impossible She; that She whom for reason clear and good he had loved (upon
his knees, with covered eyes), and suffered go her ways. The philosopher
was clear upon the point that Volume I. must be withheld for a season, and
that Volume II., if it was to deal with the enchantment of the flitted
Mary, must wait also. Mary must be charitably handled; give her time. In
Volume the third, now, we were to have neither music on the one hand, nor
the sharp fragrance of loose hair and warm breath on the other; but green
thoughts, rather, "calm of mind, all passion spent," as surely at forty-
two it must be. Let the wise book deal with life, not the living; with
love, not of woman; with death, but not of the body.

Early in the third year this wanderer, come to anchor, began his book, and
at his desk I propose to leave him until near the end of mine. But, that
he shall know the man again when the tale hath need of him, the reader
will be pleased to accompany me into his neighbourhood for a moment.

Into the great ridge of chalk which is the backbone of South Wilts, and
runs east and west from Sarum to Shaftesbury, there cuts up from the south
a deep, winding, and narrow valley. The hills, between whose breasts it
runs a turfy way, fold one into the other; a man coming up from Blandford,
and minded to strike across country to Marlborough, might well pass within
two hundred yards of our recluse and never see a sign of him. It was at
the head of this glen, sheltered by hills from north, east, and west, but
open full to the south, he had built his one-storied, deep-eaved house of
larch and shingles. Here, under the sky, he watched and laboured and
slept, and saw nobody, living principally on vegetables of his own
growing, and cheese, which he made from the milk of a flock of goats.
Bread he had once a week from a peasant's cottage at the valley's foot;
gypsy folk brought him occasionally tea and tobacco. For the most part he
drank water, and was too good a traveller to be rooted to his pipe.