a sketch of a temperament the eighth s castle above the sands where they could linger and watch the moon rise over the sea she said she thought she could come so after spending the next day with his father in the prepared to 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 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 riding 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 the well beloved thank you well we shall see what christmas will do towards bringing it about my wife opened upon it this please god til 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	45
storm of passion between us that i pretended to retire to my room for the rest of the evening but i the well beloved 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 for ever 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 into their tones a sketch of a temperament as quarter hour after quarter hour 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 ru 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 through the the well beloved 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 dose 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 and form had within him from some unnoticed moment when a sketch of a temperament 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 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 tiu they drew near to the outskirts of the neighbouring watering place into it they without pause crossing the harbour 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 railway which the station was at this date without as he had said there was only one the well beloved 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 her face was certainly striking though rather by its than its beauty and the beating of the wind and rain and spray had her 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 the servant to do this and send you up something to eat she assented to his proposal without however showing	45
any marks of gratitude and when she had gone her the light supper promised by the sleepy girl who was night porter at this establishment he a sketch of a temperament 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 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 here i ll dry the clothing and put the articles here in a heap which you can take up to the young lady m the morning the night porter thanked him and left the the well beloved 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 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 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 a sketch of a temperament on the brink l vi 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 i 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 the well beloved she took a corner seat with her back to the engine he sat opposite the guard looked 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 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 a sketch of a temperament indeed we are she answered without smiling 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 enemy and my father is mine yes it is so and then their eyes caught each other s glance my darling i he burst out instead of going to your aunt s will you come and marry me a flush covered her over which seemed akin to a flush of rage it was not exactly that but she was excited she did not answer and he feared he had her dignity perhaps she had only made use of him as convenient aid to her intentions however he went on your father would not be able to you then i after all this is not so as it seems you know all about me my history my prospects i know all about you our families have been neighbours on that isle for hundreds of years though you are now such a london product will you ever be a royal she the well beloved asked her excitement having down i hope to be i will be if you will be my wife his companion looked at him long think what a short way out of your difficulty this would be he continued no bother about no home by an angry father it seemed to decide her she yielded to his embrace how long will it take to marry miss asked by and by with obvious we could do it to morrow i could get to doctors by noon to	45
day and the would be ready by to morrow morning i won t go to my aunt s i will be an independent woman i have been as if i were a child of six i ll be your wife if it is as easy as you say they stopped the cab while they held a consultation had rooms and a in the neighbourhood of hill but it would be hardly desirable to take her thither till they were married they decided to go to an hotel changing their direction therefore they went a sketch of a temperament back to the and soon themselves in one of the venerable old of i garden a which in those days was frequented by west country people then left her and proceeded on his errand eastward it was about three o clock when having arranged all by this sudden change of front he began strolling slowly back he felt bewildered and to walk was a relief gazing occasionally into this shop window and that he called a as by an inspiration and directed the driver to gardens arrived here he rang the bell of a and in a minute or two it was answered by a young man in shirt sleeves about his own age with a great on his left thumb o you i thought you were in the country come in i m awfully glad of this i am here in town finishing off a painting for an american who wants to take it back with him followed his friend into the where a pretty young woman was sitting sewing at a signal from the painter she disappeared without speaking i can see from your face you have something the well beloved to say so we ll have it all to ourselves you are in some trouble what ll you drink oh i it doesn t matter what so that it is in some shape or form now you must just listen to me for i have something to tell had sat down in an arm chair and had resumed his painting when a servant had brought in brandy to soothe s nerves and to take off the injurious effects of the brandy and milk to take off the effects of the began his narrative addressing it rather to s and s clock and s than to himself who stood at his picture a little behind his friend before i tell you what has happened to me said i want to let you know the manner of man i am lord i know already no you don t it is a sort of thing one doesn t like to talk of i lie awake at night thinking about it no said with more sympathy seeing that his friend was really troubled i am under a curious curse or influence i a sketch of a temperament am posed puzzled and perplexed by the of a creature a deity rather by as a poet would put it as i should put it myself in marble but i forget this is not to be a wail but a defence a sort of pro me that s better fire away i i the well beloved her earlier i you are not i know one of those who continue to indulge in the world wide fond superstition that the beloved one of any man always or even usually cares to remain in one nook or shell for any great length of time however much he may wish her to do so if i am wrong and you do still hold to that ancient error well my story will seem rather queer suppose you say some men not any man all right fu say one man this man only if you are so particular we are a strange visionary race down where i come from and perhaps that accounts for it the beloved of this one man then has had many too many to describe in detail each shape or a sketch of a temperament has been a temporary residence only which she has entered lived in a while and made her exit from leaving the substance so far as i have been concerned a corpse worse luck now there is no nonsense in this it is simple fact put in the plain form that the conventional public are afraid of so 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 the well beloved when the whole dream came to an end through her father leaving the island i thought my well beloved had gone for ever being then in the condition of adam at sight of the first sunset but she had not had gone for ever 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 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	45
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 the well beloved began to read the letter aloud it came from a faithful lover of hers a youthful gentleman who stated that he was soon 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 a sketch of a temperament conceited in declaring i might have married that science man i told you of but now you see there was yet another available he gloomily well i don t care to hear about that to my mind this sort of is decidedly unpleasant though you treat it so lightly well she i have only done half what you have done i what s that i have only proved false through forgetfulness but you have while remembering 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 bom when old island s e the well beloved marriage 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 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 i she said i begin to feel i was a foolish girl to run away from a father for such a reason as a uttle 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 fm afraid knowing what what have you to say against him nothing to you beyond what is a sketch of a temperament matter of common everybody knows that at one time he made it the business of his life to ruin my father and the way he to me in that letter shows that his enmity still continues that ruined by an open handed man like my father said she t is uke your people s to say that s eyes flashed and her face burnt 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 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 the well beloved ton as he gazed at the fine picture of scorn presented by his s classical face and dark eyes 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	45
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 a of a temperament 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 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 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 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 the well beloved 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 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 bom with all the ancient island notions of the sexes lying underneath his acquired that the 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 a sketch of a temperament 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 and in the of social distinction which lent colour 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 honour 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 the well beloved many lines of her were longer in s remembered nor many sounds of her in s recalled accents their acquaintance though so had been too brief for such lingering there came a time when he learnt through a channel two pieces of news 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 a sketch of a temperament familiar phenomena in the distance i ix 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 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 the well beloved it seemed as if he would scarce ever again discover the dwelling place of the haunting of his imagination having gone so near to matrimony with as to apply for a 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	45
in an unexpected quarter and him before he was aware once or twice be 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 m y seasons that followed s stroke of independence for which he was not without a secret admiration at times threw into a sketch of a temperament that ever spring of emotion which without some into will upwards 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 honours 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 the well beloved 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 steam boat through crowds into shops churches theatres public houses 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 a 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 burnt lower as maturity advanced it was possibly because a sketch of a temperament 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 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 the well beloved of 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 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 only one quality remained her of in dome 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 a sketch of a temperament to a popularity which might possibly 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 needs that i shall love of very force i must agree	45
and since no chance may it remove in wealth and in i myself apply to serve and suffer patiently sir t the well beloved the old phantom becomes distinct ii i 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 the well beloved had been and his fancies into shapes the father had been persistently for half a century at the crude original matter of those shapes the stem 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 mended 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 sketch of a temperament a time ensued almost his first 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 the well beloved moment behind the wall of spectators which 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 that it might choose to i 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 sketch of a temperament when he had shaken hands with her was always regarded as a young man though he was now about forty o yes of course i remember she added looking serious in a moment at thought of his loss the was a woman with a good natured manner on that oft claimed feminine quality humour 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 for ever 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	45
sometimes o 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 o that is too bad to let him go a sketch of a temperament in that shabby way when i would have 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 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 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 i 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 she the well beloved 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 comer and she talked beside him tiu all moved oflf 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 pine herself distinctly made advances he a sketch of a temperament admired 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 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 which if one the well beloved 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 own 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 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	45
she faltered and faltered and now she is gone a sketch of a temperament she becomes an inaccessible ghost il iii 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 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 the well beloved as she had glanced at him in their last parting the features of the old society 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 table cloth 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 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 a sketch of a temperament of portrait painters but there was only one painter for his own 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 never valued i may almost say he added and therefore the only one i shall ever regret whether she considered it a sufficient the well beloved tion or not the woman of experiences 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 i 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 a sketch of a temperament with her on the island twenty years before this time her young h 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 neighbouring 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 completed in his emotions what the letter had begun he loved the woman dead 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 learnt 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 h the well beloved was almost angry with himself for 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	45
and the consciousness of the almost radiant purity of this 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 hke 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 further 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 was a sketch of a temperament and there it ended when he reached home he looked out of his bed room 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 as in his was some the well beloved 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 long abiding 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 love goddess 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 sketch of a temperament 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 i of all days why go then i don t care about the academy you are our only inspired you are our or rather our the well beloved you are almost the only man of 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 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 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 coloured stones and he soon emerged from the station standing as a strange among the black the ruins of the a sketch of a temperament away village and the white 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	45
journey home inquired of the man concerning the spectacle a sketch of a o yes sir that s poor mrs s only daughter and it must be lonely for her there 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 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 three struggle he took the well beloved at less than he could profit by more and more till at last the crash came he was sold up went away and later on came back to live m this little cottage which was his wife s by inheritance there he remained till his death and now his widow was gone hardships had helped on her end tlie 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 a sketch of a temperament bent eyes of the same familiar upon him i knew your mother at one time he said and 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 house 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 o no that i sha n t there s and and ted and lots o young anything for me if they happen to come along but i can hardly trust em sam t other day twisted a linen into two pieces for all the the well beloved 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 second was clearly more matter of 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 house out there on the cliff it a sketch of a temperament was his early home used in the summer as a lodging house for visitors it now stood empty and silent the evening wind swaying the and boughs in the front the only shrubs that could weather the salt which sped past the walls opposite the house far out at sea the familiar winked from the 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 the well beloved the takes place ii v having returned to london he mechanically resumed his customary life but he was not really living there the phantom of now grown to be warm flesh and blood 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 out door exercise in haunting the of the along the thames where the stone of his native rock was	45
from the a sketch op a temperament craft that had brought it thither he would pass inside 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 the well beloved she kept on 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 lay drawing 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 o i see and where are you staying a sketch of a temperament here on board what you live on board entirely yes lord sir broke in 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 go 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 yes sir the well beloved well take care of yourself afloat 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 river allowing for the pause to take 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 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 lady a sketch of a temperament 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 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 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 the well beloved the fast shines in the present il vl 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	45
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 a sketch of a temperament dusk had closed in and he now proceeded with what was after all the real business of his the two servants who had been 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 im the well beloved parted a cast to the when she glanced up her seemed to have all the soul and heart that had 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 a sketch of a temperament of that one that who had never seen fit to the mother s image till it became 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 accompanied his former passions the beloved had seldom informed a 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 tliis 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 inter penetrating being whom he knew so well the well beloved the occupation of the 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 ru 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 a late work of a sketch of a temperament his he was told that she waited his pleasure in the hall he went out 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 dose way never heard the name o t afore 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	45
of another and in her all that did not with his sense of the the girl seemed to think of nothing but the business in hand she had answered to the point and was hardly aware of his sex or of liis 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 tl e 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 a sketch of a temperament i hope you resemble her she shook her head and drew away 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 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 age his record moved on with the years his sentiments stood still when he beheld those of his fellows who were defined as and the well beloved matter of fact slightly ridiculous beings past masters in the art of homes schools and and present in the science of giving away how he envied them assuming them to feel as they appeared to feel 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 aged 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 t since he could not again call upon her she was as inaccessible as if she had entered the military on the hill top 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 a sketch of a temperament and the old trick well and by searching 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 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 day she was i s k the well beloved to almost unconscious of his he was no more 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 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 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 ss either of the flesh or spirit some with wit a a sketch of a temperament few with talent and even genius but the new h id apparently nothing beyond sex and she knew not how to sport a fan or handkerchief hardly how to pull on a glove but her limited	45
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 was 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 further onward into the shade the well beloved the new becomes established il vii a few mornings later he was looking through an upper back window over a part of the garden the door beneath him opened and a 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 hei 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 a sketch of a temperament bay on their stating that they could provide a temporary substitute to stay in the house they had evidently called in to his 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 the well beloved never beheld that mark since the parting from the first when she had smiled under his kiss as the copy had done now next morning when dressing he heard her 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 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 desire 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 iso a sketch of a temperament her voice he might not comprehend her words to the tones he had a right none 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 further 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 forgot in his curiosity that the lady turned her head 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 himself if it should indeed be she the end of the service saw his attention again concentrated on to such a degree that at the critical moment of moving out he forgot the the well beloved mysterious lady in front of her and found that she had left the church by the side 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	45
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 had not a ready married me you d cut is a sketch of a temperament my acquaintance that s a pretty thing for a wife to say the remark struck his ear and by and by he went k 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 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 print the 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 further from her mind than even death and dissolution when one of the sheets became said do you hold it down and 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 a sketch of a temperament o i have bruised the skin he seized her fingers to examine the damage done no sir you haven t she cried allowing him to retain her hand without the least objection why 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 sewing within while he paused she sprang up as if she had forgotten the hour and tossed on her hat strode ahead and round the comer and was up the straggling street before he discerned her little figure behind him he hastened past the lads and young women with who were drawing water from the fountains by the and took the direction of the church with the di the well beloved appearance 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 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 but i think he was a wicked 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 pro is a sketch of a temperament 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 hold which the absolute indifference of that little brown eyed representative only seemed to 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	45
