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hardly anything would have seemed to justify. She thanked Miss Crawford, but gave a decided negative. "Her uncle, she understood, meant to fetch her; and as her cousin's illness had continued so many weeks without her being thought at all necessary, she must suppose her return would be unwelcome at present, and that she should be felt an encumbrance." ¡¡¡¡ Her representation of her cousin's state at this time was exactly according to her own belief of it, and such as she supposed would convey to the sanguine mind of her correspondent the hope of everything she was wishing for. Edmund would be forgiven for being a clergyman,

it seemed, under certain conditions of wealth; and this, she suspected, was all the conquest of prejudice which he was so ready to congratulate himself upon. She had only

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My dearest Fanny," cried Edmund, pressing her arm closer to him, "do not let the idea of her anger distress you. It is anger to be talked of rather than felt. Her heart is made for love and kindness, not for resentment. I wish you could have overheard her tribute of praise; I wish you could have seen her countenance, when she said that you _should_ be Henry's wife. And I observed that she always spoke of you as 'Fanny,' which she was never used to do; and it had a sound of most sisterly cordiality." ¡¡¡¡ "And Mrs. Grant, did she say--did she speak; was she there all the time?" ¡¡¡¡ "Yes, she was agreeing exactly with her sister.
The surprise of your refusal, Fanny, seems to have been unbounded. That you could refuse such a man as Henry Crawford seems more than they can understand. I said what I could for you; but in good truth, as they stated the case--you must prove yourself to be in your senses as soon as you can by a different conduct; nothing else will satisfy them. But this is teasing you. I have done. Do not turn away from me."

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An affection so amiable was advancing each in the opinion of all who had hearts to value anything good. Henry Crawford was as much struck with it as any. He honoured the warm-hearted, blunt fondness of the young sailor, which led him to say, with his hands stretched towards Fanny's head, "Do you know, I begin to like that queer fashion already, though when I first heard of such things being done in England, I could not believe it; and when Mrs. Brown, and the other women at the Commissioner's at Gibraltar, appeared in the same trim,
I thought they were mad; but Fanny can reconcile me to anything"; and saw, with lively admiration, the glow of Fanny's cheek, the brightness of her eye, the deep interest, the absorbed attention, while her brother was describing any of the imminent hazards, or terrific scenes, which such a period at sea must supply.

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The preparations meanwhile went on, and Lady Bertram continued to sit on her sofa without any inconvenience from them. She had some extra visits from the housekeeper, and her maid was rather hurried in making up a new dress for her: Sir Thomas gave orders, and Mrs. Norris ran about; but all this gave _her_ no trouble, and as she had foreseen, "there was, in fact, no trouble in the business." ¡¡¡¡ Edmund was at this time particularly full of cares: his mind being deeply occupied in the consideration of two important events now at hand,
which were to fix his fate in life--ordination and matrimony--events of such a serious character as to make the ball, which would be very quickly followed by one of them, appear of less moment in his eyes than in those of any other person in the house. On the 23rd he was going to a friend near Peterborough, in the same situation as himself, and they

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traversing with the decided step of one who remembered the way well, several dark and dirty streets- much dirtier than usual, for the best public thoroughfares remained uncleansed in those times of terror-he stopped at a chemist's shop, which the owner was closing with his own hands. A small, dim, crooked shop, kept in a tortuous, up-hill thoroughfare, by a small, dim, crooked man. ¡¡¡¡Giving this citizen, too, good night, as he confronted him at his counter, he laid the scrap of paper before him. "Whew!" the chemist whistled softly, as he read it. "Hi! hi! hi!" ¡¡¡¡Sydney Carton took no heed, and the chemist said: ¡¡¡¡"For you, citizen?" ¡¡¡¡"For me." ¡¡
¡¡"You will be careful to keep them separate, citizen? You know the consequences of mixing them?" Perfectly." ¡¡¡¡Certain small packets were made and given to him. He put them, one by one, in the breast of his inner coat, counted out the money for them, and deliberately left the shop. "There is nothing more to do," said he, glancing upward at the moon, "until to-morrow. I can't sleep."

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Porpoises and dolphins, I believe, will be frequently observed athwart our Bows; and, either on the starboard or the larboard quarter, objects of interest will be continually descried. In short,' said Mr. Micawber, with the old genteel air, 'the probability is, all will be found so exciting, alow and aloft, that when the lookout, stationed in the main-top, cries Land-oh! we shall be very considerably astonished!' ¡¡¡¡With that he flourished off the contents of his little tin pot, as if he had made the voyage, and had passed a first-class examination before the highest naval authorities. ¡¡¡¡' What I chiefly hope, my dear Mr. Copperfield,' said Mrs. Micawber, '
is, that in some branches of our family we may live again in the old country. Do not frown, Micawber! I do not now refer to my own family, but to our children's children. However vigorous the sapling,' said Mrs. Micawber, shaking her head, 'I cannot forget the parent-tree; and when our race attains to eminence and fortune, I own I should wish that fortune to flow into the coffers of Britannia.'

