Beatrice

ticking of the clock, as he passed all these and many other events in solemn review, t

ord I'd . . . By Jove, it is three o'clock; I will go and see Miss Granger. She's a woman, not a female ghost at any ra

curling hair. Her sweet face was towards him, its pallor relieved only by the long shadow of the dark lashes and the bent bow of the lips. One white wrist and hand hung down almost to the floor, and beneath the spread curtain of the sunlit hair her bosom heaved softly in her sleep. She looked so wondrously beautiful in her rest that he stopped almost awed, and gazed, and gazed again, feeling as though a present sense and power were stilling his heart to silence. It is dangerous to look upon such quiet

ed the ray of sunlight and turned it. It wavered, for a second it rested on his breast, flashed back to hers, then went out; and as it flashed and died, he seemed to know that henceforth, for life till death, ay! and beyond,

n him, looking through him and beyond him, rather than at him. Then she rais

at last," she said. "I knew that

also must be dreaming. For a little while Beatrice still looked at him in the s

hat I said? Oh, pray forgive me, whatever it was. I have been

g himself with a jerk; "you did not say anything dreadful, on

ubtfully; perhaps his wor

a very curious dream, and if I believed in dreams it would rather frighten me, only fortun

and she began, speaking in the voice of

the shuttle sped through space, and this time its eyes were like my eyes, and the thread it left behind it was twisted from a woman's hair. Half way between the globes of Life and Death my thread was broken, but the shuttle flew on and vanished. For a moment the thread hung in air, then a wind rose and blew it, so that it floated away like a spider's web, till it struck upon your silver thread of life and began to twist round and round it. As it twisted it grew larger and heavier, till at last it was thick as a

st all sight of land, and I could not remember what the stars were like, nor how I had been taught to steer,

er raiment, and t

ere I should go, and the land did not ans

der in the mist, and in

ea and sat before me in the boat. I had never seen you before, and still I felt that I had known you always. You did not speak, and I did

began, and whom I shall know when th

has rent her starry robes, and in everlasting darkness I must seek for light that is not.' Th

the globe, and her star-set head piercing the firmament of heaven, stood Hope breathing peace and beauty. She looked north and south and east and west, then she looked upwards through the arching vaults of heaven,

st found light, in De

he deep foundations of mortal death. And there in the Halls of Death I sat for ages upon ages, till at last I saw you come, and on your lips was the word

y still strove to trace their spiritual vision upon th

an imagination you must have

used to have, but I lost it when I lost-everything else. Can you interpret my dream? Of c

s beautiful nonsense," he answered. "I wish la

that I did repeat it, but it seemed so real it shook me out of myself. This is what comes of breaking in upon the routine of life by being three parts drowned. One finds

t Geoffrey felt that it would be too much in e

to a lady who but last night saved his life, at

that was all, more by instinct than from any motive. I thi

for polite fibs. I know how you saved my li

s. That is how they put it here; in some parts the saying is the other way about, but I am not likely ever to do you an injury, so it does not make me unhappy. It was an awful experience: you were senseless, so you cannot know how strange it felt lying upon the slippery rock, and seeing those great white waves rush upon us through

ng is, it would have been

ve in what we have been taught, as I think you do, wherever it was you found yourself there would be plenty of comp

en you lay upon the rock waiti

hy should I be afraid? Supposing that I am mistaken, and there is something beyond, is it my fault that I cannot believe? What have I done that I should be afraid? I have never harmed anybody that I know of, and if I could believe I would. I wish I

r. There are many things that a woman like yourse

ou know? I work all day, and in the evening perhaps I have to mend the tablecloths, or-what do you think?-write my father's sermons. It sounds curious, does it not, that I should write sermons? But I do. I wrote the one he is going to preac

get any time to

Davies, who lives in the Castle. Well, they have no drinking water near, and the new tenant made a great fuss about it. So Mr. Davies hired men, and they dug and dug and spent no end of money, but could not come to water. At last the tenant fetched an old man from some parish a long way off, who said that he could find springs with a divining rod. He was a curious old man with a crutch, and he came with his rod, and hobbled about till at last the rod twitched just at the tenant's back door-at least the diviner said it did. At any rate, they d

tter. It was your will that triumphed over your natural impulse towards self-preservation. Well, I will say no more about it, except this: If ever a man was bound to a woman by ties of gratitude and respect, I am bound to you. You need not fear that I shall take advantage of or misinterpret your confidence." Here

n's equal; what he could dare, she could dare; where he could climb, she could follow-ay, and if need be, show the path, and she felt that he acknowledged it. In his sight she was something more than a handsome girl to be admir

first time she feels herself a conqueror, victorious, not through the vulgar advantage of her s

oking up, "you make me very proud,"

ting the action, and though she coloured a little-for, till then, no man had even kissed th

pact of their perfect frie

s silence. It was G

l you allow me to preach you

," she

esson of suffering-humility. You have set yourself up against Fate, and Fate sweeps you along like spray upon the gale, yet you go unwilling. In your impatience you have flown to learning for refuge, and it has completed your overthrow, for it has induced you to reject as non-existent all that you cannot unde

head to her breast so that the lon

In the long run, unless we of our own act put away the opportunity, the world gives us our due, which generally is not much. So much for things temporal. If you are fit to rule, in time you will rule; if you do not, then be content and acknowledge your own incapacity. And as for things spiritual, I am sure of this-though of course o

e's wall is bui

that line at different times," he a

izon to horizon, and is highe

find wings an

ion. For she remembered that she had heard of wanderers in the dusky groves of human passion, yes, even M?nad wanderers, who had suddenly come

ve, and knew little of its ways, Beatrice grew suddenly silent. Nor did G

discussing a purel