The Woodlanders Part 2, Thomas Hardy [e textbook reader txt] 📗
- Author: Thomas Hardy
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Was Fixed on The Landscape Far Away, And Grace'S Approach Was So
Part 2 Chapter 3 Pg 13Noiseless That He Did Not Hear Her. When She Came Close She Could
See His Lips Moving unconsciously, As To Some Impassioned
Visionary Theme.
She Spoke, And Fitzpiers Started. "What Are You Looking at?" She
Asked.
"Oh! I Was Contemplating our Old Place Of Buckbury, In my Idle
Way," He Said.
It Had Seemed to Her That He Was Looking much To The Right Of That
Cradle And Tomb Of His Ancestral Dignity; But She Made No Further
Observation, And Taking his Arm Walked home Beside Him Almost In
Silence. She Did Not Know That Middleton Abbey Lay In the
Direction Of His Gaze. "Are You Going to Have Out Darling this
Afternoon?" She Asked, Presently. Darling being the Light-Gray
Mare Which Winterborne Had Bought For Grace, And Which Fitzpiers
Now Constantly Used, The Animal Having turned out A Wonderful
Bargain, In combining a Perfect Docility With An Almost Human
Intelligence; Moreover, She Was Not Too Young. Fitzpiers Was
Unfamiliar With Horses, And He Valued these Qualities.
"Yes," He Replied, "But Not To Drive. I Am Riding her. I
Practise Crossing a Horse As Often As I Can Now, For I Find That I
Can Take Much Shorter Cuts On Horseback."
He Had, In fact, Taken These Riding exercises For About A Week,
Only Since Mrs. Charmond'S Absence, His Universal Practice
Hitherto Having been To Drive.
Some Few Days Later, Fitzpiers Started on The Back Of This Horse
To See A Patient In the Aforesaid Vale. It Was About Five O'Clock
In The Evening when He Went Away, And At Bedtime He Had Not
Reached home. There Was Nothing very Singular In this, Though She
Was Not Aware That He Had Any Patient More Than Five Or Six Miles
Distant In that Direction. The Clock Had Struck One Before
Fitzpiers Entered the House, And He Came To His Room Softly, As If
Anxious Not To Disturb Her.
The Next Morning she Was Stirring considerably Earlier Than He.
In The Yard There Was A Conversation Going on About The Mare; The
Man Who Attended to The Horses, Darling included, Insisted that
The Latter Was "Hag-Rid;" For When He Had Arrived at The Stable
That Morning she Was In such A State As No Horse Could Be In by
Honest Riding. It Was True That The Doctor Had Stabled her
Himself When He Got Home, So That She Was Not Looked after As She
Would Have Been If He Had Groomed and Fed her; But That Did Not
Account For The Appearance She Presented, If Mr. Fitzpiers'S
Journey Had Been Only Where He Had Stated. The Phenomenal
Exhaustion Of Darling, As Thus Related, Was Sufficient To Develop
A Whole Series Of Tales About Riding witches And Demons, The
Narration Of Which Occupied a Considerable Time.
Grace Returned in-Doors. In passing through The Outer Room She
Picked up Her Husband'S Overcoat Which He Had Carelessly Flung
Down Across A Chair. A Turnpike Ticket Fell Out Of The Breast-
Pocket, And She Saw That It Had Been Issued at Middleton Gate. He
Part 2 Chapter 3 Pg 14Had Therefore Visited middleton The Previous Night, A Distance Of
At Least Five-And-Thirty Miles On Horseback, There And Back.
During the Day She Made Some Inquiries, And Learned for The First
Time That Mrs. Charmond Was Staying at Middleton Abbey. She Could
Not Resist An Inference--Strange As That Inference Was.
A Few Days Later He Prepared to Start Again, At The Same Time And
In The Same Direction. She Knew That The State Of The Cottager
Who Lived that Way Was A Mere Pretext; She Was Quite Sure He Was
Going to Mrs. Charmond. Grace Was Amazed at The Mildness Of The
Passion Which The Suspicion Engendered in her. She Was But Little
Excited, And Her Jealousy Was Languid Even To Death. It Told
Tales Of The Nature Of Her Affection For Him. In truth, Her
Antenuptial Regard For Fitzpiers Had Been Rather Of The Quality Of
Awe Towards A Superior Being than Of Tender Solicitude For A
Lover. It Had Been Based upon Mystery And Strangeness--The
Mystery Of His Past, Of His Knowledge, Of His Professional Skill,
Of His Beliefs. When This Structure Of Ideals Was Demolished by
The Intimacy Of Common Life, And She Found Him As Merely Human As
The Hintock People Themselves, A New Foundation Was In demand For
An Enduring and Stanch Affection--A Sympathetic Interdependence,
Wherein Mutual Weaknesses Were Made The Grounds Of A Defensive
Alliance. Fitzpiers Had Furnished none Of That Single-Minded
Confidence And Truth Out Of Which Alone Such A Second Union Could
Spring; Hence It Was With A Controllable Emotion That She Now
Watched the Mare Brought Round.
"I'Ll Walk With You To The Hill If You Are Not In a Great Hurry,"
She Said, Rather Loath, After All, To Let Him Go.