that bright little woman the first but twenty years make a difference in and the added demands of middle age in physical the well beloved form are more than balanced by its 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 for 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 is a sketch of a temperament ms own soul him ii from his castle 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 him in the of whom all sordid details were disregarded among other things he observed that she was often anxious when it rained if after a 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 puzzled him and he found that if he endeavoured to encounter her at these times she him stealthily and but one evening when she bad left her cottage and tripped off in the direction of the under hill he set out by the same is the well beloved route resolved to await her return along the 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 backwards and forwards on the bare and lofty of the isle the stars above and around him the on duty at the distant point the from the the of the by the tide beneath the church away south westward 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 i p a sketch of a temperament 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 corner therein but all at once the approaching figure 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 further 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 behind a stone you passed and brushed my frock i i h the well beloved without seeing me and when on my way i saw you waiting again i slipped over the wall and ran past you if i had not stopped and looked round at ee you would never have c 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 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 as 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 i follow and a sketch of a temperament then what i admire out of him and springs up somewhere else and so i follow on and never fix to one i have loved fifteen already yes fifteen i am almost ashamed to say she repeated laughing i can t help it sir i assure you of course it is really to me the same one all through on y i can t catch him she added anxiously you won t tell anybody o	45
this in me will you sir because if it were known i am afraid no man 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 organization puzzled all the while at her own instinct he suddenly thought of its bearing upon himself and said with a sinking heart am i one of them she pondered you was for a week when i first saw you only a week about that the well beloved what made the being of your fancy my form and go elsewhere 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 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 smelt 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 castle and the sea he was in momentary at the thought that they might be a sketch of a temperament with a worthless lover but a faintly 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 colour 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 the well beloved so sadly in contrast with her mother s affection a man 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 a sketch of a temperament il ix it was a sad and leaden afternoon and paced up the long steep pass or street of the wells on either side of the road young girls stood with at the fountains which 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 point blank 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 the well beloved when it reaches the base of the and in the of 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 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 grey mountain of grassy stone at the top by military art the was broken every now and then by a little like object a box and near one of these a small red spot kept creeping backwards x a sketch of a temperament and forwards against the heavy sky then he divined that she had a soldier lover she turned her head saw him and took up her clothes basket to continue the ascent the was such that to climb it was a breathless business the linen made her task a cruelty to her you ll never get to the with that weight he said give it to me but she would not and he stood still watching her as she panted up the way for the moment an being the of a whole sex by the beams of his own in such exceeding glory that he beheld her not beheld her not as she really was as she was even	45
to himself sometimes but to the soldier what was she smaller and smaller she up the rigid road still gazing at the soldier aloft as gazed at her he could just discern springing up at the different of that she passed but seeing who she was they did not her and presently she crossed the the well beloved over the enormous chasm surrounding the passed the there also and disappeared through the arch into the interior could not see the now and there occurred to him the hateful idea that this scarlet rival was meeting and talking freely to her the orphan girl of his sweet original perhaps relieved of duty her across the interior carrying her basket her tender body encircled by his arm what the devil are you staring at as if you were in a trance turned his head and there stood his old friend still looking the bachelor that he was i might say what the devil do you do here if i weren t so glad to see you said that he had come to see what was his friend in such an out of the way place at that time of year and incidentally to get some fresh air into his own lungs made him welcome and they went towards castle you were staring as far as i see at a pretty little with a basket of clothes resumed the painter a sketch of a temperament yes it was that to you but not to me behind the mere pretty island girl to the world is in my eye the idea in the essence and of all that is desirable in this existence i am under a doom yes i am under a doom to have been always i following a phantom whom i saw in after woman while she was at a distance but vanishing away on close approach was enough but now the terrible thing is that the phantom does not vanish but stays to me even when i am near enough to see what it is that girl holds me though my eyes arc open and though i see that i am a fool regarded the visionary look of his friend which rather than as his years wore on but made no further remark when they reached the castle gazed round upon the scenery and the quaint little cottage said that s where she lives what a romantic place and this island altogether a man might love a or lantern here but a woman t scenery doesn t im the well beloved press them though they pretend it does this girl is as as you once were exactly from your point of view she has told me so candidly and it me hard stood still in sudden thought well that is sl strange turning of the tables he said but you wouldn t really marry her i would to morrow why shouldn t i what are fame and name and society to me a of and like her besides i know what she s made of my boy to her fibre i know the perfect and pure she was dug from and that gives a man confidence then you ll win while they were sitting after dinner that evening their quiet discourse was interrupted by the long low whistle from the cliffs without took no notice but marked it that whistle always occurred at the same time in the evening when was helping in the house he excused himself for a moment to his visitor a sketch of a temperament and went out upon the dark lawn a of feet upon the gravel mixed in with the of the sea steps light as if they were winged and he supposed two minutes later that the mouth of some fellow was upon hers which he himself hardly ventured to look at so touching was its young beauty hearing people about among others a couple quarrelling for there were rough as well as gentle people here in the island he returned to the house next day abroad to look for scenery for a marine painting and going out to seek him met so you have a lover my lady he said severely she admitted that it was the fact you won t stick to him he continued i think i may this one said she in a meaning tone that he failed to he deserted me once but he won t again i suppose he s a wonderful sort of fellow he s good enough for me so handsome no doubt handsome enough for me so refined and respectable refined and respectable enough for me he could not disturb her and let f the well beloved her pass the next day was sunday and having chosen his view at the other end of the island determined in the afternoon to see s lover he found that she had left her cottage and went on towards the at the turning back when he had reached the nearest he saw on the lonely road between the a young man 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 that out of his keen dark eyes there a dry sense of humour 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 would have guarded as the apple of his eye how could she estimate him so the mortification of having brought himself to this position with the by his early slight of the type blinded him for the moment a sketch of a temperament	45
to what struck him a short time after the man upon whose arm she hung was not a soldier what then became of her gaze at the she could hardly have transferred 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 of 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 love was as if by set intention of his destiny at the door of the grounds about the castle there stood a carriage he observed that it 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 when he observed that the well beloved her face was pale and agitated she seemed pathetic likewise altogether she was now a very 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 o 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 she explained 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 a sketch of a temperament virtue of you know what it means 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 m the well beloved but it was that she wanted to be as they reached the he told her that he should be back in town himself again soon 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 indifference became cold as a stone the 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 mournfully 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 a sketch of a temperament away but saw only the retreating and knew that he was helpless in her 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 the beloved she fails to vanish still ii x had not turned 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 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 i o a sketch of a temperament oh you mean the lady who was driving of	45
course what were you thinking of 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 lady 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 th at but try i can bring you together easily i i the well beloved fu marry her if she s willing with the that was part of him added when you have decided to marry take the first nice woman you meet they are all alike well you don t know her yet replied who could give praise where he could not give love but you do and i ll take her on the strength of your judgment is she really handsome i had but the merest 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 colour are her eyes her eyes t don t go much into colour being sworn to form but let me see grey 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 her a sketch of a temperament had gone back to town it was a 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 his ear could now and then catch the tones of s voice from her open 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 half an eye could see that whence then the two men possibly the was a relation there seemed reason in this when going out into the lane he encountered one of the 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 the well beloved surveyed him he was a round faced fellow to look at having two little pieces of moustache 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 a sketch of a temperament could then see that she was 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 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 fell here and the well beloved there but the rain was not	45
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 know that is i knew her and 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 lover 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 f 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 he 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 mind and developing it while it might i a sketch of a temperament 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 the well beloved and help me in and dust 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 hen 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 off 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 i a sketch of a temperament way a girl in whom his interest was as 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 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 the well beloved the image ii xi 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 upstairs to his surprise his floor was silent and on entering with a 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 i you didn t leave your wine cellar unlocked did you by no mistake a sketch of a temperament 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 o 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 ha got the place ready ye being out of a man too 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 liad 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 what the well beloved shall we do now here s	45
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 downstairs 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 to trouble a sketch of a temperament 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 w the well beloved which separated his room 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 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 her his intention had been to keep her occupied exclusively at the but accident had modified this however he sent her round one a sketch of a temperament morning and entering himself shortly after found her engaged in wiping the of dust from the casts and models the colour 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 spoilt 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 to express the character of that face in clay and while catching it in substance had yet lost something that was essential that evening at dusk in the stress of writing letters he sent her out for she had the well beloved 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 office to which he had sent her because it was late was two or three streets oflf 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 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 corner 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 visible a sketch of a temperament though its lower part was still pale with daylight against which rose chimney pots	45
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 an 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 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 ever lose her way she must call a cab and drive the well beloved 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 a sketch of a temperament a between il xii o he cried with the 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 no sir she assured him i am not a bit tired and i don t require any help at all thank you they went upstairs without using the lift and he let her and himself in with his she entered the kitchen and he following sat down in a chair there where have you been he said with almost the concern on his face you ought not to have been absent more than ten minutes 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 o you must not go out like this i 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 a sketch of a temperament some day why what s that you have in your hand a mouse trap there are lots of in this kitchen not clean like ours and i thought rd try to catch them that was what i went so far to buy as there were no shops open just about here ril 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 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 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 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 the well beloved 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 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	45
like you as i did but no fm d d if fu 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 the well beloved is a reason for the reverse now my dear i am not angry yes you are no fm 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 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 a sketch of a temperament the present moment you are the wife of a man who is in whom you do 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 i 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 my 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 cow 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 o the well beloved i saw you walking with one sunday 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 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 ru 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 good and back there you go straightway io a sketch of a temperament 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 looked at her the girl s eyes grew rebellious and at last she wept the well beloved i don 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 i yes i would sir what i you would you said you wouldn t not long ago i like you better now i i like you more and more i sighed	45
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 love queen of his isle might have been was him a sketch of a temperament 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 the well beloved she is from sight il xiii 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 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 rock were in darkness but from the upper window of s tiny a light its rays were repeated from the far distant sea by the lying over the mysterious which brought and into due position as balanced a sketch of a temperament the sea moaned more than moaned among the below the ruins a 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 troubled being which in one sense they were for the man in the lane was he would look from 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 the well beloved dipped like a fence a typical aspect in the island 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 i 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 a sketch of a temperament in the centre of the mat a lamp the apartment having the appearance of being rigidly swept and set in order for an event of interest the woman who lived in the house with now came downstairs and to the inquiry of the comers she replied that matters were but that nobody could be allowed to go upstairs 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 more ike looking up with him for 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 the well beloved said it in other places and his vehicle not 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	45
lower room was empty 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 a sketch of a temperament ee how very much i thank you for getting 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 o 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 m thoughtless marriage if you forgive me for making love to yoa 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 iq the well beloved and left the bed chamber with a tear in his eye here that dream said he h 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 of such fire that on the ashes of his youth doth lie as the death bed whereon it must consumed with that which it was nourished by w the well beloved she returns for the new season iii l 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 winked every night from the to the the well beloved lantern and the lantern glared through its eye glass on the ship the audible on the bank had been 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 an hotel in rome though he had not once set eyes on since parting from her in the room with her he had managed to obtain tidings of her from time to time during the interval in this way learnt 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 a sketch of a temperament having as its chief neither hate nor love but an all indifference 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 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	45
dinner at the common table he was surprised the well beloved to hear an american gentleman who sat opposite mention the name of s the american was talking to a friend about a lady x 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 step son her husband having been a gentleman a and that the step son 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 a sketch of a temperament he could not well attract their attention through the plants upon the wide table and even if he had been able he was to 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 learnt 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 the would care for a friendship with him now in the even if he were to take the trouble to discover her thus much the other thread of his 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 a sketch of a temperament 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 entrance to the isle were perched like grey 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 further made some general inquiries about the accident which had carried off s husband in the previous year and learnt 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 the well beloved 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 here as he stayed on his local interests revived 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 begun to run and he was never tired of standing on the occupied deck of one of these as it skirted the island and revealed to him on the cliffs far up its height the ruins of red king castle behind which the little village of east lay thus matters went on if they did not rather stand still for several days before his vague promise to seek out and in the meantime he was surprised by the arrival of another letter from her by a 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	45
do she was always thinking of him and wishing to see him her tone was anxious and there was no doubt a sketch of a temperament 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 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 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 further 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 cottage she had occupied of old in answer to his inquiries he was directed along the road to the west of the modem 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 the well beloved structure the and other shrubs which alone would stand in the teeth of the salt wind living on 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 mom who received him in the front parlour was alas but the sorry 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 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 or 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 pass a sketch of a temperament ing 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 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 al reality he was so far as to linger they talked of past days 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 the well beloved 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 far out 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 latter 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 of positions which suggested that he a sketch of a temperament might make amends for the original desertion by proposing to this when a meet time should arrive if he did not love her as he 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 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	45
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 beloved i hope to make the 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 oflf very well i don t pretend to guess i must tell you another time if it is any little business in connection with your late husband s affairs do command me i u 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 under his feet he felt in no mood to get back to his lodgings in the town on the he lingered about upon the a sketch of a temperament ing ground for a long while thinking of the extraordinary of the original girl in this new form he had seen and of himself as of a foolish in being so suddenly fascinated by the renewed image in a personality not one third his age as a physical fact no doubt the preservation of the likeness was no uncommon thing here but 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 was born from 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 in 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 weu beloved made him feel as if his in a changed sex had suddenly looked over the horizon at him in a crowd secretly or in solitude boldly he had often bowed the knee the well beloved three times to this divinity on her first appearance monthly and directed a 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 a sketch of a temperament whence the voice proceeded followed the pathway and soon beheld a girl in clothing the same he had seen through the window standing upon one of the rocks apparently unable to move hastened across to her 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 do stooped and examined the cause of discomfiture i think if you can take your boot oflf 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 o how glad i am she cried joyfully i the well beloved was fearing i should have to stay here all night how can i thank you enough he was to withdraw the boot but no force that he could exercise would move it at last she said don t try any longer it is not far to the house i can walk in my i ll assist you in he said she said she did not want help nevertheless allowed him to help her on the side as they moved on she explained that she had come out through the garden door had been standing on the to look at something out at sea just in the evening light as assisted by the moon and in jumping	45