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'It was a donkey,' said my aunt; 'and it was the one with the stumpy tail which that Murdering sister of a woman rode, when she came to my house.' This had been, ever since, the only name my aunt knew for Miss Murdstone. 'If there is any Donkey in Dover, whose audacity it is harder to me to bear than another's, that,' said my aunt, striking the table,
the animal!' ¡¡¡¡Janet ventured to suggest that my aunt might be disturbing herself unnecessarily, and that she believed the donkey in question was then engaged in the sand-and-gravel line of business, and was not available for purposes of trespass. But my aunt wouldn't hear of it. ¡¡¡¡Supper was comfortably served and hot, though my aunt's rooms were very high up - whether that she might have more stone stairs for her money, or might be nearer to the door in the roof, I don't know - and consisted of a roast fowl, a steak, and some vegetables, to all of which I did ample justice, and which were all excellent. But my aunt had her own ideas concerning London provision, and ate but little.

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Day broke and found me wan-eyed and the ocean lashed white, the boat pitching, almost on end, to its drag. We were in imminent danger of being swamped by the whitecaps. As it was, spray and spume came aboard in such quantities that I baled without cessation. The blankets were soaking. Everything was wet except Maud, and she, in oilskins, rubber boots, and souwester, was dry, all but her face and hands and a stray wisp of hair. She relieved me at the baling-hole from time to time, and bravely she threw out the water and faced the storm. All things are relative. It was no more than a stiff blow; but to us, fighting for life in our frail craft, it was indeed a storm. ¡¡¡¡Cold and cheerless, the wind beating on our faces, the white seas roaring by,
we struggled through the day. Night came, but neither of us slept. Day came, and still the wind beat on our faces and the white seas roared past. By the second night Maud was falling asleep from exhaustion. I covered her with oilskins and a tarpaulin. She was comparatively dry, but she was numb with the cold. I feared greatly that she might die in the night; but day broke, cold and cheerless, with the same clouded sky and beating wind and roaring seas.

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with a crushing, resounding impact. Johnson's breath, suddenly expelled, shot from his mouth, and as suddenly checked, with the forced, audible expiration of a man wielding an ax. He almost fell backward, and swayed from side to side in an effort to recover his balance. ¡¡¡¡Johnson fought bravely enough, but he was no match for Wolf Larsen, much less for Wolf Larsen and the mate. It was frightful. I had not imagined a human being could endure so much and still live and struggle on. And struggle on Johnson did. Of course there was no hope for him, not the slightest, and he knew it as well as I, but by the manhood that was in him he could not cease from fighting for that manhood. ¡¡¡¡It was too much for me to witness. I felt that I should lose my mind, and I ran up the companion-stairs to open the doors and escape on deck. But Wolf Larsen, leaving his victim for the moment, and with one of his tremendous springs, gained my side, and flung me into the far corner of the cabin.

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uple of evenings back, by seeing Wolf Larsen reading the Bible, a copy of which, after the futile search for one at the beginning of the voyage, had been found in the dead mate's sea-chest. I wondered what Wolf Larsen could get from it, and he read aloud to me from Ecclesiastes. I could imagine he was speaking the thoughts of his own mind as he read to me, and his voice, reverberating deeply and mournfully in the confined cabin, charmed and held me. He may be uneducated, but he certainly knows how to express the significance of the written word. I can hear him now, as I shall always hear him, the primal melancholy vibrant in his voice, as he read from Ecclesiastes the passage beginning: 'I gathered me also silver and gold.' ¡¡¡¡'There you have it, Hump,' he said, closing the book upon his finger and looking up at me. 'The Preacher who was king over Israel in Jerusalem thought as I think.

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better than to blab such a thing as that, when he couldn't ha' found it out till too late!' Here Mrs Durbeyfield began shedding tears on her own account as a mother to be pitied. `What your father will say I don't know,' she continued: `for he's been talking about the wedding up at Roliver's and The Pure Drop every day since, and about his family getting back to their rightful position through you - poor silly man! - and now you've made this mess of it! The Lord-a-Lord!' ¡¡¡¡As if to bring matters to a focus, Tess's father was heard approaching at that moment. He did not however, enter immediately, and Mrs Durbeyfield said that she would break the bad news to him herself, Tess keeping out of sight for the present. After her first burst of disappointment Joan began to take the mishap as she had taken Tess's original trouble, as she would have taken a wet holiday or failure in the potato-crop; as a thing which had come upon them irrespective of desert or folly; a chance external impingement to be borne with; not a lesson.

