The Woodlanders

he ground the next morning with a springy tread. Her sense of being properly appreciated on her own native soil seemed to brighten the atmosphere and

not express the situation of the manor-house; it stood in a hole, notwithstanding that the hole was full of beauty. From the spot which Grace had reached a stone could easily have been thrown over or into, the birds’-nested chimneys of th

nuff-colored freestone from local quarries. The ashlar of the walls, where not overgrown with ivy and other creepers, was coated

lace, the insidious being beneath their notice; and its hollow site was an ocular reminder, by its unfitness for modern lives, of the fragility to which these have declined. The highest architectural cunning could have done nothing to make Hintock House dry and salubrious; and ruthless ignorance could have done little to make it unpicturesque. It was vegetable nature’s own home; a spot to inspire the painter and poet of still life — if they did not suffer too much from the relaxing atmosphere — and to draw groans from the gregariously disposed. Grace descended the green escarpment by a zigzag path into the drive, which swept round beneath the slope. The exterior of the

y was announced, and saw her through the glass doors between them. She came forw

the histories of all these — which gin had broken a man’s leg, which gun had killed a man. That one, I remember his saying, had been set by a game-keeper in the track of a notorious poacher; but the keeper, forgetting what he had done, went that way himself, received

of womanliness was one which her inexper

the varied designs of these instruments of torture — some with semi-circular jaws, some with rectangular; most

itor different articles in cabinets that she deemed likely to interest her, some tapestries, wood-carvings, ivories, miniatures, and so on — always with

early Italian art — became longer, and her voice more languishing. She showed that oblique-mannered softness which is perhaps most frequent in women of darker complexion and more lymphatic

o live and do nothing, nothing, nothing but float about, as we fancy we do sometimes in

tion — it is quite sad! I wish I cou

Grace with a final glance of criticism, she seemed to make up her mind to consider the young girl satisfactory, and continued: “Now I am often impelled to record my impressions of times and places. I have often thought of writing a ‘New Sentimental Journey.’ But I cannot find energy enough to do it alone. When I am at different places in the south of Europe I feel a crowd of ideas and fancies thronging upon me continually, but to unfold writing-materials, take up a cold stee

“I am almost sure th

ar; I should be quite honored

lushing, deprecat

our lucubrations

nknown at Little Hintock; but

er student in

ard that he reads a great deal — I see his lig

I was told of him. It is a stra

does not confine his studies to medicine, it seems. He inves

is his

, I believe, the Fitzpierses of Buckbury-Fi

rious merit might attach to family antiquity, it was one which, though she herself could claim it, her adaptable, wandering weltburgerliche nature had grown tired of caring about — a peculiarity that mad

ink he is not a very

he a

aware th

medical man — if he is clever — in one’s own parish. I get dreadfully nervous sometimes, living in such an outlandis

its disadvantages.” Grace was thinking less of

tronage to a sensitive young girl who would probably be very quick to discern it, was to demolish her dignity rather than to establish it in that young girl’s eyes. So, b

countenance had the effect of making Mrs. Charmond appear more than her full age. There are complexions which set off each other to great advantage, and there are those which antagonize, the one killing or damaging its neighbor unmercifully. This was unhappily the case here

ining slope she looked back, and saw that Mrs. Charmo

n Grace’s announced visit to Hintock House. Why could he not have proposed to walk with her par

wondered if her father’s ambition, which had purchased for her the means of intellectual light and culture far beyond those of any other native of

risis, if he ever hoped to do so. If she should think herself too good for him, he could let her go and make the best of his loss; bu

ood a way as any would be to give a Christmas party,

a slight knocking at his front door. He descended the path an

id. “I’ve been waiting there hours and hours,

I’d quite forg

ellous power of making trees grow. Although he would seem to shovel in the earth quite carelessly, there was a sort of sympathy between himself and the fir, oak, or beech that he was operating on, so that the roots took

f the woodland in which he had no personal interest. Marty, who turned her hand to anything, was usually t

roceed with the work by the knowledge that the ground was close to the

,” he said, as they walked. “That

three headaches going on i

heada

misery headache in the middle of my brain. However, I came out, for I tho

a sort of caress, under which the delicate fibres all laid themselves out in their proper directions for growth. He put most of these roots towards the south-west; for, he

right, though while they are lying do

Giles. “I’ve n

ical breathing instantly set in, which was not to cease night or day till the grown tr

if they sigh because they are very sorry

itically at her. “You ought n

cious of Marty’s presence beside him. From the nature of their employment, in which he handled the spade and she merely held the tree, it followed that he got good exercise and she got none. But she was an heroic girl, and though her out-stret

mild day it is for the season. Now I warrant that cold of yours is twice as bad as it was. You had n

e lane will be

ught not to have com

ld like to

remptorily. “I can manage to keep the rest

e had gone down the orchard a little distance

was rough, you know. But warm your

e aware of the presence of another man, who was looking over the hedge on the opposite side of the way upon the figure of the unconscious Grace. He appeared as a handsome and gentlemanly personage of six or eight and twenty, and was quizzing her through an eye-glass. Seeing that Winterborne was noticing him, he le