down had her foot as he had found it whatever s years might have made him look by day in the dusk of evening he was fairly as a pleasing man of no marked antiquity his outline but little from what it had been when he was half his years he was well preserved still upright shaven in movement wore a tightly suit which set off a naturally slight figure in brief he might have been of any age as he appeared to her at this moment she talked to him with the co equality of one who assumed a sketch of a temperament him to be not far ahead of her own generation and as the growing darkness obscured him more and more he adopted her assumption of his age with increasing boldness of tone the harmless freedom of the watering place miss which had plainly acquired during her at the school helped greatly in this r e of which he was not to play not a word did he say about being a native of the island still more carefully did he conceal the fact of his having her grandmother and engaged himself to marry that attractive lady he found that she had come out upon the rocks through the same little private door from the lawn of the modem castle which had frequently him to the same spot in years long past accompanied her across the grounds almost to the entrance of the mansion the place being now far better kept and planted than when he had it as a lonely tenant almost indeed restored to the order and neatness which had it when he was a boy like her she was too inexperienced to be reserved and during this little climb leaning the well beloved upon his arm there was time for a great deal of confidence when he had her farewell and she had entered leaving him in the dark a rush of sadness through s soul swept down all the temporary pleasure he had found in the charming girl s company had sprung from the ground there and then with an to of restoration to youth on the usual terms of his firm the might have consented to sell a part of himself which he felt less immediate need of than of a ruddy lip and cheek and an brow but what could only have been treated as a folly by was almost a sorrow for him why was he bom with such a temperament and this interest could hardly have arisen even with but for a of circumstances only possible here the three the second something like the first the third a of the first at all events were the of the island customs of and of union under which conditions the type of feature was almost uniform from parent to child through generations so that till quite to have seen one native man and woman was to have a sketch of a temperament seen the whole population of that isolated rock so nearly cut off from the his own and the sense of his early did all the rest he turned gloomily away and let himself out of the before walking along the couple of miles of road which would conduct him to the little station on the shore he to the rocks whereon he had found her and searched about for the which had made a prisoner of this terribly edition of the beloved kneeling down beside the spot he inserted his hand and ultimately by much withdrew the little boot he mused over it for a moment put it in his pocket and followed the stony route to the street of wells the well beloved the renewed image burns itself in here was nothing to hinder in calling upon the new s mother as often as he should choose beyond the five miles of intervening railway and additional mile or two of over the heights of the island two days later therefore he repeated his journey and knocked about tea time at the widow s door as he had feared the daughter was not at home he sat down beside the old sweetheart who having her mother in past days had now herself in her child produced the boot from his pocket then tis you who helped out of her said mrs with surprise yes my dear friend and perhaps i shall ask you to help me out of mine before i have done a sketch of a temperament but never mind that now what did she tell you about the adventure mrs was looking thoughtfully upon him well tis rather strange it should have been you sir she replied she seemed to be a good deal interested i thought it might have been a younger man a much younger man it might have been as far as feelings were concerned now i ll to the point at once i have known your daughter any number of years when i talk to her i can anticipate every turn of her thought every sentiment every act so long did i study those things in your mother and in you therefore i do not require to learn her she was learnt by me in her previous now don t be shocked i am willing to marry her i should be to do it if there would be nothing preposterous about it or that would seem like a man making himself too much of a fool and so degrading her in i can make her comparatively rich as you know and i would indulge her every whim there is the idea put it would set right something in my mind that has been wrong for forty years after my death she would have plenty of freedom and plenty of means to enjoy it the well beloved mrs seemed only a little sur certainly not shocked well if i didn	45
t think you might be a bit taken with her i she said with an arch simplicity which could hardly be called unaffected knowing the set of your mind from my little time with you years ago nothing you could do in this way would astonish me but you don t think badly of me for it not at all by the bye did you ever guess why i asked you to come but never mind it now the matter is past of course it would depend upon what felt perhaps she would rather marry a younger man and suppose a satisfactory younger man should not appear mrs showed in her face that she fully recognized the difference between a rich bird in hand and a young bird in the bush she looked him curiously up and down i know you would make anybody a very nice husband she said i know that you would be than many men half your age and though there is a great deal of difference between you and her there have been more unequal marriages that s true speaking as her mother i can say s a sketch of a temperament that i shouldn t object to you sir for her provided she liked you that is where the difficulty win lie i wish you would help me to get over that difficulty he said gently remember i brought back a husband to you twenty years ago yes you did she assented and though i may say no great things as to happiness came of it i ve always seen that your intentions towards me were none the less noble on that account i would do for you what i would do for no other man and there is one reason in particular which me to help you with that i should fed absolutely certain i was helping her to a kind husband well that would remain to be seen i would at any rate try to be worthy of your opinion come for old times sake you must help me you never felt anything but in those days you know and that makes it easy and proper for you to do me a good turn now after a little more conversation his old friend promised that she really would do everything that lay in her power she did not say how simple she thought him not to perceive that she had already by writing to him been doing every the well beloved thing that lay in her power had created the feeling which prompted his entreaty and to show her good faith in this promise she asked him to wait till later in the evening when might possibly nm across to see hen who fancied he had won the younger s interest at least by the part he had played upon the rocks the week before had a dread of her in full light till he should have advanced a little further in her regard he accordingly was perplexed at this proposal and seeing his hesitation mrs suggested that they should walk together in the direction whence would come if she came at all he welcomed the idea and in a few minutes they started strolling along under the now strong moonlight and when they reached the gates of castle turning back again towards the house after two or three such walks up and down the gate of the castle grounds and a form came forth which proved to be the expected one as soon as they met the girl recognized in her mother s companion the gentleman who had helped her on the shore and she seemed really s a sketch of a glad to find that her assistant was claimed by her parent as an old friend she remembered hearing at divers times about this worthy london man of talent and position whose were people of her own isle and possibly from the name of a common stock with her own and you have actually lived in castle yourself mr asked the daughter with her innocent young voice was it long ago yes it was some time ago replied the with a sinking at his heart lest she should say how long it must have been when i was away or when i was very little i don t think you were away but i don t think i could have been here no perhaps you couldn t have been here i think she was hiding herself in the said s mother they talked in this general way till they reached mrs s house but resisted both the widow s invitation and the desire of his own heart and went away without entering to risk by visibly her the s the well beloved advantage that he had already gained or fancied he had gained with the re required more courage than he could claim in his present mood such evening as these were frequent during the of that summer moon on one occasion as they were all good it was arranged that they should meet between the island and the town in which had lodgings it was impossible that by this tune the pretty young should not have guessed the ultimate reason of these to be a matrimonial intention but she inclined to the belief that the widow rather than herself was the object of s regard though why this educated and apparently wealthy man should be attracted by her mother whose was apparent enough to the girl s more modem training 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 they moved in the direction a sketch of a temperament of henry the eighth s castle on the verge of the rag stone cliff like the red king	45
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 think you might if you really have no objection r the well beloved 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 way supposing he were to would you encourage him to me mother said with an inquiring laugh i thought he meant you o 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 i should like that well enough replied carelessly then give him some encouragement i don t care enough about him to do any a sketch of a temperament 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 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 modem 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 and simple inhabitants of the isle her intensely modem sympathies were quickened by her peculiar outlook would have regarded his interest in her as selfish if there had not existed the well 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 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 a sketch of a temperament 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 rome when he had wished each night that he might never wake again this wrinkled corner 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 an ideal learnt the trick of one image only upon the whole he was not without a ment that it would be folly to press oa the well beloved a dash for the last iv 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	45
it is a complaint and the attacks 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 imagine i fancy if it were put to her plainly now i am in this state it might be done the well beloved 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 o 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 quickly but i won t press you to marry me as a favour against your feelings a sketch of a temperament 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 teu 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 like me so so 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 his wisdom the mother was holding the the well beloved daughter s hand she took s and laid s in it no more was said in argument 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 winked with a and indistinct eye a rain had come on with the dark and it was striking the window in he had in tended 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 might be possible to a sketch of a temperament 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 grey morning light while his soul was what it was why should he have been with that the well beloved 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 the house and on going downstairs he found that they were to breakfast en i she was not then in the room but she entered in the course of a few minutes had already heard that the widow felt better this morning and elated by the prospect of sitting with at this meal he went forward to her as soon as she saw him	45
in the full stroke of day from the window she started and heathen remembered that it was their first meeting under the rays she was so overcome that she turned and left the room as if she had forgotten something when she re entered she was visibly pale she recovered herself and she had been sitting up the night before the last she said and was not quite so well as usual there may have been some truth in this but could not get over that first scared look of hers it was enough to give to his night views of a possible tragedy lurking in this wedding project he determined a sketch of a temperament that at any cost to his heart there should be no about him from this moment miss he said as they sat down since it is well you should know all the truth before we go any further that there may be no awkward discoveries afterwards i am going to tell you something about myself if you are not too distressed to hear it no let me hear it i was once the lover of your mother and wanted to marry her only she wouldn t or rather couldn t marry me o how strange said the girl looking from him to the breakfast things and from the breakfast things to him mother has never told me that yet of course you might have been i mean you are old enough he took the remark as a satire she had not intended o yes quite old enough he said grimly almost too old too old for mother how s that because i belonged to your grandmother no that be i was her lover likewise i should have married her if i had gone straight on instead of round the comer s the well beloved but you couldn t have been mr you are not old enough why how old are you you have never told mc i am very old my mother s and my grandmother s said she looking at him no longer as at a possible husband but as a strange in human form saw it but meaning to give up the game he did not care to spare himself your mother s and your grandmother s young man he repeated and were you my great grandmother s too she asked with an expectant interest in his case as a drama that overcame her personal considerations for a moment no not your great grandmother s your imagination beats even my but i am very old as you see i did not know it said she in an appalled murmur you do not look so and i thought that what you looked you were and you you are very young he continued a stillness followed during which she sat in a troubled regarding him now and then with something in her open eyes and large pupils a sketch of a temperament that might have been sympathy or ate scarce any breakfast and rising abruptly from the table said he would take a walk on the as the morning was fine he did so proceeding along the north east heights for nearly a mile he had given up but not formally his intention had been to go back to the house in half an hour and pay a morning visit to the invalid but by not returning the plans of the previous evening might be allowed to lapse silently as that had come to nothing in the face of s want of love for him accordingly went straight along and in the course of an hour was at his lodgings nothing occurred till the evening to inform him how his absence had been taken then a note arrived from mrs it was written in pencil evidently as she lay i am alarmed she said at your going so suddenly seems to think she has offended you she did not mean to do that i am sure it makes me dreadfully anxious will you send a line surely you will not desert us now my heart is so set on my child s welfare a s the well beloved desert you i won t said it is too much like the original case but i must let her desert me on his return with no other object than that of wishing mrs good bye he found her painfully agitated she clasped his hand and it tears o don t be offended with her she cried she s young we are one people don t marry a it will break my heart if you her now the girl came my manner was hasty and thoughtless this morning she said in a tow voice please pardon me i wish to abide by my promise her mother still tearful again joined their hands and the engagement stood as before went back to but dimly seeing how curiously through his being a rich ideas of and were retaining him in the course arranged by her mother and urged by his own desire in the face of his understanding a sketch of a temperament on the verge of possession iii v in anticipation of his marriage had taken a new red house of the approved pattern with a new at the back as large as a bam hither in with the elder whose health had mended somewhat he invited mother and daughter to spend a week or two with him thinking thereby to exercise on the latter s imagination an influence which was not practicable 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 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	45
the well beloved largest were as attentive to their wants as if those bad never before been honoured with a single customer 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 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 a sketch of a temperament it was one of those ripe and mellow that sometimes colour london with their 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 grey pattern not unlike early against the sky the men and women on the 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 toward him she was holding her handkerchief to her eyes and he saw that she was weeping silently the well beloved in another moment he perceived that she was weeping over a book by this time she had heard him and came forward he made it appear that he had not noticed her distress and they discussed some arrangements of e 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 gaily 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 apart a sketch of a temperament ment now becoming clouded with shades out of which the white and countenances 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 labours of his life had been carried out what should a man of his age who had not for years done anything to speak 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 the well beloved no i tore it up why it was not necessary 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 his cause the house had decidedly impressed her almost her and though he 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 a a sketch of a temperament the wedding details settled before she and her mother left	45
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 the well beloved and had intended to halt a couple of hours in the neighbouring to give 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 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 which here bordered the road to assist that the person was exhausted anything the matter he said o no not much was returned bv the other but it is steep just here the accent was not quite that of an english a sketch of a temperament man 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 recovered a s the well beloved 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 re asserted 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 sketch oi a temperament 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 stem 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 in a mood to let trifles of manner pass and he took no notice of the effort which had accompanied the last word they went upstairs to mrs whose obvious relief and at sight of him w s grateful to her visitor the well beloved i am	45
so o so glad you are come she said as she held out her thin hand and stifled a sob i have been 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 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 it being noticeable that mrs by her 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 downstairs and found awaiting his descent he wondered if anything had occurred here during his absence to give mrs new uneasiness a sketch of a temperament 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 dining room 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 t the 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 tomorrow and you know that if i had it i shouldn t use it o but you have mother being an invalid you are in her place apart from to morrow 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 to morrow to inquire how your mother is going on and to wish you good morning you will be back again quickly this evening and i needn t go with you for company a sketch of a temperament o 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 further 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 the well beloved the well beloved where ill vi 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 a a sketch of a temperament moment for was young for three score a good looking man one whose history was generally known here as also were the exact figures of the 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	45
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 the well beloved been secretly united to another when the proposing moment came 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 she 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 a sketch of a temperament tremble with her she had declared that she did not require any one to sit up with her but she now rang a little and in a few minutes a nurse appeared an island woman and a neighbour 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 o no not yet ma am there s nobody up but ru 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 neighbour 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 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 the well beloved o i ve heard a little of it 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 yes her father had the biggest stone trade on the island at one time but the name is for gotten 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 a sketch of a temperament lost it nearly all in some way years after she married this 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 m 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 she ll forget en he good enough i hope so i hope so now i ll 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 the well beloved it was divided by a only and her consciousness either was or seemed to be aroused by light brushing touches on the outside of the as of fingers feeling the way downstairs in the dark the slight noise passed and in a few seconds she 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	45
wharf whence many a fine public building had sailed including saint paul s cathedral the shadowy shapes descended the one at least of them knowing the place so well that she found it scarcely necessary 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 the well beloved fishing and a couple of smaller ones beside them being a rough for and a of boards the two lovers united 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 to look for the oars i he said they are locked in the 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 to the north but at a special moment in every flood there set in along the 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 a sketch of a temperament 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 grey rocks near them and the grim wrinkled forehead of the isle above sliding away 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 that the 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 the well beloved set it on 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 had loomed quite large by this time and a few minutes after they had burnt the handkerchiefs and umbrella a coloured flame replied to them from the vessel they flung their arms round 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 a sketch of a temperament an old in a new aspect vii 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 x the well beloved which had been begun so long ago as when a young woman she had herself been asked by to marry him on her inability to accept the honour offered she and her husband had been set up in a matter of fact business in the stone trade 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 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 then as he came to himself a sketch of a temperament their voices grew fainter they had all gone oflf on their and he was left here alone the probable ridicule that would result to him from the events of the day he did not mind in itself at all but he would fain have removed the on which	45
it would be based that however was impossible nobody would ever know the truth about him what it was he had sought that had so and escaped him what it was that had led him such a dance and had at last as he believed just now in the freshness of his loss been discovered in the girl who had left him it was not the flesh he had never knelt low to that not a woman in the world had been wrecked by him though he had been impassioned by so many nobody would guess the further sentiment the cordial loving kindness which had lain behind what had seemed to him the of a pleasing destiny postponed for forty years his attraction to the third would be regarded by the world as the selfish designs of an elderly man on a maid his life seemed no longer a professional man s the well beloved experience but a ghost story and he would fain have vanished from his haunts on this critical afternoon as the rest had done he desired to sleep away his tendencies to make something happen which would put an end to his bondage to beauty in the ideal so he sat on till it was quite dark and a light was brought there was a chilly wind blowing outside and the on the afar looked harassed and the haggard solitude was broken by a ring at the door heard a voice below the accents of a woman they had a ground quality of familiarity a superficial of strangeness only one person in all his experience had ever possessed precisely those tones rich as if they had once been powerful explanations seemed to be asked for and given and in a minute he was informed that a lady was downstairs whom perhaps he would like to see who is the lady asked the servant hesitated a little mrs the mother of the young gentleman miss has run oflf with yes see her said he covered the face of the dead and a sketch of a temperament descended he said to himself his ears had known that name before to day it was the name those travelling americans he had met in rome gave the woman he supposed might be a sudden light burst upon many familiar things at that moment he found the visitor in the drawing room standing up veiled the carriage which had brought her being in waiting at the door by the dim light he could see nothing of her features in such circumstances mr i am mr you represent the late mrs i do though i am not one of the family i know it i am after forty years i was as much may the lines have fallen to you in pleasant places since we last met but of all moments of my life why do you choose to hunt me up now why i am the step mother and only relation of the young man your bride with this morning i was just that too as i came downstairs but the and i am naturally making inquiries yes let us take it quietly and shut the door sat down and he learnt that the of old things and new was no accident what mrs had discussed with her nurse and neighbour as vague intelligence was now revealed to at first hand by herself how many years after their separation and when she was left poor by the death of her father she had become the wife of that lover of hers who wanted a tender nurse and mother for the infant left him by his first wife recently deceased how he had died a few years later leaving her with the boy whom she had brought up at st and in paris him as well as she could with her limited means till he became the french master at a school in and how a year ago she and her son had got to know mrs and her daughter on their visit to the island to ascertain she added more deliberately not entirely for sentimental reasons what had become of the man with whom i in the first flush of my young womanhood and only missed marrying by my own will a sketch of a temperament bowed wed that was how the acquaintance between the children began and their passionate attachment to each other she detailed how had induced her mother to let her take lessons in french of young rendering their meetings easy had never thought of their intimacy for in her recent years of she had acquired a new interest in the name she had refused to take in her young womanhood and it was not until she knew how determined mrs was to make her daughter s wife that she had objected to her son s acquaintance with but it was too late to hinder what had been begun he had lately been ill and she had been frightened by his not returning home the night before the note she had received from him that day had only informed her that and himself had gone to be married immediately whither she did not know what do you mean to do she asked i do nothing there is nothing to be done it is how i served her grandmother one of time s served her so for me the well beloved yes now she me for your son paused a long while thinking that over till herself she resumed but can t we inquire which way they went out of the island or gather some particulars about them aye yes we will and found himself as in a dream walking beside along the road in their common quest he discovered that almost every one of the neighbouring inhabitants knew more about the lovers than he did himself at	45
