The Grey Woman and other TalesGaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
General
The Grey Woman and other Tales
Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Short stories
“This will do,” said she; and we crept under the space, and climbing a
little way up the rough stone-work, we seated ourselves on a projecting
ledge, and crouched in the deep damp shadow. Amante sat a little above
me, and made me lay my head on her lap. Then she fed me, and took some
food herself; and opening out her great dark cloak, she covered up
every light-coloured speck about us; and thus we sat, shivering and
shuddering, yet feeling a kind of rest through it all, simply from the
fact that motion was no longer imperative, and that during the daylight
our only chance of safety was to be still. But the damp shadow in which
we were sitting was blighting, from the circumstance of the sunlight
never penetrating there; and I dreaded lest, before night and the time
for exertion again came on, I should feel illness creeping all over me.
To add to our discomfort, it had rained the whole day long, and the
stream, fed by a thousand little mountain brooklets, began to swell
into a torrent, rushing over the stones with a perpetual and dizzying
noise.
Every now and then I was wakened from the painful doze into which I
continually fell, by a sound of horses’ feet over our head: sometimes
lumbering heavily as if dragging a burden, sometimes rattling and
galloping, and with the sharper cry of men’s voices coming cutting
through the roar of the waters. At length, day fell. We had to drop
into the stream, which came above our knees as we waded to the bank.
There we stood, stiff and shivering. Even Amante’s courage seemed to
fail.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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