ever by that extreme vividness....

And then Phoebe ran up to him and dragged him off to where Sam Lenine
stood examining some of the ears he had picked on his way past the
sheaves. The miller took the toll of one twelfth of the farmer's grist,
so Sam studied the ears with care. Owing to the drought the corn was
very short in the straw, but that was not Sam's part of the business,
and he nodded his head approvingly over the quality of the ear.

Suddenly Archelaus sprang forward, snatched the Neck from Melchisedec
Baragwaneth, and made for the house, everyone crowding after him to see
the fun. At the front door stood the dairymaid, Jenifer Keast, holding a
pail of water in her strong arms, ready to souse him unless he succeeded
in entering by another way before she could reach him with the water,
when he could claim a kiss. Archelaus made a dash for the parlour
window, but the bucket swept round at him threateningly and he drew back
a moment, as though to consider a plan of campaign. He was determined to
have his kiss, for through the soft dusk that veiled any coarseness of
skin or form, and only showed the darkness of eyes and mouth on the warm
pallor of her face, she looked so eminently kissable. Before she could
guess his intention he ran round the angle of the house wall, down to
the dairy window, and, plunging through it, came up the passage at her
back. Seizing her by the waist, he swung her round and took his kiss
fairly from her mouth, and, though she struggled so that the water
drenched him, he felt her lips laughing as they formed a kiss.




CHAPTER V