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 a sketch of a temperament only on matters and recollection of s good qualities alone had any on his mind of her appearance none at all at first he was appalled and then he said thank god 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 o i as a woman think there s good in it is there then i have lost all conception of it i don t know what has happened to me i the well beloved 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 announcement 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 colour 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 why don t you ever let me see you he asked a sketch of a temperament 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 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 considering the lapse of years i am vexed he said turning his head aside impatiently you are fair and five and thirty not a day more you still suggest beauty you t do as a ah but i may to think that you know woman no better after all this time the well beloved 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 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 i ll 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 went round to the window where she uncovered immediately in his full view and said see if i a sketch of a temperament 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 but she was a woman and her lips quivered and there was a tear in her eye as she exposed the treatment to which she had subjected herself the cruel morning rays as with under s scrutiny showed in their full by addition by the arts of colour and shade the thin remains of what had once been s majestic bloom she	45
island ruled our though we were not on it yes we are in hands not our own did you ever tell your husband no did he ever hear anything not that i am aware calling upon her one day he found her in a state of great discomfort in certain winds the chimneys of the little house she had taken here smoked and one of these winds was blowing then her drawing room fire could not be kept burning and rather than let a woman who suffered from shiver he asked her to come round and lunch with him as she had often done before as they went he thought not for the first time how needless it was that she should be put to this inconvenience a sketch of a temperament by their occupying two houses when one would better suit their now constant companionship and her of the objectionable chimneys moreover by marrying and establishing a parental relation with the young people the rather delicate business of his making them a regular allowance would become a natural proceeding and so the zealous wishes of the neighbours to give a shape to their story were fulfilled almost in spite of the chief parties themselves when he put the question to her distinctly admitted that she had always regretted the imperious decision of her youth and she made no about accepting him i have no love to give you know he said but such friendship as i am capable of is yours till the end it is nearly the same with me perhaps not quite but like the other people i have somehow felt and you will understand why that i ought to be your wife before i die it chanced that a day or two before the ceremony which was fixed to take place very shortly after the foregoing conversation s suddenly became acute the attack promised however to be only temporary owing to some accidental exposure of herself in making the well beloved preparations for removal and as they thought it to their union for such a reason after being well wrapped up was wheeled into the church in a chair a month thereafter when they were sitting at breakfast one morning exclaimed well good heavens while reading a letter she had just received from who was living with her husband in a house had bought for them at looked up why says she wants to be separated from did you ever hear of such a thing she s coming here about it to day separated what does the child mean read the letter ridiculous nonsense he continued she doesn t know what she wants i say she sha n t be separated tell her so and there s an end of it why how long have they been married not twelve months what will she say when they have been married twenty years remained reflecting i think that feeling she has at times of having her mother and caused her death makes her irritable she murmured poor child a sketch of a temperament lunch time had hardly come when arrived looking very tearful and excited took her into an inner room had a conversation with her and they came out together o it s nothing said i tell her she must go back directly she has had some luncheon ah that s all very well sobbed b b but if you two had been m married so long as i have y you wouldn t say go back like that what is it all about inquired he said that if he were to die i i should be looking out for somebody with fair hair and grey eyes just just to spite him in his grave because he s dark and he s quite sure i don t like dark people and then he said but i won t be so treacherous as to tell any more about him i wish your mother did this very thing and she went back now you are to do the same let me see there s a train she must have something to eat first sit down dear the question was settled by the arrival of himself at the end of luncheon with a very anxious and pale face went off to a business meeting and left the young couple to their differences in their own way v thb well beloved his business was among kindred which followed the of the weu beloved and other to advance a scheme for the closing of the old natural fountains in the street of wells because of their possible and supplying the with water from pipes a scheme that was carried out at his expense as is well known he was also engaged in acquiring some old moss grown cottages for the purpose of pulling them down because they were damp which he afterwards did and built new ones with hollow and full of at present he is sometimes mentioned as the late mr by like young and his productions are alluded to as those of a man not without genius whose powers were recognized in his u t ic r t r a e c u library the of forgiveness etc by a steel a modem by by mrs ward round london by q c later leaves by q c leaves of a life by q c with a portrait adventures in by and richard by e h lady william by mrs by f m reminiscences of the by w miss s l by steel by f m the last touches by mrs strolling players by c m and c r by c m records of and by mrs the by s r john by w c a bom player by mary west the real etc by henry james the lesson of uie master etc by henry	45
day she was told that her father had ridden to his estate at falls park early in the morning on business with his agent and might not come back for some days falls park was over twenty miles from king s court and was altogether a more modest centre piece to a more modest possession than the latter but as squire came in view of it that february morning he thought that he had been a fool ever to leave it though it was for the sake of the greatest in its classic front of the period of the second charles derived from its regular features a dignity which the great mansion of his wife could not altogether he was sick at heart and the gloom which the park threw over the scene did not tend to remove the depression of this man of eight and forty who sat so heavily upon his the child his darling there lay the root of his trouble he was unhappy when near his wife he was unhappy when away from his little girl and from this there was no practicable escape as a consequence he indulged rather freely in the pleasures of the table became what was called a three bottle man and in his wife s estimation less and less to her polite friends from town he was received by the two or three old servants who were in charge of the lonely place where a few rooms only were kept for his use or that of his friends when hunting and during the morning he was made more a group of noble comfortable by the arrival of his faithful servant from king s but after a day or two spent here in solitude he began to feel that he had made a mistake in coming by leaving king s in his anger he had thrown away his best opportunity of his wife s preposterous notion of promising his poor little s hand to a man she had hardly seen to protect her from such a bargain he should have remained on the spot he felt it almost as a misfortune that the child would inherit so much wealth she would be a mark for all the in the kingdom had she been only the to his own little place at falls how much better would have been her chances of happiness his wife had divined truly when she that he himself had a lover in view for this pet child the son of a dear deceased friend of his who lived not two miles from where the squire now was a lad a couple of years his daughter s senior seemed in her father s opinion the one person in the world likely to make her happy but as to breathing such a scheme to either of the young people with the haste that his wife had shown he would not dream of it years hence would be soon enough for that they had already seen each other and the squire fancied that he noticed a tenderness on the youth s part which promised well he was strongly tempted to profit by his wife s example and her match making by throwing the two young people together there at falls the girl though in the views of those days was too young to be in love but the lad was fifteen and already felt an interest in her a group of noble still better than keeping watch over her at king s where she was necessarily much under her mother s influence would it be to get the child to stay with him at falls for a time under his exclusive control but how accomplish this using main force the only possible chance was that his wife might for appearance sake as she had done before consent to paying him a day s visit when he might find means of her till the whom his wife favoured had gone abroad which he was expected to do the following week squire determined to return to king s and attempt the enterprise if he were refused it was almost in him to pick up bodily and carry her off the journey back vague and as were his intentions was performed with a far lighter heart than his setting forth he would see and talk to her come what might of his plan so he rode along the dead level which stretches between the hills falls park and those bounding the town of trotted through that and out by the king s highway till passing the village he entered the mile long drive through the park to the court the drive being open without an avenue the squire could discern the north front and door of the court a long way off and was himself visible from the windows on that side for which reason he hoped that might perceive him coming as she sometimes did on his return from an and run to the door or wave her handkerchief but there was no sign he inquired for his wife as soon as he set foot to earth a group of noble mistress is away she was called to london sir and mistress said the squire gone likewise sir for a little change mistress has left a letter for you the note explained nothing merely stating that she had posted to london on her own affairs and had taken the child to give her a holiday on the fly leaf were some words from herself to the same effect evidently written in a state of high at the idea of her squire murmured a few and submitted to his disappointment how long his wife meant to stay in town she did not say but on investigation he found that the carriage had been packed with sufficient luggage for a of two or three weeks king s court was in consequence as gloomy as falls	45
park had been he had lost all zest for hunting of late and had hardly attended a meet that season read and re read s and hunted up some other such notes of hers to look over this seeming to be the only pleasure there was left for him that they were really in london he learnt in a few days by another letter from mrs in which she explained that they hoped to be home in about a week and that she had had no idea he was coming back to king s so soon or she would not have gone away without telling him squire wondered if in going or returning it had been her plan to call at the place near through which city their journey lay it was possible that she might do this in of her project and the sense that his own might become the losing game was a group of noble he did not know how to dispose of himself till it occurred to him that to get rid of his intolerable he would invite some friends to dinner and drown his cares in and wine no sooner was the decided upon than he put it in hand those invited being mostly neighbouring all smaller men than himself members of the hunt also the doctor from and the like some of them blades whose presence his wife would not have had she been at home when the cat s away i said the squire they and there were indications in their manner that they meant to make a night of it of castle was late and they waited a quarter of an hour for him he being one of the of friends without whose presence no such dinner as this would be considered complete and it may be added with whose presence no dinner which included both sexes could be conducted with strict propriety he had just returned from london and the squire was anxious to talk to him for no definite reason but he had lately breathed the atmosphere in which was at length they heard driving up to the door whereupon the host and the rest of his guests crossed over to the dining room in a moment came hastily in at their heels for his i only came back last night you know he said and the truth o t is i had as much as i could carry he turned to the squire well so cunning has stolen your little lamb ha ha what said squire across the dining table round which they were all standing the lo a group of noble cold march sunlight streaming in upon his full face surely th st know what all the town knows you ve had a letter by this time that has married your yes as i m a living man it was a carefully arranged thing they parted at once and are not to meet for five or six years but lord you must know i a on the floor was the only reply of the squire they quickly turned he had fallen down hke a log behind the table and lay motionless on the oak boards those at hand hastily bent over him and the whole group were in confusion they found him to be quite unconscious though puffing and panting like a blacksmith s his face was livid his veins swollen and beads of perspiration stood upon his brow what s happened to him said several an fit said the doctor from gravely he was only called in at the court for small as a rule and felt the importance of the situation he lifted the squire s head loosened his and clothing and rang for the servants who took the squire upstairs there he lay as if in a sleep the surgeon drew a basin full of blood from him but it was nearly six o clock before he came to himself the dinner was completely and some had gone home long ago but two or three remained bless my soul kept repeating i didn t know things had come to this pass between and his lady i thought the feast he was spreading to day was in honour of the event though privately kept for the xi a group of noble present his little maid married without his knowledge as soon as the squire recovered consciousness he gasped tis tis a capital he can be hung where is i am very well now what have ye heard the bearer of the news was extremely unwilling to further and would say little more at first but an hour after when the squire had partially recovered and was sitting up told as much as he knew the most important particular being that s mother was present at the marriage and showed every mark of approval everything appeared to have been done so regularly that i of course thought you knew all about it he said i knew no more than the dead that such a step was in the wind a child not yet thirteen how sue hath me did go up to on with em d ye know i can t say all i know is that your lady and daughter were walking along the street with the footman behind em that they entered a s shop where was standing and that there in the presence o the and your man who was called in on purpose your said to so the story goes my soul i don t for the truth of it she said will you marry me or i want to marry you will you have me now or never she said what she said means nothing murmured the squire with wet eyes her mother put the words into her mouth to avoid the serious consequences that would attach to any suspicion of force the	45
day the london church with its gorgeous and green and the great organ in the west gallery so different from their own little church in the of king s court the man of thirty to whose face she had looked up with so much awe and with a sense that he was rather ugly and formidable the man whom though they politely she had never seen since one to whose existence she was now so indifferent that if informed of his death and that she would never see him more she would merely have replied indeed s passions as yet still slept i a group of noble hast heard from thy husband lately said squire when they were indoors with an laugh of fondness which demanded no answer the girl and he noticed that his wife looked at him as the conversation went on and there were signs that would express sentiments that might do harm to a position which they could not alter mrs suggested that should leave the room till her father and herself had finished their private conversation and this did renewed his freely did you see how the sound of his name frightened her he presently added if you didn t i did what a future is in store for that poor little unfortunate o mine i tell ee sue twas not a marriage at all in morality and if i were a woman in such a position i shouldn t feel it as one she might without a sign of sin love a man of her choice as well now as if she were chained up to no other at all there that s my mind and i can t help it ah sue my man was best he d ha suited her i don t believe it she replied you should see him then you would he s growing up a fine fellow i can tell ee hush not so loud she answered rising from her seat and going to the door of the next room whither her daughter had herself to mrs s alarm there sat in a reverie her round eyes fixed on musing so deeply that she did not perceive her mother s entrance she had heard every word and was the new knowledge her mother felt that falls park was dangerous ground c a group of noble for a young girl of the susceptible age and in s peculiar position while talked and reasoned thus she called to her and they took leave the squire would not clearly promise to return and make king s court his permanent abode but s presence there as at former times was sufficient to make him agree to pay them a visit soon all the way home remained and silent it was too plain to her anxious mother that squire s free views had been a sort of awakening to the girl the interval before his pledge to come and see them was unexpectedly short he arrived one morning about twelve o clock driving his own pair of black in the with yellow and red wheels just as he had used to do and his faithful old on horseback behind a young man sat beside the squire in the carriage and mrs s consternation could scarcely be concealed when abruptly entering with his companion the squire announced him as his friend of elm passed on to in the background and tenderly kissed her sting your mother s conscience my maid he whispered sting her conscience by pretending you are struck with and would ha loved him as your old father s choice much more than him she has forced upon ee the simple speaker fondly imagined that it was entirely in obedience to this direction that s eyes stole interested glances at the frank and impulsive that day at dinner and he laughed grimly within himself to see how this joke of his as he imagined i a group of noble it to be was disturbing the peace of mind of the lady of the house now sue sees what a mistake she has made said he mrs was verily greatly alarmed and as soon as she could speak a word with him alone she him you ought not to have brought him here oh thomas how could you be so thoughtless lord don t you see dear that what is done cannot be undone and how all this her happiness with her husband until you interfered and spoke in her hearing about this she was as patient and as willing as a lamb and looked forward to mr s return with real pleasure since her visit to falls park she has been monstrous close mouthed and busy with her own thoughts what mischief will you do how will it end own then that my man was best suited to her i only brought him to convince you yes yes i do admit it but oh do take him back again at once don t keep him here i fear she is even attracted by him already nonsense sue tis only a little trick to ee nevertheless her eye was not so likely to be deceived as his and if were really only playing at being love struck that day she played at it with the perfection of a and would have deceived the best professors into a belief that it was no the squire having obtained his victory was quite ready to take back the too attractive youth and early in the afternoon they set out on their return journey a silent figure who rode behind them was as interested as in that day s experiment it was the a group of noble who with his eyes on the squire s and young s backs thought how well the latter would have suited and how greatly the former had changed for the worse during these last two or three years he	45
cursed his mistress as the cause of the change after this memorable visit to prove his point the lives of the couple flowed on quietly enough for the space of a the squire for the most part remaining at falls and passing and between them now and then once or twice alarming her mother by not driving home from her father s house till midnight the repose of king s was broken by the arrival of a special messenger squire had had an access of so violent as to be serious he wished to see again why had she not come for so long mrs was extremely reluctant to take in that direction too frequently but the girl was so anxious to go her interests seeming to be so entirely bound up in falls park and its neighbourhood that there was nothing to be done but to let her set out and accompany her squire had been impatiently awaiting her arrival they found him very ill and irritable it had been his habit to take powerful to drive away his enemy and they had failed in their effect on this occasion the presence of his daughter as usual him much even while as usual too it him for he could never forget that she had disposed of herself for life in opposition to his wishes though she had secretly a group of noble assured him that she would never have consented had she been as old as she was now as on a former occasion his wife wished to speak to him alone about the girl s future the time now drawing nigh at which was expected to come and claim her he would have done so already but he had been put off by the earnest request of the young woman herself which accorded with that of her parents on the score of her youth had submitted to their wishes in this respect the understanding between them having been that he would not visit her before she was eighteen except by the mutual consent of all parties but this could not go on much longer and there was no doubt from the tenor of his last letter that he would soon take possession of her whether or no to be out of the sound of this delicate discussion was accordingly sent downstairs and they soon saw her walking away into the looking very pretty in her sweeping green gown and flapping hat with a feather on returning to the subject mrs found her husband s reluctance to reply in the affirmative to s letter to be as great as ever she is three months short of eighteen he exclaimed tis too soon i won t hear of it if i have to keep him off sword in hand he shall not have her yet but my dear thomas she consider if anything should happen to you or to me how much better it would be that she should be settled in her home with him i say it is too soon he argued the veins of his forehead beginning to swell if he gets her this side o ai a group of noble i ll challenge en i ll take my oath on t i ll be back to king s in two or three days and not lose sight of her day or night she feared to him further and gave way assuring him in obedience to his demand that if should write again before he got back to fix a time for joining she would put the letter in her husband s hands and he should do as he chose this was all that required discussion privately and mrs went to call in hoping that she had not heard her father s loud tones she had certainly not done so this time mrs followed the path along which she had seen wandering but went a considerable distance without perceiving anything of her the squire s wife then turned round to proceed to the other side of the house by a short cut across the grass when to her surprise and consternation she beheld the object of her search sitting on the bough of a beside her being a young man whose arm was round her waist he moved a little and she recognized him as young alas then she was right the so called love was real what mrs called her husband at that moment for his folly in originally throwing the young people together it is not necessary to mention she decided in a moment not to let the lovers know that she had seen them she accordingly retreated reached the front of the house by another route and called at the top of her voice from a window for the first time since her marriage of the child doubted the wisdom of that step a group of noble her husband had as it were been assisted by destiny to make his objection originally trivial a one she saw the outlines of trouble in the future why had interfered why had he insisted upon producing his man this then accounted for s pleading for whenever the subject of her husband s return was this accounted for her attachment to falls park possibly this very meeting that she had witnessed had been arranged by letter perhaps the girl s thoughts would never have strayed for a moment if her father had not filled her head with ideas of to her early union on the ground that she had been into it before she knew her own mind and she might have rushed to meet her husband with open arms on the appointed day at length appeared in the distance in answer to the call and came up pale but looking innocent of having seen a living soul mrs groaned in spirit at such in the child of her bosom this was the simple creature for whose	45
