A Romance of Wastdale

Jack

house. But the kitchen door stood open, and she not only

th her, and she bustled through the kitchen into the

eamily out across the fields. He turned as s

you a surprise

pected to see you again at Wastdale Head.

eeded to lig

lf that I was comin

years since y

. "Yes! I did not realise it until I

be wanting

better. I have

rea

ar;" and a smile broke o

bells ringing all the

decked the table with an assortment of jams, and carefully closed the door which opened into the lane, although the April sunlight was pouring through it in a warm flood. It seemed as if Gordon had gained an additiona

his mind with the recollection of two friends, of whom one was dead in reality, the other dead to him; and always vividly responsive to the impression of the mo

pper hand in Mrs. Jackson, an

ordon, you are goi

the 'maybe,'

ver have thought i

in his reveng

ntlemen used to rail

unt Sallies of our own contriving--mere pas

rrulous on a tide of sentiment. She hoped that Mr. Gordon's two friends would follow his example and find out their mistake,

hat Mr. Hawke found out the mistake at

, and she took his meaning fro

s your

seen much of

said, "Then it's just as we

prang to

nn?" he e

tdale every Easter. But he has always stayed at the

m. He might have foreseen the likelihood of Hawke's presence. After all, however, it could not matter. It would be, perhaps, a little awkward if they met, though, indeed, it need not be even that. Their actual rivalry had ended with the announcement of his engagement two

the trio which for years had made the farmhouse the resor

rkwright?"

"He died last year in Switzerland. It was

f Mrs. Jackson loved marriages, she hankered after violent deaths, and so, while sh

ed to be late. The descent was new to us, and knowing that we should not get off the snow before dark we looked out for a spot to camp on. We came to a little plate

with a certain deliberateness of speech as thoug

o his arm. It severed the main artery just above the wrist. I sent the guide down

ed with him a

don, and he ros

nted a description of his feelings during that night o

bout it at all!" she said almost

the former liveliness of his thoughts, but by the actual surroundings amongst which he stood. The room itself was so suggestive of reminiscences that it seemed instinct with the presence of his

n a red cover lay upon it and he took it up. It was a novel which Arkwright had written

" he said to himself, and taking his ha

the bed of the valley and then struck upwards to the right, on to the slopes of Scafell Pike. After a while he stopped to light his pipe, and, turning, saw over against him the track mounting in sharp zigzags towards the summit of the Styhead Pass. It was as clearly defined on the hill-side as a pencilled line on paper, and his eyes followed its direction mechanically until it bent over the edge of the Pass and disap

aintance she had commenced to dominate his thoughts, not so much on account of her beauty as from a certain distinctness of person

-coast, he mapped out the world for himself upon a purely fanciful plan. He first came into contact with actual life on his migration to Oxford. He was brought face to face with new facts and new experiences, which, strive as he might, he could not fit in with his theories. And, besides, he seemed to see all around him men actuated by the interests of truth toiling noisily at the overthrow of creeds and erecting nothing in their place. As a consequence,

his journey through a world of shadows. He pictured her standing out white and clear from a background of shifting haze, and his very

he joining of their hearts. His ambitions, so long dulled to inaction, sprang into new vigour and he followed their lead with a confident patienc

prominent in a dark clump of firs, recalled to him not only the fact of Hawke's proximity, but his desire to put an end to their estrangement. The desire grew a

hen set out for the fells. Gordon rummaged in his pockets and unearthed a card. He scribbled on it a request that Hawke would visit him during the evening, and turned back to the farm-hou

m afterwards with ove