Only a Girl's Love

eadow; she caught one more glimpse of them as he rode through the ford, the water dashing up a silver shower of

ht, until her uncle's voice came floating down the garden, and w

a slight look of anxiety, whi

changed your mind, and flown back to Italy again

as she put her a

ers; are they not sweet? You shall have them for your table, and they shall stand within sight while you are at work." And she filled a v

with his pipe in his mouth,

dvent

. "I have met-can

smi

lergyman? It is his

N

by her[18] side. If so, you have made an acquaintan

t was a man. You shan't guess any more;

now he was at home. Lord Leycester! And does my picture

ashamed of the meaningless

see very distinctly you know. It was moonligh

spirit. He flashed past like a meteor, I expect. No, y

doubt, but the chestnut declined. I think it was

r; such a little thing even as the shying of his horse

a deep blush of maidenly shame rising to her face, as s

he very

not have been more quiet," sa

eridge

e Hall is full of people from town; but it would not matter to him if he want

he wore a loose velvet coat to-night of a dark purp

nd left them there at the Hall-saddled his own horse and tore away across the river. Well, you have probably seen the la

eply that he had suddenly resolved to stay,

at the door, and Mrs. Penf

he said, with a smile of reproach; "I thought yo

to the old man

, uncle," s

y, but with something of the bewildered look clouding them;[19] "

home! You are very good to me, u

th its white bed and its old-fashioned dimity curtains framing the lattice window. As her gaze wandered round the room, her glorious eyes grew moist. It was all so sudden, so swe

with one sweep of his strong hand he broke her chains asunder, and, lifting her into his saddle, bore her away. Then the scene changed; she seemed to be following her rescuer who, with his handsome face turned over his shoulder, drew her on continually with a strange fascinating smile. All through her dreams the smiling eyes haunted her, and

hestnut scarcely breaking his pace, but breathing hard and defiantly from its wide, red nostrils-

e-keeper heard the beat of the chestnut's feet, for which he had been listening intently, and threw open the gates, and Lord Leycester entered the grounds. They were vast in extent and exquisitely laid out,

ansion broke upon the gaze suddenly, mentally st

ssionate love and appreciation for the beautiful, and there was to-night a strange, indefinable fire in his hot blood which made him more than usually susceptible to the in

ng as intently as the lodge-keeper, and as he entered the yard they hurried forward silently and took the chestnut. Lord Leycester dropped to the ground, patted the hor

e somewhat gloomy aspect of the place was lightened by the gleaming armor of the knightly effigies which stood at regular intervals upon the tesselated floor, and by the deep crimson of the curtains which screened the heavy doors and tall windows. The whole scene, the very atmosphere, as it seemed, was characteristic of an ancient and powerful rac

ll existed at Wyndward. Be as exacting and capricious as you might, you had no fear of meeting with inattention or disrespect

t or trouble, and the servants, from the pages to the countess's own maid, w

d Wyndward, as he passed the

tered a room fronting the park. It was one of a suite which consist

plain indications of the ow

enus rising from her cradle of sea foam; for upon this, the only son of the house, the partial gods had bestowed many gifts; any one of which, had he been a poor man, would have made the world regard him as one of its masters. But as it was, he painted and played for amusement only, and there were only a few of his friends, and only those who were most intimate, who suspected that the wild, reckless Leycester could do more than ride like a

uard against the too frequent treachery of an early summer evening, and flinging his ha

y thoughts a hundred miles away, coming upon it suddenly as it shone up above me-that I should think it only a vision! If that face as I saw it could smile out from the Academy next Spring, what crowds of fools would gather round to gape and stare at it? If-yes

e. No, she will be as I saw her to-night, with dark silken hair, and sweeping lashes shading the dark brown eyes, in which one sees the soul peering

she is rightly named, after all. She shone down on me like a star, and I-great Heaven!-was like one bewitched! While she-she made a la

of a girl not yet a woman! and yet I would not[22] have missed that laugh and th

the door, and his v

a moment abstractedly, then r

s it, O

for me,

ten. I will wash and g

er to change the velvet smoking-jacket for the dress coat, brushed

e asked. "Are any of th

Halliday; the Marquis of Sandford and

, and Lord Leycester entered a small ante-room, one side of which opened into a long-stretching fernery, from whi

rt. Lord Leycester passed through and down a small corridor lined with statuary, at the end of which was another curtain. No pas

y but not gorgeously decorated, and lighted by wax candles shining through faintly hued globes. At one end stood a grand piano in white and ormolu, and a lady was playing and si

th proud, haughty, clean-cut face, and iron gray hair, worn rather long and brushed back from a white, lofty brow. It was the earl. His dark piercing eyes were bent upon the ground as he stood listening to the music, but he saw Leycester enter, and raised his head as a slight frown crossed his face. Lady

ed up with her ser

ve some tea,

s," he

it a young man left the group at th

ng his hand on the broad shoulder. It was Lord Ch

n the same rooms at Oxford, had been comrades in all the wild escapades which made their term at college a notorious one, and they were inseparable. Leycester had grown from a tall lad into a stalwart man; Lord Charles-or

ed up to hear the answer; the countess busied herself w

ad listened to Barton's Indian story for the hundredth time, and it got rather slow; then I remembered th

nd turned away; Lo

ed; "and here were we hunting

Leycester?" said a beautiful girl who was sitting near;

ld have bored you, La

iled up int

said. "You are more con

a is announced," he retorted. "I have an idea, shared by my sex ge

ountry till we quiet down. Are we

m from behind her fan w

o true coin; but while he talked his thoughts were wandering to the[24] dark-haired girl who had shone down upon him from her green and fragrant bower in the lane, and he found himse

er men, his handsome head thrown back musingly. Many an admiring and wistful glance followed him from among the women, and not a few would have exerted all their fascinations to keep