The Hand of Ethelberta

nd of the pier with his back towards the open sea, whence the waves were pushing to the shore in frills and coils that were just rendered visible in all their bleak ins

nights as the present, when the sportive and variegated throng that haunted the pier on

ted footway, and rays from the nearest la

He is sent to ask if you can come immediately to play at a little dance they have resolved upon this evening-quite suddenly

e people send for me above al

homeward, 'you might take me as your assistant. I should answer the purpo

annot be a regular ball; they would have had the quadrille band for anything of tha

ut of the town, and the coachman mentioned that if they were going it would be well that they should get ready to start as soon as they conveniently could, since he had been told to return by ten if possible. Christo

' said Christopher, a

grew out of a talk at dinner, I believe; and some of the young people present wanted a jig, and didn't care to play themselves, you know, young ladies being an idle

y found it a

all. As soon as it was proposed they were wild for sen

e particularly?'

ys. "The gent who's turned music-man?"

living nearer to your

d that your name was mentioned to our old party, when he was in the room, by a young lady staying with us, and mistress says then, "The Ju

red for my family the same one who

that the rest said they would like you to p

ow that la

Peth

A

d, s

n

ped up to the top of her head, cutting into the sky behind them like a sugar-loaf. Such gates as crossed the roads had been left open by the forethought of the coachman, and, passing the

the carriage-lamp showed on the face of one wall as they passed,

t I haven't been here long enough to know the rights of it. When I am in one of my meditations, as I wait here with the carriage sometimes, I think how many more

c-books under her arm. They were shown into the house-steward's room, and ushered thence along a badly-lit passage and p

*

rom the servants' quarter, the light from the chandelier and branches against the walls, striking on gilding at all points, quite dazzled their sight for a minute or two; it caused Faith to move forward with her eyes on the

hin an alcove at one end of the room. A screen of ivy and holly had been constructed across the front of this recess for th

y Faith and her brother, the whole spectacle deriving an unexpected novelty from the accident of reaching their eyes through interstices in the tracery of green leaves, which added to

he floor, when Faith, casually looking up into her brother's face, was surprised to see that a change had come over

she had not heard the

elbe

aith, peeping through w

e has just been dancing with that perfumed piece of a man they call Mr. Ladywell-it is he with the high eyebrows arched like a girl's.' He ad

gether a vigorous shape, as refreshing to the eye as the green leaves through which he beheld her. She danced freely, and with a zest that was apparently irrespective of partners. He had been waiting long to hear her speak, and when at length her voice did reach his ears, it was the revelation of a strange matter to find how great a thing that small event had become to him. He knew the old utterance-rapid but not frequent, an obstructive thought causing sometimes a s

wn full of excitement and animal spirits, does not require much concentration of thought in the producer

the flowers are fastened to the leaves?-taking a mean advantage of bei

ave a feeling of being moved about like a puppet in th

th the shining bunch of

the accidental renewal of acquaintance between us on Anglebury Heath, that she wrote the poem. I was, however, at the moment you spoke, thinkin

ons. Kit, I have never yet s

It was while he was for a moment outside the recess, and he caught her in the act. She

a, orders, and classes, as the animal world itself. Christopher saw Ethelberta Petherwin's performance in this kind-the well-kno

mselves like house-flies and part again, and lullabied by the faint regular beat of their footsteps to the tune, the players sank into the peculiar mesmeric quiet which comes over impressionable people who play for a great length of time in the midst of such scenes; and at last the only noises that Christopher took cognizance of were t