ᐸ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?ᐳ
ᐸsamples n="ENG18600"ᐳ
ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG18600172"ᐳAt this moment, however, her wishes were all limited to rest, and gladly did she sink upon the seat at which Leslie prevailed on Laura to stop; but Laura was so restless, that Leslie at last started up with a new project in his head, and proposed that they two alone should make for the point at which Laura had intended to reach, and should leave their companion to enjoy a little repose before they returned for her to go home.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600173"ᐳ“Unless you are afraid,” said Laura, turning round on Elinor.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600174"ᐳ“No, I am not afraid, for you say there is no danger,” said Elinor.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600175"ᐳAnd now Leslie hurried his companion away, and pushing himself into the highest spirits, rallied her on her activity, her delightful health and strength, till Laura, quite deceived, quickened her pace to the very utmost, and went over hill and dale at his side, with no idea but that of keeping up the contrast between herself and the timid Elinor.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600176"ᐳIt was not till he had carried her along with him to a point much nearer to the house than to Elinor, that he suddenly affected to remember their charge.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600177"ᐳ“Meantime, what have we done with your ward, your nursling? Is not it time to go back for her?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600178"ᐳHe was well aware at this moment that Laura was most thoroughly wearied herself, and that by a little contrivance he was secure of going alone to conduct the young nun home again.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600179"ᐳ“What! had you forgotten her?” said Laura.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600180"ᐳ“Could I think of more than one?” said Leslie, with a look of gentleness.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600181"ᐳ“And that one was of course absent,” said Laura.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600182"ᐳ“Ah! I see,” said Leslie, affecting a little pique, “that I am little understood. But at this moment,” he added, quieting his voice, “however that may be, we must run back to take up our charge, for do you know what o’clock it is?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600183"ᐳLaura looked at her watch.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600184"ᐳ“Why did you allow me to forget time in this way?” said she.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600185"ᐳ“Was I likely to remind you?” said Leslie. “But at all events I will repair my error, at whatever sacrifice. I will force myself”—“from you,” he thought of saying, but that was rather too strong an expression to come easily, so he began again—“I will force myself through the world of briars by the brook side, which will take me back to Miss Ladylift more quickly than the path we have followed, and I will bring her to join you by the garden road, which is, I suppose, the nearest way to the house. Even your delightful intrepidity would shrink from the brook side, and, indeed, should it be otherwise, I would not permit you to hazard yourself so perilously.”ᐸ/pᐳ
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ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG18600132"ᐳ“You can if you will,” said he; “every‐ body can judge themselves as well as they can judge other people, if they will be honest to themselves. And it is not being honest, to think worse of oneself than is the truth.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600133"ᐳ“My dear Mother told me my voice was such a voice as hundreds of others have.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600134"ᐳ“But what do you think yourself?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600135"ᐳ“I believe her,” said Elinor.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600136"ᐳ“Yes, surely,” answered Leslie, afraid of alarming his companion. “She spoke her entire conviction, no doubt; still she judged from her Convent alone. There, perhaps, where all is holy, all dedicated to divine things, the inhabitants may be blessed, many of them, with gifts like the one you have in your voice; but it is not so in the world. You are in the world now; you must judge by what you see and hear; you may find there are things unlike those which the Reverend Mother knows.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600137"ᐳ“Oh! she cannot be mistaken,” said Elinor.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600138"ᐳ“Only ask yourself whether she is,” said Leslie. “If so, some things which were good guides in the convent, may lead wrong here.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600139"ᐳElinor answered nothing. The first doubt of the kind was painful, the more so because her honest nature saw that perhaps it was true.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600140"ᐳAfter a pause, she said, “Who can I trust, then?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600141"ᐳ“I know this outer world,” said Leslie.