Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 39.pdf/292

 [CWtobet sa, 188*.] ■

ALL THE YEAB BOUm>.

deetoKtiTe modelling in d&j, stamped

■ established them as something dearer to each other tiian mere friends can ever b&

leather work (cnir-bonilli), and moiaic

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Maurice had once or twice in hla lif e

setting; bat it ii needless to go thtongh them here.

■ been mildly "spooney," but never abio-

Other advantages, besides that of giving

lately in love before. Consequently, he

employment to the onemployed, would

was not an adept at love-makin||, and he remained quite silent while Eveline knelt

proceed irom the practice of each arts as these; for there is a moral education in

at bis side, and, drawing his bead upon her shoulder, smoothed his fair hair,

each eystematic labour, and the faculties are sharpened in the vork. The eye is tanght to observe, and the hand is that of

caressing uid comforting him as thoi^ he had been a tired child. For each was

a good handiciaftsmaa Every piece of

innocently deceiving the other.

work, it most not be foi^tten, is no

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She thought that he was a boy of

phenomenon, bat the embodiment of an

seventeen; he thought that he was to

idea, the result of a train of thought ; and,

risk his life the next morning ; and these delusions made them both more tender

if the fingeni are trained in producing it, the mind also is strengthened and rendered

and more demonstrative than they would otherwise have been.

sdf-reliant by the exercise, and by witnewing the visible creation of the shapes it

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At length Eveline, with a pang of self- reproach, remembered poor Miss McIntyre waiting for her supper, and, slipping her arm in Maurice's, she took him to the

has conceived. If, then, we can picture to ourselves a state of rural society in which co-operative guilds, established by

the peasantry throoghont the country,

dining-room, to find the worthy little Udy

•honld encourage locaJ talent, should de-

asleep over the £ra She woke to see the

velop the resonrces of districts, and create

two standing before her arm-in-arm, a

arts and trades springing naturally from

handsome pair snrely : he, with hit bwi-

the capabilities and prodacta of the soil,

ttfiil boyish face ; she, with her delicate

we ahul see what a large part such in-

loveliness set off by the richnees of her

dustries may have in the village economy

dress. Both were m a smiling, ecstatic

of the future. They would give a great

state, which puzzled Miss Mclntyre at first

idace to the work of women ; they would be an occupation to the labourer entirely different from the continued round of land

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Then they all had snpper. Maurioe was in general extremely particular as to

tilling, and, therefore, a healthful change, which would relieve him from the preesnre

the quality of hie meals; to-night, however, ambrosia would have been wasted

of absolttte ot occasional want ; and they

upon him, as bread and batter woold have

woold help to knit together the interests

tasted ombrosiat He found himself always

of the roru community. Thns Village In-

with his eyes fixed on Eveline, in those rest-

dnxtries may be commended to the conside-

ful, protracted looks which only a lover can

ration of social economists and political

give, and years forwards he remembered

reformers as a healthy and natural soluticn

her as he saw her then, seeing her, as it ■ appeared to him, for the first time, with

of a growing difBcult^.

the creamy tints of her fair face flushed, and her brown eyes shining with a won■ derful faappineBB. She sat in a high-

LOST IN THE VALLEY.

backed carved oak chair, the dark frame of which, and the sombre tapestry beyond, dimly lighted by the pink candles, formed OHAFTKS VIII.

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a periect background for her shimmering gown of sea-green damask, and for the

That was the happiest evening of Maurice's life. EUs natural reserve and

diamonds sparklmg in her red-brown hur.

diffidence were so strong that, but for the

again, and for the first time in his life he

fact that he believed this to be probably

felt an unaccountable longing to throw

hii last meeting with her, and that in

down his knif a and fork and, r^rdless of

truth he was not thinking of Eveline

Miss Mclntyre and HSUue, to fling himself at Eveline's feet, and cover her delicate white hands with kisses. But the

Douglaa at all, but of his mother, he would never have indulged in the sudden ontbnrst of affection that broke down the barrier of friendship between them, and

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Maurice looked at her, and looked

only outward effect this feeling produced ■ was to reduce him to absolute sDence,

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