Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

A Changed Man; and other tales by Thomas Hardy
page 40 of 325 (12%)
of the house till she heard the servant's footsteps returning along the
lane, when she went round and met him in the passage. The rector had
taken the trouble to write a line, and answered that he would meet her
with pleasure.

A dripping fog which ushered in the next morning was highly favourable to
the scheme of the pair. At that time of the century Froom-Everard House
had not been altered and enlarged; the public lane passed close under its
walls; and there was a door opening directly from one of the old
parlours--the south parlour, as it was called--into the lane which led to
the village. Christine came out this way, and after following the lane
for a short distance entered upon a path within a belt of plantation, by
which the church could be reached privately. She even avoided the
churchyard gate, walking along to a place where the turf without the low
wall rose into a mound, enabling her to mount upon the coping and spring
down inside. She crossed the wet graves, and so glided round to the
door. He was there, with his bag in his hand. He kissed her with a sort
of surprise, as if he had expected that at the last moment her heart
would fail her.

Though it had not failed her, there was, nevertheless, no great ardour in
Christine's bearing--merely the momentum of an antecedent impulse. They
went up the aisle together, the bottle-green glass of the old lead
quarries admitting but little light at that hour, and under such an
atmosphere. They stood by the altar-rail in silence, Christine's skirt
visibly quivering at each beat of her heart.

Presently a quick step ground upon the gravel, and Mr. Bealand came round
by the front. He was a quiet bachelor, courteous towards Christine, and
not at first recognizing in Nicholas a neighbouring yeoman (for he lived
DigitalOcean Referral Badge