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600142"ᐳ“But I do not know you,” said Elinor; “I know nobody. I will do my best; you must not try to prevent me. If you liked my singing, I am glad of that; but perhaps you do not understand music, and then you cannot judge.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600143"ᐳ“No, perhaps I do not,” said Leslie; “you know I can only say what I honestly feel.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600144"ᐳ“Yes, to be sure! I know you do that. Everybody does that,” said Elinor, speaking as she had been unconsciously taught, and as she felt, that though there were wicked people in the world, nobody with whom one associates could be in the number of those wicked.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600145"ᐳMr. Leslie abhorred Laura for coming up and interrupting the conversation. She said she was sorry to see Elinor look so pale; no doubt she was used to very early hours in the Convent, and she had better go to bed. She did not say she thought her young friend tired; for knowing her not to be tired, she felt that Elinor would say No.ᐸ/pᐳ
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ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG18600859"ᐳAnd thus they walked, by the hedgerow sides of the corn fields, across banky meadows cropped by sheep, along woodland paths, which descended to the brook courses; where they were crossed by gray large stepping‐stones; within the edges of the wood, where with trees for a natural colonnade, they looked out upon the silent, sunny country; hand in hand they walked, healthy, beautiful, good. It was Adam and Eve moving through the Garden of Eden.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600860"ᐳThey had scarcely met a human being, the country was thinly inhabited, and they had unconsciously sought the least frequented parts; but some hours after they first began their walk, the forest silence was disturbed by a distant voice, uttering a loud “mark!” and then was fired a gun as distant, and before long both sounds came nearer; nay, they presently saw a towering pheasant hit by the discharge from the loud gun, and tumbling over and over in the air, fall with hanging wings, and dropped head, out of sight in the underwood.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600861"ᐳThe next moment, Sir Peter Bicester, and a gamekeeper, and couple of beaters came in view; he immediately left off his pursuit, and came up to Elinor, hoping he had not frightened her, and so on. Leslie had dropped Elinor’s hand; till she was declared his promised wife, he did not wish to claim any intimacy with her; but Elinor was unconscious of such scruples, and replied in the simplest way to the young man’s apologies.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600862"ᐳ“But we are going home now,” she said, “so do not stop your amusement for me. Thank you for thinking of it.” And she moved on.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600863"ᐳ“Shan’t you come out, Leslie?” said Sir Peter.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600864"ᐳ“No, not I; if there’s anything better to do, I don’t care for a gun.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600865"ᐳ“And there is something it seems,” said Sir Peter.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600866"ᐳ“Well! that is as it may be,” answered Leslie, and followed Elinor, whom he speedily overtook.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600867"ᐳTHAT evening, Sir Peter knocked at the door of his cousin’s sitting‐room, when he came in an hour before dinner.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600868"ᐳ“Have you got some tea, Laura?” he asked; “let me have a cup with you, if you are going to have any.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600869"ᐳ“Come in, come in!” said Laura, ringing the bell at the same time, and ordering tea for him and her. “Well, what have you shot?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600870"ᐳ“Six pheasants, and a woodcock,” said Sir Peter; “I just went into that outside cover, you know, below the lime kiln.”ᐸ/pᐳ
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ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG18600392"ᐳ“Nobody but yourself,” said she, trying to lay her thumb on the fastening; “you have worried it in turning it about so.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600393"ᐳ“No, no!” said Leslie, guarding it from her, for though he had only asked the question as a random shot, he now was certain that there was some mystery.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600394"ᐳ“That I have not, neither shall you; but you shall tell me what I ask, for I have you in my power, and I will know.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600395"ᐳThe old sharpshooter was chased from her defences, but ran and took up another position. “Well—well,” said she, “you are a young gentleman, and a mighty good‐looking, and if I were you, I should not take it amiss that the ladies thought worth while escorting my letters, and jealousing what was writ in them. It is not old gentlemen and old ladies as do such things.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600396"ᐳ“In short, Miss Chanson has had this letter in her hands before me.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600397"ᐳ“Oh! dear me!—Miss Chanson!—no, dear no!—I never said no such thing.