development into womanhood they had all been so tenderly waiting a forward old enough not only to have a lover but to conceal his existence as as any woman of the world bitterly did the squire s lady regret that had not been allowed to come to claim her at the time he first proposed the two sat beside each other almost in silence on their journey back to king s such words as were spoken came mainly from and their formality indicated how much her mind and heart were occupied with other things mrs was far too a mother to openly a group of noble attack on the matter that would be only flame the indispensable course seemed to her to be that of keeping the treacherous girl under lock and key till her husband came to take her off her mother s hands that he would disregard opposition and come soon was her devout wish it seemed therefore a fortunate coincidence that on her arrival at king s a letter from was put into mrs hands it was addressed to both her and her husband and courteously informed them that the writer had landed at and proposed to come on to king s in a few days at last to meet and carry off his darling if she and her parents saw no objection had also received a letter of the same tenor her mother had only to look at her face to see how the girl received the information she was as pale as a sheet you must do your best to welcome him this time my dear her mother said gently i you are a woman now added her mother severely and these must come to an end but my father oh i am sure he will not allow this i am not ready if he could only wait a year longer if he could only wait a few months longer oh i wish i wish my dear father were here i will send to him instantly she broke off abruptly and falling upon her mother s neck burst into tears saying my mother have mercy upon me i do not love this man my husband the appeal went too straight to mrs a group of noble heart for her to hear it unmoved yet things having come to this pass what could she do she was distracted and for a moment was on s side her original thought had been to write an affirmative reply to allow him to come on to king s and keep her husband in ignorance of the whole proceeding till he should arrive from falls on some fine day after his recovery and find everything settled and and living together in harmony but the events of the day and her daughter s sudden outburst of feeling had this intention was sure to do as she had threatened and communicate instantly with her father possibly attempt to fly to him moreover s letter was addressed to mr and herself and she could not in conscience keep it from her husband i will send the letter on to your father instantly she replied soothingly he shall act entirely as he chooses and you know that will not be in opposition to your wishes he would ruin you rather than you i only hope he may be well enough to bear the agitation of this news do you agree to this poor agreed on condition that she should actually witness the despatch of the letter her mother had no objection to offer to this but as soon as the had down the drive toward the highway mrs s sympathy with s began to die out the girl s secret affection for young could not possibly be might communicate with him might even try to reach him ruin lay that way must be speedily in his proper place by s side as a group of noble she sat down and a private letter to which threw light upon her plan it is necessary that i should now tell you she said what i have never mentioned before indeed i may have signified the contrary that her father s objection to your joining her has not as yet been overcome as i personally wish to delay you no longer am indeed as anxious for your arrival as you can be yourself having the good of my daughter at heart no course is left open to me but to assist your cause without my husband s knowledge he i am sorry to say is at present ill at falls park but i felt it my duty to forward him your letter he will therefore be like to reply with a command to you to go back again for some months whence you came till the time he originally has d my advice is if you get such a letter to take no notice of it but to come on hither as you had proposed letting me know the day and hour after dark if possible at which we may expect you dear is with me and i warrant ye that she shall be in the house when you arrive mrs having sent away this of anybody next took steps to prevent her daughter leaving the court avoiding if possible to excite the girl s suspicions that she was under restraint but as if by had seemed to read the husband s approach in the aspect of mother s face he is coming exclaimed the maiden not for a week her mother assured her a group of noble he is then for certain well yes hastily retired to her room and would not be seen to lock her up and hand over the key to when he should appear in the hall was a plan charming in its simplicity till her mother found on trying the door	45
of the girl s chamber softly that had already locked and bolted it on the inside and had given directions to have her meals served where she was by leaving them on a dumb waiter outside the door thereupon mrs noiselessly sat down in her which as well as her bed chamber was a passage room to the girl s apartment and she resolved not to her post night or day till her daughter s husband should appear to which end she too arranged to breakfast dine and sup on the spot it was impossible now that should escape without her knowledge even if she had wished there being no other door to the chamber except one admitting to a small inner dressing room inaccessible by any second way but it was plain that the young girl had no thought of escape her ideas ran rather in the direction of she was prepared to stand a siege but scorned flight this at any rate rendered her secure as to how would contrive a meeting with her daughter while in such a humour that thought her mother must be left to his own ingenuity to discover had looked so wild and pale at the announcement of her husband s approaching visit that mrs somewhat uneasy could not leave her to her a group of noble self she peeped through the an hour later lay on the sofa staring at the ceiling you are looking ill child cried her mother you ve not taken the air lately come with me for a drive made no objection soon they drove through the park towards the village the daughter still in the strained strung up silence that had fallen upon her they left the park to return by another route and on the open road passed a cottage s eye fell upon the cottage window within it she saw a young girl about her own age whom she knew by sight sitting in a chair and propped by a pillow the girl s face was covered with scales which in the sun she was a from a disease whose at that period was a terror of which we at present can hardly form a conception an idea suddenly s features she glanced at her mother mrs had been looking in the opposite direction said that she wished to go back to the cottage for a moment to speak to a girl in whom she took an interest mrs appeared suspicious but observing that the cottage had no back door and that could not escape without being seen she allowed the carriage to be stopped ran back and entered the cottage emerging again in about a minute and her seat in the carriage as they drove on she fixed her eyes upon her mother and said there i have done it now her pale face was stormy and her eyes full of waiting tears what have you done said mrs is sick of the and i saw her at the window and i went in and kissed her so that a a group of noble i might take it and now i shall have it and he won t be able to come near me wicked girl cries her mother oh what am i to do what bring a on yourself and the sacred of god because you can t the man youve wedded the alarmed woman gave orders to drive home as rapidly as possible and on arriving who was by this time also somewhat frightened at her own was put into a bath and and treated in every way that could be thought of to ward off the dreadful malady that in a rash moment she had tried to acquire there was now a double reason for the rebellious daughter and wife in her own chamber and there she accordingly remained for the rest of the day and the days that followed till no ill results seemed likely to arise from her meanwhile the first letter from announcing to mrs and her husband that he was coming in a few days had sped on its way to falls park it was directed under cover to the confidential servant with instructions not to put it into his master s hands till he had been refreshed by a good long sleep much regretted his commission letters sent in this way always disturbing the squire but that it would be infinitely worse in the end to withhold the news than to reveal it he chose his time which was early the next morning and delivered the the utmost effect that mrs had anticipated from the message was a order from her husband to to hold aloof a few months longer a group of noble what the squire really did was to declare that he would go himself and at and have it out with him there by word of mouth but master said you can t you cannot get out of bed you leave the room and don t say can t before me have in an hour the long tried thought his employer so utterly helpless was his appearance just then and he went out reluctantly no sooner was he gone than the squire with great difficulty stretched himself over to a cabinet by the bedside unlocked it and took out a small bottle it contained a specific against whose use he had been repeatedly warned by his regular physician but whose warning he now cast to the winds he took a double dose and waited half an hour it seemed to produce no effect he then poured out a dose swallowed it back upon his pillow and waited the miracle he anticipated had been worked at last it seemed as though the second draught had not only with its own strength but had kindled into power the latent forces of the first he put away the bottle and rang up less than	45
an hour later one of the who of course was quite aware that the squire s illness was serious was surprised to hear a bold and decided step descending the stairs from the direction of mr s room accompanied by the humming of a tune she knew that the doctor had not paid a visit that morning and that it was too heavy to be the or any other a group of noble man servant looking up she saw squire fully dressed descending toward her in his and boots with the swinging easy movement of his prime her face expressed her amazement what the devil looking at said the squire did you never see a man walk out of his house before his humming which was of a defiant sort he proceeded to the library rang the bell asked if the horses were ready and directed them to be brought round ten minutes later he rode away in the direction of behind him trembling at what these movements might they rode on through the pleasant and the monotonous straight lanes at an equal pace the distance traversed might have been about fifteen miles when could perceive that the squire was getting tired as weary as he would have been after riding three times the distance ten years before however they reached without any and put up at the squire s accustomed inn almost immediately proceeded on foot to the inn which had given as his address it being now about four o clock had already dined for people dined early then and he was staying indoors he had already received mrs s reply to his letter but before acting upon her advice and starting for king s he made up his mind to wait another day that s father might at least have time to write to him if so minded the returned traveller much desired to obtain the squire s assent as well as his wife s to the proposed visit to his bride that nothing might seem harsh or forced a group of noble in his method of taking his position as one of the family but though he anticipated some sort of objection from his father in law in consequence of mrs s warning he was surprised at the announcement of the squire in person formed the of possible to as they stood each other in the best parlour of the tavern the squire hot tempered impulsive generous reckless the younger man pale tall self possessed a man of the world fully bearing out at least one in his still in king s church which places in the of his good qualities engaging manners cultivated mind adorn d by letters and in courts d he was at this time about five and thirty though careful living and an even temperament caused him to look much younger than his years squire plunged into his errand without much ceremony or preface i am your humble servant sir he said i have read your letter writ to my wife and myself and considered that the best way to answer it would be to do so in person i am vastly honoured by your visit sir said mr bowing well what s done can t be undone said though it was mighty early and was no doing of mine she s your wife and there s an end on t but in brief sir she s too young for you to claim yet we mustn t reckon by years we must reckon by nature she s still a group of noble a girl tis of ee to come yet next year will be full soon enough for you to take her to you now courteous as could be he was a little obstinate when his resolution had once been formed she had been promised him by her birthday at latest sooner if she were in robust health her mother had fixed the time on her own judgment without a word of interference on his part he had been hanging about foreign courts till he was weary was now a woman if she would ever be one and there was not in his mind the shadow of an excuse for putting him off longer therefore fortified as he was by the support of her mother he but firmly told the squire that he had been willing to his rights out of deference to her parents to any reasonable extent but must now in justice to himself and her insist on maintaining them he therefore since she had not come to meet him should proceed to king s in a few days to fetch her this announcement in spite of the with which it was delivered set in a passion oh sir you talk about rights you do after stealing her away a mere child against my will and knowledge if we d begged and prayed ee to take her you could say no more upon my honour your charge is quite sir said his son in law you must know by this time or if you do not it has been a monstrous cruel injustice to me that i should have been allowed to remain in your mind with such a stain upon my character you must know that i used no or temptation of any kind her mother assented she assented i took d a group of noble them at their word that you was really opposed to the marriage was not known to me till afterwards professed to believe not a word of it you sha n t have her till she s full no maid ought to be married till she s and my daughter sha n t be treated out of so he on till who had been listening in the next room entered suddenly declaring to that his master s life was in danger if the	45
interview were prolonged he being subject to strokes at these immediately said that he would be the last to wish to injure squire and left the room and as soon as the squire had recovered breath and he went out of the inn leaning on the arm of was for sleeping in that night but whose energy seemed as invincible as it was sudden insisted upon mounting and getting back as far as falls park to continue the journey to king s on the following day at five they started and took the southern road toward the hills the evening was dry and windy and excepting that the sun did not shine strongly reminded of the evening of that march month nearly five years earlier when news had been brought to king s court of the child s marriage in london news which had produced upon such a marked effect for the worse ever since and indirectly upon the household of which he was the head before that time the were lively at falls park as well as at king s although the squire had ceased to make it his regular residence hunting guests and shooting guests came and went and a group of noble open house was kept disliked the clever who had put a stop to this by taking away from the squire the only treasure he valued it grew darker with their progress along the lanes and discovered from mr s manner of riding that his strength was giving way and his own horse close alongside he asked him how he felt oh bad damn bad i can hardly keep my seat i shall never be any better i fear have we passed three man yet not yet by a long ways sir i wish we had i can hardly hold on the squire could not repress a groan now and then and knew he was in great pain i wish i was that s the place for such fools as i i d gladly be there if it were not for mistress he s coming on to king s to morrow he won t put it off any longer he ll set out and reach there to morrow night without stopping at falls and hell take her unawares and i want to be there before him i hope you may be well enough to do it sir but really i must you don t know what my trouble is it is not so much that she is married to this man without my agreeing for after all there s nothing to say against him so far as i know but that she don t take to him at all seems to fear him in fact cares nothing about him and if he comes forcing himself into the house upon her why be rank cruelty would to the lord something would happen to prevent him how they reached home that night hardly knew the squire was in such pain that he was a group of noble obliged to upon his horse and was afraid every moment lest he would fall into the road but they did reach home at last and mr was instantly assisted to bed next morning it was obvious that he could not possibly go to king s for several days at least and there on the bed he lay cursing his inability to proceed on an errand so personal and so delicate that no could perform it what he wished to do was to ascertain from s own lips if her aversion to was so strong that his presence would be positively distasteful to her were that the case he would have borne her away bodily on the saddle behind him but all that was now and he repeated a hundred times in s hearing and in that of the nurse and other servants i wish to god something would happen to him this sentiment by the squire as he tossed in the agony induced by the powerful of the day before entered sharply into the soul of and of all who were attached to the house of as distinct from the house of his wife at king s who was an man was hardly less by the thought of s return than the squire himself was as the week drew on and the afternoon advanced at which would in all probability be passing near falls on his way to the court the squire s feelings became and the could hardly bear to come near him having left him in the hands of the doctor the former went out upon the lawn for he could hardly breathe in the a group of noble of excitement caught from the employer who had made him his he had lived with the from his boyhood had been born under the shadow of their walls his whole life was and to the life of the family in a degree which has no in these latter days he was summoned indoors and learnt that it had been decided to send for mrs her husband was in great danger there were two or three who could have acted as messenger but wished to go the reason showing itself when being ready to start squire summoned him to his chamber and leaned down so that he could whisper in his ear put along smart and get there before him you know before him this is the day he fixed he has not passed falls cross roads yet if you can do that you will be able to get to come d ye see after her mother has started she ll have a reason for not waiting for him bring her by the lower road he ll go by the upper your business is to make em miss each other d ye see but that s a thing i couldn	45
t write down five minutes after was the horse and on his way the way he had followed so many times since his master a young had first gone to king s court as soon as he had crossed the hills in the immediate neighbourhood of the the road lay over a plain where it ran in long straight stretches for several miles in the best of times when all had been gay in the united houses that part of the road had seemed tedious it was gloomy in the a group of noble extreme now that he pursued it at night and alone on such an errand he rode and if the squire were to die he would be alone in the world and for he was no favourite with mrs and to find himself baffled after all in what he had set his mind on would probably kill the squire thinking thus stopped his horse every now and then and listened for the coming husband the time was drawing on to the moment when might be expected to pass along this very route he had watched the road well during the afternoon and had inquired of the as he came up to each and he was convinced that the premature descent of the stranger husband upon his young mistress had not been made by this highway as yet besides the mother was the only member of the household who suspected s tender feelings towards young so unhappily on her return from school and he could therefore imagine even better than her fond father what would be her emotions on the sudden announcement of s advent that evening at king s court so he rode and rode and hopeful by turns he felt assured that unless in the unfortunate event of the almost immediate arrival of her son in law at his own heels mrs would not be able to hinder s departure for her father s bedside it was about nine o clock that having put twenty miles of country behind him he turned in at the nearest to and king s village and pursued the long north drive itself much like a a group of noble road which led thence through the park to the court though there were so many trees in king s park few bordered the carriage he could see it stretching ahead in the pale night light like an deal presently the irregular of the house came in view of great extent but low except where it rose into the outlines of a broad square tower as approached he rode aside upon the grass to make sure if possible that he was the first comer before letting his presence be known the court was dark and sleepy in no respect as if a bridegroom were about to arrive while pausing he distinctly heard the tread of a horse upon the track behind him and for a moment of arriving in time here surely was pulling up closer to the tree at hand he waited and found he had retreated nothing too soon for the second rider avoided the gravel also and passed quite close to him in the he recognized young before could think what to do had gone on but not to the door of the house to the left he passed round to the east angle where as knew were situated s apartments he left the horse to a hanging bough and walked on to the house suddenly his eye caught sight of an object which explained the position immediately it was a ladder stretching from beneath the trees which there came pretty close to the house up to a first floor window one which lighted miss s rooms yes it was s chamber he knew every room in the house well the young who had passed him having a group of noble evidently left his somewhere under the trees also was perceptible at the top of the ladder immediately outside s window while watched a female figure stepped timidly over the sill and the two cautiously descended one before the other the young man s arms the young woman between his grasp of the ladder so that she could not fall as soon as they reached the bottom young quickly removed the ladder and hid it under the bushes the pair disappeared till in a few minutes could discern a horse emerging from a part of the the horse carried double the girl being on a behind her lover hardly knew what to do or think yet though this was not exactly the kind of flight that had been intended she had certainly escaped he went back to his own animal and rode round to the servants door where he delivered the letter for mrs to leave a verbal message for was now impossible the court servants desired him to stay over the night but he would not do so desiring to get back to the squire as soon as possible and tell what he had seen whether he ought not to have the young people and carried off himself to her father he did not know however it was too late to think of that now and without his lips or a turned his back upon king s court it was not till he had advanced a considerable distance on his way homeward that halting under the lantern of a roadside inn while the horse was watered there came a traveller from the opposite direction in a hired coach the lantern lit the stranger s face as he passed a group of noble along and dropped into the shade for the moment though he could hardly have justified his exultation the traveller was and another had stepped in before him you may now be willing to know of the fortunes of miss left much to herself through the intervening days she had ample time to	45
the physician had given up all hope the squire was sinking and his extreme weakness had almost changed his character except in the particular that his old obstinacy sustained him in a refusal to see a clergyman he shed tears at the least word and sobbed at the sight of his wife he asked for and it was with a heavy heart that mrs told him that the girl had not her he is not keeping her away a group of noble no no he is going back he is not coming to her or some time then what is her cruel maid no no thomas she is she could not come how s that somehow the solemnity of these last moments of his gave him power and the too cold wife could not conceal from him the flight which had taken place from king s that night to her amazement the effect upon him was what a after all she s her father s own maid she s game she knew he was her father s own choice she vowed that my man should win well done bet he had raised himself in bed by starts as he spoke and now fell back exhausted he never uttered another word and died before the dawn people said there had not been such an death in a good county family for years now i will go back to the time of s riding off on the behind her lover they left the park by an obscure gate to the east and presently found themselves in the lonely and solitary length of the old roman road now called long ash lane by this time they were rather alarmed at their own performance for they were both young and inexperienced hence they proceeded almost in silence till they came to a mean roadside inn which was not yet closed when who had held on to him with much all this while felt dreadfully and said she thought she would like to get down a group of noble they accordingly dismounted from the animal that had brought them and were shown into a small dark parlour where they stood side by side awkwardly like the they were a light was brought and when they were left alone threw off the cloak which had enveloped her no sooner did young see her face than he uttered an alarmed why lord lord you are sickening for the he cried h i forgot faltered and then she informed him that on hearing of her husband s approach the week before in a desperate attempt to keep him from her side she had tried to the an act which till this moment she had supposed to have been ineffectual imagining her to be the result of her excitement the effect of this discovery upon young was overwhelming better men than he would not have been proof against it and he was only a little over her own age and you ve been holding on to me he said and suppose you get worse and we both have it what shall we do won t you be a fright in a month or two poor poor in his horror he attempted to laugh but the laugh ended in a weakly she was more woman than girl by this time and realized his feeling what in trying to keep off him i keep off you she said miserably do you hate me because i am going to be ugly and ill oh no no he said soothingly but i i am thinking if it is quite right for us to do this you see dear if you was not married it would be different a group of noble you are not in honour married to him often said still you are his by law and you can t be mine whilst he s alive and with this terrible sickness coming on perhaps you had better let me take you back and climb in at the window again is this your love said reproachfully oh if you was sickening for the plague itself and going to be as ugly as the in the church i wouldn t no no you mistake upon my soul but with a swollen heart had herself and gone out of the door the horse was still standing there she mounted by the help of the stock and when he had followed her she said do not come near me but please lead the horse so that if you ve not caught anything already you ll not catch it going back after all what keeps off you may keep off him now onward he did not resist her command and back they went by the way they had come shedding bitter tears at the she had already brought upon herself for though she had reproached she was enough not to blame him in her secret heart for showing that his love was only skin deep the horse was stopped in the plantation and they walked silently to the lawn reaching the bushes wherein the ladder still lay will you put it up for me she asked mournfully he re erected the ladder without a word but when she approached to ascend he said good bye good bye said she and involuntarily turned her face towards his he hung back from the expected kiss at which started as if she had received a wound she moved away so a group of noble suddenly that he hardly had time to follow her up the ladder to prevent her falling tell your mother to get the doctor at once he said anxiously she stepped in without looking behind he descended withdrew the ladder and went away alone in her chamber flung herself upon her face on the bed and burst into shaking sobs yet she would not admit to	45
