Beggars on HorsebackJesse, F. Tennyson (Fryniwyd Tennyson)
General
Beggars on Horseback
Jesse, F. Tennyson (Fryniwyd Tennyson)
Fiction; Short stories, English
"Is he any kin to en?" asked Senath, interested, as any woman would have
been, in this budget of news about her old suitor.
"No, less they'm so far removed no one remembers et. There's a power of
Harveys in this part of the world. Manuel do come from Truro way."
The high gig had been coming quickly nearer, and now drew up before the
two women.
"Evenen, Mis' Cotton. Evenen, Senath," said Sam, with undisturbed
phlegm. "Could'ee blige we weth some stout twine? The off-rein has
broken and us have only put en together for the moment wi' a bit o'
string Mr. Harvey here had in's pocket."
Mrs. Cotton bustled off into the house, and Sam climbed down, the gig
bounding upwards when relieved from his weight. He was a big, fair man,
his moustache distinctly lighter than his weather-beaten face, and since
the days when he had courted Senath the whites of his eyes had become
yellowish round the muddy hazel of the iris. Senath looked from him to
Manuel, still in the gig, and as she did so, something unknown stirred
at her pulses, very faintly.
Manuel Harvey was dark, and though his eyes, too, were hazel, it was
that clear green-grey, thickly rimmed with black, that is to be seen in
the people of that part of the world who have a strain of Spanish blood
in them, dating from the wrecks of the Armada. Those eyes, beneath their
straight brows, met Senath's, and in that moment idle curiosity passed
into something else.
Many women and most men marry for a variety of reasons not unconnected
with externals. There has been much spoken and written on the subject
of "affinities," a term at the best insecure, and often pernicious, but
very occasionally, when the two people concerned are elemental creatures
with little perception of those half-shades which are the bane of
civilization, there does occur a flashing recognition which defies known
laws of liking, and this it was which came to Manuel and Senath now.
"Falling in love" is ordinarily a complex, many-sided thing, compact of
doubts and hesitations, fluctuating with the mood and with that powerful
factor, the opinions of others. It is subject to influence by
trivialities, varying affections and criticisms, and the surface of it
is an elastic tissue setting this way and that, as thoughts ebb and flow
from moment to moment, even though far beneath it may remain
unperturbed. Yet every now and then come together two of that vanishing
race who are capable of feeling an emotion in the round--the whole
sphere of it. This sense of a spherical emotion came to Senath as she
would have pictured the onslaught of a thunder-ball, save that this fire
had the quality of warming without scorching utterly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account