Miss La Trobe watchedfrom behind the tree. Parker
was deploring to Isa in a low voice the village idiot. The villagers were singing,
but half their words were blown away. Then, at a sign fromMiss La Trobe behind the
tree, the dance stopped.
To which the other voice answered: Dyou believe
what thepapers say? To which the other voice answered: Dyou believe what thepapers
say? For all are dancing, retreating and advancing, The moth and the dragon
fly.
Perhaps Miss La Trobe meant that when she cut this
knotin the centre? Then she satdown on a plank under the vine.
William at the table, now attached to
Mrs.
I must say, the voice said behind her, its brave of
the Kingand Queen.
He was sitting to theright, several rows back, the
man in grey.
The villagers were singing, but half their words
were blown away.
It was a simpletune, another voice
speaking.
Swallow, my sister, O sister swallow, he muttered,
feeling forhis cigar case, following his son.
Certainly Miss La Trobe had spoken the truth when
shesaid: The very place for a pageant! So we answer to the infernal, agelong
andeternal order issued from on high. See theflowers, how they ray their redness,
whiteness, silverness andblue. The noise of china and chatter drowned her murmur.
Gilesremained like a stake in the tide of the flowing company. I know where the tit
nests, he began In the hedgerow.
She could not seethe man in grey, the gentleman
farmer; nor anyone known to her. Manresa in the very centre smiled; but she felt as
ifher skin cracked when she smiled. So we must, said Lucy; as if he had said aloud,
Its time togo.
England am I, she piped again; and
stopped.
There was a bird with a straw in its beak; and the
straw dropped. The snake was unable to swallow, the toad was unable todie. The gate
was a goal; to be reached in ten.
And off he skipped, as if his turn was over.
Manresa advanced acrossthe lawn to the strains of the gramophone.
The wind howls and the bitternshrieks, she replied.
What for had she squatted on the floorthen?
Exiled from its festival, the music turned
ironical.