Library / Literature & Fiction
The Trumpet-Major
by Thomas Hardy
- Pages
- about 411
- Category
- Literature & Fiction
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7.5 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
In the days of high-waisted and muslin-gowned women, when the vast amount
of soldiering going on in the country was a cause of much trembling to
the sex, there lived in a village near the Wessex coast two ladies of
good report, though unfortunately of limited means. The elder was a Mrs.
Martha Garland, a landscape-painter's widow, and the other was her only
daughter Anne.
Anne was fair, very fair, in a poetical sense; but in complexion she was
of that particular tint between blonde and brunette which is
inconveniently left without a name. Her eyes were honest and inquiring,
her mouth cleanly cut and yet not classical, the middle point of her
upper lip scarcely descending so far as it should have done by rights, so
that at the merest pleasant thought, not to mention a smile, portions of
two or three white teeth were uncovered whether she would or not. Some
people said that this was very attractive. She was graceful and slender,
and, though but little above five feet in height, could draw herself up
to look tall. In her manner, in her comings and goings, in her 'I'll do
this,' or 'I'll do that,' she combined dignity with sweetness as no other
girl could do; and any impressionable stranger youths who passed by were
led to yearn for a windfall of speech from her, and to see at the same
time that they would not get it. In short, beneath all that was charming
and simple in this young woman there lurked a real firmness, unperceived
at first, as the speck of colour lurks unperceived in the heart of the
palest parsley flower.
She wore a white handkerchief to cover her white neck, and a cap on her
head with a pink ribbon round it, tied in a bow at the front.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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