Thyrza

, oriel windows on the ground floor of the front, and a square turret rising above the fine row of chestnuts which flanks the road. It was built some forty years ago, its

ouse Odessa Lodge; at his death it passed by purchase into the hands of people to whom this name

ur friend Egremont arrived from town at Eastbourne station and was conveyed thence by fly to the house of which I speak. He inquired for Mrs. Orm

leave London, the town establishment was broken up, and until his death, three years later, the family resided wholly at The Chestnuts. During those years the library grew appreciably, for the son of the house, Horace Ormonde, had just come forth from the academic curriculum with a vast appetite for literature. His mother, moreover, was of the women who read. Whilst Mr. Ormonde was taking a lingering farewell of the world and its concerns, these two active minds were busy with the fire-new thought of the

lently from the room, Walter, his own eyes blinded, caught her hand and pressed it passionately in both his own. She was the woman whom he reverenced above all others, worshipping her with that pure devotion which young men such as he are wont to feel for some gracious lady much their elder. At that moment he would have given his own life to the sea could he by

of the sea air. At the door she was told of Egremont's arrival, an

vanced with the quiet confidence with w

had a terrible storm in the night, and the morning is very sweet after it. Had

e would not expose had drawn its lines upon her features, and something too of imperfect health was visible there. But her gaze was the same as ever, large, benevolent, intellectual. In her presence Egremont always felt a well-being, a peace of mind, which gave to his own look

sly came from some very poor working-class home; their clothing was of the plainest possible, and, save that they were very clean and in perfect order, they might have been sitting on a doorstep in a London back street. Mrs. Ormonde had thrown a kind word to

d you everything essential in my letter. Annabel is in admirable health, both of body and mind. She is deep in Virgil and Dante-what more could

ng of which your let

d. At least, he shook hi

eeded. Couldn't you get help

t they may come. Mr. Newthorpe needs society, however content he may believe himself. Annabel, to my surprise, does really seem independent of such aids. How wonderfully she has g

his hands folded together. He kept silence, a

human at present. Probably that

than h

of her father, you were the only living pe

poke o

er deeply, though again in rather too-what shall we call it

at least sp

ging rejoinder. She said nothing for a

for your

ago the class suffered a secession. Y

young man of c

ed two lectures, and I don

oken to Bowe

m, too, which grates upon me. I shouldn't have been at all sorry if he had been the seceder; he's bored terribly, I know, yet he naturally feels bound to keep his place

of Mr.

h nearer relations with two or three of them. I have been lecturing for just a couple of months; they ought to know something of me by this time, On the whole, I think I am succeeding. But if there is one of them on w

, I mean-a m

ised if he were unhappily married. Certainly there is some great

asked, with a look

more or less miserable, and I'm afraid his interest is not very absorbing.

ed you on the subj

now him very well before I approach it. I think he bears me goodwill; I c

id. 'I wonder whether she still reads that insufferable publicati

up a propos

ounded d

ng to their dinner-poor little town sparrows! We'll let t

' he added pleasantly, 'to see the l

,' she said, earnestly. 'They brighten

the head of the table was a woman of middle age and motherly aspect-Mrs. Mapper. She had the superintendence of the convalescents whom the lady of the house received and sent back to their homes in London better physically and morally than they had ever been in their lives before. The children did not notice that Mrs. Ormonde and her companion had entered; they were chatting gaily over their meal. Now and then one of them drew a gentle word of correction from Mrs. Mapper, but o

t for a time after her husband's death. How could she pass through the barren rooms, how dwell within sight and sound of the treacherous waves which had taken her dearest? It was a royal thought which converted the sad dwelling into a home

tention; Mrs. Mapper saw them, but Mrs.

