Between Snow and Fire — page 103: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CHAPTER XVI. ‘A MADNESS OF FAREWELLS,” ONE afternoon Eanswyth managed to steal away for a solitary ramble unperceived. In the joy of having actually | succeeded, she had wandered some little distance from the settlement. She felt not the slightest fear. No Kafirs would be in the least likely to molest her so near a strongly garrisoned post, even if the tribes in the immediate neigh- bourhood had been in a state of open hostility, which was not at present the case. As for solitude, it was not com- plete enough, for the country was open and sweeping and there were always horsemen in sight, coming and going in the distance, along the main road. Half unconsciously she walked in the direction of her deserted home. It was a lovely, cloudless afternoon and the sun was already beginning to slant towards his western bed, darting long rays of gleaming gold upon the wide, rolling plains, throwing out with photographic clearness the blue outlines of the distant hills. Crickets chirruped glee- fully in the grass, and away down in the hollow a pair of blue cranes were stalking mincingly along, uttering their metallic, but not unmelodious, cry. Suddenly the clink of a horse’s hoof smote upon her ear. It was advancing along the roadway in front. A flush of vexation spread over her face. It might be somebody she knew—and who would insist upon accompanying her back on the score of the disturbed state of the country, if not upon that of politeness. She had not stolen away, to rejoice like a schoolgirl in her sense of freedom, for that. It was very annoying. The horseman topped the rise. She gave a little cry, and stood rooted to the ground as though her limbs were turned to stone. Could it be ? Yes—it was ! In a moment he had sprung to the ground beside her. She could not move now if she had desired to, for she was cComicbooks.co =