"Now, Benjamin," she said to her trembling spouse, "I forgive you.
But if ever again--"
The warning was left unspoken, but it was not needed. Benjamin's
one experience has more than satisfied his yearning for soft raiment
and foreign travel, and his hats are taller than ever.
THE THREE STRANGERS
BY THOMAS HARDY
Among the few features of agricultural England which retain an
appearance but little modified by the lapse of centuries may be
reckoned the high, grassy, and furzy downs, coombs, or eweleases,
as they are indifferently called, that fill a large area of certain
counties in the south and southwest. If any mark of human occupation
is met with hereon it usually takes the form of the solitary cottage
of some shepherd.
Fifty years ago such a lonely cottage stood on such a down, and
may possibly be standing there now. In spite of its loneliness,
however, the spot, by actual measurement, was not more than five
miles from a county town. Yet what of that? Five miles of irregular
upland, during the long, inimical seasons, with their sleets,
snows, rains, and mists, afford withdrawing space enough to isolate
a Timon or a Nebuchadnezzar; much less, in fair weather, to please
that less repellent tribe, the poets, philosophers, artists, and
others who "conceive and meditate of pleasant things.
Pages:
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119