The Project Gutenberg EBook of Watersprings, by Arthur Christopher Benson

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Title: Watersprings

Author: Arthur Christopher Benson

Posting Date: August 11, 2009 [EBook #4510]
Release Date: October, 2003
First Posted: January 27, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WATERSPRINGS ***

Produced by Charles Aldarondo and Don Lainson. HTML version
by Al Haines.

WATERSPRINGS

BY

ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON

"For in the wilderness shall waters
break out, and streams in the desert"

1913

CONTENTS

I. THE SCENE
II. RESTLESSNESS
III. WINDLOW
IV. THE POOL
V. ON THE DOWN
VI. THE HOME CIRCLE
VII. COUNTRY LIFE
VIII. THE INHERITANCE
IX. THE VICAR
X. WITH MAUD ALONE
XI. JACK
XII. DIPLOMACY
XIII. GIVING AWAY
XIV. BACK TO CAMBRIDGE
XV. JACK'S ESCAPADE
XVI. THE VISIT
XVII. SELF-SUPPRESSION
XVIII. THE PICNIC
XIX. DESPONDENCY
XX. HIGHMINDEDNESS
XXI. THE AWAKENING
XXII. LOVE AND CERTAINTY
XXIII. THE WEDDING
XXIV. DISCOVERIES
XXV. THE NEW KNOWLEDGE
XXVI. LOVE IS ENOUGH
XXVII. THE NEW LIFE
XXVIII. THE VICAR'S VIEW
XXIX. THE CHILD
XXX. CAMBRIDGE AGAIN
XXXI. MAKING THE BEST OF IT
XXXII. HOWARD'S PROFESSION
XXXIII. ANXIETY
XXXIV. THE DREAM-CHILD
XXXV. THE POWER OF LOVE
XXXVI. THE TRUTH

WATERSPRINGS

I

THE SCENE

The bright pale February sunlight lay on the little court of Beaufort
College, Cambridge, on the old dull-red smoke-stained brick, the stone
mullions and mouldings, the Hall oriel, the ivied buttresses and
battlements, the turrets, the tiled roofs, the quaint chimneys, and the
lead-topped cupola over all. Half the court was in shadow. It was
incredibly picturesque, but it had somehow the look of a fortress
rather than of a house. It did not exist only to be beautiful, but had
a well-worn beauty of age and use. There was no domestic adornment of
flower-bed or garden-border, merely four squares of grass, looking like
faded carpets laid on the rather uncompromising