among the daisies.
The lad stood before Durbeyfield, and contemplated his length from
crown to toe.
'Sir John d'Urberville--that's who I am,' continued the prostrate
man. 'That is if knights were baronets--which they be. 'Tis
recorded in history all about me. Dost know of such a place, lad,
as Kingsbere-sub-Greenhill?'
'Ees. I've been there to Greenhill Fair.'
'Well, under the church of that city there lie--'
''Tisn't a city, the place I mean; leastwise 'twaddn' when I was
there--'twas a little one-eyed, blinking sort o' place.'
'Never you mind the place, boy, that's not the question before us.
Under the church of that there parish lie my ancestors--hundreds of
'em--in coats of mail and jewels, in gr't lead coffins weighing tons
and tons. There's not a man in the county o' South-Wessex that's
got grander and nobler skillentons in his family than I.'
'Oh?'
'Now take up that basket, and goo on to Marlott, and when you've come
to The Pure Drop Inn, tell 'em to send a horse and carriage to me
immed'ately, to carry me hwome. And in the bottom o' the carriage
they be to put a noggin o' rum in a small bottle, and chalk it up
to my account. And when you've done that goo on to my house with
the basket, and tell my wife to put away that washing, because she
needn't finish it, and wait till I come hwome, as I've news to tell
her.'
As the lad stood in a dubious attitude, Durbeyfield put his hand in
his pocket, and produced a shilling, one of the chronically few that
he possessed.
'Here's for your labour, lad.'
This made a difference in the young man's estimate of the position.
'Yes, Sir John. Thank 'ee. Anything else I can do for 'ee, Sir
John?'
'Tell 'em at hwome that I should like for supper,--well, lamb's fry
if they can get it; and if they can't, black-pot; and if they can't
get that, well chitterlings will do.'
'Yes, Sir John.'
The boy took up the basket, and as he set out the notes of a brass
band were heard from the direction of the village.
'What's that?' said Durbeyfield. 'Not on account o' I?'
''Tis the women's club-walking, Sir John. Why, your da'ter is one o'
the members.'
'To be sure--I'd quite forgot it in my thoughts of greater things!
Well, vamp on to Marlott, will ye, and order that carriage, and
maybe I'll drive round and inspect the club.'
The lad departed, and Durbeyfield lay waiting on the grass and
daisies in the evening sun. Not a soul passed that way for a long
while, and the faint notes of the band were the only human sounds
audible within the rim of blue hills.
II
The village of Marlott lay amid the north-eastern undulations of the
