IN A HAMPSHIRE VILLAGE 161 



a mile and a half away, where it was more open, and 

 settled there in a cottage with working people — man 

 and wife and one child, a little boy of eleven. 



My usual good luck attended me in this place, for 

 seldom have I stayed with people I liked better. The 

 wife was intelligent enough to let me live just as I 

 liked without any fuss, so that I could get up at four 

 o'clock in the morning when they were still sleeping 

 to make tea for myself in the kitchen before going out, 

 and come in when I liked and have what I liked in 

 the way of food. The man, too, was a perfect host; 

 his good qualities and cleverness in his work had 

 raised him to a better position than that of most 

 working men. He was actually earning about three 

 pounds a week, but prosperity had not spoiled him; 

 he might have been making no more than fifteen or 

 eighteen shillings like others of his class, in the village. 

 His manner was singularly engaging, and he was 

 quiet and gentle in the house. One might have thought 

 that he had been subdued by his wife — that she was 

 the ruling spirit ; but it was not so : when they were 

 together, and when they sat at table, where I some- 

 times sat with them, she tuned herself to him and 

 talked with a gentle cheerfulness, watching his face 

 and hanging on his words. Their manner was so 

 unlike that of most persons in their state of life that 

 it was a puzzle to me, and I might have guessed the 

 secret of it from a peculiar pathos in his voice and 

 the inward-gazing dreamy expression in his eyes which 

 haunted me; but I guessed nothing, and only learnt 

 it just before quitting the village. 



