The Tenants of Malory

mn flowers and the evergreens in the pleasant moonlight, it was just nine o’clock,

bove and below you; the rocky steep ascending at the left hand, the wooded precipice descending into utter darkness at your right, and beyond that, rising black against the sky, the distant side of the wooded ravine. Ch

temptation to take a little walk which led him over the Green, and up the steep path overhanging the sea, from which you command so fine a view of

mance of my friend Tom Sedley, who stood in the

s mysteriously associated with the combative, and our homage to the gentler sex connects itself magnanimously with images of wholesale assault and battery upon the other. Perhaps if he could have sung, a stave or two might have relieved his mind; or even had he been

at the roadside, and by the ivied stem of a huge ol

some confounded witchcraft,” said

was performing, though not with so sublime an enthusiasm, his rom

ure standing near the water’s edge on the shin

white, in the moonlight. Was there an upright shaft of stone

all at once and lowering his cigar. “No, it isn’t moving, but it did move, I think— yes, i

there not a resemblance in the proportions — tall and slight? The uncertainty was growing intense; there was a delightful confusion of conjecture. Tom Sedley dropped h

ping shore, near the edge of which a tall female figure was undoubtedly standing, with her feet almost touching the ripple of the water

lly-port that opens a nearly direct access from the house to the rude jetty where the boats are som

nd in point of law the strand itself, here, belonged to Malory, from which the private door which still stood open, showed that th

the shingle to the spot where the lady stood, neither could he place himself so as to intercept her return to the doorway, directly so, as a less obvious stratagem, he made a detour, and saunterin

in stone. There is something ludicrous in the sort of shock which Tom Sedley experienced. He stood staring at the old lady with an exp

an you see a sail in that direction, a yawl, sir, they call it, just there?”— she pointed —“I fanc

urrows, but the finely etched wrinkles about the large eyes tha

ge old lady with her gray mantle drawn over her head, nevertheless, represent Malory, and was not Malory saddened and glorified by

, in that direction; pray look more caref

ing there. How long ago is

y — minutes,

“The yawl they had at Ware last year would make eight knots an hour in this breeze, light as it is. She

are you

of Pendillion, and that can’t be the sail you saw, for she wasn’t in sight

y to Pendillion; my eyes tire, I think; and so I fancy I see it. Knowing, that is, feeling so very sure, it will come again. Another disappointment for a foolish old woman. I sometimes think it’s all a dream.” She had turned and was now stumbling over the large loo

ma’am,” an

he shingle under her feet, as sh

; wait patiently. Oh! God, how

ngs, made him no answer — a silence which he accepted as permission, and walked on beside her, not knowing what to

eve no one ever was robbed in it. They leave t

the interval. “I don’t remember. It’s fifteen years and upwards since I was there

t him more earnestly in silence fo

ive me? Are you rel

leve Verney very well, and a very good fellow he is; but

oking at him, “I recollect the name. No — no c

s at Ware, now,

a pretty boy — very pretty; bu

he’s very like what his

o; there is a liken

een dead a long

Oxford or Cambridge by t

k his head and

s in the House of Commons now, and likely to be

; yes, yes, he’ll do for Parliament, I suppose, and be a great man, some day, there. There wa

d he was only amused. But I

they’d burn it, if they knew. It is drawn in chalks by a French artist; they col

ands folded together, and still

more like what I remember him. The picture was taken just when he came of age. He was twenty-seven when I first saw him; he was brilliant, a beautiful creature, and when I looked in his face I saw the sorrow

ittle of that, nothing soft in it, but everything brill

er hand on he

if I were speaking to a spirit, God help me! I have said more to you to-night, th

distant headland, and then, with a deep sigh, almost

e door, from which with a gesture, declining his offer, she gently waved him back, and disappeared within it, without another word. He