[Wessex Tales by Thomas Hardy]@TWC D-Link bookWessex Tales CHAPTER II 4/16
Every time he came to a lamp an increasing shine made itself visible upon his shoulders, till at last they quite glistened with wet. The murmur from the shore grew stronger, but it was still some distance off when he paused before one of the smallest of the detached houses by the wayside, standing in its own garden, the latter being divided from the road by a row of wooden palings.
Scrutinizing the spot to ensure that he was not mistaken, he opened the gate and gently knocked at the cottage door. When he had patiently waited minutes enough to lead any man in ordinary cases to knock again, the door was heard to open, though it was impossible to see by whose hand, there being no light in the passage. Barnet said at random, 'Does Miss Savile live here ?' A youthful voice assured him that she did live there, and by a sudden afterthought asked him to come in.
It would soon get a light, it said: but the night being wet, mother had not thought it worth while to trim the passage lamp. 'Don't trouble yourself to get a light for me,' said Barnet hastily; 'it is not necessary at all.
Which is Miss Savile's sitting-room ?' The young person, whose white pinafore could just be discerned, signified a door in the side of the passage, and Barnet went forward at the same moment, so that no light should fall upon his face.
On entering the room he closed the door behind him, pausing till he heard the retreating footsteps of the child. He found himself in an apartment which was simply and neatly, though not poorly furnished; everything, from the miniature chiffonnier to the shining little daguerreotype which formed the central ornament of the mantelpiece, being in scrupulous order.
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