Wilfrid Cumbermede

The night-light enlarged and receded; and the walls trembled and waved. The light had got behind them, and shone through them. The next moment Charley was by my side. I haven't got any pain.

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Charley laughed a low laugh, which sounded as sweet as strange. It was to the laughter of the world 'as moonlight is to sunlight,' but not 'as water is to wine,' for what it had lost in sound it had gained in smile. You may be dead for anything I know--but I am not--I know that. A little way off, in an open plot by itself, stood a little white rose tree, half mingled with the moonlight. Charley went up to it, stepped on the topmost twig, and stood: I went to a red rose-bush which stood at some distance, blanched in the moon, set my foot on the top of it, and made as if I would ascend, expecting to crush it, roses and all, to the ground.

I was standing on my red rose opposite Charley on his white. If you take courage the light will grow. I found myself floating, half reclined on the air. We met midway each in the other's arms. He pointed to the house, which I had not yet observed.

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It lay quite dark in the moonlight, for not a window shone from within. Yes, a long time. But, indeed, I don't know. We don't count time as we used to count it. It is long since I saw him, anyhow. We glided over the grass. At length I looked up, and finding him as much absorbed as I had been myself At least I have little doubt such is the case, though I can hardly say I am yet prepared to prove it. Let's go and have a walk.

Wilfrid Cumbermede by George MacDonald

I'll stop at home to-morrow and take a look over the whole set. You'll go and get on with your library. I shall do better alone. If I could only get a peep at the Moldwarp chest as well! Just look here, though,' I said, as I showed him the crest on my watch and seal. I recognise the crest at once.

How strangely these cryptographs come drifting along the tide, like the gilded ornaments of a wreck after the hull has gone down! Charley was never ready to talk of her--indeed, avoided the subject in a way that continued to perplex me.

Wilfrid Cumbermede by George MacDonald

It seems to me always as if she were--I will not say underhand--but as if she had some object in view--some design upon you--'. I will be more cautious. One would think we had been talking about a witch--or a demon-lady--you are so frightened at the notion of her having you in her eye. And after all it may be only a fancy. He kept his face downwards and aside, as if he were pondering and coming to no conclusion.

The silence grew and grew until expectation ceased, and when I spoke again it was of something different. My reader may be certain from all this that I was not in love with Clara. Her beauty and liveliness, with a gaiety which not seldom assumed the form of grace, attracted me much, it is true; but nothing interferes more with the growth of any passion than a spirit of questioning, and, that once roused, love begins to cease and pass into pain.

Few, perhaps, could have arrived at the point of admiration I had reached without falling instantly therefrom into an abyss of absorbing passion; but with me, inasmuch as I searched every feeling in the hope of finding in it the everlasting, there was in the present case a reiterated check, if not indeed recoil; for I was not and could not make myself sure that Clara was upright;--perhaps the more commonplace word straightforward would express my meaning better.

Anxious to get the books arranged before they all left me, for I knew I should have but little heart for it after they were gone, I grudged Charley the forenoon he wanted amongst my papers, and prevailed upon him to go with me the next day as usual. Another fortnight, which was almost the limit of their stay, would, I thought, suffice; and giving up everything else, Charley and I worked from morning till night, with much though desultory assistance from the ladies.

I contrived to keep the carpenter and housemaid in work, and by the end of the week began to see the inroads of order 'scattering the rear of darkness thin.