In Luck at Last

he would certainly select that period which lies between the first perception of the first symptom

men perfectly understand the other side to this great truth-namely, that no greater happiness can fall to any woman than the love of a good man. So that, in all the multitudinous and delightful courtships which go on around us, and in our midst, there is, on both sides, both with man and with maid, among those who truly reach to the right understanding of what this great thing may mean, a continual distrust of self, with humility and anxiety. And when, as sometimes happens, a girl has been brought up in entire ignorance of love, so that the thought of it has never entered her head, the thing itself, when it falls upon her, is

d not Clara, who finally deter

as new to him, and it amused him to watch a man giving his whole time and intellect to the copying or faces and things on canvas. Also, he was well aware by this time that it was not to see Mr. Emblem or himself that Arnold spent every evening at the house, and he was amused to

of three hours or so, "do you know that this is going to be the

opher, "when a young man desi

m ready. You began to lodge in the house twenty years ago, and you have seen her every day since. If she is not the

"who shall call her wife; happy the

ingenuous blush, "I suppose that you hav

pher inclin

now her so well-that sh

nquire into the mind of a woman. Their ways are not our ways, nor are their thoughts ours, nor have we w

had experien

over the Sag

as all men have. I have had many wives. Yet to me, as

u know the thoughts

ness, and that she knows not any evil thought. Y

Arnold, "I would not-

ess. Woman is made to be loved. Receive with gratitude what Heaven gives. The prese

e silent, and Arnold sat down and

at the house in the King's Road.

d? It is ea

on; but I thought-it is a fine afternoon-I thought

nold, who looked confused and stammered,

north-west. There were lighters and barges majestically creeping up stream, some with brown three-cornered sails set in the bows and stern, some slowly moving with the tide, their bows kept steady by long oars, and some, lashed one to the other, forming a long train, and pulled along by a noisy little tug, all paddle wheel and engine. There was a sculler vigorously practicing for his next race, and dreaming, perhaps, of sending a challenge to Hanlan; there were some boys in a rowing-boat, laughing and splashing each other; on the north bank there was the garden of the Embankment, with its young trees still green, for the summer lasted into late September this year, and, beyond, the red brick tower of the old church, with its flag post on the top. These details are never so carefully marked as when one is anxious, and fully absorbed in things of great importance. Perhaps Arnold had crossed the bridge a hundred times before, but to day, for the first time, he noticed the common things of the river. One may be an arti

d of it, and across the corner where the stone columns lie, like an imitatio

d sometimes black with coal, and sometimes they go up and down sideways, in lubberly Dutch fashion, but they are always picturesque; and beyond the river is the Embankment, with its young trees, which will before many years be tall and stately trees;

the terrace almost to themselves, save for half-a-dozen girls with children, and two or three old men maki

k, Iris," said Arnold at l

Sometimes in the winter, and when the east wi

ris," he said, "

a happ

hand, but she made no reply. "I must tell you, Iris, because I cannot keep it

ered. It had come, the

important thing, and the rest matters littl

e said; "te

impossible. I love you, Iris; I love you-I should like to say nothing more. But I must tell you as well that I am quite a poor man; I am an absolute pauper; I have nothing at all-no money, no work, nothing. My studio and all must go back to her; and yet, Iris, in spite of thi

ith a look in her eyes so full of trust and truth that his heart sunk wit

you all along, ever since you began to write to me.

sell the cocoa and the ginger beer. There was no one in the place besides themselves, and here, among the falling leaves, and in a solitude

so? It is a shame, Arnold; we are not worth so much. Could any woman," she thought

ritten those letters? You gave mine back to me; did you think that I would ever part with yours? And you owned-oh, Iris, what would not the finished woman of the world give to have the secret of your power?-you owned that you knew all my letters, every

so very good for a young man-a young man of the best kind, not my cousin's kind-to be poor. Nobody ought ever to be allowed to become rich before he is fifty years

sh I were another Raphael. You are my mistress and my queen. Bid me to die, and I

love cannot command. But, I think," she added softly, with a ten

and kissed

murmured; "my

y side, and hand in hand, and what they said further we need not write down, because

that the sun was actually se

ple, red and gold; the river was ablaze; the barges floated in a golden haze; the light shone on their faces, and made the

is finished; it has been a happy time, and it sets in glory and spl

studio in Tite Street. There, in the solemn twilight, he held her in

ine and I am yours. What have I