The Well-Beloved

he road young girls stood with pitchers at the fountains which bubbled there, and behind the houses forming the propylaea

ch, if it were to slip down, would overwhelm the whole town. But in a moment you find that the road, the old Roman highway into the peninsula, turns at a sharp angle when it reaches the base of the sc

uninteresting left road to the fortifications. It was new, long, white, regular, tapering to a vanishing point, like a lesson in perspective. About a

He followed the direction of her gaze. Above them towered the green-grey mountain of grassy stone, here levelled at the top by military art. The skyline was broken ever

that she had a

ness was such that to climb it unencumbered was a breathless business; the linen made her task

panted up the way; for the moment an irradiated being, the

ed in such e

beheld h

coigns of vantage that she passed, but seeing who she was they did not intercept her; and presently she crossed the drawbridge over the enormous chasm surrounding the forts, passed the sentries there also, and disappeared through the arch into the interior. Pierston could not see the sentr

ou staring at, as if

ood his old friend Somers-still lookin

il do you do here? if I w

of-the-way place at that time of year, and incidentally to get some fresh air int

, at a pretty little washerwoman with a

I am under a doom, Somers. Yes, I am under a doom. To have been always following a phantom whom I saw in woman after woman while she was at a distance, but vanishing away on close approach, was bad enough; but n

rs wore on, but made no further remark. When they reached the castle Somers gazed round upon the sce

land altogether. A man might love a

't impress them, though they pretend

once

view. She has told me so-can

t IS a strange turning of the tables!' he said.

wreckers and smugglers, like her. Besides, I know what she's made of, my boy, to her innermost

you'll

t the same time in the evening when Avice was helping in the house. He excused himself for a moment to his visitor and went out upon the dark lawn. A crunching of feet upon the gravel mixed in with the articulation

s tones having a kinship to Avice's own-he returned to the house. Next day Somers roamed abro

everely. She admitted that it was the fac

meaning tone that he failed to fathom then

s a wonderful

od enoug

some, no

e enough

ed and re

respectable e

ned in the afternoon to see Avice's lover. He found that she had left her cottage stronghold, and went on towards the lighthouses at the Beal. Turning back when h

ysiognomies-his features energetic and wary in their expression, and half covered with a close, crisp black

, for her dear mother's sake more than for her own unquestionable attractiveness, he

n upon whose arm she hung was not a soldier. What, then, became of her entranced gaze at the sentinel? She could hardly have transferred her affections so promptly; or, to give her the

desire to make reparation to the original woman by wedding and enriching the copy-which lent suc

of the homely flys from the under-hill town, but apparently from the popular resort across the bay.

served that her face was pale and agitated, she seemed pathetic likewise. Altogether, she was now a very different figure f

, while he was holding her hand. 'But I couldn't help it! I know I have done something to offend you-have I not? O! wha

am that you should have supposed it! Yet I am glad, too, that your fa

Budmouth-Regis,

a church-service here

rtue of candour. You know what it means. I was the stronger once; now I am the weaker. Whatever pain I may have given you in the ups and

tch for him-a superior match, indeed, except in money. He took her hand again and held it awhile, and a faint wave of gladness seemed to flow through her. But no-he could go

t was why I felt I must call. You did not know I

; or I should have

to write. I w

d, too, dear M

n, and would call immediately. At the moment of his words Avice Caro, now alone, passed close along by the carriage on the other si

she was-brought with it came like a doom. He knew what a fool he was, as he had said. But he was powerless in the

all I could! I felt that the only counterpoise to my cruelty to

very dear friend!' said he, with an emot

and had risen near the foundations of the Pagan temple, and a Christian emanation from the former might be wrathfully torturing him through the very false