Margaret did not quite like this speech; she winced away from it

more, from remembering former occasions on which he had tried to

lead her into a discussion (in which he took the complimentary

part) about her own character and ways of going on. She cut his

speech rather short by saying: 'It is natural for me to think of Helstone church, and the walk

to it, rather than of driving up to a London church in the middle

of a paved street.' 'Tell me about Helstone. You have never described it to me. I

should like to have some idea of the place you will be living in,

when ninety-six Harley Street will be looking dingy and dirty,

and dull, and shut up. Is Helstone a village, or a town, in the

first place?' 'Oh, only a hamlet; I don't think I could call it a village at

all. There is the church and a few houses near it on the

green--cottages, rather--with roses growing all over them.'

'And flowering all the year round, especially at Christmas--make

your picture complete,' said he.

'No,' replied Margaret, somewhat annoyed, 'I am not making a

picture. I am trying to describe Helstone as it really is. You

should not have said that.'

'I am penitent,' he answered. 'Only it really sounded like a

village in a tale rather than in real life.'

'And so it is,' replied Margaret, eagerly. 'All the other places

in England that I have seen seem so hard and prosaic-looking,

after the New Forest. Helstone is like a village in a poem--in

one of Tennyson's poems. But I won't try and describe it any

more. You would only laugh at me if I told you what I think of

it--what it really is.' 'Indeed, I would not. But I see you are going to be very

resolved. Well, then, tell me that which I should like still

better to know what the parsonage is like.'

'Oh, I can't describe my home. It is home, and I can't put its

charm into words.'

'I submit. You are rather severe to-night, Margaret.

'How?' said she, turning her large soft eyes round full upon him.

'I did not know I was.'

'Why, because I made an unlucky remark, you will neither tell me

what Helstone is like, nor will you say anything about your home,

though I have told you how much I want to hear about both, the

latter especially.' 'But indeed I cannot tell you about my own home. I don't quite

think it is a thing to be talked about, unless you knew it.'




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