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600398"ᐳ“No, you did not say it!” said Leslie. “I perfectly comprehend that it could not possibly be that lady; and now don’t be afraid, for I know all I want. Good evening.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600399"ᐳ“That’s a wilful man,” said the post‐mistress to herself, “and those be two silly girls to have anything to do with him.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600400"ᐳLeslie meantime walked hastily away, and took a path over the fields to be out of observation, opening and reading the much canvassed letter as he went along. He could not but smile at the simplicity of the writer’s alarms, and of her confidence in him.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600401"ᐳ“Sir, (”that’s Monsieur,“ said he)—ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600402"ᐳ”SIR—You are my only friend; I do not know what to do unless you can help me—and you told me to ask you for help if I was in trouble. Have you money you can lend me? I will pay you back, a little every quarter, and once you said it was not wrong to borrow from you. Miss Chanson called me, and gave me many bills, which I did not know of—perhaps they will put me in prison. What will become of me?ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600403"ᐳ“ELINOR LADYLIFT.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600404"ᐳ“Poor, precious, enchanting Elinor!” cried he; “how unkind, how sententious, they are to you. I can see the matter from here; ordinary bills are thrust into your hands, without explanation, without advice, and your conventual imagination sees nothing in them but an ogre of a creditor, and dungeons and chains. Oh! how can I be soonest with you? I dare not come at once, for even your innocence would disbelieve that I was as far off as I ought to have been when I got your summons. Yet—summons! no, it is not that; nothing was further, I do believe, from your thoughts, than to call me to you—yet, poor dove, you have done so, and when such fair birds are no better looked after by their natural guardians, what is indeed to become of them? Now I must write so as not to frighten her.”ᐸ/pᐳ
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ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG18600307"ᐳ“I can write to you, if you will tell me your direction,” said Elinor.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600308"ᐳ“Divine Elinor!” cried Leslie, carried away with delicious surprise; and suddenly lifting the hand he held to his lips, he kissed it fervidly, so that in astonishment she drew it away, and a smile came for an instant over her mouth.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600309"ᐳLeslie looked down at her with delight; he drew still nearer to her, when the sound of rustling boughs smote his ear, and then the voice of the Squire—of Mr. Chanson, of Elinor’s guardian—broke upon them.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600310"ᐳ“Hey!—what’s this? You and Miss Ladylift out in the wood, here?”—he was not a man of words.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600311"ᐳLeslie started up; Elinor kept her seat.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600312"ᐳ“Yes; I came this way to enjoy the shade, and Miss Ladylift had done the same. I met with her a moment ago, and was about to show her the nearest way home.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600313"ᐳElinor listened with wonder. She thought certainly Leslie had forgotten that she had come to meet him near the lodge, and that they had spent an hour in walking to the spot together, without any reference to going home; however, she heard him as children hear their elders say things they have themselves been taught not to say, and unconsciously they take a lesson in the difference between learning and practising.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600314"ᐳMr. Chanson asked no more; he only held out his arm to her, and said,ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600315"ᐳ“Come home with me. Laura ought to have been with you.” He had a fishing‐rod in the other hand, and had been making his way to the brook.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600316"ᐳ“Miss Chanson is out riding,” said Elinor.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600317"ᐳ“And why did not you go? What made you wander to this out‐of‐the‐way place?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600318"ᐳElinor hesitated; she did not like to say she had been scolded, and had crept away.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600319"ᐳMr. Chanson thought she had made an appointment with Leslie, and that her embarrassment came from that consciousness.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600320"ᐳ“Well, well!” said he. “Mr. Leslie, you had better look after your horse. That’s your best way home—along the green path, there. I’ll take her over the brook by the foot‐bridge. Now then!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600321"ᐳAnd he walked forward, Elinor very willing to go with him, but looking back to see how Leslie got up to the horse, which was drawing away, and shying at his approach.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18600322"ᐳ“Never mind that,” said the Squire; “you must not be wandering about in this style. I’ll talk to Laura.”ᐸ/pᐳ
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