The Woodlanders

y. It was fine. A north wind was blowing — that not unacceptable compromise between the atmospheric cutlery of the eastern blast and the spongy gales of the west qu

to be shorn of much of the interest which had invested his personality and pursuit

rom his own door towards the timber-merchant’s, in the probability of somebody’s emergence therefrom. His attention was at length justified by the appearance of two figures, that of Mr. Melbury h

he foliage. This caused here and there an apparent mixture of the seasons; so that in some of the dells that they passed by holly-berries in full red were found growing beside oak and hazel whos

Angles were taking the place of curves, and reticulations of surfaces — a change constituting a sudden lapse from the ornate to the primiti

himself with an exclamation of “Hah!” accompanied with an upward jerk of the head, composed a personage recognizable by his neighbors as far as he could be seen. It seemed as if the squirrels and birds knew him. One of the former would occasionally run from

ch stood pools of water that overflowed on rainy days, and ran down their stems in green cascades. On older trees still than these, huge lobes of fungi grew like lungs. Here, as everywhere, the Unfulfilled Intention, which makes life what it is,

Some flecks of white in Grace’s drapery had enabled Giles to keep her and her father in view till this time; but now he lost sight of them, and was obliged to follow by ear — no difficult matter, for on the line of th

tracks an impression of a slighter kind from a boot that was obviously not local, for Winterborne knew all the cobblers’ patte

vers points heaps of fresh-made chips, and the newly-cut stool of a tree, stared white through the undergrowth. T

re was a sale of trees and fagots that very day. Melbury would naturally be present. There

rs; mostly woodland men, who on that account could afford to be curious in their walking-sticks, which consequently exhibited various monstrosities of vegetation, the chief being cork-screw shapes in black and white thorn, brought to that pattern by the slow torture of an encircling woodbine during their growth, as the Chinese have b

le boy’s head, or the shoulders of a by-stander who had no business there except to taste the brew; a proceeding which would have been deemed humorous but for the air of stern rigidity wh

ere everything else was old-fashioned, and throwing over the familiar garniture of the trees a homeliness that seemed to demand improvement by the addition of

descended, at the sight of which a robin, alarmed at these signs of imminent winter, and seeing that no offence was meant by the human invasion, came and perched on the tip of the fagots that were being sold, and looked into the auctioneer’s face, while waiting for some chance crumb from the bread-basket. Standing a little behind Grace, Winterborne observed how one flake

fact. And thus musing, and joining in no conversation with other buyers except when directly addressed, he followed the assemblage hither and thither till the end of the auction, when Giles for the first time realized wha

oo, looked vexed and reproachful. Winterborne then discovered that he had been unwittingly bidding against her father, a

moved slowly through it a lady appeared on horseback in the middle distance, the line of her progress converging upon that of Melbury’s. They met, Melbury took off his hat, and she reined in her horse. A conversation

ing which much seemed to be said. When Melbury and Grace resumed

he sight of one of the bedrooms blinking into a state of illumination. In it stood Grace lighting several candles, her right hand elevating the taper, her left hand on her bosom, her face thoughtfully fixed on each wick as it kindled, as if she saw

“I don’t know what I was doing. I have come to s

hand, “I have so much else to think of that I nearly had forgot it. Just now, too, the

down to him from a higher moral plane th

is looking out her things now. I dare say she is wanting me th

bury knew that his words had been a sort of boast. He decried boasting, particularly to Giles;

nd also a little apprehension at the n

business, and then got acquainted with Grace. ’Twas wonderful how she took to Grace in a few minutes; that freemasonry of education made ’em close at once. Naturally enough she was amazed that such an article — ha, ha! — could come ou

at, since she’s busy

at Giles and too little to him, repented at once. His face changed, and he said

ll right between us about the biddings, that I’ll not inte

cheval-glass that her father had lately bought expressly for her use; she was bonneted, cloaked, and gloved, and glanced over her shoulder into the mirror, estimating her

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