To-morrow?

sides and the soft rolling dip of the valley, and the still September blue stretched cloudless overhead. It was the late aft

at morning, and before the ceremony my one sensation had been that of strain, during it tense anxiety, and afterwards reproach, and none of these are pleasant e

as I first caught sight of her. Never, except in death, and already with the coffin enclosing it, have I seen a face so pallid. She wal

tatue moving, and for a second I felt as if the church, the people, she, I, the whole scene were unreal, and

the hand she gave me for the ring was cold as the touch of snow, and trembled convulsively. How long it all seemed! and how I loathed the prayers and the hymns, and sickened at the address! What earthly good is it to match words against a man's passion? As it is, it is, and no admonitions will alter it. However, all was over at last, and we were in the vestry.

ng like a murderer as I looked into the blan

pen, and then the clergyman picked it up and finished the half-written name. I felt a sharp self-re

t state to be marri

e with; the burden of other's society had slipped from us, and the weight of my own oppression I seemed to have left, together with the sullen heat of town air. In all the journey down Lucia had been recovering. The scarlet had been coming back to her

nt to know, I feel

!" I said, smiling back

ling happy until now, and I am five-and-twenty. Think, a whole

aug

ng to begin now, a

ill curved in smiles. "But still it is late to begin. It

t?" I said

be h

ou get the chance; but I think most people do.

"People muddle away their chances of happiness in life. Ten years ago, when I was fifteen and you were twenty-well, we mig

into the eyes, and dar

en years have gone beyond recall, and, if you have not been happy

peated; "I have

that stirred my frame now was held in the ever-present thought that this day saw the birth of my work in Paris. Not for worlds would I have hinted this to Lucia.

easure in the woman beside me. The brain already intoxicated with one pleasant emotion lends itself more, not less, readily to another, just as a brutal lover inflames his love with wine. In precisely the same way, my passion for Lucia was inflamed by the wine of gratified ambiti

r kindly you may supply him with bread. Another line of thought that ran side by side with this in my brain, as I watched the shadow pass over the girl's face as she thought of her ten lost years, was, that had we had these

elieve!" said Lucia, suddenl

e, I know," I answered, looking throug

e line, and all but hidden behind a delicate, intricate profusion of light green foliage. Behind it rose a rolling slope, clothed half-way up with a copse of young larch trees, whose slender stems sent lon

cent of tennis-courts and similar abominations, were planted here and there single trees. It had been the fancy of the owner that no

its narrow shadow straight as a spear across the emerald turf; and farther on a small squat tree, from China, unfurled smooth, glossy, polished leaves of lightest green,

a pretty house,

supposed to be a ve

e, and the side light from the window caught the curly

I answered, laughing, and looking straight into those eyes of lapis lazuli and then

th difficulty and turned to the window, so that I could not see her face; her ear, however, betrayed her all

ing in hardly seemed to disturb the sleepy stillness that hung over the strips of asphalt, the beds of hollyhocks and lilac bushe

and a few market women, with white aprons and baskets of eggs on their arms, stared wonderingly at Lucia as she stood with th

our luggage. As I walked back up the platform she was standing three-quarter ways towards me, the attitude

e two curves of the hips, and the long fall of the skirt beneath. All my frame-every limb and muscle-quickened with keen pleasure as my eye met the fami

anked heaven Lucia was not one of the horrible, modern women, if indeed they exist outside a lady's novel, who are always analysing you and your emotions, and testing the depth of your inferiority to themselves. I believed she was only s

think I have made that idiot underst

arm, impetuously, and said, as we turned to follow

u are so go

ge door, and the servant was holding it open. I waited to answer her till we had started, but when she had got in, and I had follo

w, of course; but all the sa

e, that I turned and looked at her in startled silence. Her

n't matter what I say to you now, does it! Oh, I am so glad that all this terrible repression and restrain

own tolerably well-governed feelings to a painful intensity, and I felt only too sharply that I, at any rate, had not done with sel

, perhaps, being a woman. The waist yielded gladly, and the w

lassic urns to remind one irresistibly of graveyards, but honest, bright, terracotta, human-looking flower-pots, from which rose or trailed the loveliest plants a skilful gardener could wrest from September. A white peacock paced majestic

's quick eye, and I heard an instinctive

now than in making sketches, and we both

or us to remind us of clothes and the serious duties of life. I saw Lucia carried

out from end to end, too restless to sit down to glance at the papers that lay on the different tables,

ng to the front and the carriage-drive, and another at the side, opening, wi

across the lawn, with its tropical trees standing motionless in the golden haze. Everything around me was very still, and

ame on to the terrace,

a light dinner-silk. The bodice was modest-I mean by that, it was unobtrusive-very. Excess of nervous excitement, the we

a rush of hot colour came into her face,

he exclaimed. "I told Celine

ng against me? I declared the dress was perfect, that I would not have the bodice half an inch higher for anything, that she looked adorable, and so on, un

tamped on the soft, delicate face. I saw that it would require all my tact and care to make this evening a success, and I determined that it should be one for her. Standing there beside her, looking down on her light head, I made a rough, m

y back upon it with a movement of tired relief. We neither spoke, and the perfect, sunny calm of the evening air, the silence, and the physical r

this want of confidence, this lack of familiarity she seemed to have. This sort of hesitation before she made the simplest request, the start and flush when

been conquered then; her will and desire had been broken down to mine; she had been forced to yield and to suffer; she had appealed to me and found me inflexible, relentles

ain. I got up from the table feeling my face grow white with sharp distress. I hardly knew at the moment how to express my thoughts; besides, I knew words would be of no ava