herself that her lover s conduct was unreasonable only that her rash act of the previous week had been wrong no one had heard her enter and she was too worn out in body and mind to think or care about medical aid in an hour or so she felt yet more positively ill and nobody coming to her at the usual she looked towards the door marks of the lock having been forced were visible and this made her of a servant she opened the door cautiously and forth downstairs in the dining parlour as it was called the now sick and sorry was startled to see at that late hour not her mother but a man sitting calmly finishing his supper there was no servant in the room he turned and she recognized her husband where s my mamma she demanded without preface gone to your father s is that he stopped aghast yes sir this spotted object is your wife i ve done it because i don t want you to come near me he was sixteen years her senior old enough to be compassionate my poor child you must get to bed directly don t be afraid of me i ll carry you upstairs and send for a doctor instantly a group of noble ah you don t know what i am she cried i had a lover once but now he s gone t i who deserted him he has deserted me because i am ill he wouldn t kiss me though i wanted him to i wouldn t he then he was a very poor slack twisted sort of fellow never kissed you since you stood beside me as my little wife twelve years and a half old may i kiss you now v though by no means desired his kisses she had enough of the spirit of in s ballad to test his daring if you have courage to venture yes sir said she but you may die for it mind he came up to her and a deliberate kiss full upon her mouth saying may many others follow she shook her head and hastily withdrew though secretly pleased at his the excitement had supported her for the few minutes she had passed in his presence and she could hardly drag herself back to her room her husband summoned the servants and sending them to her assistance went off himself for a doctor the next morning waited at the court till he had learnt from the medical man that s attack promised to be a very light one or as it was expressed very fine and in taking his leave sent up a note to her now i must be gone i promised your mother i would not see you yet and she may be anger d if she finds me here promise to see me as soon as you are well he was of all men then living one of the best able to cope with such an situation as this a sagacious gentle man a philosopher who saw that the only constant attribute of life is change he e a group of noble held that as long as she lives there is nothing in the most impassioned attitude a woman may take up in twelve months his girl wife s recent might be as distasteful to her mind as it was now to his own in a few years her very flesh would change so said the scientific her spirit so much more was capable of changing in one was his and it became a mere question of means how to effect that change during the day mrs having closed her husband s eyes returned to the court she was truly relieved to find there even though on a bed of sickness the disease ran its course and in due time became without having suffered deeply for her one little speck beneath her ear and one beneath her chin being all the marks she retained the squire s body was not brought back to king s where he was born and where he had lived before wedding his sue there he had wished to be buried no sooner had she lost him than mrs like certain other wives though she had never shown any great affection for him while he lived awoke suddenly to his many virtues and embraced his opinion about s union with her husband which she had formerly poor man how right he was and how wrong was i eighteen was certainly the lowest age at which mr should claim her child nay it was too low far too low so desirous was she of her lamented husband s sentiments in this respect that she wrote to her son in law suggesting that partly on account of s sorrow for her father s loss and out of consideration for a group of noble his known wishes for delay should not be taken from her till her nineteenth birthday however much or little might have been to blame in his marriage the patient man now almost deserved to be pitied first s now her mother s face it was enough to anybody and he wrote to the widow in a tone which led to a little coolness between those hitherto firm friends however knowing that he had a wife not to claim but to win and that young had been packed off to sea by his parents was to a degree returning to london and holding quite aloof from and her mother who remained for the present in the country in town he had a mild of the he had taken from and in writing to her he took care not to dwell upon its it was now that began to pity him for what she had inflicted upon him by the kiss and her correspondence acquired a distinct of kindness owing to	45
his had grown to be truly in love with in his mild placid way in that way which perhaps upon the whole most generally to the woman s comfort under the institution of marriage if not particularly to her ecstasy mrs s exaggeration of her husband s wish for delay in their living together was inconvenient but he would not openly it he wrote tenderly to and soon announced that he had a little surprise in store for her the secret was that the king had been graciously pleased to inform him privately through a relation that his majesty was about to offer him a would she like the title to be moreover he had reason for knowing that in a a group of noble few years the dignity would be raised to that of an earl for which creation he thought the title of would be eminently suitable considering the position of much of their property as lady therefore and future of he should beg leave to offer her his heart a third time he did not add as he might have added how greatly the consideration of the enormous estates at king s and elsewhere which would inherit and her children after her had to this desirable honour whether the impending titles had really any effect upon s regard for him i cannot state for she was one of those close characters who never let their minds be known upon anything that such honour was absolutely unexpected by her from such a quarter is however certain and she could not deny that had shown her kindness forbearance even had forgiven her for an passion which he might with some reason have notwithstanding her cruel position as a child into marriage ere able to understand its bearings her mother in her grief and remorse for the life she had led with her rough though open hearted husband made now a creed of his merest whim and continued to insist that out of respect to his known desire her son in law should not reside with till the girl s father had been dead a year at least at which time the girl would still be under nineteen letters must suffice for till then it is rather long for him to wait hesitatingly said one day a group of noble what said her mother from you not to respect your dear father of course it is quite proper said hastily i don t it i was but thinking that in the long slow months of the interval her mother tended and trained carefully for her duties fully awake now to the many virtues of her dear departed one she among other acts of pious devotion to his memory the church of king s village and established valuable in all the villages of that name as far as to little several miles eastward in these works particularly that of the church building her daughter was her constant companion and the incidents of their execution were doubtless not without a soothing effect upon the young creature s heart she had sprung from girl to woman by a sudden bound and few would have recognized in the thoughtful face of now the same person who the year before had seemed to have absolutely no idea whatever of responsibility moral or other time passed thus till the squire had been nearly a year in his vault and mrs was duly asked by letter by the patient if she were willing for him to come soon he did not wish to take away i her mother s sense of loneliness would be too great but would willingly live at king s awhile with them before the widow had replied to this communication she one day happened to observe walking on the south terrace in the full sunlight without hat or mantle and was struck by her child s figure mrs called her in and said suddenly have you seen your husband since the time of your poor father s death a group of noble well yes mamma says colouring what against my wishes and those of your dear father i am shocked at your but my father said eighteen ma am and you made it much longer why of course out of consideration for you when have ye seen him well stammered in the course of his letters to me he said that i belonged to him and if nobody knew that we met it would make no difference and that i need not hurt your feelings by telling you well so i went to that time you went to london about five months ago and met him there when did you come back dear mamma it grew very late and he said it was safer not to go back till next day as the roads were bad and as you were away from home i don t want to hear any more this is your respect for your father s memory groaned the widow when did you meet him again oh not more than a fortnight a fortnight how many times have ye seen him altogether i m sure mamma i ve not seen him altogether a dozen times a dozen and eighteen and a half years old barely twice we met by accident pleaded once at s and another time at the red lion thou girl cried mrs an accident took you to the red lion whilst i was stay a group of noble ing at the white i remember you came in at twelve o clock at night and said you d been to see the cathedral by the light o the moon my ever honoured mamma so i had i i only went to the red lion with him afterwards h that my child should have deceived me even in my days but my dearest mamma you made me marry him says with spirit and	45
of course i ve to obey him more than you now mrs sighed all i have to say is that you d better get your husband to join you as soon as possible she remarked to go on playing the maiden like this i m ashamed to see you she wrote instantly to i wash my hands of the whole matter as between you two though i should advise you to openly join each other as soon as you can if you wish to avoid scandal he came though not till the promised title had been granted and he could call my lady people said in after years that she and her husband were very happy however that may be they had a numerous family and she became in due course first of as he had foretold the little white frock in which she had been married to him at the tender age of twelve was carefully preserved among the relics at king s court where it may still be seen by the curious a pathetic testimony to the small count taken of the happiness of an innocent child in the social of those days which might have led but did not lead to great a group of noble when the earl died wrote him an in which she described him as the best of husbands fathers and friends and called herself his widow such is woman or rather not to give offence by so sweeping an assertion such was it was at a meeting of one of the field and clubs that the foregoing story partly told partly read from a manuscript was made to do duty for the papers on ox horns and such like that usually occupied the more serious attention of the members this club was of an and character to a degree indeed remarkable for the part of england in which it had its being dear delightful whose are even now only just beginning to feel the shaking of the new and strange spirit without like that which entered the lonely valley of s vision and made the dry bones move where the honest clerks and people still praise the lord with one voice for his best of all possible worlds the present meeting which was to extend over two days had opened its proceedings at the museum of the town whose buildings and were to be visited by the members lunch had ended and the afternoon excursion had been about to be undertaken when the rain came down in an obstinate which revealed no sign of as the members waited they grew chilly although it was only autumn and a fire was lighted s a group of noble which threw a cheerful shine upon the coats of mail weapons and animated the and while the dead eyes of the stuffed birds those never absent in such though murdered to out of doors flashed as they had flashed to the rising sun above the neighbouring on the fatal morning when the was pulled which ended their little flight it was then that the historian produced his manuscript which he had prepared he said with a view to publication his delivery of the story having concluded as the speaker expressed his hope that the of the weather and the of more scientific papers would excuse any in his subject several members observed that a storm bound club could not presume to be and they were all very much obliged to him for such a curious chapter from the domestic histories of the county the president looked gloomily from the window at the descending rain and broke a short silence by saying that though the club had met there seemed little probability of its being able to visit the objects of interest set down among the the observed that they had at least a roof over their heads and they had also a second day before them a sentimental member leaning back in his chair declared that he was in no hurry to go out and that nothing would please him so much as another county story with or without manuscript the colonel added that the subject should be a lady a group of noble like the former to which a gentleman known as the spark said hear hear though these had spoken in jest a rural dean who was present observed that there was no lack of materials many indeed were the legends and traditions of gentle and noble renowned in times past in that part of england whose actions and passions were now but for men s memories buried under the brief inscription on a tomb or an entry of dates in a dry another member an old surgeon a somewhat grim though personage was quite of the speaker s opinion and felt quite sure that the memory of the reverend gentleman must abound with such curious tales of fair of their loves and hates their joys and their misfortunes their beauty and their fate the parson a trifle confused retorted that their friend the surgeon the son of a surgeon seemed to him as a man who had seen much and heard more during the long course of his own and his father s practice the member of all others most likely to be acquainted with such lore the the colonel the historian the the the two the gentleman the sentimental member the crimson the quiet gentleman the man of family the spark and several others quite agreed and begged that he would recall something of the kind the old surgeon said that though a meeting of the mid field and club was the last place at which he should have expected to be called upon in this way he had no objection and the parson said he would a group of noble come next the surgeon then reflected and decided to relate the history of a lady	45
named who lived towards the end of the last century for his tale as being perhaps a little too professional the crimson winked to the spark at hearing the nature of the apology and the surgeon dame the second of the house of old a group of noble dame the second of the house of by the old surgeon it was apparently an idea rather than a passion that inspired lord resolve to win her nobody ever knew when he formed it or whence he got his assurance of success in the face of her manifest dislike of him possibly not until after that first important act of her life which i shall presently mention his and cynical at the age of nineteen when impulse mostly rules calculation was remarkable and might have owed its existence as much to his succession to the and its accompanying local honours in childhood as to the family character an elevation which jerked him into maturity so to speak without his having known he had only reached his twelfth year when his father the fourth earl died after a course of the bath waters nevertheless the family character had a great deal to do with it determination was hereditary in the of that sometimes for good sometimes for evil a group of noble the seats of the two families were about ten miles apart the way between them lying along the now old then new road connecting and war borne with the city of a road which though only a branch from what was known as the great western highway is probably even at present as it has been for the last hundred years one of the finest examples of a track that can be found in england the mansion of the earl as well as that of his neighbour s father stood back about a mile from the highway with which each was connected by an ordinary drive and lodge it was along this particular highway that the young earl drove on a certain evening at some twenty years before the end of the last century to attend a ball at the home of and her parents sir john and lady sir john s was a created a few years before the breaking out of the civil war and his lands were even more extensive than those of lord himself this of another on the coast near half the hundred of and well enclosed lands in several other and those at this time was barely seventeen and the ball is the first occasion on which we have any tradition of lord attempting tender relations with her it was early enough god knows an intimate friend one of the is said to have dined with him that day and lord had for a wonder communicated to his guest the secret design of his heart you ll never get her sure you ll never get her a group of noble this friend had said at parting she s not drawn to your by love and as for thought of a good match why there s no more calculation in her than in a bird we ll see said lord he no doubt thought of his friend s as he travelled along the highway in his chariot but the repose of his against the vanishing daylight on his right hand would have shown his friend that the earl s was undisturbed he reached the solitary tavern called inn the of many a daring for operations in the adjoining forest and he might have observed if he had taken the trouble a strange post chaise standing in the halting space before the inn he duly sped past it and half an hour after through the little town of onward a mile farther was the house of his at this date it was an imposing edifice or rather of as extensive as the residence of the earl himself though far less regular one wing showed extreme antiquity having huge chimneys whose projected from the external walls like towers and a kitchen of vast dimensions in which it was said had been cooked for john of gaunt whilst he was yet in the he could hear the of french horns and the favourite instruments of those days at such entering the long parlour in which the dance had just been opened by lady with a it being now seven o clock according to the tradition he was received with a welcome his rank and looked round for she was not dancing and seemed f a group of noble to be almost indeed as though she had been waiting for him at this time was a good and pretty girl who never spoke ill of any one and hated other pretty women the very least possible she did not refuse him for the country dance which followed and soon after was his partner in a second the evening wore on and the horns and merrily evinced towards her lover neither distinct preference nor aversion but old eyes would have seen that she pondered something however after supper she pleaded a headache and disappeared to pass the time of her absence lord went into a little room adjoining the long gallery where some elderly ones were sitting by the fire for he had a dislike of dancing for its own sake and lifting the window curtains he looked out of the window into the park and wood dark now as a some of the guests appeared to be leaving even so soon as this two lights showing themselves as turning away from the door and sinking to nothing in the distance his hostess put her head into the room to look for partners for the ladies and lord came out lady informed him that had not returned to the ball room she had gone to bed in sheer necessity she	45
has been so excited over the ball all day her mother continued that i feared she would be worn out early but sure lord you won t be leaving yet he said that it was near twelve o clock and that some had already left i protest nobody has gone yet said lady a group of noble to humour her he stayed till midnight and then set out he had made no progress in his suit but he had assured himself that gave no other guest the preference and nearly everybody in the neighbourhood was there tis only a matter of time said the calm young philosopher the next morning he lay till near ten o clock and he had only just come out upon the head of the staircase when he heard hoofs upon the gravel without in a few moments the door had been opened and sir john met him in the hall as he set foot on the lowest stair my lord where s my daughter even the earl of could not repress amazement what s the matter my dear sir john says he the news was startling indeed from the s explanation lord gathered that after his own and the other guests departure sir john and lady had gone to rest without seeing any more of it being understood by them that she had retired to bed when she sent word to say that she could not join the dancers again before then she had told her maid that she would dispense with her services for this night and there was evidence to show that the young lady had never lain down at all the bed remaining circumstances seemed to prove that the girl had feigned to get an excuse for leaving the ball room and that she had left the house within ten minutes during the first dance after supper i saw her go said lord a group of noble the devil you did says sir john yes and he mentioned the retreating and how he was assured by lady that no guest had departed surely that was it said the father but she s not gone alone d ye know ah who is the young man i can on y guess my worst fear is my most guess i ll say no more i thought yet i would not believe it possible that you was the sinner would that you had been but tis t other tis t other by g i must e en up and after em whom do you suspect sir john would not give a name and rather than agitated lord accompanied him back to he again asked upon whom were the s suspicions directed and the impulsive sir john was no match for the of he said at length i fear tis who s he a young fellow of a s son the other told him and explained that s father or grandfather was the last of the old glass painters hi that place where as you may know the art lingered on when it had died out in every other part of england by g that s bad mighty bad said lord throwing himself back in the chaise in despair they despatched in all directions one by the road another by another a group of noble but the lovers had a ten hours start and it was apparent that sound judgment had been exercised in choosing as their time of flight the particular night when the movements of a strange carriage would not be noticed either in the park or on the neighbouring highway owing to the general press of the chaise which had been seen waiting at inn was no doubt the one they had escaped in and the pair of heads which had planned so cleverly thus far had probably contrived marriage ere now the fears of her parents were realized a letter sent by special messenger from on the evening of that day briefly informed them that her lover and herself were on the way to london and before this communication reached her home they would be united as husband and wife she had taken this extreme step because she loved her dear as she could love no other man and because she had seen closing round her the doom of marriage with lord unless she put that threatened fate out of possibility by doing as she had done she had well considered the step beforehand and was prepared to live like any other country s wife if her father her for her action d her said lord as he drove homeward that night d her for a fool which shows the kind of love he bore her well sir john had already started in pursuit of them as a matter of duty driving like a wild man to and thence by the direct highway to the capital but he soon saw that he was acting to no purpose and by and by discovering that the marriage a group of noble had actually taken place he all attempts to them in the city and returned and sat down with his lady to the event as best they could to proceed against this for the of our was possibly in their power yet when they considered the now facts they refrained from violent some six weeks passed during which time s parents though they keenly felt her loss held no communication with the either for reproach or they continued to think of the disgrace she had brought upon herself for though the young man was an honest fellow and the son of an honest father the latter had died so early and his widow had had such struggles to maintain herself that the son was very imperfectly educated moreover his blood was as far as they knew of no distinction whatever whilst hers through her mother was of	45
