Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
page 26 of 550 (04%)
page 26 of 550 (04%)
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sing....For my part I like a good hearty funeral as well as anything.
You've as splendid victuals and drink as at other parties, and even better. And it don't wear your legs to stumps in talking over a poor fellow's ways as it do to stand up in hornpipes." "Nine folks out of ten would own 'twas going too far to dance then, I suppose?" suggested Grandfer Cantle. "'Tis the only sort of party a staid man can feel safe at after the mug have been round a few times." "Well, I can't understand a quiet ladylike little body like Tamsin Yeobright caring to be married in such a mean way," said Susan Nunsuch, the wide woman, who preferred the original subject. "'Tis worse than the poorest do. And I shouldn't have cared about the man, though some may say he's good-looking." "To give him his due he's a clever, learned fellow in his way--a'most as clever as Clym Yeobright used to be. He was brought up to better things than keeping the Quiet Woman. An engineer--that's what the man was, as we know; but he threw away his chance, and so 'a took a public house to live. His learning was no use to him at all." "Very often the case," said Olly, the besom-maker. "And yet how people do strive after it and get it! The class of folk that couldn't use to make a round O to save their bones from the pit can write their names now without a sputter of the pen, oftentimes without a single blot--what do I say?--why, almost without a desk to lean their stomachs and elbows upon." |
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