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Updated: May 21, 2025
Three times a year he stated in the Undern pew at Wolfbatch that he intended to continue leading a godly, righteous, and sober life. At these times, with amber lights from the windows playing over his well-shaped head, his rather heavy face looked, as the Miss Clombers from Wolfbatch Hall said, 'so chivalrous, so uplifted. The Miss Clombers purred when they talked, like cats with a mouse.
She was turned out of the Eden of the past that she had known in wood and meadow. She was denied the Eden of the future that she might have had in Edward's love. She had the present Reddin unless the other woman had robbed her of him also. She sat down in the heavy shadows of the trees at the far side of Undern Pool. The water looked cold and ghastly even on this golden day.
'A missus at Undern! said Andrew to the cob's ears as they trotted home. 'No, never will I! A magpie rose from a wood near the road, jibing at him. He looked round almost as if it had been someone laughing at his resolve, and repeated, 'Never will I! 'Where's Hazel? asked Reddin.
There had been letters from her aunt, from Reddin's vicar, from the eldest Miss Clomber. In them all she was spoken of as the culprit for being at Undern. Well, she did not want to be at Undern. She would go. 'Well, Hazel, child, what's the matter? asked Reddin, looking up from doing his quarterly accounts. 'Haven't you got a stocking to mend or a hair-ribbon to make?
Undern rattled and groaned; its fireless chimneys roared, and doors in unused passages banged so often that the house took on an air of being inhabited. It seemed as if all the people that had ever lived here had come back, ignoring in their mournful dignity of eternal death these momentary wraiths of life.
She thought wistfully of the green silk dress and the supper in the old, stately room. She thought of Vessons, and of Reddin's eyes as he pulled her back from the door. She thought of Undern as a refuge for Foxy. 'Maybe sometime I'll go and see 'em, she thought. She went to the door and looked out.
He knew there was not a soul near, for the people from the farm at the foot of the spinney had all gone to church. 'Look here, Hazel, he said, not unkindly; 'you've got to give in, see? 'I see nought. 'You've got to come and live with me at Undern. You can wear those fine dresses. 'I'm a-cold, said Hazel; 'the sun's undering; I'd best go home-along. 'Come on, then. Up you get.
They sat hand in hand by the fire that evening, and she told him of her aunt Prowde, and how she first came to know Reddin, and how he threatened to tell Edward of her first coming to Undern. She was astonished at the way his face lit up. 'Why didn't you tell me that before, dear? It alters everything. You did not go of your own choice at first, then. He had you in a snare.
She reached up for some, and her hair fell down; she wisely put the remaining pins in the bag for the return journey. She was intensely happy, as a fish is when it plunges back into the water. For these things, and not the God-fearing comfort of the Mountain, nor the tarnished grandeur of Undern, were her life.
Reddin ne'er shows his face here; for the old lady said Him above looked after good folks, and Ed'ard's good. But I wish some un 'ud look after the bad uns, she thought, looking across the room to the north where Undern lay. 'My dear, wait a moment! said Mrs. Marston to Edward downstairs, as he was lighting her candle. I have something to tell you. I fear you must brace yourself.
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