Esther Waters

a square-cut bodice with sleeves reaching to the elbows, and a blue sash tied round the waist. The remarks as she

few couples had begun to whirl, the women borne along by force,

away from the circular buffet-they mu

" and the butler pulled a young gamekeeper towards a young girl who had just arrived. She entered slowly, her hands clasped across her bosom, her eyes fixed on the ground, and the stran

personal taste divided the villagers from the household servants. The butlers seemed on the watch for side dishes, and the valets suggested hair brushes and hot water. Cooks trailed black silk dresses adorned with wide collars, and fastened with gold brooches containing portraits of their late husbands; and the fine shirt fronts set off with rich pearls, the lavender-gloved hands, the delicate faces, expre

h young Mr. Preston, and seeing her sitting alone Grover called her and ask

is no ill-feeling." Half a dozen times Wil

all my pleasure

ne that, Esther. I wa

at do it matter what people think, so

its disc. There were arbours, artificial ruins, darkling pathways, and the breathless garden was noisy in the illusive light. William showed Esther the theatre and explained its purpose. She listened, though she d

r is; and the stars

e o'clock on Saturday afternoons, when

further, and Esther sa

they

ere we 'as shrimps and

, if you

e chose the left, some the right; those who went to the right sent up a yell of triumph, and paddled into the middle of the water. They first addressed remar

er, I do

r grey eyes fixed in

is true. What is t

ntinued his protestations. "I d

ew a black shadow on the gravel path and a moment after the orn

l, lean woman, dressed like Sarah in white muslin, wearing amber beads round her neck, was dancing the lancers with the Demon, and everyone shook with laughter when she whirled the little fellow round or took him in her arms and carried him across. William w

g gents yonder, to dance, am I to look

you had better dance with them if they asks you; if yo

tle," cried Ginger. "Co

om

weights that would probably be assigned to certain horses in the autumn handicap were discussed. William was very proud of being admitted into such company, and he listened, a cigar which he did not like

n they joined hands and raced round the men standing in the middle. In the chain they lost themselves as in a labyrinth and found their partners unexpectedly. But the dance of the evening was Sir Roger de Coverley, and Esther's usually sober little brain evaporated in the folly of running up the room, then turn

's the

her, and had told her that she would give her one of her dresses, and she had not known how to refuse Miss Mary. Then, if she had not gone, William-Sounds of loud voices were heard in the garden, and the lean woman in the white muslin repeated some charge. Esther ran out to see what was happening, and there s

ing crushed out the quarrel, he helped her on with her jacket, and, hanging on his arm, they returned home through the little town. Margaret followed with the railway porter; Sarah was with

shness in the air. Esther looked at the hills, examining the landscape intently. She was thinking of the first time she saw it. Some vague association of ideas-the likeness that the morning landscape bore to the evening landscape, or the wish to prolong the sweetness of these, the last moments of her happiness, impelled her to linger and to ask William if the woods and fields were not beautiful