searching for an object in life, would be the very person to involve in
the materialization. He would say nothing to anybody else; not even
would he mention the idea to Pauline herself. These sanguine dreams
occupied his evenings prosperously enough, while March swept past with
searing winds from Muscovy that skimmed the rich earth of the
ploughlands with a dusty pallor, tarnished the daffodils and seemed to
crack the very bird-song. Guy, however, with every day either a day
nearer to seeing Pauline again or the day itself, did not care about the
wind that blew, and he was as happy walking on the uplands as the
spindleshanked hares that sported among the turfy mounds.
Later, the shrilling wind from the East surrendered to the booming of
the equinox. Louder than before the weather beat against Guy's house
from the opposite quarter. Chimneys groaned like broken horns, and after
a desperate gale even deaf Miss Peasey complained that she had heard the
wind once or twice in the night and that her bedroom had seemed a bit
draughty. Guy discovered that several tiles had been blown from the
roof, so that through the lath and plaster above her head there was a
sound of demoniac fife-playing. Then the wind dropped: the rain poured
down: but at last on Lady Day morning Guy woke up to see a rich sky
between white magnificent clouds, a gentle breeze, and a letter from his
father.
Fox Hall,
Galton,
Hants.
_March 24._
_Dear Guy_,
_I send you this with the third instalment of the £150. Please let
me have a prompter acknowledgement than last time when, I remember,
you kept me waiting nearly three weeks. I am glad to have news of
successful experiments in verse-making, but I should be much more
glad to hear that you had made up your mind to make them as an
accessory to a regular profession. You will notice that I do not
attempt to influence your choice in this matter, and so I hope you
will not retort with invidious comparisons between literature and
the teaching of small boys._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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