The Rosary

e in the party could not easily escape afterwards unnoticed. So a distant clock in the village was striking ten, as Garth and Jane

e they had been really alone since these da

onlight flooded the whole scene with radiance. They could see the stiff box-borders, the winding paths, the queerl

st, his head erect. Jane had seated herself sideways, turning towards him, her back to an old stone lion mounting guard upon the p

was lookin

in the soft, creamy old lace which covered the bosom of her gown. There was a quiet strength and nobility about her attitude which thrilled the soul of the man who stood watching her. All the ador

ot begin his confidences about Pauline Liste

d half rose from her

o me-all you have become to me, since the night of the concert. Ah, how can I express it? I have never had any big things in my life; all has been more or less trivial-on the surface. This need of you-this wanting you-is so huge. It dwarfs all that went before; it would overwhelm all that is to come,-were it not that it will be the throne, the crown, the summit, of the future.-Oh, Jane! I have admired so many women. I have raved about them, sighed for them, painted them, and forgotten them. But I never LOVED a woman before; I

entences, he passed both his arms around her waist and pressed his face into the soft lace at her bosom. A sudden quietness came ove

had not been the miss of the music, but the miss of HIM; and as she realised this, she unconsciously put her arms about him. Sensations unknown to her before, awoke and moved within her,-a heavenly sense of aloofness from the w

ad suddenly come so close to the shrine within, she quickly put both hands behind his head and pressed his face down again, into the lace at her bosom. But, to him, those dear firm hands holding him close, by that sudden movement, seemed an acceptanc

fe!" h

obbed so strangely through her heart, into her cheeks, making them burn, and her heart die within her. She disengaged h

filled with a gladness unspeakable. His spirit was content. The intense silence seemed more expressive than words. Any ordin

mean that you wish to ask

ending to ask it of you. But I cannot ask it now, beloved. I can't ask you TO BE what you ARE already. No promise, no cerem

e longed to cover them with her hands; or bid him look away over the woods and water, while he went on saying these sweet things to her. She put

ation under the cedar, had resulted in an unusually close and delightful friendship. I honestly admit it seems to have-it has-meant more to me than any friendship has ever meant. But that was partly owing to your temperament, Dal, which tends to make you always the

with its deep undertone of gla

cannot give you an answer to-night. You must

ou to answer than I felt need to put a question. Can't you realise this? Question and

e stood

a mere question of sentiment. It has to wear. It has to last. It must have a solid and dependable foundation, to stand the test and strain of daily life together. I know so many married couples intimately. I stay

ak or act violently. He strove to compose his mind by fixing it upon trivial details which chanced to catch his eye. His red socks showed clearly in the moonlight against the white paving of the terrace, and looked well with black patent-leather shoes. He resolved always to wear red silk socks in the evening

me, didn't you

aight indoors now and don't speak to me again to-night. I heard you say you were going to try the organ in the church on the common at eleven o'clock to-morrow morning. Well-I will come there soon aft

She felt him take hold of her gown with those deft, masterful fingers. Then he bent his dark head quickly, and whispering: "I kiss the cross

had sat when he knelt in front of her. Now she was quite alone. The tension of these last hard moments relaxed. She pressed both hands

be called by it again. And large silent tears overflowed and fell upon her hands and upon the lace at her breast. For the wife and the mother in her had been wakened and stirred

the scattered petals o

and resounded with "good-nights" as the women mounted the great staircase,

and glossy head the moment she entered the hall. His back was towards her, and though she advanced and stood quite near, he gave no sign of being aware of her presence. But the

morrow morning is impossible. I have an engageme

We have seen no dairies, and no dairy-maids, nor any of the things in Adam Bede, since we came over. I wou

TROP in the dairy," murm

illiant charm of American womanhood radiating from her. She wore no jewels, save one strin

d reached Jane where she lingered in the background. She took in every

," said Garth. "My appointment is with a very grubby small boy, whose rural

ic?" inquire

rate of three

rse," cried both

e have heard, Mr. Dalmain, that it is well worth the walk to the links to see

u might drive there, but the walk through the woods is too charming to miss. Only remember, you cross the park and leave by the north gate, not the main entrance by which we go to the railway station. I would offer to escort you, but duty takes me, at an early hour, in quite another direction. Be

tely that never, under any circumstances, could he

is what we are doing on this staircase at this present moment, so that Miss Champion has

t him. She paused beside Miss Lister. She knew exactly how effectual a foil she made to the American girl's white loveliness. She turned and faced him. She wished him

