A Witch of the Hills, v. 1-2

ell coated with black slimy mud, in which one kept one's footing as best one could, stimulated by plenti

could not an organised gang of men, ten times as numerous and twice as active as our gentle scavengers, save the sacred boots, skirts, and trousers of the respectable classes from that brush-

my own life was so idle and yet so absorbing, had entirely escaped my notice. Oxford Street, Bond Street, Piccadilly, St. James's Street, I made the tour of them all; past the clubs, of many of which I was a member, brushing, unrecognised, by a doze

as the very worst of all the fashionable 'juveniles,' being addicted to literary and artistic pursuits and other intellectual exercises which, while permissible and innocuous to what are called 'character' actors, are ruin to 'juveniles,' whose business requires vigour rather than thought, picturesqueness rather than feeling. So that Fabian, with his thin keen face, his intensity, and some remnant of North-country stiffness, stood only in the second

was respectably but not well dressed, and he swung the cheap and showy walking-stick in his hand slowly backwards and forwards, in a stolidly swaggering and aggressive manner. I should not have noticed him so particularly, but for the fact

und stage-doors to tempt hard-working respectable women away fro

oquence, from which I gathered that he was the husband of one of the actresses at the theatre, and that she did not appreciate the virtues of her lord and master as he c

acing the place by his scandalous conduct his wife's services would be dispensed with; 'and if there's no money for her

Ellmer subsided into indignant mumb

islike, and was standing in the full, if feeble light of the gas over the stage-door, when

oing away without a word to your old friends; but you were always

ected, I suppose. I star

I felt the relief of talking to him after the stolid and obstinate misapprehension with which dear old Edgar persisted in meeting my reasons for saying

; but I got interested in a moral victory just obtained by yo

at the swagg

ss Bailey-has had to bring her child to the theatre with her to-night, for fear he should get home before her and

ild were shabbily dressed, in clothes which gave one the idea that November had overtaken them before they could afford to replace the garments of July. The little one was about eight years old, a slender creature with a flower-like face, round which, from under a home-made red velvet cap, her light-brown hair fell in a naturally c

usy of a desperate man,' he ended, fold

his outburst

red in a sweet demure little voice. 'It would be rude to

'Heaven and earth! This is how the girl dares to trifle wi

the little one, in her measured way. 'Pap

knowing that my disfigured face was well concealed,

anour suddenly gave way to a child's fright, and she hid her face in the folds of her mother's black cloth jacket. Then ma

u give me a kiss

ave him a kiss with the

to kiss nobody but me

tly, 'you shouldn't put such ideas into the child's he

at him' seemed to put a little extra vinegar into her tone. With a hasty good-night to Fabian, and a fr

on lost sight of them. We did not go far together, for Fabian had an appointment to supper; but before we parted, he, more ready-witted than Edgar, had talked me i

come back among you again

ll other tastes, grows with indulgence. Good-b

taking this last outsider's look at the scenes of my old life, it seemed to me that a dungeon-do

and I walked hastily away lest I shoul

nt on their way in or out, devoured by a longing to exchange if only half a dozen words with men whom I had often avoided as bores. Near the steps of the Carlton I did try to address one quiet old gentleman whom, on account of his rapacity for

w she would come down the steps, in a timid hesitating way, half-dazzled by the lights she had just left, poising each little dainty foot a moment above the next step, flit into the carriage like a soft white bird, and drop her pretty head back with a sigh, 'Oh, I'm so tired, mamma!' her white throat curved gently above the swansdown of her cloak, the golden fringe of curls falling limply almost to her eyebrows. I must wait-I must see her again! What! On the arm of another man! The blood rushed into my head as these

ng I had to pack, to buy things for my journey, and to set out on my travels. The w

way, shot two tigers in India; got as far as California in search of adventures, of which I had plenty; passed a fortnight with Red Indians, whom on the

self as one of the unlucky ones, was always in spirits high, not to say rollicking, and was gifted with powers of enjoyment which could only be the result of long and assiduous practice. I had met him at a German hotel, where I had been struck by the magnificent insolence of his assertion that he had acquired a thorough command of the German language in three weeks, and by the astonishing measure of success which attended his daring plunges into that tongue. He was serenely jolly, selfish, and sociable, pathetically comp

ighlands, to which his doctor had prescribed a visit. He had been making an exhaustive and strictly philosophical inquiry into the iniquities of Paris, in the corruption of which he appeared to revel; indeed, he was clever enough to find so much depravity in every spot he had visited

int, however, I yielded to the fatal human weakness of attaching to one's self some fellow-creature, and engaged as my personal attendant a cosmopolitan individual, whose qualifications for the post consisted in the fact that he had been a lawyer's clerk in England, a cow-boy in Mexico, had had charge of a lunatic at Naples, and was a deserter from the Austrian army. Plain to

was enough, sir, without your wanting to see them at ev

ekie yourself, then, since you'r

ere, provided you get away from it as early as yo

hat's spoken like

ter for having produced such a poor creature as myself,' said Joh

that, at the end of the fortnight's visit of my friends, he again made o

ce till the shooting season's over, do

son, perhap

was left to look after itself a few w

perhaps it wo

cking till to-morrow,

s, I thin

already been shrewd enough to assume a

ange; I could be on the move before the cold weather set in. But September passed, and October and November came, and it grew very bleak; and still I stayed on, finding a new pleasure in the chan

to Larkhall with a message to Ferguson, who, with a lad under him, constituted my entire household, took my ticket and started. It was past five when I reached Aberdeen; after a sharp walk to the brig o' Balgownie and back, I hired a private room at an hotel, and dined by myself. Making inquiries about the theatre, I learnt that

walked quickly down t