Page 360 - sons-and-lovers

But Clara wearied of his flippancy. Suddenly, looking
at her, he saw that the upward lifting of her face was mis-
ery and not scorn. His heart grew tender for everybody. He
turned and was gentle with Miriam, whom he had neglect-
ed till then.
At the wood’s edge they met Limb, a thin, swarthy man of
forty, tenant of Strelley Mill, which he ran as a cattle-raising
farm. He held the halter of the powerful stallion indiffer-
ently, as if he were tired. The three stood to let him pass over
the stepping-stones of the first brook. Paul admired that so
large an animal should walk on such springy toes, with an
endless excess of vigour. Limb pulled up before them.
‘Tell your father, Miss Leivers,’ he said, in a peculiar pip-
ing voice, ‘that his young beas’es ‘as broke that bottom fence
three days an’ runnin’.’
‘Which?’ asked Miriam, tremulous.
The great horse breathed heavily, shifting round its red
flanks, and looking suspiciously with its wonderful big eyes
upwards from under its lowered head and falling mane.
‘Come along a bit,’ replied Limb, ‘an’ I’ll show you.’
The man and the stallion went forward. It danced side-
ways, shaking its white fetlocks and looking frightened, as
it felt itself in the brook.
‘No hanky-pankyin’,’ said the man affectionately to the
beast.
It went up the bank in little leaps, then splashed finely
through the second brook. Clara, walking with a kind of
sulky abandon, watched it half-fascinated, half-contemp-
tuous. Limb stopped and pointed to the fence under some