The Fallen Leaves

melius who promised to write to you when you left the steamer at Queenstown. My spirits are sinking; I begin to feel old. Am I in the right state of mind to tell you what are my first impressions of

eard about them from Mr. Hethcote, before I

not interested enough in the subject to attend to what he said about them while you were with us; but if you are to be introduced to the ladies, you must be interested now. Let me first inform you that Mr. and Mrs. Farnaby have no children; and let me add that they have adopted the daughter and orphan child of Mrs. Farnaby's sister. This sister, it seems, died many years ago, surviving her husban

y for spiritual advice and consolation. She was a regular attendant at the church, and something which he had said in that evening's sermon had deeply affected her. Mr. Hethcote spoke with her afterwards on many occasions at home. He felt a sincere interest in her, but he disliked her husband; and, when he gave up his curacy, he ceased to pay visits to the house

ed my letter of introduction to Mr

in his hand. He had a ruddy complexion not commonly seen in Londoners, so far as my experience goes. His iron-gray hair and whiskers (especially the whiskers) were in wonderfully fine order-as carefully oiled and combed as if he had just come out of a barber's shop. I had been in the morning to the Zoological Gardens; his eyes, when he lif

oud, harsh, rasping voice. "The lette

er was an old frien

ors I deplore. When he joined your Community, I looked up

thought this reception of me downright rude. I had laid my hat on a chair; I took it

said, "I should not have troubled you b

eyes, and it twitched up his mouth at one corner. He held out his hand to stop me. I waited

, without failing on that account in what is due to an old friendship. You

hristians to feel sympathy with all men who are honest in their convictions-no matter how mistaken (in our opinion) the convictions

ck "the soft answer that turneth away wrath"-my conduct was a disgrace to my Community. What e

iority to a young adventurer like me was really something magnificent to witness. He did me justice-the Philistine-Pharisee did m

tly gentlemanlike, and you speak English without any accent. A

worse-I got dow

gh you seem to think we only have our axes and spades. Englishmen don't claim a monopoly of good manners at Tadmor. We see no difference b

n for the benighted Americans. By this time, I suspect he began to f

fe and her niece-our adopted daughter. There is the address. We have a few friends

might be, until Mr. Farnaby invited me to dinner. If I had not been curious (after what Mr. Hethcote had told me) to see Mrs.

hand. (N.B.-If I had behaved in this way at Tadmor, I should have been punished with the lighter penalty-taking my meals by myself, and being forbidden to enter the Common Room for eight and forty hours.) I feel I am getting wickeder and wickeder in London-I have half a

nking coal fire, with the gas lit and the curtains drawn at half-past eleven in the forenoon, I fee

untries, he means what he says. In England, he means half-past seven, and sometimes a quarter to eight. At seven o'clock I was the only person in Mr. Farnaby's drawing-room. At ten minutes past seven, Mr. Farnaby made hi

more, Mrs. Far

know. My dear fellow, she almost frightened me. I never before saw such a woman; I never expect to see such a woman again. There was nothing in her figure, or in her way of moving, that produced this

e still an irresistible little woman, but for the one startling drawback of her eyes. Don't mistake me. In themselves, they are large, well-opened blue eyes, and may at one time have been the chief attraction in her face. But now there is an expression of suffering in them-long, unsolaced suffering, as I believe-so despairing and so dreadful, that she really made my heart ache when I looked at her. I will swear to it, that woman lives in some secret hell of her own making, and longs for the release of death; and is so inveterately full of bodily life and strength, that she may carry her burden with her to t

his experience, I wonder?" I have no experience-I only have something that serves me instead of it, and

e-and then walked away as if he was sick

t told her how young I was. She got over her momentary astonishment, and, signing to me to sit by her on the sofa, said the necessary word

me you have been

tones, in the Far West, from lonely settlers without a neighbouring soul to spea

ishman, are you

series of questions. This, as I afterwards discovered, was her way of finding conversation for strangers. Have you ever met with

ere did you li

in the State

of place

as well as I could, un

e you go

east likely to interest her, I spoke as briefly as I could. To my astonishment, I evidently began to interest he

any women

many wome

d a bright look of interest which completely transformed them.

iendless creatures, who

some o

y aroused, an interest in Mellicent? Her next question only added to my perplexi

y young women

far, suddenly turned and looked at her, when sh

I said. "M

at her knees touched mine. "

alked close up to the sofa, an

't it?" he said. "I suppo

rupted her husband. "How old?"