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Don't you think 'twould have been better for us to wait till you were quite settled in your midland farm?' she once asked timidly. (A midland farm was the idea just then.) ¡¡¡¡`To tell the truth, my Tess, I don't like you to be left anywhere away from my protection and sympathy.' ¡¡¡¡The reason was a good one, so far as it went. His influence over her had been so marked that she had caught his manner and habits, his speech and phrases, his likings and his aversions. And to leave her in farmland would be to let her slip back again out of accord with him. He wished to have her under his charge for another reason. His parents had naturally desired to see her once at least before he carried her off to a distant settlement, English or colonial; and as no opinion of theirs was to be allowed to change his intention, he judged that a couple of months' life with him in lodgings whilst seeking for an advantageous opening would be of some social assistance to her at what she might feel to be a trying ordeal - her presentation to his mother at the Vicarage

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Oh, dear," saidBridget, sighing, as she came back after closing the front door. "Really! I do think mothers are difficult."
　　"So they tell me," saidChief-Inspector Davy. "A lot of young ladies I come acrosshave a lot of trouble with their mothers."
　　"I'd have thought you'd put it the other way round," said Bridget.
　　"Oh I do, I do," saidDavy. "But that's not how theyoung ladies see it. Now you can tell me a little more."
　　"I couldn't reallyspeak frankly in front of Mummy," explained Bridget. "But I do feel, of course, that it is really important that you should know asmuch as possible about all this. I do know Elvira was terribly worried about something andafraid. She wouldn't exactly admit she was in danger, but shewas."

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wandered ineffectually, or railed at the enemy ships, or fired all their guns at allsectors, or shouted orders, or focused desperately on a single task, as if that wouldsave them. Or, like Jerjerrod simply brooded. He couldn't fathom what he'd done wrong. He'd been patient, he'd been loyal,he'd been clever, he'd been hard. He was the commander of the greatest battlestation ever built. Or, at least, almost built. He hated this Rebel Alliance, now,with a child's hate, untempered. He'd loved it once—it had been the small boy hecould bully, the enraged baby animal he could torture. But the boy had grown upnow; it knew how to fight back effectively. It had broken its bonds. Jerjerrod hated it now. Yet there seemed to be little he could do at this point. Except, of course,destroy Endor—he could do that. It was a small act, a token really—to incineratesomething green and living, gratuitously, meanly, toward no end but that of wantondestruction. A small act, but deliciously satisfying.

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Vader lowered his voice again. "I hope so, Commander, for your sake. TheEmperor will tolerate no further delay in the final destruction of the outlaw Rebellion.And we have secret news now"—he included Jerjerrod, only, in this intimatedetail—"The Rebel fleet has gathered all its forces into a single giant armada. Thetime is at hand when we can crush them, without mercy, in a single blow." For the briefest second, Vader's breathing seemed to quicken, then resumed itsmeasured pace, like the rising of hollow wind.Outside the small adobe hut, the sandstorm wailed like a beast in agony, refusing todie. Inside, the sounds were muted. It was cooler in this shelter, more hushed, and darker. While the beast withouthowled, in this place of nuance and shadow a shrouded figure worked. Tanned hands, holding arcane tools, extended from the sleeves of a caftanlikerobe. The figure crouched on the ground, working. Before him lay a discoid

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reserved greeting. Calrissian was not certain what to make of that growl. "Right," he half-smiled,looking uncomfortable. But his attention was distracted from this shaggy mass ofmuscle and hair when he saw Leia beginning to walk down the ramp. This lovelyvision was followed closely by her protocol droid, who cautiously glanced around asthey walked toward Lando and Ha. "Hello! What have we here?" Calrissian welcomed her admiringly. "I amLando Calrissian, administrator of this facility. And who might you be?" The princess remained coolly polite. "You may call me Leia," she replied. Lando bowed formally and gently kissed the princess's hand. "And I," her robot companion said, introducing himself to the administrator, "amSee-Threepio, human-cyborg relations, at your—" But before Threepio could finish his little speech, Han draped one arm aboutLando's shoulder and steered him away from the princess. "She's traveling with me,Lando," he advised his old friend, "and I don't intend to gamble her away. So youmight as well forget she exists."