, dearest?" I said, merely,

ing almost in the same moment; "only I feel so restless

n the banister and my left arm round her waist, and the whole sweet figure beside me, and the white neck and ear so near

st beneath my own. In the subdued light of the staircase she lifted her lids, and I saw her eyes, gleaming and s

r my arm now! You won't push it a

into my arms. All the supple form yielded at my touch, till it leaned hard against my own; the face, pallid with excitement, was raised to mine; the glitter of her eyes swam before my vision as I caught it from ben

nd felt those lips under mine, her heart beat under my heart, her weak arms twisted round my throat. When

don't know ho

o on, but I hardly heard, my head was reeling, and all my senses dull, her figure leant a little against me, and the pressure of her arm was upon mine. After the drawing-room, the reading-room, an

felt her arm start violently in mine, and sh

n upon her a

oom, d

hing it, and tears startled into the dismayed eyes, which she

deeper as a grey pallor succeeded to the burning flush, and she

she said, hurriedly, fo

-start

rced herself to enter the room with me, but I collected

and look at it," I said, quietly, in a light, indifferent

body and mind, the gay exuberance of careless passion, with all the vigour of youth and health in it, that had leapt up to meet my caress a year ago,-and been refused. We passed on to a door on the other side of the corridor, which opened to another sitting-room. A lovely evening had given way to a lovelier night. Beyond the lo

y?" she said, with her

not well, dearest

exciting or embarrassing her. I stood beside the window frame watching her. Aft

does happen to me, you will remember you have your work and your talent to turn to,

as she looked up smiling for her answer. The bright light in the room fell full upon her, and I looked down upon this brilliant piece of l

ing back into her eyes. "I refus

hing, the colour leaping up in her cheeks, and the vivid blue deepening

ervals to escape each other's eyes, and laughed at nothing, and talked a very extraordinary astronomy. At last, with her soft fingers in my hair and on my throat, and her white arm above the elbow clasped in my h

es. I looked at my watch. I hardly know why I did it then. It was an involuntary action rather than a consci

rn wide open by it, in the faint gleam of sweat that showed on the white forehead. I was not blind to it, b

skirt dragged backwards and forwards over the carpet almost soundless, the moonlight and gaslight alternately gleaming on its folds. Each time that she came between me and the table my eyes followed with dizzy delight the soft side curve of her breast, the lines

walk about s

ng is going to happen. I never felt quite like this befo

llowed her, and pu

arest! What do you m

pale. There was a distressed and strangely absent look upon her

dering away from my anxious ones looking do

hed away my arm and

quite so bad as this before." And then, catching the distress upon my face, she added, "I daresay this is nothing.

ntinued to move slowly round the room, both hands pressed beneath her left breast,

ter-well, after I came to you in Paris. I shall take a long rest now. I hope I s

e stopped suddenly, and looked acro

dy I could have?"

flask of brandy there. In two seconds I had got it out

r come back to her lips-they were apart and grey. She set the glass down on the table with a wande

g!" and her head fell he

think there was any serious danger. I thought she was hysterical, as she had said; over-strained, and over-exc

breeze came blowing in upon her face. My hand followed hers to her bodice, and I loosened all the delicate lace ruffles round it

eyes. At intervals, it seemed to me, her heart gave great si

d them in an unreasoning agony upon me. A straining

etly, trying to recall her to her

u! I have lost my sight!

oming. My heart seemed turned into stone. Only Reason rejected the truth. The gong stood on the table close beside us. I stretched out my arm and struck it fu

id to him, "quic

reach us, she would have gone fro

k," I said wildly, raising the

t. A frightful agony was reflected in the bloo

l never paint again! Oh, don't let m

he only prayer of my life broke then in a

, keep me, Vict

you are

y backwards on my arm. I looked into her eyes. They were black as I had seen them long ago in the studio. Fearfully, terribly dilate

k to me once m

swered me. Her eyes were still fixed upon me in helpless horror, terror, and despair; but they knew me no longer. The unwilling soul had already started on its journey, and its eart

farewell, without a word, without any knowledge of the second when the life had fled, without a sound beyond that despairing, terrified appeal to me to keep her. I sto

down flat

ent over her. I drew back and stood beside the curtain motionless. Everything was swaying before my eyes in darkened confusion. Was this my wedding night? There was the ro

hade grew colder on his face. There was an intense silence in the room, then the words came across it, "Quite extinct." My ears seemed to fill wi

aid, and I heard my own voi

face and everything aroun

f this room?" I repeated,

rbed laces of her dress, and on the parted gleaming satin of her stays fell a flood of rose-coloured light. One shoulder rose from it and caught a shadow; another shade lay lower in the dimples of the elbow; the inside of the arm looked warm. The throat, the round soft throat, seemed glowi

upon my arm as I pushed it round her neck and pressed her breast to mine. It came softly and unresistingly, just

, pulseless, and cold, colder than any snow. Slowly it chilled through my fingers. I smoothed one passive arm-how cold

eternal coldness pierced through my quivering, l

a corpse. I strained my eyes down up

uc

estion; and the sweet mouth seemed to smile

ia, and you po

y veins, and engulfed me; my burning arms interlaced her, my weight pressed upon her, my trembling lips, full of

eing, I went to the cemetery to see all that now remained to me beyond my own fearful memory. Dick was beside me. He had insi

it a double one. A heavy iron chain, swinging great balls, studded with spikes, was linked from post

dless hands, the unspeakable yearning for that, once more, which has been freely ours and we have flung away, rose like a swelling tide within me, and rolle

ength to bear. That spiked iron linked round the helpless dust seemed like the chains of repression that had tortured and crushed the soft ardent nature. That arrogant cross, stretching its arms threateningly abo

Great God! that that word

took

ay be a to-morrow;" at wh

ing from the stone. "If she had been,

a time he urged me to c

him; and we both stood sil

ll, and tells me I shall refind the zest of lif