One day, after Dolly had been a fortnight at Upcombe, the Compsons
gave a picnic in the wild Combe undercliff. 'Tis a broken wall of
chalk, tumbled picturesquely about in huge shattered masses, and
deliciously overgrown with ferns and blackthorn and golden clusters
of close-creeping rock-rose. Mazy paths thread tangled labyrinths of
fallen rock, or wind round tall clumps of holly-bush and bramble.
They lighted their fire under the lee of one such buttress of broken
cliff, whose summit was festooned with long sprays of clematis, or
"old man's beard," as the common west-country name expressively
phrases it. Thistledown hovered on the basking air. There they sat
and drank their tea, couched on beds of fern or propped firm against
the rock; and when tea was over, they wandered off, two and two,
ostensibly for nothing, but really for the true business of the
picnic--to afford the young men and maidens of the group some chance
of enjoying, unspied, one another's society.
Dolly and Walter Brydges strolled off by themselves toward the
rocky shore.
Pages:
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221