The Press., 1895-01-24
HLL FOR L0VE
By WALTER BEsANT.

stood today beside the grave of my dear old friend Paul His name will be known by his friends, and for those who were not his frientt.; his name may re- main unknown. The vicar read the fu- neral services while the birds were sing ing on the trees, the sun shone on the laburnum and the lilac, and from below the cliff came the roll of the waves along the shore His remains were laid beside those of his wife, and while the words of the solemn service fell upon my ears was thinking how it would have fared with Paul had it not been for his mar riage. It will harm no one now to tell the story of that marriage.
 When first he met his wife, in the year 1857, he was-well, he was 25 years of age, to begin with. It seems as If merely to be 25 is enough, but 1 sup pose some other things are desirable as we'll. He had just been called to the bar, he was a fellow of his college, hard headed reader and an athlete. He was popular because'he possessed 8 pleas ant voice, pleasant face and pleasant manner, because he was not small and petty in speech or thought and because he was strong. Nobody among under graduates is so popular as the man who is strong. Further, in order to acquire facility in speaking, he spoke regularly at the union and learned to speak well. Whatever he attempted he either did we'll or abandoned altogether.
 have said that in the year 1857 Paul was 25 years of age. It was in that year that he took the step which subsequent. ly led to his early retirement And it happened in this way:
 In the month of September we started together upon 8 walking expedition. In those days we had project for walk ing round the coast of Great Britain, taking fortnight here and another there, according to season and opportu- nity, and reckoning that we should com plete the task-allowing for sinuosities and creeks-in S73 years exactly. We carried a white, round pebble. At the end of each walk we buried it and marked the place. At the beginning of a new walk we dug it up again. By this method one was quite sure of pass ing over the whole ground without pos sibility of self deception. We began very we'll, with capital weather and high spirits. On the afternoon of the third day an accident happened of very common and uninteresting nature. Paul twisted his ankle on Q loose stone. We were then about 8 mile and 8 half distant from certain small village through which we had to pass, but we had not intended to rest a night there. When we reached it, however, the trou- ble of the ankle became so bad that it was absolutely necessary to stop. FOrtu- nately we found decent inn, with bet ter accommodations than might have been expected. It was an old thatched and rustic village public house, to which had been built a new modern wing containing three or four bedrooms, coffee room and billiard room.
 After laying my man upon the sofa in the coffee room went out to explore the place. It was more considerable than had expected. There was sin gle long street running up gentle hill from the seashore. On the top of the hill was church, with an ancient rub ble tower and 8 square brick temple" of the period of George IT. Beyond the church were two roads, and beside them certain villas, which looked very pretty mid the woods and trees and gardens. At the lower end of the town was the port. Here the sea runs inland and makes little creek for the reception of 8 stream. They have built out brick jetty and constructed wharf, along which are generally lying half dozen small vessels. On the right of the creek | there rose bold headland, such as are so common on the white coasts of AL bion. On the left the land was low for 1 mile or two, and then rose gradually, and there was great bay with sweep of cliff after cliff, very beautiful. As l looked there came swiftly round the headland little boat-not a common dingy or fishermen's boat, but a minia- ture yacht-quite dainty little craft, flying foresail and mainsail. A girl was steering her, and boy sat beside the masthead to lower sail. The boat ran merrily up the creek alongside the jetty. The boy lowered sail, unshipped mast and rudder and tied the painter with the quiclness of him who understands l his work. Then both sprang ont and | ran up the steps or the<Jetty, and OIe Ul the fishermen touched his hat and went slowly down to take the boat to her moorings. The pair were clearly broth CT and sister-he lad of IS; she year or two older, perhaps 21. They were curiously alike, and the girls face was her brothers glorified. There is no other word which can express the differ l ence between the two faces. She had the same face as her brother, but glorified.