ng me in the eyes--

'How much will you pay?'

I said, 'Bring the wine. Set it here. See me drink it. Charge me your
due.'

I found that this brutal way of speaking was just what was needed for
the kine and cattle of this pen. She skipped off to a cupboard, and
set wine before me, and a glass. I drank quite quietly till I had had
enough, and asked what there was to pay. She said 'Threepence,' and I
said 'Too much,' as I paid it. At this the ox-faced man grunted and
frowned, and I was afraid; but hiding my fear I walked out boldly and
slowly, and made a noise with my stick upon the floor of the hall
without. Neither did I bid them farewell. But I made a sign at the
house as I left it. Whether it suffered from this as did the house at
Dorchester which the man in the boat caused to wither in one night, is
more than I can tell.

The road led straight across the valley and approached the further
wall of hills. These I saw were pierced by one of the curious gaps
which are peculiar to limestone ranges. Water cuts them, and a torrent
ran through this one also. The road through it, gap though it was,
went up steeply, and the further valley was evidently higher than the
one I was leaving. It was already evening as I entered this narrow
ravine; the sun only caught the tops of the rock-walls. My fatigue was
very great, and my walking painful to an extreme, when, having come to
a place where the gorge was narrowest and where the two sides were
like the posts of a giant's stile, where also the fifth ridge of the
Jura stood up beyond me in the further valley, a vast shadow, I sat
down wearily and drew what not even my exhaustion could render
unremarkable.

While I was occupied sketching the slabs of limestone, I heard wheels
coming up behind me, and a boy in a waggon stopped and hailed me.

What the boy wanted to know was whether I would take a lift, and this
he said in such curious French that I shuddered to think how far I had
pierced into the heart of the hills, and how soon I might come to
quite strange people. I was greatly tempted to get into his cart, but
though I had broken so many of my vows one remained yet whole and
sound, which was that I would ride upon no wheeled thing. Remembering
this, therefore, and considering that the Faith is rich in
interpretation, I clung on to the waggon in such a manner that it did
all my work for me, and yet could not be said to be actually carrying
me. _Distinguo_. The essence of a vo