There was a piece of Christmas brawn to-day, from a pig fattened
on oats and peas, and hardened by being lodged (while he lived) on a
boarded floor; all this was told Robin across the table with
particularity, while he ate it, and drank, according to etiquette, a cup
of bastard. He attended to all this zealously, while never for an
instant was he unaware of the girl.
They tricked their elders very well, these two innocent ones. You would
have sworn that Robin looked for another place and could not see one,
you would have sworn that they were shy of one another, and spoke
scarcely a dozen sentences. Yet they did very well each in the company
of the other; and Robin, indeed, before he had finished his partridge,
had conveyed to her that there was news that he had, and must give to
her before the day was out. She looked at him with enough dismay in her
face for him at least to read it; for she knew by his manner that it
would not be happy news.
So, too, when the fruit was done and dinner was over (for they had no
opportunity to speak at any length), again you would have sworn that the
last idea in his mind, as in hers, was that he should be the one to help
her to her saddle. Yet he did so; and he fetched her hawk for her, and
settled her reins in her hand; and presently he on one side of her, with
Mr. Fenton on the other side, were riding up through Padley chase; and
the talk and the laughter went up too.
II
Up on the high moors, in the frank-chase, here indeed was a day to make
sad hearts rejoice.
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