The Hand of Ethelberta by Thomas Hardy
page 111 of 534 (20%)
page 111 of 534 (20%)
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'I've heard the woodmen say, now that you tell o't, that they meet her every now and then, just at the closing in of the day, as they come home along with their nitches of sticks; ay, stalking about under the trees by herself--a tall black martel, so long-legged and awful-like that you'd think 'twas the old feller himself a-coming, they say. Now a woman must be a queer body to my thinking, to roam about by night so lonesome and that? Ay, now that you tell o't, there is such a woman, but 'a never have showed in the parish; sure I never thought who the body was--no, not once about her, nor where 'a was living and that--not I, till you spoke. Well, there, sir, that's Arr'thorne Lodge; do you see they three elms?' He pointed across the glade towards some confused foliage a long way off. 'I am not sure about the sort of tree you mean,' said Christopher, 'I see a number of trees with edges shaped like edges of clouds.' 'Ay, ay, they be oaks; I mean the elms to the left hand.' 'But a man can hardly tell oaks from elms at that distance, my good fellow!' 'That 'a can very well--leastwise, if he's got the sense.' 'Well, I think I see what you mean,' said Christopher. 'What next?' 'When you get there, you bear away smart to nor'-west, and you'll come straight as a line to the Lodge.' 'How the deuce am I to know which is north-west in a strange place, with no sun to tell me?' |
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