Far from the Madding Crowd

again into the plantation. Lingering and musing here, he heard the steps of a horse at the foot of the hill, and soon there appeared in view an auburn pony with a girl on its back, ascending by the

among the leaves. Gabriel took it in his hand and returned to his hut. Here he ensco

ghs spread horizontally at a height not greater than seven feet above the ground, which made it impossible to ride erect beneath them. The girl, who wore no riding-habit, looked around for a moment, as if to assure herself that all humanity was out of view, then dexterously dropped backwards flat upon the pony's back, her head over its

e obviously convenient than the first. She had no side-saddle, and it was very apparent that a firm seat upon the smooth leather beneath her was unattainable sideways. Springing to her accustomed perpendicular li

l returned, properly seated now, with a bag of bran in front of her. On nearing the cattle-shed she was met by a boy bringing a mi

hin the shed, the obvious sounds of a person milking a cow. Gabriel took the lost

a bright air and manner about her now, by which she seemed to imply that the desirability of her existence could not be questioned; and this rather saucy assumption failed in being offensive because a beholder felt it to be, upon the who

may have been observed by persons who go about the shires with eyes for beauty, that in Englishwoman a classically-formed face is seldom found to be united with a figure of the same pattern, the highly-finished features being generally too large for the remainder of the frame; that a graceful and proportionate figure of eight heads usually goes off into random facial curves. Without throwing a Nymphean tissue over a milkmaid, let it be said that here criticism checked its

a little more pronounced, dignity if a little less. Rays of male vision seem to have a tickling effect upon virgin faces in rural districts; she brushed hers with her hand, as if Gabriel had been ir

a hat,"

portion, kept down to a small smile an inclinati

ock this

s surprised. "How did

as h

rmer Oak, a

uts. I'm lately c

ir, which was black in the shaded hollows of its mass; but it being now an hou

arms the word "acres" is omitted by the natives, by

ning," she went on. "I ha

you

o you

aw y

g bringing every muscle of her li

aspect excessively knowing with regard to some matter in his mind, as he gazed at a r

ed in the girl by a nettled palpitation, and that by a hot face. It was a time to see a woman redden who was not given to reddening as a rule; not a point in the milkmaid but was of the deepest rose-colour

ver coolness sufficient to justify him in facing her again. He heard what seemed

of Tragedy and Comedy Gab

deeply offended her- not by seeing what he could not help, but by letting her know that he had seen it. For, as without law there is no sin, without eyes there is no indecorum; and she appeared to feel that Gabr

st increased with evening, which drew on like a stealthy tightening of bonds. It was a time when in cottages the breath of the sleepers freezes to the sheets; when round the drawi

arling ewes he entered the hut and heaped more fuel upon the stove. The wind came in at the bottom of the door, and to prevent it Oak laid a sack the

n the side away from the wind. Closing the slide to windward, he turned to open the other; on second thoughts the farmer considered t

ken rests of the preceding nights, Oak decided to get up, open the slide, and then allow himse

o perception peculiar deeds seemed to be in course of enactment. His dog was howling, his he

girl with the remarkably pleasant lips and white teeth was beside him. More than this-astonishingly more-his

e matter?" said

rth, but of too insignifica

u are not dead. It is a wonder you wer

hatched hurdles as they did in old times, and curl up to sleep in a lock of straw! It played me nea

lty among women-one who finished a thought before beginning the sentence which was to convey it. "

er dress, before the event passed on into the heap of bygone things. He wished she knew his impressions; but he would as soon have thought of c

himself like a Samson. "How can I thank 'ee?" he said at last, gra

and allowing her smile to hold good for Gabriel

d you f

). The dog saw me, and jumped over to me, and laid hold of my skirt. I came across and looked round the hut the very first thing to see if the slides were closed. My uncle has a hut like this one, and I have h

said, in a low voice, which was rather m

obability; to have saved a man from death involved talk that sho

iss-I don't know your name. I k

There is no reason either why I should, as you

should lik

at my aunt's-sh

is Gabr

ond of yours in speaking it

ne I shall ever have, and

mine sounds odd

you might soon

ou keep about you concernin

t match you, I know, in mapping out my mind upon my tongue. I never wa

she said, and gave him her hand, compressing her lips to a demure impassivity. He held it but an instant, and in his fear of

he said the

at

our hand g

you like; there it is." Sh

y long. "How soft it is-being winter time, to

t pulling it away. "But I suppose you are thinking

y such thing," said Gabr

!" She snatched

elf guilty of ano

me," she said, teas