'
'An expensive holiday, rather,' said Marshall.
'Leave that to me; that's my business. I ain't quite a beggar, and
if we can't take our pleasure once a year, it's a pity. We aren't
like some folk as messes about up to Hampstead every Sunday, and
spends a fortune on shrimps and donkeys. No; when I go away, it IS
away, maybe it's only for a couple of days, where I can see a blessed
ploughed field; no shrimps nor donkeys for me.'
CHARTER XXIX
So it was settled, and on the Friday Clara and Mrs Caffyn journeyed
to Great Oakhurst. They were both tired, and went to bed very early,
in order that they might enjoy the next day. Clara, always a light
sleeper, woke between three and four, rose and went to the little
casement window which had been open all night. Below her, on the
left, the church was just discernible, and on the right, the broad
chalk uplands leaned to the south, and were waving with green barley
and wheat. Underneath her lay the cottage garden, with its row of
beehives in the north-east corner, sheltered from the cold winds by
the thick hedge. It had evidently been raining a little, for the
drops hung on the currant bushes, but the clouds had been driven by
the south-westerly wind into the eastern sky, where they lay in a
long, low, grey band. Not a sound was to be heard, save every now
and then the crow of a cock or the short cry of a just-awakened
thrush.
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