nate colds; I keep them under the bed-clothes. The difficulty these poor things have in getting rid of a c

mont led the conversation back to Ullswater,

them at Christmas,' he said

er cons

soon,' she sa

will be six m

advi

hed and left

ng of late,' Mrs. Ormonde resum

e rendered. I read a good deal, and occ

he Tyrrells sinc

o dine with them the other

at gro

less of peopl

onde reg

your Lambeth work is to be absorbing. Let it be so, but don't fall into the mist

distaste for o

Go into society freely. You are in dang

dividu

ian. Already I notice that you fall short of perfect health: the refusal of that invitat

ce. Mrs. Ormo

e the acquaintance of Mr. Dalmaine

enthusiasm

land. He gave them the benefit of his

m prejudiced against

s if we should hear a good

of British philistinism is sur

ady l

and returned to London. It was his habit when in England,

the great Library. His Oriental researches, as we know, were speedily abandoned, but the rooms in Great Russell Street still kept their tenant. They were far from an ideal abode, indifferently furnished, with draughty doors and smoky chimneys, and the rent was exorbitant; the landlady, who speedily gauged her lodger's character, had already made a small competency out of him. Even during long absences abroad Egremont retained the domicile; at each return he said to himself that he must really find quarters at

Walter was; thinking back in his maturity, the latter remembered many a noteworthy trait in his father, and wished the old man could have lived yet a few more years to see his son's work really beginning. And Egremont often felt lonely. Possibly he had relatives living, but he knew of none; in any case they could not now be of real account to him. The country of his birth was far behind him; how far, he had recognised since he began his lecturing in Lambeth. None the less, he at times knew home-sickness: not seldom there seemed to be a gap between him and the people born to refinement who were his a

passed many such evenings, for it was very seldom that any one came to see him, and for the amusements of the town he had no inclination. He was thinking much of Annabel; he could not imagine

ith in his power

om which he had furnished as he deemed most suitable. Several rows of school-desks faced a high desk at which he stood to lecture. The walls were washed in distemper, the boarding of the floor was uncovered, the tw

he laid open before him. Thus ranged they were seen to be eight in number. Out of fourteen to whom invitations were addressed, nine had presented themse

ved himself skilful, steady, abundantly respectful to his employers. In private life he enjoyed the fame of a petty capitalist; since his marriage, thirty years ago, he and his wife had made it the end of their existence to put by money, with the result that his obsequiousness when at work was balanced by the blustering independence of his leisure hours. The man was a fair instance of the way in which prosperity affects the average proletarian; all his better qualities-honesty, perseverance, sobriety-took an ignoble colour from the essential vulgarity of his nature, which would never have so offensively declared itself if il

s were at first sight by no means pleasing; their coarseness was undeniable, but familiarity revealed a sensitive significance in the irregular nose, the prominent lips, the small chin and long throat. Egremont had now and then caught a light in his eyes which was warranty for more than his rough tongue could shape into words. He often appe

the suspicions suggested by Ackroyd. To him these evenings were pure enjoyment. He delighted in this subject, and had an inexpressible pleasure in listening continuously to the speech of a cultivated man. Had the note-books of the class been examined (Egremont had strongly advised their use), Gilbert's jottings would probably have alone been found of substantial value, seeing that he alone possessed the men

were they likely to serve him for the greater purpose whereto this instruction was only preliminary? When he looked forward to that, he had to fix his eyes on Grail and forget the others. He was beginning to regret that the choice of those to whom his invitations were sent had depended upon Bower; another man might have aided him more effectually. Yet the fact was that Bower's selection had be

getic. He loved the things of which he spoke, and he had the power of presenting to others his reason for loving them. Not one in five hundred men inexperienced in such work could have held the ears of the class as he did for the first two or three evenings. It was impossible for them to mistake his spirit-ardent, disinterested, aspiring-impossible not to feel someth

le interest for him, and of poetry he has no comprehension whatever; your artisan of brains can study, but he cannot read. Egremont was under no illusion on this point; he knew well that the loveliest lyric would appeal to a man like Bower no more than an unintelligible demonstration of science. Was it impossible to bestow this sense of intellectual beauty? With what earnestness he made the endeavour! He took sweet passages of prose and verse, and read them with all the feeling and skill he could command. 'Do you yield to that?' he said within himself as he looked from face to face. 'Are your ears hopelessly sealed, your minds immutably earthen?' Grail-Oh yes, Grail had

but he cometh to you with words set in delightful proportion, either accompanied with or prepared for the well-enchanting skill of

umerable dear associations, only possible to the instructed, which make the finer part of your

him. He could read well, and a scene from those giants of the p

to Eastbourne, sometimes to Ullswater; yet he was speaking of Shakespeare. Bower was more owl-eyed than usual; the five d

ubtful five took down their hats and followed the portly man from the room. Bunce was talking with Grail, pointing with dirty fore

minutes, Mr. Grail; I sho