Guy dragged a chair into the bay window and, balancing his long legs on
the sill, he made numerous calculations in which Miss Peasey's wages,
the weekly bills for food, and the number of times he would have to go
up to London were set against £150 a year. When he woke up, the
lime-trees that bordered the high road had flung their shadows half-way
across the meadow, and the air was a fume of golden gnats against the
dipping sun. Within ten minutes the sun vanished, and the mists began to
rise. Guy, feeling rather chilly and ashamed of himself for falling
asleep, rose hurriedly and went up into the town. He interviewed the
driver of the omnibus and told him to look out for his books, and as an
afterthought he mentioned the arrival of Miss Peasey. He wished now he
had written and told his housekeeper to spend the night in Oxford; and
he hoped she would not be prejudiced against Plashers Mead by a
five-mile drive in a cold omnibus after her tiring journey from Cardiff.
He dawdled about the steep village street for a while, gossiping with
tradesmen at their doors and watching the warmth fade out of the grey
houses in the falling dusk. Then he went to eat his last meal in the
Stag Inn.
After supper Guy returned to Plashers Mead, wandering round the house,
dropping a great deal of candle-grease everywhere and working himself up
into a state of anxiety over Miss Peasey's advent. It would be terrible
if she demanded her fare back to Wales the moment she arrived; and to
propitiate her he put the best lamp in the kitchen, whence (as with such
illumination it looked more than ever protuberant) he took another
dish-cover up to Michael's bedroom. Since it was still but a few minutes
after eight and the omnibus would not come for another hour and a half,
he lit all the wax candles in his own room and wondered what to do. The
tall shadows wavering in the draught were seeming cold and uncomfortable
without a fire, so he restlessly threw back the curtains of the bay
window to watch the rising of the moon. At that instant her rim appeared
above the black hills, and presently a great moon of dislustred gold
swam along the edge of the earth. Although she appeared to shed no
light, the valley responded to her presence, and Guy was lured from his
room to walk for a while in the dews.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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