"Do; There'S Plenty Of Time," Replied her Husband. Accordingly He
Led along The Horse, And Walked beside Her, Impatient Enough
Nevertheless. Thus They Proceeded to The Turnpike Road, And
Ascended rub-Down Hill To The Gate He Had Been Leaning over When
She Surprised him Ten Days Before. This Was The End Of Her
Excursion. Fitzpiers Bade Her Adieu With Affection, Even With
Tenderness, And She Observed that He Looked weary-Eyed.
"Why Do You Go To-Night?" She Said. "You Have Been Called up Two
Nights In succession Already."
"I Must Go," He Answered, Almost Gloomily. "Don'T Wait Up For
Me." With These Words He Mounted his Horse, Passed through The
Gate Which Grace Held Open For Him, And Ambled down The Steep
Bridle-Track To The Valley.
She Closed the Gate And Watched his Descent, And Then His Journey
Onward. His Way Was East, The Evening sun Which Stood Behind Her
Back Beaming full Upon Him As Soon As He Got Out From The Shade Of
The Hill. Notwithstanding this Untoward Proceeding she Was
Determined to Be Loyal If He Proved true; And The Determination To
Love One'S Best Will Carry A Heart A Long Way Towards Making that
Best An Ever-Growing thing. The Conspicuous Coat Of The Active
Though Blanching mare Made Horse And Rider Easy Objects For The
Vision. Though Darling had Been Chosen With Such Pains By
Winterborne For Grace, She Had Never Ridden The Sleek Creature;
But Her Husband Had Found The Animal Exceedingly Convenient,
Part 2 Chapter 3 Pg 15Particularly Now That He Had Taken To The Saddle, Plenty Of
Staying power Being left In darling yet. Fitzpiers, Like Others
Of His Character, While Despising melbury And His Station, Did Not
At All Disdain To Spend Melbury'S Money, Or Appropriate To His Own
Use The Horse Which Belonged to Melbury'S Daughter.
And So The Infatuated young Surgeon Went Along Through The
Gorgeous Autumn Landscape Of White Hart Vale, Surrounded by
Orchards Lustrous With The Reds Of Apple-Crops, Berries, And
Foliage, The Whole Intensified by The Gilding of The Declining
Sun. The Earth This Year Had Been Prodigally Bountiful, And Now
Was The Supreme Moment Of Her Bounty. In the Poorest Spots The
Hedges Were Bowed with Haws And Blackberries; Acorns Cracked
Underfoot, And The Burst Husks Of Chestnuts Lay Exposing their
Auburn Contents As If Arranged by Anxious Sellers In a Fruit-
Market. In all This Proud Show Some Kernels Were Unsound As Her
Own Situation, And She Wondered if There Were One World In the
Universe Where The Fruit Had No Worm, And Marriage No Sorrow.
Herr Tannhauser Still Moved on, His Plodding steed rendering him
Distinctly Visible Yet. Could She Have Heard Fitzpiers'S Voice At
That Moment She Would Have Found Him Murmuring--
"...Towards The Loadstar Of My One Desire
I Flitted, Even As A Dizzy Moth In the Owlet Light."
But He Was A Silent Spectacle To Her Now. Soon He Rose Out Of The
Valley, And Skirted a High Plateau Of The Chalk Formation On His
Right, Which Rested abruptly Upon The Fruity District Of Loamy
Clay, The Character And Herbage Of The Two Formations Being so
Distinct That The Calcareous Upland Appeared but As A Deposit Of A
Few Years' Antiquity Upon The Level Vale. He Kept Along The Edge
Of This High, Unenclosed country, And The Sky Behind Him Being
Deep Violet, She Could Still See White Darling in relief Upon It--
A Mere Speck Now--A Wouvermans Eccentricity Reduced to Microscopic
Dimensions. Upon This High Ground He Gradually Disappeared.
Thus She Had Beheld The Pet Animal Purchased for Her Own Use, In
Pure Love Of Her, By One Who Had Always Been True, Impressed to
Convey Her Husband Away From Her To The Side Of A New-Found Idol.
While She Was Musing on The Vicissitudes Of Horses And Wives, She
Discerned shapes Moving up The Valley Towards Her, Quite Near At
Hand, Though Till Now Hidden By The Hedges. Surely They Were
Giles Winterborne, With His Two Horses And Cider-Apparatus,
Conducted by Robert Creedle. Up, Upward They Crept, A Stray Beam
Of The Sun Alighting every Now And Then Like A Star On The Blades
Of The Pomace-Shovels, Which Had Been Converted to Steel Mirrors
By The Action Of The Malic Acid. She Opened the Gate When He Came
Close, And The Panting horses Rested as They Achieved the Ascent.
Part 2 Chapter 3 Pg 16"How Do You Do, Giles?" Said She, Under A Sudden Impulse To Be
Familiar With Him.
He Replied with Much More Reserve. "You Are Going for A Walk,
Mrs. Fitzpiers?" He Added. "It Is Pleasant Just Now."
"No, I Am Returning," Said She.
The Vehicles Passed through, The Gate Slammed, And Winterborne
Walked by Her Side In the Rear Of The Apple-Mill.
He Looked and Smelt Like Autumn'S Very Brother, His Face Being
Sunburnt To Wheat-Color, His Eyes Blue As Corn-Flowers, His Boots
And Leggings Dyed with Fruit-Stains, His Hands Clammy With
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