CLEAR WATERS 



cause to quarrel with fine summer weather. On this 

 occasion we found ourselves in the ordinary course of 

 such things quartered beneath the roof of anything 

 but an ordinary couple. The man had been a shoe- 

 maker, but any one further removed from the con- 

 ventional notion of that sedentary, radically inclined 

 type of humanity I never met. His wife, a strong, 

 dark, rather masterful woman, had been a substantial 

 farmer's daughter. They were, as in due course 

 transpired, a quite devoted but childless couple, and 

 at that time, with the aid, I think, of a little com- 

 petency, lived by letting lodgings. These last were 

 redeemed from some obvious disadvantages by the 

 civilising atmosphere of much good old furniture and 

 a most glorious view from the window right up the 

 valley to the Stretton hills. To be frank, we were a 

 little put off by the lady till we recognised the sterling 

 qualities that lay behind her rather disconcerting 

 bluntness ; while our landlord, who was both modest 

 and gracious, so rarely emerged from the subterranean 

 quarters which they inhabited beneath our feet that 

 it was a little time before we discovered his qualities 

 and hers. The fact was that both of them, as I 

 afterwards found, were consumed with a passion for 

 everything associated with country life, though now 

 caged, cabined, and confined in the rather uncongenial 

 atmosphere of narrow precincts in a country town. 

 The man was then in somewhat indifferent health, 

 and we were sensibly touched by the way in which 

 the strong and, to us, offhand lady took the burdens 

 of life off his hands. 



Now it so happened that I had been granted a couple 

 146 



