A Witch of the Hills, v. 1-2

he effort with which a tall spectre-like woman, with sunken hollow face and feeble voice, in whom I with difficulty re

, I could not be expected to know that an awkward sparrow-legged minion of the king, wearing high boots, a tabard, and a parson's widea

egor with a good deal of spirit, but who seemed, from the stoical forbearance with which she received the outpourings of her husband's wrath at his ill-luck, to be a disappointingly mild and meek person in private life. 'But what will they do, Bob? I believe the mother's dying,' I heard her protest gently. 'Can't help that. We must look out for ourselves. And Marie will make a bett

' they only walked on a little faster. The case was too serious with them, however, for me to a

n the Strand, when you were acting a

r stopped too, and held out her hand with a wan smi

s a very old friend of his. You will excuse me, won't you? One doesn't expect to see

ptation of speaking to you; one sees, as you say, so few beings up here whom one likes to call fellow-creatures. Miss

season when I first had the pleasure of meet

t travelling? I suppose you seldom s

time, for I find the nightly work too much for me in my present state of health,' said she, with a brave attemp

upon you. I live near Ballater, forty miles away in the country, so you

' Mrs. Ellmer laughe

ivelier than our society,' she said, w

ll you le

Of course it's different when one is in town and has one's own servants; and th

live in a tumble-down old house with a monkey and a soldier for my househ

excuses for having let the agent-in-advance take lodgings for them which they would not have looked at had they known

hich I had already taken care to find out, that she was dead. However, my fears had run away with me. On my knocking at the door of the top flat of the little house, Babiole opened it, pretty and smiling, in a simple dress of some sort

room, in which no one less used to the shifts of travel than I was could have detected the ingenious artifices by which a washh

le from everything fair or gentle in the way of womanhood, the bare little room was luxurious enough with that pretty young creature in it; for Babiole, though she had lost much of her childish beauty, and was rapidly approaching the 'gawky' stage of a tall girl's development, had a softness in her blue eyes when she looked at her mother, which now seemed to me more cha

hat, for the sake of her mother's nerves, Babiole had undertaken this little domestic duty herself. But, from a glimpse I caught later of Mrs. Firth's hands, as she held the kitche

y of my bachelor home, the girl's eyes seemed to grow larger with intense interest; and, after a quick glance at my face, which had, I saw, an unspeakable horror for her, she fixed her eyes on the fire, and r

like that,' she said softly, when her mothe

or two; and even when the roads are passable you don't meet any one on them, except, perhaps, a couple of peasants

can liv

ave made me soli

, her lips trembled with unutterable

t this most unexpected burst of intelligent sympathy made my hear

s an awkward one, rushed into the breach, an

ver it was, that disfigured you. For my part, I always prefer plain men to ha

than poor Mrs. Ellmer's rather tactless and insipid conversation for the sake of watching her daughter's mobile little face, and I am afraid they must have wis

strong enough to act again

's face

she were, you s

r place would

peful, as with a flash of sunshine. 'But you needn't be afraid for us. Mamma is so cleve

on

this; you don't know how she can save and manage on-oh! so little. But whenever she

nner towards the last words was so very suggestive that th

lse puts in a cl

ed lips opening widely over ivory-white even teeth,

little look of resignation. And, encouraged by my sympathetic silence, she went on, 'And he has so much talent, Mr. Maude.

her mother's voic

of their room, 'It's high treason to say even so much as this, but it is so hard to know how she tries and

h entire concurrence; for indeed who should know what men were better than I? After this

y whisper, lest mamma's sharp ear should catch

to go to rack and ruin. If you and she could exist there in the winter-it is a place where peat may be had for the asking, and it really isn't an uncomfortable little box, and I can't tell you what a service you would be doing me if you would persuade your mother to live in it unt

and starlight eyes like a child at its first pantomime, dazzled, bewi

d the suspicion of charity, 'if the old woman can take care of the

old age-nothing infectious. Now, look here; you tell your mother about it, and see if you can't persuade her to oblige me. I'm sure the change would do her good; for it's very healthy there

so that I could go back to Broad Street, and learn the fate of my new freak. Any one who had witnessed my anxiety would have decided at once that I must be in love with either the mother or the daughter; but I was not. The promise of a n

y about my kindness, a great deal about her friends in London, her position and that of 'my husband, a well-known artist, whom you doubtless are acquainted with by name.' But she wound up by saying that since her health required that she should have change of air, and since I had been so very kind that she could scarcely refuse to do me any ser

cy than she would get with four or five feet of snow piled up before her door. I was quite light-hearted at my succ

pleasanter to listen to than her mother's more artificial conversation. We were both very dignified, both ceremoniously grateful to each other, and when we entered the sitting-room and began to discuss pr

wing Friday or Saturday, when I should return to Aberdeen to escort them to Larkhall Lodge. I rose to take my leave, not with the easy feeling of eq

d holding up her finger as a sign to me to keep silence, she clapped her hands

ude,' she then said aloud and demurely, but with her eyes dancing. And she gave my hand a warm squeeze as she shook it, and let me out into

e was bare of a single stick, could be furnished and habitable by Friday. And a cold chill cr

ld Fergu