affection the story had suggested that he should try to to them one which he had used to hear in his youth and which afforded an instance of the latter and better kind of feeling his heroine being also a lady who had married beneath her though he feared his narrative would be of a much kind than the surgeon s the club begged him to proceed and the parson began dame the third of by the rural dean i would have you know then that a great many years ago there lived in a classical mansion with which i used to be familiar standing not a hundred miles from the city of a lady whose personal were so rare and that she was flattered and spoilt by almost all the young and gentlemen in that part of for a time these attentions pleased her well but as in the words of good robert south whose sermons might be read much more than they are the most passionate lover of sport if tied to follow his and hounds every day of his life would find the pursuit the greatest torment and calamity and would fly to the mines and for his so did this lofty and beautiful lady after a while become with the constant of what she had in its novelty enjoyed and by an almost natural turned her regards absolutely a of speaking she and passionately her affection on quite a plain looking young man of humble birth and no position at all though it is true that he was gentle and delicate in nature of good address and heart in short he was the parish clerk s son acting as assistant to the land steward of her father the earl of with the hope of becoming some day a land steward himself it should be said that perhaps the lady as she was called was a little stimulated in this passion by the discovery that a young girl of the village already loved the young man fondly and that he had paid some attentions to her though merely of a casual and good natured kind since his occupation brought him frequently to the house and its lady could make ample opportunities of seeing and speaking to him she had in s phrase all the craft of fine loving at her fingers ends and the young man being of a readily heart was quick to notice the tenderness in her eyes and voice he could not at first believe in his good fortune having no understanding of her weariness of more artificial men but a time comes when the sees in an eye the glance of his other half � and it came to him who was quite the reverse of dull as he gained confidence accidental led to by design till at length when they were alone together there was no reserve on the matter they the op whispered tender words as other lovers do and were as devoted a pair as ever was seen but not a ray or symptom of this attachment was allowed to show itself to the outer world now as she became less and less scrupulous towards him under the influence of her affection and he became more and more under the influence of his and they looked the situation in the face together their condition seemed intolerable in its that she could ever ask to be allowed to marry him or could hold her tongue and quietly him was equally beyond conception they resolved upon a third course possessing neither of the of these two � to wed secretly and live on in outward appearance the same as before in this they differed from the lovers of my friend s story not a soul in the parental mansion guessed when lady came coolly into the hall one day after a visit to her aunt that during that visit her lover and herself had found an opportunity of themselves till death should part them yet such was the fact the young woman who rode fine horses and drove in pony and was saluted by every one and the young man who about and directed the tree and the laying out of fish in the park were husband and wife as they had planned so they acted to the letter for the space of a month and more meeting when and where they best could a op noble do so both being happy and content to be sure towards the latter part of that month when the first wild warmth of her love had gone off the lady sometimes wondered within herself how she who might have chosen a peer of the realm knight � or if serious minded a bishop or judge of the more gallant sort who prefer young wives � could have brought herself to do a thing so rash as to make this marriage particularly when in their private meetings she perceived that though her young husband was full of ideas and fairly well read they had not a single social experience in common it was his custom to visit her after nightfall in her own house when he could find no opportunity for an interview elsewhere and to further this course she would contrive to leave a window on the ground floor overlooking the lawn by entering which a back staircase was accessible so that he could climb up to her apartments and gain audience of his lady when the house was still one dark midnight when he had not been able to see her during the day he made use of this secret method as he had done many times before and when they had remained in company about an hour he declared that it was time for him to descend he would have stayed longer but that the interview had been a somewhat painful one what she had said to him that night had much excited 