A Pair of Blue Eyes | Page 6

and surface of the mansion gradually disappeared. The
windows, which had before been as black blots on a lighter expanse of
wall, became illuminated, and were transfigured to squares of light on
the general dark body of the night landscape as it absorbed the outlines
of the edifice into its gloomy monochrome.

Not another word was spoken for some time, and they climbed a hill,
then another hill piled on the summit of the first. An additional mile of
plateau followed, from which could be discerned two light-houses on
the coast they were nearing, reposing on the horizon with a calm lustre
of benignity. Another oasis was reached; a little dell lay like a nest at
their feet, towards which the driver pulled the horse at a sharp angle,
and descended a steep slope which dived under the trees like a rabbit's
burrow. They sank lower and lower.
'Endelstow Vicarage is inside here,' continued the man with the reins.
'This part about here is West Endelstow; Lord Luxellian's is East
Endelstow, and has a church to itself. Pa'son Swancourt is the pa'son of
both, and bobs backward and forward. Ah, well! 'tis a funny world. 'A
b'lieve there was once a quarry where this house stands. The man who
built it in past time scraped all the glebe for earth to put round the
vicarage, and laid out a little paradise of flowers and trees in the soil he
had got together in this way, whilst the fields he scraped have been
good for nothing ever since.'
'How long has the present incumbent been here?'
'Maybe about a year, or a year and half: 'tisn't two years; for they don't
scandalize him yet; and, as a rule, a parish begins to scandalize the
pa'son at the end of two years among 'em familiar. But he's a very nice
party. Ay, Pa'son Swancourt knows me pretty well from often driving
over; and I know Pa'son Swancourt.'
They emerged from the bower, swept round in a curve, and the
chimneys and gables of the vicarage became darkly visible. Not a light
showed anywhere. They alighted; the man felt his way into the porch,
and rang the bell.
At the end of three or four minutes, spent in patient waiting without
hearing any sounds of a response, the stranger advanced and repeated
the call in a more decided manner. He then fancied he heard footsteps
in the hall, and sundry movements of the door- knob, but nobody
appeared.

'Perhaps they beant at home,' sighed the driver. 'And I promised myself
a bit of supper in Pa'son Swancourt's kitchen. Sich lovely mate-pize
and figged keakes, and cider, and drops o' cordial that they do keep
here!'
'All right, naibours! Be ye rich men or be ye poor men, that ye must
needs come to the world's end at this time o' night?' exclaimed a voice
at this instant; and, turning their heads, they saw a rickety individual
shambling round from the back door with a horn lantern dangling from
his hand.
'Time o' night, 'a b'lieve! and the clock only gone seven of 'em. Show a
light, and let us in, William Worm.'
'Oh, that you, Robert Lickpan?'
'Nobody else, William Worm.'
'And is the visiting man a-come?'
'Yes,' said the stranger. 'Is Mr. Swancourt at home?'
'That 'a is, sir. And would ye mind coming round by the back way? The
front door is got stuck wi' the wet, as he will do sometimes; and the
Turk can't open en. I know I am only a poor wambling man that 'ill
never pay the Lord for my making, sir; but I can show the way in, sir.'
The new arrival followed his guide through a little door in a wall, and
then promenaded a scullery and a kitchen, along which he passed with
eyes rigidly fixed in advance, an inbred horror of prying forbidding him
to gaze around apartments that formed the back side of the household
tapestry. Entering the hall, he was about to be shown to his room, when
from the inner lobby of the front entrance, whither she had gone to
learn the cause of the delay, sailed forth the form of Elfride. Her start of
amazement at the sight of the visitor coming forth from under the stairs
proved that she had not been expecting this surprising flank movement,
which had been originated entirely by the ingenuity of William Worm.

She appeared in the prettiest of all feminine guises, that is to say, in
demi-toilette, with plenty of loose curly hair tumbling down about her
shoulders. An expression of uneasiness pervaded her countenance; and
altogether she scarcely appeared woman enough for the situation. The
visitor removed his hat, and the first words were spoken; Elfride
prelusively looking with a deal of interest,