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Stephen suddenly shifted his position froh for a small ottoman to stand between the piano and the corner of the rooazed wistfully up into Elfride's face So long and so earnestly gazed he, that her cheek deepened to aConcluding, and pausing motionless after the last word for a ain His features wore an expression of unutterable heaviness

'You don't hear s, do you, Mr Smith, to take so much notice of these ofthat I was noticing: I ently

'Now, Mr S You er to a secluded spot, you think I must needs come from a life of bustle, and know the latest movements of the day But I don't My life is as quiet as yours, and more solitary; solitary as death'

'The death which comes from a plethora of life? But seriously, I can quite see that you are not the least what I thought you would be before I saw you You are not critical, or experienced, or-- airs to you that I only half know' Finding that by this confession she had vexed him in a way she did not intend, she added naively, 'Ionly young and not very experienced You don't think my life here so very tame and dull, I know'

'I do not, indeed,' he said with fervour 'It , and fresh, and----'

'There you go, Mr Set theh to own the truth, think just the reverse: that h pleasant for the exceptional few days they pass here'

'I could live here always!' he said, and with such a tone and look of unconscious revelation that Elfride was startled to find that her harmonies had fired a small Troy, in the shape of Stephen's heart She said quickly: 'But you can't live here always'

'Oh no' And he drew himself in with the sensitiveness of a snail