the best of ancient containing of and and and and and and and york and and god knows what besides which it was a thousand to throw away the father and mother sat by the fireplace that was by the four arch bearing the family on its and groaned aloud the lady more than sir john to think this should have come upon us in our old age said he speak for yourself she snapped through her sobs i am only one and forty why didn t ye ride faster and overtake em in the meantime the young married lovers caring no a group of noble more about their blood than about ditch water were intensely happy happy that is in the descending scale which as we all know heaven in its wisdom has ordained for such rash cases that is to say the first week they were in the seventh heaven the second in the sixth the third week temperate the fourth and so on a lover s heart after possession being to the earth in its stages as described to us sometimes by our worthy president first a hot coal then a warm one then a then chilly the shall be pursued no further the long and the short of it was that one day a letter sealed with their daughter s own little seal came into sir john and lady s hands and on opening it they found it to contain an appeal from the young couple to sir john to forgive them for what they had done and they would fall on their naked knees and be most dutiful children for then sir john and his lady sat down again by the fireplace with the four arch and consulted and re read the letter sir john if the truth must be told loved his daughter s happiness far more poor man than he loved his name and he recalled to his mind all her little ways gave vent to a sigh and by this time to the idea of the marriage said that what was done could not be undone and that he supposed they must not be too harsh with her perhaps and her husband were in actual need and how could they let their only child starve a slight consolation had come to them in an unexpected manner they had been informed that an of was once honoured with with a of the aristocracy who had a group of noble gone to the dogs in short such is the foolishness of distinguished parents and sometimes of others also that they wrote that very day to the address had given them informing her that she might return home and bring her husband with her they would not object to see him would not reproach her and would endeavour to welcome both and to discuss with them what could best be arranged for their future in three or four days a rather shabby post chaise drew up at the door of house at sound of which the tender hearted and his wife ran out as if to welcome a prince and princess of the blood they were to see their spoilt child return safe and sound though she was only mrs wife of of nowhere burst into tears and both husband and wife were enough as well they might be considering that they had not a guinea to call their own when the four had themselves and not a word of had been uttered to the pair they discussed the position young sitting in the background with great modesty till invited forward by lady in no tone how handsome he is she said to herself i don t wonder at s for him he was indeed one of the men who ever set his lips on a maid s a blue coat waistcoat and breeches of set off a figure that could scarcely be surpassed he had large dark eyes anxious now as they glanced from to her parents and tenderly back again to her observing whom even now in her one could see why a group of noble the sang of lord had been raised to more than her fair young face according to the tale handed down by old women looked out from under a gray hat trimmed with feathers and her little toes peeped from a worn under a gown her features were not regular they were almost as you may see from in possession of the family her mouth showing much and one could be sure that her faults would not lie on the side of bad temper unless for urgent reasons well they discussed their state as became them and the desire of the young couple to gain the of those upon whom they were literally dependent for everything induced them to agree to any measure that was not too irksome therefore ha been nearly two months united they did not oppose sir john s proposal that he should furnish with funds sufficient for him to travel a year on the continent in the company of a the young man undertaking to lend himself with the utmost diligence to the s instructions till he became polished outwardly and inwardly to the degree required in the husband of such a lady as he was to apply himself to the study of languages manners history society ruins and everything else that came under his eyes till he should return to take his place without blushing by s side and by that time said worthy sir john ril get my little place out at ready for you and to occupy on your return the house is small and out of the way but it will do for a young couple for a while a group of noble if no bigger than a summer house it would do says if no bigger than a chair says and the more lonely the	45
better we can put up with the loneliness said with less zest some friends will come no doubt all this being laid down a travelled was called in a man of many gifts and great experience and on a fine morning away and pupil went a great reason urged against accompanying her youthful husband was that his attentions to her would naturally be such as to prevent his every hour of his time to learning and seeing an argument of wise and regular days for were fixed and her exchanged their last kisses at the door and the chaise swept under the into the drive he wrote to her from le as soon as he reached that port which was not for seven days on account of adverse winds he wrote from and from paris described to her his sight of the king and court at and the wonderful marble work and in that palace wrote next from then after a comparatively long interval from his fearful adventures in crossing on and how he was overtaken with a terrific which had well nigh been the end of him and his and his guides then he wrote of italy and could see the development of her husband s mind reflected in his letters month by month and she much admired the of her father in suggesting this education for yet she sighed sometimes a group of noble her husband being no longer in evidence to her in her choice of him and timidly dreaded what might be in store for her by reason of this she went out very little for on the one or two occasions on which she had shown herself to former friends she noticed a distinct difference in their manner as though they should say ah my happy s wife you re caught s letters were as affectionate as ever even more affectionate after a while than hers were to him observed this growing coolness in herself and like a good and honest lady was and grieved since her only wish was to act faithfully and it troubled her so much that she prayed for a warmer heart and at last wrote to her husband to beg him now that he was in the land of art to send her his portrait ever so small that she might look at it all day and every day and never for a moment forget his features was nothing loth and replied that he would do more than she wished he had made friends with a in who was much interested in him and his history and he had this artist to make a bust of himself in marble which when finished he would send her what had wanted was something immediate but she expressed no objection to the delay and in his next communication told her that the of his own choice had decided to increase the bust to a full length statue so anxious was he to get a specimen of his skill introduced to the notice of the english aristocracy it was well and rapidly meanwhile s attention began to be occupied a group of noble at home with lodge the house that her father was preparing for her residence when her husband returned it was a small place on the plan of a large one a cottage built in the form of a mansion having a central hall with a wooden gallery running round it and rooms no bigger than to follow this introduction it stood on a slope so solitary and surrounded by trees so dense that the birds who inhabited the boughs sang at strange hours as if they hardly could distinguish night from day during the progress of at this bower frequently visited it though so secluded by the dense growth it was near the high road and one day while looking over the fence she saw lord riding past he saluted her courteously yet with mechanical and did not halt went home and continued to pray that she might never cease to love her husband after that she and did not come out of doors again for a long time the year of education had extended to fourteen months and the house was in order for s return to take up his abode there with when instead of the accustomed letter for her came one to sir john in the handwriting of the said informing him of a terrible catastrophe that had occurred to them at mr and himself had attended the theatre one night during the of the preceding week to witness the italian comedy when owing to the carelessness of one of the candle the theatre had caught fire and been burnt to the ground few persons had lost their lives owing to the exertions of some of the audience in getting out the senseless a group of noble and among them all he who had risked his own life the most was mr in for the fifth time to save his fellow creatures some fiery beams had fallen upon him and he had been given up for lost he was however by the blessing of providence recovered with the life still in him though he was fearfully burnt and by almost a miracle he seemed likely to survive his constitution being sound he was of course unable to write but he was receiving the attention of several skilful further report would be made by the next mail or by private hand the said nothing in detail of poor s sufferings but as soon as the news was broken to she realized how intense they must have been and her immediate instinct was to rush to his side though on consideration the journey seemed impossible to her her health was by no means what it had been and to post across europe at that season of the year or to the bay of in	45
a sailing craft was an undertaking that would hardly be justified by the result but she was anxious to go till on reading to the end of the letter her husband s was found to hint very strongly against such a step if it should be contemplated this being also the opinion of the and though s comrade refrained from giving his reasons they disclosed themselves plainly enough in the the truth was that the worst of the wounds from the fire had occurred to his head and face that handsome face which had won her heart from her and both the and the knew that for a sensitive young woman to see him before his wounds had healed a group of noble cause more misery to her by the shock than happiness to him by her lady out what sir john and had thought but had had too much delicacy to express sure tis mighty hard for you poor that the one little gift he had to justify your rash choice of him his wonderful good looks should be taken away like this to leave ee no excuse at all for your conduct in the world s eyes well i wish you d married t other that do i and the lady sighed he ll soon get right again said her father soothingly such remarks as the above were not often made but they were frequent enough to cause an uneasy sense of self she determined to hear them no longer and the house at being ready and furnished she withdrew thither with her maids where for the first time she could feel mistress of a home that would be hers and her husband s exclusively when he came after long weeks had recovered sufficiently to be able to write himself and slowly and tenderly he enlightened her upon the full extent of his injuries it was a mercy he said that he had not lost his sight entirely but he was thankful to say that he still retained full vision in one eye though the other was dark for ever the manner in which he out particulars of his condition told how appalling had been his experience he was grateful for her assurance that nothing could change her but feared she did not fully realize that he was so sadly as to make it doubtful if she would recognize him however in spite of all his heart was as true to her as it ever had been a group of noble saw from his anxiety how much lay behind she replied that she submitted to the of fate and would welcome him in any shape as soon as he could come she told him of the pretty retreat in which she had taken up her abode their joint occupation of it and did not reveal how much she had sighed over the information that all his good looks were gone still less did she say that she felt a certain strangeness in awaiting him the weeks they had lived together having been so short by comparison with the length of his absence slowly drew on the time when found himself well enough to come home he landed at and posted thence towards arranged to go out to meet him as far as inn the spot between the forest and the chase at which he had waited for night on the evening of their thither she drove at the appointed hour in a little pony chaise presented her by her father on her birthday for her especial use in her new house which vehicle she sent back on arriving at the inn the plan agreed upon being that she should perform the return journey with her husband in his hired coach there was not much accommodation for a lady at this tavern but as it wa a fine evening in early summer she did not mind walking about outside and straining her eyes along the highway for the expected one but each cloud of dust that enlarged in the distance and drew near was found to disclose a conveyance other than his post chaise remained till the appointment was two hours passed and then began to fear that owing to some adverse wind in the channel he was not coming that night a group of noble while waiting she was conscious of a curious that was not entirely solicitude and did not amount to dread her tense state of bordered both on disappointment and on relief she had lived six or seven weeks with an imperfectly educated yet handsome husband whom now she had not seen for seventeen months and who was so changed physically by an accident that she was assured she would hardly know him can we wonder at her compound state of mind but her immediate difficulty was to get away from inn for her situation was becoming embarrassing like too many of s actions this drive had been undertaken without much reflection expecting to wait no more than a few minutes for her in his and to enter it with him she had not hesitated to herself by sending back her own little vehicle she now found that being so well known in this neighbourhood her excursion to meet her long absent husband was exciting great interest she was conscious that more eyes were watching her from the inn windows than met her own gaze had decided to get home by whatever kind of conveyance the tavern afforded when straining her eyes for the last time over the now darkening high she perceived yet another dust cloud drawing near she paused a chariot ascended to the inn and would have passed had not its caught sight of her standing the horses were checked on the instant you here and alone my dear mrs said lord whose carriage it was she explained what had brought her into this	45
lonely situation and as he was going in the direction of her a group of noble own home she accepted his offer of a seat beside him their conversation was embarrassed and at first but when they had driven a mile or two she was surprised to find herself talking earnestly and warmly to him her was in truth but the natural consequence of her late existence a somewhat desolate one by reason of the strange marriage she had made and there is no more mood than that of a woman surprised into talk who has long been imposing upon herself a policy of reserve therefore her heart rose with a bound into her throat when in response to his leading questions or rather hints she allowed her troubles to out of her lord took her quite to her own door although he had driven three miles out of his way to do so and in handing her down she heard from him a whisper of stern reproach it need not have been thus if you had listened to me she made no reply and went indoors there as the evening wore away she regretted more and more that she had been so friendly with lord but he had launched himself upon her so unexpectedly if she had only foreseen the meeting with him what a careful line of conduct she would have marked out broke into a perspiration of when she thought of her and in self resolved to sit up till midnight on the bare chance of s return directing that supper should be laid for him improbable as his arrival till the morrow was the hours went past and there was dead silence in and round about lodge except for the of the trees till when it was near upon midnight she heard the noise of hoofs and wheels approaching the g i a group of noble door knowing that it could only be her husband instantly went into the hall to meet him yet she stood there not without a sensation of so many were the changes since their parting and owing to her casual encounter with lord his voice and image still remained with her her husband from the inner circle of her impressions but she went to the door and the next moment a figure stepped inside of which she knew the outline but little besides her husband was attired in a flapping black cloak and hat appearing altogether as a foreigner and not as the young english who had left her side when he came forward into the light of the lamp she perceived with surprise and almost with fright that he wore a mask at first she had not noticed this there being nothing in its colour which would lead a casual observer to think he was looking on anything but a real countenance he must have seen her start of dismay at the of his appearance for he said hastily i did not mean to come in to you like this i thought you would have been in bed how good you are dear he put his arm round her but he did not attempt to kiss her it is you it must be she said with clasped hands for though his figure and movement were almost enough to prove it and the tones were not unlike the old tones the was so altered as to seem that of a stranger i am covered like this to hide myself from the curious eyes of the inn servants and others he said in a a group of noble low voice i will send back the carriage and join you in a moment you are quite alone quite my companion stopped at the wheels of the post chaise rolled away as she entered the dining room where the supper was spread and presently he rejoined her there he had removed his cloak and hat but the mask was still retained and she could now see that it was of special make of some material like silk coloured so as to represent flesh it joined naturally to the front hair and was otherwise cleverly executed you look ill he said removing his glove and taking her hand yes i have been ill said she is this pretty little house ours o yes she was hardly conscious of her words for the hand he had in order to take hers was and had one or two of its fingers missing while through the mask she discerned the twinkle of one eye only i would give anything to kiss you dearest now at this moment he continued with mournful but i cannot in this guise the servants are i suppose yes said she but i can call them you will have some supper he said he would have some but that it was not necessary to call anybody at that hour thereupon they approached the table and sat down facing each other despite s scared state of mind it was forced upon her notice that her husband trembled as if he a group of noble feared the impression he was producing or was about to produce as much as or more than she he drew nearer and took her hand again i had this mask made at he began in evident embarrassment my darling my dearest wife do you think you will mind when i take it off you will not dislike me will you o of course i shall not mind said she what has happened to you is our misfortune but i am prepared for it are you sure you are prepared o yes you are my husband you really feel quite confident that nothing external can affect you he said again in a voice rendered uncertain by his agitation i think i am quite she answered faintly he	45
bent his head i hope i hope you are he whispered in the pause which followed the of the clock in the hall seemed to grow loud and he turned a little aside to remove the mask she awaited the operation which was one of some watching him one moment her face the next and when it was done she shut her eyes at the hideous spectacle that was revealed a quick of horror had passed through her but though she she forced herself to regard him anew the cry that would naturally have escaped from her lips unable to look at him longer sank down on the floor beside her chair covering her eyes you cannot look at me he groaned in a hopeless way i am too terrible an object even for you to bear a group of noble i knew it yet i hoped against it oh this is a bitter fate curse the skill of those who saved me alive look up he continued view me completely say you me if you do me and settle the case between us for ever his unhappy wife pulled herself together for a desperate strain he was her he had done her no wrong he had suffered a momentary devotion to him helped her and lifting her eyes as she regarded this human remnant this a second time but the sight was too much she again involuntarily looked aside and shuddered do you think you can get used to this he said yes or no can you bear such a thing of the near you judge for yourself your your man has come to this the poor lady stood beside him motionless save for the restlessness of her eyes all her natural sentiments of affection and pity were driven clean out of her by a sort of panic she had just the same sense of dismay and that she would have had in the presence of an apparition she could fancy this to be her chosen one the man she had loved he was to a specimen of another species i do not you she said with trembling but i am so so overcome let me recover myself will you sup now and while you do so may i go to my room to regain my old feeling for you i will try if i may leave you awhile yes i will try without waiting for an answer from him and keeping her gaze carefully averted the frightened woman crept s a group of noble to the door and out of the room she heard him sit down to the table as if to begin supper though heaven knows his appetite was slight enough after a reception which had confirmed his worst when had ascended the stairs and arrived in her chamber she sank down and buried her face in the of the bed thus she remained for some time the bed chamber was over the dining room and presently as she knelt heard thrust back his chair and rise to go into the hall in five minutes that figure would probably come up the stairs and her again it this new and terrible form that was not her husband s in the loneliness of this night with neither maid nor friend beside her she lost all self control and at the first sound of his footstep on the stairs without so much as flinging a cloak round her she flew from the room ran along the gallery to the back staircase which she descended and the back door let herself out she scarcely was aware what she had done till she found herself in the crouching on a flower stand here she remained her great timid eyes strained through the glass upon the garden without and her skirts gathered up in fear of the field which sometimes came there every moment she dreaded to hear footsteps which she ought by law to have longed for and a voice that should have been as music to her soul but came not that way the nights were getting short at this season and soon the dawn appeared and the first rays of the sun by daylight she had less fear than in the dark she thought she could meet him and herself to the spectacle a group of noble so the much tried young woman the door of the hot house and went back by the way she had emerged a few hours ago her poor husband was probably in bed and asleep his journey having been long and she made as little noise as possible in her entry the house was just as she had left it and she looked about in the hall for his cloak and hat but she could not see them nor did she perceive the small trunk which had been all that he brought with him his heavier baggage having been left at for the road she summoned courage to mount the stairs the bedroom door was open as she had left it she fearfully peeped round the bed had not been pressed perhaps he had lain down on the dining room sofa she descended and entered he was not there on the table beside his plate lay a note hastily written on the leaf of a pocket it was something like this my ever beloved wife the effect that my forbidding appearance has produced upon you was one which i foresaw as quite possible i hoped against it but foolishly so i was aware that no human love could survive such a catastrophe i confess i thought yours divine but after so long an absence there could not be left sufficient warmth to overcome the too natural first aversion it was an experiment and it has failed i do not blame you perhaps even it is better so good bye i leave england for one year you	45
will see me again at the of that time if i live then i will ascertain your true feeling and if it be against me go away for ever e w on recovering from her surprise s remorse a group of noble was such that she felt herself absolutely she should have regarded him as an afflicted being and not have been this slave to mere like a child to follow him and entreat him to return was her first thought but on making inquiries she found that nobody had seen him he had silently disappeared more than this to undo the scene of last night was impossible her terror had been too plain and he was a man unlikely to be back by her efforts to do her duty she went and confessed to her parents all that had occurred which indeed soon became known to more persons than those of her own family the year passed and he did not return and it was doubted if he were alive s for her was now such that she longed to build a church aisle or erect a monument and devote herself to deeds of charity for the remainder of her days to that end she made inquiry of the excellent par n under whom she sat on sundays at a distance of twenty feet but he could only his wig and tap his snuff box for such was the state of religion in those days that not an aisle porch east window ten board lion and or brass was required anywhere at all in the neighbourhood as a offering from a distracted soul the last century greatly in this respect with the happy times in which we live when urgent appeals for to such objects pour in by every morning s post and nearly all churches have been made to look like new as the poor lady could not ease her conscience this way she determined at least to be charitable and soon had the satisfaction of finding a group of noble her porch thronged every morning by the most drunken and worthless in but human hearts are as prone to change as the leaves of the on the wall and in the course of time hearing nothing of her husband could sit unmoved whilst her mother and friends said in her hearing well what has happened is for the best she began to think so herself for even now she could not summon up that and form without a shiver though whenever her mind flew back to her early wedded days and the man who had stood beside her then a thrill of tenderness moved her which if quickened by his living presence might have become strong she was young and inexperienced and had hardly on his late return grown out of the capricious fancies of ut he did not come again and when she thought of his word that he would return once more if living and how unlikely he was to break his word she gave him up for dead so did her parents so also did another person that man of silence of irresistible of still countenance who was as awake as seven when he seemed to be as sound asleep as the figures on his family monument lord though not yet thirty had chuckled like a of when he heard of s terror and flight at her husband s return and of the latter s prompt departure he felt pretty sure however that despite his hurt feelings would have reappeared to claim his bright eyed property if he had been alive at the end of the twelve months a group of noble as there was no husband to live with her had the house prepared for them by her father and taken up her abode anew at as in the days of her by degrees the episode with seemed but a dream and as the months grew to years lord friendship with the people at which had somewhat cooled after s revived considerably and he again became a frequent visitor there he could not make the most trivial alteration or improvement at hall where he lived without riding off to consult with his friend sir john at and thus putting himself frequently under her eyes grew accustomed to him and talked to him as freely as to a brother she even began to look up to him as a person of authority judgment and prudence and though his severity on the bench towards and was matter of common she trusted that much of what was said might be thus they lived on till her husband s absence had stretched to years and there could be no longer any doubt of his death a manner of his addresses seemed no longer out of place in lord did not love him but hers was essentially one of those sweet or with wind natures which require a of fibre than its own to hang upon and bloom now too she was older and admitted to herself that a man whose had run scores of through and through in fighting for the site of the holy was a more desirable husband considered than one who could only a group of noble claim with certainty to know that his father and grandfather were respectable sir john took occasion to inform her that she might consider herself a widow and in brief lord carried his point with her and she married him though he could never get her to own that she loved him as she had loved in my childhood i knew an old lady whose mother saw the wedding and she said that when lord and lady drove away from her father s house in the evening it was in a coach and four and that my lady was dressed in green and silver and wore the hat and feather that ever were seen	45
