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A Mummer's Wife by George (George Augustus) Moore
page 67 of 491 (13%)
sleep.




IV


Next day, about eleven o'clock, Kate walked up Market Street with Mrs.
Barnes's dress, meditating on the letter she had received. A very serious
matter this angry letter was to Kate, and she thought of what she could say
to satisfy her customer. Her anxiety of mind caused her to walk faster than
she was aware of, up the hill towards the square of sky where the
passers-by seemed like figures on the top of a monument. At the top of the
hill she would turn to the left and descend towards the little quasi-villa
residences which form the suburbs of Northwood. Ten minutes later Kate
approached Mrs. Barnes's door hot and out of breath, her plans matured,
determined, if the worst came to the worst, to let the dress go at a
reduction. Her present difficulty was so great that she forgot other
troubles, and it was not until she had received her money that she
remembered Mr. Lennox. He was going. Her rooms would be empty again. She
was sorry he was going, and at the top of Market Street she stood at gaze,
surprised by the view, though she had never seen any other. A long black
valley lay between her and the dim hills far away, miles and miles in
length, with tanks of water glittering like blades of steel, and gigantic
smoke clouds rolling over the stems of a thousand factory chimneys. She had
not come up this hillside at the top of Market Street for a long while; for
many years she had not stood there and gazed at the view, not since she was
a little girl, and the memories that she cherished in her workroom between
Hanley and the Wever Hills were quite different from the scene she was now
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