CHAPTER XVI--CAT LANGUAGE
Soon as she parted thence--the fearful twayne,
That blind old woman and her daughter deare,
Came forth, and finding Kirkrapine there slayne,
For anguish greate they gan to rend their heare
And beate their breasts, and naked flesh to teare;
And when they both had wept and wayled their fill,
Then forth they ran, like two amazed deere,
Half mad through malice and revenging will,
To follow her that was the causer of their ill.'
SPENSER.
The Christmas vacation was not without another breeze about
Griffith's expenses at Oxford. He held his head high, and declared
that people expected something from the eldest son of a man of
property, and my father tried to convince him that a landed estate
often left less cash available than did the fixed salary of an
office. Griff treated all in his light, good-humoured way, promised
to be careful, and came to me to commiserate the poor old
gentleman's ignorance of the ways of the new generation.
There ensued some trying weeks of dark days, raw frost, and black
east wind, when the home party cast longing, lingering recollections
back to the social intercourse, lamp-lit streets, and ready
interchange of books and other amenities we had left behind us. We
were not accustomed to have our nearest neighbours separated from us
by two miles of dirty lane, or road mended with excruciating stones,
nor were they very congenial when we did see them.
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