Esther Waters

s and a sweetness abroad which penetrated and absorbed her. She moved towards the paddock gate; the pony and the donkey

ing of the rooks coming home took her soul away skyward in an exquisite longing; she was, at the same time, full of romantic love for the earth, and of a desire to mix herself with the innermost essence of things. The beauty of the evening and the sea

eaved a sigh of weariness. In all this world there was nothing for her to do but to continue her sewing or to go for a walk on the hill. She was tired of that weary hill! But she could not sit in the kitchen till bedtime. She might meet the old shepherd coming home with his sheep, and she put a piece of bread in her pocket for his dogs and strolled up the hill-side. Margaret had gone down to the Gardens. One of these days a young man would come to take her out. What would he be like?

ne to the Gardens," s

nothing between us; anything there ever was is

fresh air, and they went towards the hunting g

ed into a shallow valley sown with various crops; and the shaws about Elliot's farm were the last trees. Beyond the farmhouse t

nd a crook in his hand, and two shaggy dogs at his heels. A brace of partridges rose out of the sainfoin, and flew down the

evening,

f the grass they sat down, and the mystery of

ave any rain

o you

erior knowledge. "Look due south-west, straight through

id Esther, after straining

if it was going to rain

gh

ing to please, Esther asked h

way; then they come right along by that gorse and finish up by Truly barn-you can't se

hat land belong

this down land isn't worth much-not

any acres

n all that

es

a long way. I suppose you don't know that all this piece, all that

our f

andfather the Barfields could not hold their heads as high as the

cin

he law, and a sad mess he made of it-went stony-broke and left my father without a sixpence; that is why mother didn't want me to go into livery. The family 'ad been

h and rank his family had formerly held, till a heavy dew forced them to their feet. In front of them was the moon, and out of the forlorn sky looked do

them the massive moonlit landscape and the vague sea, Esther suddenly became aware, as she had

ow bea

e-way their feet raised th

he said suddenly. "The farm belongs to the Gaffer, but he's let the Lodge to a young fellow called Johnson. He's the ch

ing she suddenly became aware that she had never been so happy before. Now all she had endured seemed accidental; she felt that she had entered into the permanent; and in the midst of vague but intense sensations William showed her the pigeon-house with all the blue

gh road until a stile leading to a cornfi

and then the reason of the extraordinary emotion in their hearts. It seemed that all life was beating in that moment, and they were as it were inflamed to reach out their hands to life and to grasp it togeth

pipe, which had gone out, put the music to flight, and all along the white road he

! I have argued with mother till I'm sick; she can see nothing further than the livery; that's what women are-they are that short-sighted.... A lot of good it would have done me to have carried parcels all my life, and when I could do four mile an hour no more, to be turned out to die in the ditch and be buried by the parish. 'Not good enough,' says I. 'If that's

give up bet

ngs at long prices-half-a-dozen like Silver Braid would do it. For a thousand or fifteen hundred pounds I c

ce, and the care that must be taken not to bet with anyone who had not been properly introduced, frightened her; but her fears died in the sensation of his arm about her waist, and the music that the striking of a match had