ut he lifted them slowly to the lace at her bosom, where her hand still l

you playing around with Mr. Dalmai

th behave in that way? People would think there was something unusual about her gown. She felt a wild impulse to stoop and look at it herself to see whether his kiss had materialised and was hanging like a star to the silken

them, handing Pauline's au

instant his eyes met hers, but he did not hold o

went different ways. Miss Lister trailed away down

iff there," said

She's a real good sort. I should have thought she

said her aunt, ignori

her own face," said M

ke it for her. She's what Sir Walter Scot

an't see himself marrying below it. If the Sistine Madonna could step down off those clouds and hand the infant to the young woman on her left, he might marry HER; but even then he would be afraid he might see some one next day who did her hair more becomingly, or that her foot would not look so well on his Persian rugs as it does on that cloud. He won't marry money, because he has plenty of it. And even if he hadn't, money made in candles would not appeal to him. He won't marry beauty, because he thinks too much about it. He adores so many lovely faces, that he is never sure for twenty-four hours which of them he admires most, bar the fact that, as in the case of fruit trees, the unattainable are usually the most desired. He won't marry goodness-virtue-worth-whatever you choose to call the sterling qualities of character-because in all these the Honourable Jane Champion is his ideal, and she is too sensible a woman to tie such an epicure to her plain face. Besides, she considers herself his grandmother, and doesn't require him to teach her to suck eggs. But Garth Dalmain, poor boy, is so sublimely lacking in self-consciousness that he never questions whether he can win his ideal. He possesses her already in his soul, and it will be a fearful smack in the face when she says

curtain, stood for a long while at her window, looking out at the peaceful English scene bathed

n sighing for the moon; and when you find the moon is unattainable, you will not dream of seeking solace in more earthly lights-not even poppa's best sperm," she added, with a wistful little smile, fo

s like a royal tiger who had tasted blood. It seemed a queer simile, as she thought of him in his conventional evening clothes, correct in every line, well-groomed, smart almost to a fault. But out on the terrace with him she had realised, for the first time, the primal elements which go to the making of a man-a forceful determined, ruling man-creation's k

is own, and his very certainty of the near future had given him that gentle patience in the present. But even now, while her answer pended, he would not take her hand in friendship. Jane closed her door and locked it. She must face this problem of the future, with all else locked out excepting herself and him. Ah! if she could but lock herself out and think only of him and of his love, as beautiful, perfect gifts laid at her feet, that she might draw them up into her empty arms and clasp

ing her elbows on the sill and her chin in her hands, and looked down upon the terrace, still bathed in moonlight. Her window was almost opposite the place where she and

d mated with him, unafraid. He had not asked whether she loved him or not, and she did not need to ask herself. She surrendered her proud liberty, and tenderly, humbly, wistfully, yet with all the strength of her stro

Garth's joyous voice, with the ring of perpetual youth in it, always answered: "Perfectly content." And Jane smiled into the night, and in the depths of her calm eyes dawned a knowledge hitherto unknown, and in her

her in her awoke and realised how much of the maternal flows into the love of a true woman when she understands how largely the child-nature predominate

hen. But you had had all-all you wanted, in those few wonderful moments, and nothing can rob you of that fact. And you have made me SO yours that,

f a nightingale purled and thrilled in an adjacent wood. The lonely years of the past, the perplexing moments of the present, the uncertain vistas of the future, all rolled aw

okes floated up to Jane's window across the moonlit park. Time

wer to Garth. The next time that clock struck twelve she would b

l she came to those she sought. Over them she pondered long, her head in her hands. They contained a very full account of her conversation with Garth on the afternoon of the day of the concert at Overdene; and the lines upon which she specially dwelt were these: "His face was transfigured.... Goodness and inspiration shone from it, making it as the face of an angel.... I never thought him ugly again. Child though I was, I could differentiate even then between ugliness and plainness. I have associated his face ever since with the wondrous beauty of his soul. When he sat down, at the close of

ce: "Of course it was not the sort of face one COULD have wanted to live with, or to

ing-table, particularly two bright ones on either side of the

he had sat on the terrace and thought of his socks, and then had counted the windows between his and Jane's. There were five of them. He knew her window by the magnolia tree and the seat beneath it where h

ne lion and the vase of scarlet geraniums. He could

ees beside the window and l

essions of his own thought. Now, looking upward, he repeated softly and reverently: "'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no v

e lion and the broad coping. His soul sang within him, and he fo

ock struck one, Jane a

roping her way to the bed, fell upon her knees beside i