lady of the house. "Some girls from

uch yo

sixteen to

r eagerness to secure my attention all to herself. "American girls or Englis

Farnaby, purposely interrupting us again. "If

e arm. "American girls or English?" she

have made the effort. He saw that I was observing him, and turned quickly from his wife to me. His ruddy face was pale with suppressed rage. My early arr

or not, I had again no choice but to answer her

ddenly advanced her face so close to mine, that I felt her hot bre

in Eng

rn at T

te side of the fireplace. Mr. Farnaby, turning paler and paler, stepped up to her as she changed her place. I rose to look at the pictures on the wall nearest to me. You remarked the extraordinary keenness of my sense of hearing, w

f-hour after seven. In quick succession, th

tly revealed that part of the secret to me, could not be more than sixteen or seventeen years. How long had she cherished the hope of seeing the girl, or hearing of her? It must have been, anyhow, a hope very deeply rooted, for she had been perfectly incapable of controlling herself when I had accidentally roused it. As for her husband, there could be no doubt that the subject was not merely distasteful to him, but so absolutely infuriating that he could not even keep his temper, in the presence of a third person invited to his house. Had he i

f to some observation of what was going on about me. No ladies had been invited; and the men were all of a certain age. I looked in v

to the drawing-room. Girls are out of place at din

, I had my reward. A bright young face peeped over the balusters of the upper staircase, and modestly withdrew itself again in a v

ured daylight. I ask him if it is still raining. He smiles, and rubs his hands, and says, "It looks like clearing up soon, sir." This man's head is gray; he has

negar ten minutes after it has passed my lips. I asked for the wine that I could drink, out of its turn. You should have seen Mr. Farnaby's face, when I violated the rules of his dinner-table! It was the one amusing incident of the feast-the one thing that alleviated the dreary and mysterious spectacle of Mrs. Farnaby. There she sat, with her mind hundreds of miles away from everything that was going on about her, entangling the two guests, on her right hand and on her left, in a network of vacant questions, just as she had entangled me. I discovered that one of these gentlemen was a barrister and the other a ship-owner, by the answers which Mrs. Farnaby absently extracted from them on the subject of their respe

heir wine, the men b

the leading articles of the day's newspapers translated into bald chat, and coolly addressed by one man to another, as if they were his own individual views on public affairs! This absurd imposture positively went the round of the table, received and respected by everybody with a stolid solemnity of make-believe which it was downright shameful to see. Not a man present said, "I saw that today in the Times or the Telegraph." Not a man present had an opinion of his own; or, if he had an opinion, ventured to express it; or, if he knew nothing of the subject, was honest enough to say so. One enormous Sham, and everybody in a conspira

of it-waiting all the time to be presented to Mr. Farnaby's niece? Everything in its p

. He seemed to be as weary of the second-hand newspaper talk as I was; he quite sparkled and cheered up when I introdu

cate brown; wait till you see it! Takes after her father, I should tell you. He was a fine-looking man in his time; foreign blood in his veins, by his mo

e had called her "the brown girl," I sa

d; "in the prime of life. I call her a

a good fi

swing of our hips, and we walk like a goddess. Wait and see how her head is put on her shoulders-I say no more. Proud? Not she! A simple, unaffected, kind-hearted crea

gaged to b

friendships. A splendid creature, with the vital thermometer at temperate heart-a calm, meditative, equable person. Pass me the olives. Only think! the man

subject of olives. "Isn't Miss Regina'

eir illnesses, and though they hid their wretchedness from everybody else (proud as Lucifer, both of them!), they couldn't hide it from me. Fancy the change to this house! I don't say that living here in clover is enough for such a person as Regina; I only say it has its influence. She is one of those young women, sir, who delight in sacrificing themselves to others-she is devoted, for instance, to Mrs. Farnaby. I only hope Mrs. Farnaby is worthy of it! Not that it matters to Regina. What she does, she does out of her own sweetness of disposition. She brightens this household, I can tell you! Farnaby did a wise thing, in his own domestic int

how much longer my introduction to Miss Regina was to be delayed. It was not to come until I had seen a new

r centuries by the family of the Goldenhearts. Are you in any way related to them?" I answered that I was very nearly related, having been born in the house-and there, as I suppose, the matter ended. Being the youngest man of the party, I waited, of

ike, you won't have to ask the butler for it next time. Drop in any day, and take pot-luck with us." He came to a standstill in the hall; his br

ould take any interest in a place belonging to people who were strangers to him. However, his question

families of England. They may be rich, or they may be poor-that don't matter. An old family is an old family; it's sad to see their hearths and homes

table-I began to wonder whether he was quite sober. I said I was sorry

recovered himself. He lifted my left hand in his own cold-fishy paw. The one ring I wear

I must take the freedom of remonstrating with you. Your coat-of-arms and your motto are no doubt at the Heralds' Office-why don't you a

rner. Every word Mr. Farnaby had said had been spoken in earnest. This man, who owes his rise from the lowest social position entirely to himself-who, judging by his own experience, has every re

s introduced to "the brown girl" at last

doesn't perplex me like the difficulty of describing Mrs. Farnaby. I can see her now, as vividly as if she was present in the room. I even remember (and this is astonishing in a man) the dress that she wore. And yet I shrink from writing about her, as if there was something w

impression upon me. Good heavens! it is far from that. You have had the old doc

h it was received:-"Ah, poor Amelius! He had better have gone back to Miss Mellicent, and put up w

are known, however, to be in th