Over yonder lay the
forge, where, as a baby of four, she had watched the great horses being
shod, and the sparks flying from their feet; and further on were the
fields and the bit of wood where she had roamed alone, up to her eyes in
the tall flag leaves and mistaking the yellow lilies for butterflies of
a larger growth. She did not remember all that now, but some pleasant
consciousness of a former free happy existence in the midst of this
fresh peaceful landscape came across her mind at moments, like gales of
hawthorn-scented air. Mrs. Enderby's mild lectures, Phyllis's contempt,
Miss Davis's shocked propriety, even Nell's easily snubbed efforts to
stand her friend, all vanished out of her memory as she went skimming
along the grass like a swallow, thrilling in all her young nerves with
the freshness and wildness of the breeze of heaven, and the vigour and
buoyancy of the life within her veins.
Five miles into the open country went Hetty, by a road she had never
seen before. She knew not, nor did she think at all of where she was
going; she only had a delightful sense of exploring new worlds.
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