The Hand of Ethelberta

er look and carriage she appeared to belong to that gentle order of society which has no worldly sorrow except when its j

She became teacher in a school, was praised by examiners, admired by gentlemen, not admired by gentlewomen, was touched up with accomplishments by masters who were coaxed into painstaking by her many graces, and, entering a mansion as governess to the daughter there

than a widow-and finished her education by placing her for two or three years in a boarding-school at Bonn. Latterly she had brought the girl to England to live under

redity discovering such graces only in those whose vestibules are lined with ancestral mail, forgetting that a bear may be taught to dance. While this air of hers lasted, even the inanimate objects in the street appeared to know that she wa

'twere not for the sun, and, dang me! if she isn't a pretty piece. A man could make a me

cruciating perpendicular. His remarks had been addressed to a rickety person, wearing a waistcoat of that preternatural length from the top to the bottom button w

transomed windows and moulded parapet above him-not to study them as features of ancient architecture, but just to give as healthful a stretch to the eyes as his acquaintance had done to his bac

look down the river. 'Now, if a poor needy feller like myself could only catch her alone when she's dressed up to the nines for some grand party,

to think such roguery. Though I've had thoughts like

ion standing there is a

an lady. Ay, a thing of t

s a backward age for a body who's

a' got off the carriage last night, tired out wi' boaming about the country; and nineteen this morning when she cam

ng woman's name, ma

camp-kettles, that they carry to wash in because hand-basons bain't big enough, and I d

e out of some noble ci

t a long story short, all I know besides about 'em is that the name upon their luggage is Lady Pet

' said the milkman, nodding towards a figure of that description who had just emerg

f that nobleman that you call chap in the gaiters us

d'ye t

and was that familiar with men of money, that he'd slap 'em upon the sh

rdlin's name, ma

home alive, and ha'n't got too old and weared out, they walk and see a little of their own parishes. So they tower about with a pack and a stick and a clane white pocket-handkerchief over their hats just as you see he's got on his. He's been staying here a night

shipwreck I suffer in these lynes o' mine-that they do not! And what was this young widow lady's maiden name,

here I be now not a penny the better! Often-times, when I see so many good

ard and

ng and g

n's maiden name, though she said to me, "Good evening, John;" but I had no memory of ever seeing her afore-no, no more than the dead in

quired the milkman, lifting his ear. 'Let's have it again-a good saying we

l knows,' sai

me for years, and never could lick into shape!-O-ho-ho-ho! Splendid! Say it again, hostler, say it again! To hear my own poor not

folk will surely think you've been laughing at the lady and gentleman. Well, he

lking off; and there reached the inn in a gradual diminuendo, as he receded up the str

and new, stood near the middle of the town, and formed a corner where in winter the winds whistled and assembled their forces previous to plunging helter-skelter along the stre

. She had been watching the base of a cloud as it closed down upon the line of a distant ridge, like an upper upon a lower eyelid, shutting in the gaze of the evening sun. She was about to return before dusk came on, when she heard a commotion in the air immediately behind and above her head. The saunte

-of. Her stateliness went away, and it could be forgiven for not remaining; for her feet suddenly became as quick as fingers, and she raced along over the uneven ground with such force of tread that, being a woman slightl

near that she could hear the whisk of the duck's feathers against the wind as it lifted and lowered its wings. When the bird seemed to be but a few yards from its enemy she saw it strike downwards, and after a leve

as so intent that by creeping along softly she was enabled to get very near the edge of the pool and witness the conclusion of the episode. Whenever the duck was under the necessity of showing its head to breathe, the other bird would dart towards it, invariably too late, however; for the diver was far too experienced in the rough humour

bright and mottled field of sky, that on regarding the heather and plain again it was as if she had returned to a half-forgotten region after an absence, and the whole prospect was darkened to one uniform shade of approaching night. She began

had been set, she did not approach any marks on the horizon which might seem to signify the town. Thus dubiously, bu

ns Ethelberta kept her eye sharply upon him as he rose by degrees into view. The peculiar arrangement of his hat and pugree soon struck her as being that she had casually noticed on a peg in one of the rooms of the 'Red Lion,' and when he came close she saw that his arms diminished to a peculiar smallness at their junction wi

s direction,' said the tourist-the same w

s person stood still: she stopped like a clock. When she could agai

a way which would have told anybody in a moment that he

gh that can matter very little, I should think

ly, and he continued unconcernedly, 'Shal

ou pl

ith me,

the only noises which came from the two were the brushing of her dress and his

lebury-just where you see those lights. The path down there is the one yo

since speaking, keeping them fixed with mathematical exactness upon one point in

t,' said M

yet it was one of those which have to wait for a future

been doubly so to Ethelberta, for she gave back more than she

e nothing to me. . . . I could forgive a woman doi

eting does not appear, unless it refers to

married:

'this is how it is: you knew too much of me to respect me, and too little to pity m

know you less, and elevate my opinion of your nature by forgetting what i

n judgment, I-should be-bitter too! You never knew half about me; you

say without presumption that I recognize a lady by birth when I see her, even under reverses of an extreme kind. And certainly there i

led a smile of

angers that we have become to each other. I owe you an apology for having been betrayed into more feeling than I had a rig

bout, and in a short time nothing remained of him but quick regular

d from time to time imagined for that scene if it ever occurred. Yet there was really nothing wonderful in this: it is part of the generous nature of a bachelor to be not indisposed to forgive a portionless sweetheart who, by marrying elsewhere, has deprived him of t

ed her was gone to a mere nothing. In the hall she met a slender woman wearing a silk dress of that peculiar black which in su

any gentleman observed and followed me when I

her having begun to meditate on receiving orders to that effect, and said at last, 'You once told me, ma'am, if you recollect, that when y

so I

f anybody followed

ntleman arrive here by th

to reveal a light, puffed, and festooned one, put on a hat and feather, together with several pennyweights of metal in the form of rings, brooches, and earrings-all in a time whilst one could count a h

fter some hesitation softly opened the door of the sitting-roo

pectacles low down her cheek, her glance being depressed to about the slope of her straight white nose in order to look through them. Her mouth was pursed up to almost a youthful shape as she formed the letters with her pen, and a slight move o

younger lady, 'h

l safely piloted into the harbour of a full stop, Lady Petherwin just replied with 'What,' in an oc

ated you look!' she said. 'I have been quite a

she had once quarrelled with; and Ethelberta's honesty would have delivered the tidings at once, had not, unfortuna

what the end of it would be-much further than I had any idea of going. However, the duck came to a p

her fingers like the horns of a snail. 'You might have sunk up to your knees and got lost in that swam

nd then I had no difficulty, and

en running all the wa

ple's positions in life alter. Have I not heard you say that while I was at Bonn, at school, some family that we h

mean the

at was t

for you one summer, had he not?-just after you came to us, at the same time, or j

he had a sister, I think. I wonder where t

ho had been brought up to no profession, became a teacher of music in some country town-music having always

all ladies are supposed to go when they want to torment their minds in comfort-to her ow

towards the corner of the looking-glass, 'will you go down and find out if any gentleman named Julian has been staying in this house? Get to know it,

nothing to

es,

ys: when I found he was a married man, I e

ldn't have fumed more at the loss of him. But plea

ck again. 'A gentleman of that name stayed

find out h

he bookseller's, and being in want of a little time to look it over before it reached her mistress's hands, Mrs. Menlove retired, as if to go and ask the question-to stand meanwhile und

s, Upper Stree

will do,' repli

thoughts might have been made from her manner of passing the minutes away. Instead of reading, entering notes in her diary, or doing any ordinary thing, she walked to and fro, curled her pretty nether lip with