A Pair of Blue Eyes

as modified by the creeping hours of time, was known only to those who watched the circumstances of her history.Personally, she was the comb

character of hostess, face to face with a man she had never seen before--moreover, looking at him with a Miranda-like curiosity and interest that she had never yet bestowed on a mortal.On this particular day her father, the vicar of a parish on the sea-swept outskirts of Lower Wessex, and a widower, was suffering from an attack of gout. After finishing her household supervisions Elfride became restless, and several times left the room, ascended the staircase, and knocked at her father's chamber- door.'Come in!' was always answered in a hearty out-of-door voice from the inside.'Papa,' she said on one occasion to the fine, red-faced, handsome man of forty, who, puffing and fizzing like a bursting bottle, lay on the bed wrapped in a dressing-gown, and every now and then enunciating, in spite of himself, about one letter of some word or words that were almost oaths; 'papa, will you not come downstairs this evening?' She spoke distinctly: he was rather deaf.'Afraid not--eh-hh !--very much afraid I shall not, Elfride. Piph-ph-ph! I can't bear even a handkerchief upon this deuced toe of mine, much less a stocking or slipper--piph-ph-ph! There 'tis again! No, I shan't get up till to-morrow.''Then I hope this London man won't come; for I don't know what I should do, papa.''Well, it would be awkward, certainly.''I should hardly think he would come to-day.''Why?''Because the wind blows so.''Wind! What ideas you have, Elfride! Who ever heard of wind stopping a man from doing his business? The idea of this toe of mine coming on so suddenly!...If he should come, you must send him up to me, I suppose, and then give him some food and put him to bed in some way. Dear me, what a nuisance all this is!''Must he have dinner?''Too heavy for a tired man at the end of a tedious journey.''Tea, then?''Not subst