WHITE DUCK 105 



ever I saw besides pleased me only because it formed 

 a suitable background, or made it seem brighter by 

 contrast or served in some way to set it off. Old red- 

 brick farmhouses, seen at a distance, nestling among 

 evergreen and large, leafless trees, in many cases the 

 deep, sloping roofs stained all over with orange-coloured 

 lichen ; quiet little hamlets too, half hidden beneath 

 their great elms as under a reddish purple cloud ; the 

 endless grey winding road, with low thorn hedges on 

 either side winding with it, leafless and a deep purple 

 brown in colour except where ivy had grown over and 

 covered them with dark green brown-veined leaves 

 silvered with the sunlight. A hundred things besides 

 red cows grazing on a green field, a flock of starlings 

 wheeling about overhead and anon dropping to the 

 earth ; gulls, too, resting in another field, white and 

 pale grey, their beaks turned to the wind : they were 

 like little bird-shaped drifts of snow lying on the green 

 turf, shining in the sun. For all day long the weather 

 was perfect a day of soft wind and bright sunshine 

 following a spell of cold, rough weather with flooding 

 rains ; a soft blue sky peopled with white and pale grey 

 clouds travelling before the wind. 



And seeing these things seeing and forgetting as 

 one sees whatever comes into the field of vision when 

 eyes and mind are occupied with some other thing 

 the time went on until a little past noon, when I 

 suddenly came upon a new sight which gave me a thrill 

 and hold me, and after I had passed on would not 

 allow me to drop it out of my mind. All the objects 