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Although the snowspeeder was designed for a two-man crew, Zev was the ship'sonly occupant. His eyes took in a panoramic scan of the desolate stretches below,and he prayed that he would find the objects of his search before he went snow-blind. Presently he heard a low beeping signal. "Echo Base," he shouted jubilantly into his cockpit comlink, "I've got something!Not much, but it could be a sign of life. Sector four-six-one-four by eight-eight0two.I'm closing in." Frantically working the controls of his ship, Zev reduced its speed slightly andbanked the craft over a snowdrift. He welcomed the sudden G-force pressing himagainst his seat and headed the snowspeeder in the direction of the faint signal. As the white infinity of Hoth's terrain streaked under him, the Rebel pilotswitched his comlink to a new frequency. "Echo Three, this is Rogue Two. Doyou copy? Commander Skywalker, this is Rogue Two." The only reply that came through his comlink receiver was static.

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The Rebel Alliance had established an outpost on the ice world little more than amonth before. Luke was well-known on the base and, although barely twenty-threeyears old, he was addressed as Commander Skywalker by other Rebel warriors. Thetitle made him feel a bit uncomfortable. Nonetheless, he was already in the positionof giving orders to a band of seasoned soldiers. So much had happened to Luke andhe had changed a great deal. Luke, himself, found it hard to believe that only threeyears ago he was a wide-eyed farm boy on his home world of Tatooine. The youthful commander spurred his Tauntaun. "Come on, girl," he urged. The snow-lizard's gray body was insulated from the cold by a covering of thickfur. It galloped on muscular hind legs, its tridact1 feet terminating in large hookedclaws that dug up great plumes of snow. The Tauntaun's 1lamalike head thrustforward and its serpentine tail coiled out behind as the beast ran up the ice slope.The animal's horned head turned from side to side buffeting the winds that assaulted itshaggy muzzle.

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Luke probably hadn't intended his response to be audible, but Solo overheard hismurmur of "Good" none the less. "Still," Solo ventured thoughtfully, "she's got a lot of spirit to go with her sass.I don't know, do you think it's possible for a Princess and a guy like me…?" "No," Luke cut him off sharply. He turned and looked away. Solo smiled at the younger man's jealousy, uncertain in his own mind whether hehad added the comment to bait his na?ve friend—or because it was the truth. Yavin was not a habitable world. The huge gas giant was patterned with pastelhigh-altitude cloud formations. Here and there the softly lambent atmosphere wasmolded by cyclonic storms composed of six-hundred-kilometer-per-hour winds whichboiled rolling gases up form the Yavinesque troposphere. It was a world of lingeringbeauty and quick death for any who might try to penetrate to its comparatively smallcore of frozen liquids. Several of the giant planet's numerous moons, however, were planet-sizedthemselves, and of these, three could support humanoid life. Particularly invitingwas the satellite designated by the system's discoverers as number four. It shone likean emerald in Yavin's necklace of moons, rich with plant and animal life. But it wasnot listed among those worlds supporting human settlement. Yavin was located toofar from settled regions of the galaxy. Perhaps the latter reason, or both, or a combination of causes still unknown hadbeen responsible for whatever race had once risen from satellite four's jungles, only todisappear quietly long before the first human explorer set foot on the tiny world.Little was known of them save that they left a number of impressive monuments, andthat they were one of the many races which had aspired to the stars only to have theirdesperate reach fall short. Now all that remained were the mounds and foliage-clad clumps formed byjungle-covered buildings. But thought they had sunk back into the dust, theirartifacts and their world continued to serve an important purpose. Strange cries and barely perceptible moans sounded from every tree and copse;hoots and growls and strange mutterings issued from creatures content to remainconcealed in the dense undergrowth. Whenever dawn broke over moon the fourth,heralding one of its long days, an especially feral chorus of shrieks and weirdlymodulated screams would resound through the thick mist.

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"See Threepio," the muted voice continued to call, "come in, See Threepio." Itwas Luke's voice and it issued softly in between buzzings from the small handcomlink resting on the deserted computer console. Save for the intermittent pleading,the gantry office was silent. A tremendous explosion drowned out the muffled pleadings. It blew the officedoor clean across the room, sending metal fragments flying in all directions. Severalof them struck the comlink, sending it flying to the floor and cutting off Luke's voicein midtransmission. In the wake of the minor cataclysm four armed and ready troopers enteredthrough the blown portal. Initial study indicated the office was deserted—until adim, frightened voice was heard coming from one of the tall supply cabinets near theback of the room. "Help, help! Let us out!" Several of the troopers bent to inspect the immobile bodies of the gantry officerand his aide while others opened the noisy cabinet. Two robots, one tall andhumanoid, the other purely mechanical and three-legged, stepped out into the office.The taller one gave the impression of being half unbalanced with fear. "They're madmen, I tell you, madmen!" He gestured urgently toward thedoorway. "I think they said something about heading for the prison level. Theyjust left. If you hurry, you might catch them. That way, that way!" Two of the troopers inside joined those waiting in the hallway in hustling offdown the corridor. That left two guards to watch over the office. They totallyignored the robots as they discussed what might have taken place.