|
|
|
They talked desultorily. The wind blew loudly outside, rain chattered on the windowpanes, making a sharp, drum-sound, because of the closed, mellow-golden shutters inside .... Bertie put on an old overcoat and took a lantern. He went out from the side door. He shrank from the wet and roaring night. Such weather had a nervous effect on him; too much moisture everywhere made him feel almost imbicile. Unwilling, he went through it all. A dog barked violently at him. He peered in all the buildings. At last, he opened the upper door of a sort of intermediate barn, he heard a grinding noise, and looking in, holding up his lantern, saw Maurice, in his shirtsleeves, standing listening, holding the handle of a turnip-pulper. He had been pulping sweet roots, a pile of which lay dimly heaped in a corner behind him.
D.H. Lawrence, 'The Blind Man,' from England, My England, Penguin, 1966, p. 71.
TIME: early 20th C.
PLACE: a farm in England
CIRCUMSTANCE: Bertie searches for the blind Maurice
Miss Stokes put a light pressure on Joe's waist, and drew him down the road. They walked in silence. The night was full of scent wild cherry, the first bluebells. Still they walked in silence. A nightingale was singing. Still they walked in silence. They approached nearer and nearer, till they stood close by his dark bush. The powerful notes sounded from the cover, almost like flashes of light - then the interval of silence - then the moaning notes, almost like a dog faintly howling, followed by the long, rich trill, and flashing notes. Then a short silence again.
D.H. Lawrence, 'Monkey Nuts,' from England, My England, Penguin, 1966, p. 84.
TIME: early 20th C.
PLACE: farmland in England
CIRCUMSTANCE: a young woman and a soldier stroll in the evening
home
