England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Short stories, English
Gaining the top of Red Hill, St. George was bowling along the level road
beyond it, when some wayfarer turned round just before him, put up his
hand, and spoke. By the peculiar-coloured coat--a sort of slate--and
white comforter, he recognized the stranger of the railway-station;
he also remembered the voice. "I beg your pardon a thousand times for
stopping you," he said, "but I think I perceive that the road branches
off two ways yonder: will you kindly tell me which of them will take me
to Evesham? there seems to be no one about on foot that I can inquire
of." "That will be your way," St. George answered, pointing with his
whip. "But you are not thinking of walking to Evesham to-night, are
you?" he added. "It is fifteen miles off."
The stranger replied that he had made up his mind to walk, rather than
wait two hours at Worcester station: and St. George was touching his
horse to move on, when a thought struck him.
"I am not going the direct Evesham road, but I can give you a lift part
of the way," he said. "It will not cut off any of the distance for you,
but it will save your legs three or four miles." The stranger thanked
him and got up at once, St. George undoing the apron to admit him. He
had the same black bag with him that St. George had noticed at the
station.
St. George had thus to make a detour to accommodate the stranger. He
was by no means unwilling to do it; for, apart from the wish to help a
fellow-creature, he believed it would be less rough in the low-lying
lands. Driving along in the teeth of the furious wind, he turned off the
highway and got into Dip Lane. We saw him in it, the stranger sitting
with him. He drove on after we had passed, pulled up at the proper place
for the man to descend, and pointed out the route. "You have a mile or
two of these by-ways," he said to him, "but keep straight on and they
will bring you out into the open road. Turn to your left then, and you
will gain Evesham in time--and I wish you well through your walk."
Those were St. George's exact words--as he repeated them to us later.
The stranger thanked him heartily, shook hands and went on his way,
carrying his black bag. St. George said that before parting with the
traveller, he suggested that he should go on with him to Timberdale,
seeing the night was so cold and wild, put up at the Plough-and-Harrow,
where he could get a comfortable bed, and go on to Evesham in the
morning. But the stranger declined, and seemed impatient to get on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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