though whether it was that the green did not suit her complexion or otherwise the looked pale and the reverse of blooming after their marriage her husband took her to london and she saw the of a season there then they returned to hall and thus a year passed away before their marriage her husband had seemed to care but little about her inability to love him passionately only let me win you he had said and i will submit to all that but now her lack of warmth seemed to him and he conducted himself towards her with a which led to her passing many hours with him in painful silence the heir to the title was a remote relative whom lord did not from the dislike he entertained towards many persons and things besides and he had set his mind upon a successor he blamed her much that there was no promise of this and asked her what she was good for on a particular day in her gloomy life a letter a group of noble addressed to her as mrs reached lady from an unexpected quarter a in knowing nothing of her second marriage informed her that the long delayed life size statue of mr which when her husband left that city he had been directed to retain till it was sent for was still in his as his commission had not wholly been paid and the statue was taking up room he could ill spare he should be glad to have the debt cleared off and directions where to forward the figure arriving at a time when the was beginning to have little secrets of a harmless kind it is true from her husband by reason of their growing she replied to this letter without saying a word to lord sending off the balance that was owing to the and telling him to despatch the statue to her without delay it was some weeks before it arrived at hall and by a singular coincidence during the interval she received the first absolutely tidings of her s death it had taken place years before in a foreign land about six months after their parting and had been induced by the sufferings he had already undergone coupled with much depression of spirit which had caused him to to a slight the news was sent her in a brief and formal letter from some relative of s in another part of england her grief took the form of passionate pity for his misfortunes and of reproach to herself for never having been able to conquer her aversion to his latter image by recollection of what nature had originally made him the sad spectacle that had gone from earth had never a group of noble been her at all to her o that she could have met him as he was at first thus thought it was only a few days later that a with two horses containing an immense packing case was seen at breakfast time both by and her husband to drive round to the back of the house and by and by they were informed that a case had arrived for her what can that be said lord it is the statue of poor which belongs to me but has never been sent till now she answered where are you going to put it asked he i have not decided said the anywhere so that it will not annoy you oh it won t annoy me says he when it had been in a back room of the house they went to examine it the statue was a figure in the purest marble representing in all his original beauty as he had stood at parting from her when about to set out on his travels a specimen of manhood almost perfect in every line and the work had been carried out with absolute fidelity sure said the earl of who had never seen real or represented till now did not hear him she was standing in a sort of trance before the first husband as if she had no consciousness of the other husband at her side the features of had disappeared from her mind s eye this perfect being was really the man she had loved and not that later pitiable figure in whom a group of noble love and truth should have seen this image always but had not done so it was not till lord said roughly are you going to stay here all the morning him that she roused herself her husband had not till now the least suspicion that originally looked thus and he thought how deep would have been his jealousy years ago if had been known to him returning to the hall in the afternoon he found his wife in the gallery whither the statue had been brought she was lost in reverie before it just as in the morning what are you doing he asked she started and turned i am looking at my my statue to see if it is well done she stammered why should i not s no reason why he said what are you going to do with the monstrous thing it can t stand here for ever i don t wish it she said i ll find a place in her there was a deep recess and while the was absent from home for a few days in the following week she hired from the village who under her directions enclosed the recess with a door into the thus formed she had the statue placed the door with a lock the key of which she kept in her pocket when her husband returned he missed the statue from the gallery and concluding that it had been put away out of deference to his feelings made no remark yet at moments he noticed something on his lady s face which a group of noble	45
he had never noticed there before he could not it it was a sort of silent ecstasy a reserved what had become of the statue he could not divine and growing more and more curious looked about here and there for it till thinking of her private room he went towards that spot after knocking he heard the shutting of a door and the click of a key but when he entered his wife was sitting at work on what was in those days called lord eye fell upon the newly painted door where the recess had formerly been you have been in my absence then he said carelessly yes why did you go putting up such a as that the handsome arch of the i wanted more closet room and i thought that as this was my own apartment of course he returned lord knew now where the statue of young was one night or rather in the smallest hours of the morning he missed the from his side not being a man of nervous he fell asleep again before he had much considered the matter and the next morning had forgotten the incident but a few nights later the same circumstances occurred this time he fully roused himself but before he had moved to search for her she entered the chamber in her dressing gown carrying a candle which she extinguished as approached him asleep he could discover from her breathing that she was strangely moved but not on this occasion either did he reveal that he had seen her a group of noble presently when she had lain down affecting to wake he asked her some trivial questions yes she replied lord became convinced that she was in the habit of leaving the chamber in this queer way more frequently than he had observed and he determined to watch the next midnight he feigned deep sleep and shortly after perceived her stealthily rise and let herself out of the room in the dark he slipped on some clothing and followed at the farther end of the corridor where the clash of flint and steel would be out of the hearing of one in the bed chamber she struck a light he stepped aside into an empty room till she had lit a and had passed on to her in a minute or two he followed arrived at the door of the he beheld the door of the private recess open and within it standing with her arms clasped tightly round the neck of her and her mouth on his the shawl which she had thrown round her had slipped from her shoulders and her long white robe and pale face lent her the appearance of a second statue embracing the first between her kisses she it in a low murmur of tenderness my only love how could i be so cruel to you my perfect one so good and true i am ever faithful to you despite my seeming i always think of you dream of you during the long hours of the day and in the night watches o i am always yours such words as these with sobs and streaming tears and hair to an intensity of feeling in his wife which lord had not dreamed of her possessing a group of noble ha ha says he to himself this is where we this is where my hopes of a successor in the title ha ha this must be seen to verily lord was a subtle man when once he set himself to though in the present instance he never thought of the simple of constant tenderness nor did he enter the room and surprise his wife as a would have done but went back to his chamber as silently as he had left it when the returned thither shaken by spent sobs and sighs he appeared to be soundly sleeping as usual the next day he began his by making inquiries as to the whereabouts of the who had travelled with his wife s first husband this gentleman he found was now master of a grammar school at no great distance from at the first convenient moment lord went thither and obtained an interview with the said gentleman the was much gratified by a visit from such an influential neighbour and was ready to communicate anything that his desired to know after some general conversation on the school and its progress the visitor observed that he believed the had once travelled a good deal with the unfortunate mr and had been with him on the occasion of his accident he lord was interested in knowing what had really happened at that time and had often thought of inquiring and then the earl not only heard by word of mouth as much as he wished to know but their chat becoming more intimate the drew upon paper a sketch of the dis h a group of noble figured head explaining with breath various details in the representation it was very strange and terrible said lord taking the sketch in his hand neither nose nor ears a poor man in the town nearest to hall who combined the art of sign painting with ingenious mechanical occupations was sent for by lord to come to the hall on a day in that week when the had gone on a short visit to her parents his employer made the man understand that the business in which his assistance was demanded was to be considered private and money the of this request the lock of the cupboard was picked and the ingenious and painter assisted by the s sketch which lord had put in his pocket set to work upon the god like countenance of the statue under my lord s direction what the fire had in the original the in the copy it was a carried out and was rendered	45
still more shocking by being tinted to the hues of life as life had been after the wreck six hours after when the workman was gone lord looked upon the result and smiled grimly and said a statue should represent a man as he appeared in life and that s as he appeared ha ha but tis done to good purpose and not idly he locked the door of the closet with a skeleton key and went his way to fetch the home that night she slept but he kept awake according a group of noble to the tale she murmured soft words in her dream and he knew that the tender converse of her was held with one whom he had but in name at the end of her dream the of awoke and arose and then the of former nights was repeated her husband remained still and listened two strokes sounded from the clock in the without when leaving the chamber door she passed along the corridor to the other end where as usual she obtained a light so deep was the silence that he could even from his bed hear her softly blowing the to a glow after striking the steel she moved on into the and he heard or fancied he heard the turning of the key in the closet door the next moment there came from that direction a loud and prolonged shriek which to the farthest corners of the house it was repeated and there was the noise of a heavy fall lord sprang out of bed he hastened along the dark corridor to the door of the which stood and by the light of the candle within saw his poor young lying in a heap in her on the floor of the closet when he reached her side he found that she had fainted much to the relief of his fears that matters were worse he quickly shut up and locked in the hated image which had done the mischief and lifted his wife in his arms where in a few she opened her eyes pressing her face to his without saying a word he carried her back to her room endeavouring as he went to her terrors by a laugh in her ear oddly of and ho ho ho r says he frightened dear one hey w w j j w a group of noble what a baby tis only a joke sure a did joke but a baby should not go to at midnight to look for the ghost of the dear departed if it do it must expect to be terrified at his aspect ho ho when she was in her bed chamber and had quite come to herself though her nerves were still much shaken he spoke to her more sternly now my lady answer me do you love him eh no no she faltered shuddering with her expanded eyes fixed on her husband he is too terrible no no you are sure quite sure replied the poor broken spirited but her natural asserted itself next morning he again inquired of her do you love him now she under his gaze but did not reply that means that you do still by g he continued it means that i will not tell an and do not wish to incense my lord she answered with dignity then suppose we go and have another look at him as he spoke he suddenly took her by the wrist and turned as if to lead her towards the ghastly closet no no oh no she cried and her desperate out of his hand revealed that the fright of the night had left more impression upon her delicate soul than appeared another dose or two and she will be cured he said to himself it was now so generally known that the earl and were not in accord that he took no great trouble to disguise his deeds in relation to this matter during the day he ordered four men with ropes and a group of noble to attend him in the when they arrived the closet was open and the upper part of the statue tied up in canvas he had it taken to the sleeping chamber what followed is more or less matter of conjecture the story as told to me goes on to say that when lady retired with him that night she saw near the foot of the heavy oak four a tall dark wardrobe which had not stood there before but she did not ask what its presence meant i have had a little whim he explained when they were in the dark have you says she to erect a little shrine as it may be called a little shrine yes to one whom we both equally eh i ll show you what it contains he pulled a cord which hung covered by the and the doors of the wardrobe slowly opened that the shelves within had been removed throughout and the interior adapted to receive the ghastly figure which stood there as it had stood in the but with a wax candle burning on each side of it to throw the and distorted features into relief she clutched him uttered a low scream and buried her head in the oh take it away please take it away she implored all in good time namely when you love me best he returned calmly you don t quite yet eh i don t know i think o have mercy i cannot bear it o in pity take it away nonsense one gets accustomed to anything take another gaze loi a group of noble in short he allowed the doors to remain at the foot of the bed and the wax burning and such was the strange fascination of the exhibition that a morbid	45
curiosity took possession of the as she lay and at his repeated request she did again look out from the shuddered hid her eyes and looked again all the while begging him to take it away or it would drive her out of her senses but he would not do so as yet and the wardrobe was not locked till dawn the scene was repeated the next night firm in his ferocious he continued the treatment till the nerves of the poor lady were quivering in agony under the virtuous inflicted by her lord to bring her heart back to the third night when the scene had opened as usual and she lay staring with immense wild eyes at the horrid fascination on a sudden she gave an unnatural laugh she laughed more and more staring at the image till she literally shrieked with laughter then there was silence and he found her to have become insensible he thought she had fainted but soon saw that the event was worse she was in an fit he started up dismayed by the sense that like many other subtle personages he had been too for his own interests such love as he was capable of though rather a selfish than a solicitude was into life on the instant he closed the wardrobe with the clasped her in his arms took her gently to the window and did all he could to restore her it was a long time before the came to herself and when she did so a considerable change seemed i a group of noble to have taken place in her emotions she flung her arms around him and with of fear kissed him many times at last bursting into tears she had never wept in this scene before you ll take it away dearest you will she begged if you love me i oh i do and hate him and his memory yes yes thoroughly i cannot endure recollection of him cried the poor it fills me with shame how could i ever be so til never behave badly again and you will never put the hated statue again before my eyes he felt that he could promise with perfect safety never said he and then i ll love you she returned eagerly as if lest the should be applied anew and ril never never dream of thinking a single thought that seems like to my marriage vow the strange thing now was that this love wrung from her by terror took on through mere habit of a certain quality of reality a mood of attachment to the earl became distinctly visible in her with an actual dislike for her late husband s memory the mood of attachment grew and continued when the statue was removed a permanent was in her which as time wore on how fright could have effected such a change a group of noble of learned alone can say but i believe such cases of instinct are not unknown the was that the cure became so permanent as to be itself a new disease she clung to him so tightly that she would not willingly be out of his sight for a moment she would have no sitting room apart from his though she could not help starting when he entered suddenly to her her eyes were well nigh always fixed upon him if he drove out she wished to go with him his slightest to other women made her jealous till at length her very fidelity became a burden to him absorbing his time and his liberty and causing him to curse and swear if he ever spoke sharply to her now she did not revenge herself by off to a mental world of her own all that affection for another which had provided her with a resource was now a cold black from that time the life of this scared and lady whose existence might have been developed to so much higher purpose but for the ambition of her parents and the of the time was one of towards a perverse and cruel man little personal events came to her in quick succession half a dozen eight nine ten such events in brief she bore him no less than eleven children in the eight following years but half of them came into the world or died a few days old only one a girl attained to maturity she in after years became the wife of the honourable mr who was created lord d as may be remembered there was no living son and heir at length com a group of noble worn out in mind and body lady was taken abroad by her husband to try the effect of a more genial climate upon her wasted frame but nothing availed to strengthen her and she died at a few months after her arrival in italy contrary to expectation the earl of did not marry again such affection as existed in him strange hard brutal as it was seemed and the title as is known passed at his death to his nephew perhaps it may not be so generally known that during the of the hall for the sixth earl while digging in the grounds for the new foundations the broken fragments of a marble statue were they were submitted to various who said that so far as the pieces would allow them to form an opinion the statue seemed to be that of a roman or if not an figure of death only one or two old inhabitants guessed whose statue those fragments had composed i should have added that shortly after the death of the an excellent sermon was preached by the dean of the subject of which though names were not mentioned was unquestionably suggested by the events he dwelt upon the folly of indulgence in love for a handsome form	45
merely and showed that the only rational and virtuous of that affection were those based upon worth in the case of the tender but somewhat shallow lady whose life i have related there is no doubt that an for the person of young was the chief feeling that induced her to marry him which was the more deplorable in that his beauty by all tradition was the a group of noble least of his every report bearing out the that he must have been a man of steadfast nature bright intelligence and promising life the company thanked the old surgeon for his story which the rural dean declared to be a far more striking one than anything he could hope to tell an elderly member of the club who was mostly called the said that a woman s natural instinct of fidelity would indeed send back her heart to a man after his death in a truly wonderful manner sometimes if anything occurred to put before her forcibly the original affection between them and his original aspect in her eyes whatever his inferiority may have been social or otherwise and then a general conversation ensued upon the power that a woman has of seeing the actual in the representation the reality in the dream a power which according to the sentimental member men have no faculty of the rural dean thought that such cases as that related by the surgeon were rather an illustration of passion back to life than of a latent true affection the story had suggested that he should try to to them one which he had used to hear in his youth and which afforded an instance of the latter and better kind of feeling his heroine being also a lady who had married beneath her though he feared his narrative would be of a much kind than the surgeon s the club begged him to proceed and the parson dame the third the of by the a group of noble dame the third the of by the rural dean i would have you know then that a great many years ago there lived in a classical mansion with which i used to be familiar standing not a hundred miles from the city of a lady whose personal charms were so rare and that she was flattered and spoilt by almost all the young and gentlemen in that part of for a time these attentions pleased her well but as in the words of good robert south whose sermons might be read much more than they are the most passionate lover of sport if tied to follow his and hounds every day of his life would find the pursuit the greatest torment and calamity and would fly to the mines and for his so did this lofty and beautiful lady after a while become with the constant of what she had in its novelty enjoyed and by an almost natural turned her regards absolutely speaking she and passionately her affection on quite a plain looking young man of humble a group of noble birth and no position at all though it is true that he was gentle and delicate in nature of good address and heart in short he was the parish clerk s son acting as assistant to the land steward of her father the earl of with the hope of becoming some day a land steward himself it should be said that perhaps the lady as she was called was a little stimulated in this by the discovery that a young girl of the village already loved the young man fondly and that he had paid some attentions to her though merely of a casual and good natured kind since his occupation brought him frequently to the house and its lady could make ample opportunities of seeing and speaking to him she had in s phrase all the craft of fine loving at her fingers ends and the young man being of a heart was quick to notice the tenderness in her eyes and voice he could not at first believe in his good fortune having no understanding of her weariness of more artificial men but a time comes when the sees in an eye the glance of his other half and it came to him who was quite the reverse of dull as he gained confidence accidental led to by design till at length when they were alone together there was no reserve on the matter they whispered tender words as other lovers do and were as devoted a pair as ever was seen but not a ray or symptom of this attachment was allowed to show itself to the outer world now as she became less and less scrupulous towards him under the influence of her affection and he became more and more under the influence of his no a group of noble and they looked the situation in the face together their condition seemed intolerable in its that she could ever ask to be allowed to marry him or could hold her tongue and quietly him was equally beyond conception they resolved upon a third course possessing neither of the of these two to wed secretly and live on in outward appearance the same as before in this they differed from the lovers of my friend s story not a soul in the parental mansion guessed when lady came coolly into the hall one day after a visit to her aunt that during that visit her lover and herself had found an opportunity of themselves till death should part them yet such was the fact the young woman who rode fine horses and drove in and was saluted by every one and the young man who about and directed the tree and the laying out of fish in the park were husband and wife as they had planned so they acted to the letter for the space of	45

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