FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98  
99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   >>   >|  
peaceful house--good-bye." Nancy, too, had a regret. They had had a gleeful hour here, among frank and kindly folk, even if they had also been a bit frightened. Anything that had gone wrong with them had been their fault. Tristram placed a bench at the window that the ladies might climb over, and thus they got out, and immediately the sound of their carriage wheels was heard in the yard. Plunkett had waked up meantime and had come out to call the girls. It was time for their day's work to begin. Farmer folk are out of bed early. "Ho, girls!--time to be up," he called, entering from his chamber. Then he saw the open window. He paused. "Do I hear carriage wheels--and the window open--and the bench--and the girls--gone! Ho there! Everybody!" he rushed out and furiously pulled the bell which hung from the pole outside. His farmhands come running. "Ho--those girls hired yesterday have gone. Get after them. Bring them back. I may drop dead the next instant, but I'll be bound they shan't treat us in this manner. After them! Back they shall come!" And in the midst of all this confusion in ran Lionel. "What----" "Thieves!--the girls have run off--a nice return for our affections!" "After them!--don't lose a minute," Lionel then cried in his turn, and away rushed the farmhands. "They are ours for one year, by law. Bring them back, or ye shall suffer for it. Be off!" And the men mounted horses and went after the runaways like the wind. "Nice treatment!" "Shameful!" Plunkett cried, dropping into a chair, nearly fainting with rage. ACT III Plunkett's men had hunted far and wide for the runaways, but without success. The farmer was still sore over his defeat: he felt himself not only defrauded, but he had grown to love Nancy, and altogether he became very unhappy. One day he was sitting with his fellow farmers around a table in a little forest inn, drinking his glass of beer, when he heard the sound of hunting horns in the distance. "Hello! a hunting party from the palace must be out," he remarked, but the music of the horn which once pleased him could no longer arouse him from his moodiness. Nevertheless an extraordinary thing was about to happen. As he went into the inn for a moment, into the grove whirled--Nancy! all bespangled in a rich hunting costume and accompanied by her friends who were enjoying the hunt with her. They were singing a rousing hunting chorus, but Martha--Lady Harriet--was not with th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98  
99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

hunting

 

Plunkett

 

window

 
farmhands
 
rushed
 

wheels

 
runaways
 

Lionel

 

carriage

 

treatment


defrauded
 

mounted

 

altogether

 

horses

 

dropping

 
hunted
 

success

 

farmer

 

fainting

 
defeat

Shameful

 
unhappy
 

palace

 

moment

 

whirled

 

bespangled

 

happen

 
Nevertheless
 

extraordinary

 

costume


accompanied

 

Martha

 

chorus

 

Harriet

 

rousing

 

singing

 

friends

 

enjoying

 

moodiness

 

arouse


drinking

 

forest

 

fellow

 

sitting

 

farmers

 

distance

 
pleased
 

longer

 

remarked

 

meantime