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So that when the elder lady entered, Elfride made some pretence of perceiving a new variety of crimson geranium, and lingered behind among the flower beds. There was nothing gained by this, after all, she thought; and a few minutes after boldly came into the house by the glass side-door. She walked along the corridor, and entered the drawing-room. Nobody was there.
Lady Luxellian stood aloof from 'em so was so drowsy-like, that they couldn't love her in the jolly-companion way children want to like folks. Only last winter I seed Miss Elfride talking to my lady and the two children, and Miss Elfride wiped their noses for em' SO careful my lady never once seeing that it wanted doing; and, naturally, children take to people that's their best friend.
Elfride had closed the note-book, and was carrying it disdainfully by the corner between her finger and thumb; her face wore a nettled look. She silently extended the volume towards him, raising her eyes no higher than her hand was lifted. 'Take it, said Elfride quickly. 'I don't want to read it. 'Could you understand it? said Knight. 'As far as I looked. But I didn't care to read much.
She became very pale, and a rigid and desolate charactery took possession of her face. That face was so delicate and tender in appearance now, that one could fancy the pressure of a finger upon it would cause a livid spot. Knight walked on, and Elfride with him, silent and unopposing. He opened a gate, and they entered a path across a stubble-field.
'And a large well, a fair-sized mansion in town, and a pedigree as long as my walking-stick; though that bears evidence of being rather a raked-up affair done since the family got rich people do those things now as they build ruins on maiden estates and cast antiques at Birmingham. Elfride merely listened and said nothing. He continued more quietly and impressively.
Suppose that admirer you spoke of in connection with the tomb yonder should turn up, and bother me. It would embitter our lives, if I were then half in the dark, as I am now! Knight spoke the latter sentences with growing force. 'It cannot be, she said. 'Why not? he asked sharply. Elfride was distressed to find him in so stern a mood, and she trembled.
Knight scrambled through the bushes which at this point nearly covered the brook from sight, and leapt down upon the dry portion of the river bottom. 'Elfride, I never saw such a sight! he exclaimed. 'The hazels overhang the river's course in a perfect arch, and the floor is beautifully paved. The place reminds one of the passages of a cloister. Let me help you down.
'One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Stephen carefully counted the strokes, though he well knew their number beforehand. Nine o'clock. It was the hour Elfride had herself named as the most convenient for meeting him. Stephen stood at the door of the porch and listened. He could have heard the softest breathing of any person within the porch; nobody was there.
Lengthening time, which made fainter the heart-awakening power of her presence, strengthened the mental ability to reason her down. Elfride loved him, he knew, and he could not leave off loving her but marry her he would not. If she could but be again his own Elfride the woman she had seemed to be but that woman was dead and buried, and he knew her no more!
Whenever I find you have done a foolish thing I am glad, because it seems to bring you a little nearer to me, who have done many. And Elfride thought again of her enemy asleep under the deck they trod. All up the coast, prominences singled themselves out from recesses.
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