250 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



a dream — this dreamless man ; he was absorbed in one 

 idea — an idea so fixed that his mind was vacant. . . . His 

 mind was with FeUse.' Then one day she promised to 

 go over to his house — really to see the horse which 

 Barnard had had to sell to Godwin. He stood near her, 

 having come in a fury to complain of her fishing where 

 she ought not to. He had never before been so near. 

 Her presence was * almost an embrace,' and now ' his 

 abstraction was so intense that he was in a manner dead.' 

 Yet he worked correctly all the long summer day before 

 she was to come. In the evening he worked at his 

 accounts, wrote letters, made notes. His sister, tired of 

 writing, had her supper and went to bed. He went out 

 and waited until the mail-cart came for the letters. He 

 could not rest ; he took no notice of the sky at that time, 

 ' when, if ever it will, the soul reigns, and the coarse, rude 

 acts of day are forgotten in the aspiration of the inmost 

 mind.' 



' Robert returned to his bedroom, took off his coat, 

 looked at his bed, and put his coat on again. He did 

 not care to lie down. He lighted a great stable-lantern, 

 and went out of doors again. 



' The hasp of the gate against which he had leaned 

 was a little shaky and loose ; he found the tools, went to 

 work, and put it to rights. Then he went into the orchard 

 to the garden-house, and examined the gardener's tools, 

 one by one, to see if they had been roughly used, or 

 injured ; if so, the man must pay. The man had been 

 digging ; with the lantern in his hand Robert paced 

 the distance dug to see how many yards he had com- 

 pleted. 



' Robert went to the stable, looked in at Ruy, climbed 

 up into the tallet, and spied about to see if any forage 

 had been stolen. He examined the carter's collection 

 of horse-hair — his perquisite — to see if it was accumu- 

 lating too fast. 



' He brought out a stool and saw, and sawed up fire- 

 wood till he had made a goodly heap. He would have 



