The Shadow of the Rope

e, and cutting a very attractive figure among the shimmering lights and shadows of the trees. She was rather tall, and very straight, with the pale brown skin and the dark

d suited her to equal perfection. Morna thought that she might even go to church in the coat and skirt, now and again during the summer, and she had a brown straw hat with fine feathers of the lighter shade which she made peculiarly her own;

st of him, since she was at once young and charming, and not even an unwilling and personally innocent candidate for his hand, like honest Sybil Venables. Yet Morna herself was not more attracted than repelled by the inscrutable personality of this rich man dropped from the clouds, who had never a word to say about his former life, never an anecdote to tell, never an adventure to record, and of w

one of the worst that could befall; for the vicar's wife had her little weaknesses, not by any means regarded as such b

Delverton district as an umbrella-tent to the North Pole. A cool grotto on a really hot day, the house was an ice-pit on any other; or so Mrs. Woodgate fancied, fresh from the cosey Vicarage, and warm from her rapid walk, as she stepped into another temperature, across polished marble that struck a chill through the soles of her natty brown shoes, and so into the lof

erneath the great, ornate, marble mantelpiece. Then she sat down again, and wondered what to say; for Morna was at once above and below the conversational average of her kind. Soon she was framing a sel

l behind her, the pilastered doorway for a frame, a gay background of hothouse flowers, and in the figure itself a nervous hesitancy which struck an immediate chor

nk it is so kind of you!" she exclaimed, her low voice full of the frankest gratitude; and Morna w

ir which Mrs. Steel selected. And for these few minutes, after that first frank speech, the greater constraint was on the part of the hostess; then all at once she seemed t

kly. "I am delighted with the garden, and

d by a dead duke with a fad for botany, and kept up by successors who could not endure the cold, uncomfortable house. It was said to have been a similar taste in Mr. Steel which had first attr

greenhouses of seats more favored by the family; and all this was the more wonderful as a triumph of art over some natural disadvantages in the way of soil and climate. The Normanthorpe roses, famous throughout the north of England,

s still a voyage of exploration, and I shall be rather sorry when I begin to know exactly what I am going to see next. Now, I have never been this way

en in this temperate month of May, a very trap for the afternoon sun. And in this hollow was a clump of attenuated trees, with drooping leaves of a

he look hardly lasted longer, and she said no more, but sh

uired Rachel, turning p

ere blue gums

ot stoop. So she did not even say, "Indeed!" but merely, after a pause, "You are something of a botanist y

I happen to remember Mr. Steel telling me

the nearest gum-tree and picked a spray of the lacklustre leaves. "I like the smell of the

ied a perpetual shadow of its own. It was a pathetic habit, which had become second nature with Rachel during the last six months; but now, for once, it was forgotten, and her face raised unguardedly to the sun, which painted it in its true and sweet colors, to Morna's surprise and real delight. The vicar's wife was one of those healthy-hearted young women who are the first to ad

also; but that might only be derived from him, and with all her reserve she could not conceal a sweet and sympathetic self from one as like her in that essential as they

een admiring the pale brown face of Morna in her turn,

Morna, laughing. "But

n Rachel. "What pretty colors! Are th

s she laughed again. "No, th

od still o

delightfully sensitive about her learning, did not even think of the short answer which she sometimes retur

ave thought it of me," she add

Rachel answered with a flattering stare. "And

ouchsafed particulars, even Rachel knew enough to appreciate the honors which the vicar's wife had won. What was more difficult to understand was how so young a woman of such

th it all," she asked,

ed in the middle of it, and the week af

eer to have

Morna, with a warmer blush; and R

n," sighed Mrs. Steel, as they neared the h

and praise. She was not so narrow as all that; she had had enough of learning; she had forgotten all that she had learnt; any dolt could be crammed to pass examinations. On the contrary, she was qui

said Mrs. Steel, shakin

de and drive never do." And

ike it; but I h

ied Morna at once. "

njoy it, I

e more off her guard with Morna than with any one whom she had met during the last six months; and, from the beginning, she was continually remembering and sto

-but I am sure you are not one. It may not be the finest form of exercise, but wait till you fly down these hills with your feet on the rests!

you, Mrs. Woodgate, but i

ng off his straw hat to Morna, and smiling with all urbanity as he held out his hand. But Mor

as quick enough to add; "not

isit, which she cut somewhat short on perceiving that Mr. Steel had apparently no intention of leaving them to their own devices after tea. Morna, howev

and path. Rachel was still carrying her spray of gum-leaves; he must have noticed it before, but this was

ictoria; and, you kno

rutable eyes, and yet a lurking sympathy too, nor was there

nd; but neither must you forget that I offered to take

h for once he missed, being absorbed

see one befor

ing up, as he sniffed and scrutinized.