Between Snow and Fire — page 233: what you’re looking at

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

a = 7 oa - * P - a ¢ . — a | * a we. } rn , _- ‘ - ee im ee ae ee? r _ |. "3 - s =— ol) ae ee » ; .« 7” - ’ ; : - - . ; EUSTACE BECOMES UNPOPULAR. 225 q reasons for this were diverse. In the first place, in the then crowded state of the community, he could hardly ever ob- tain an opportunity of talking with Eanswyth alone ; which was not wholly without advantage in that it enabled the lat- ter to keep up her ré/e ; for if her former sorrowing and heart-wrung condition had now become the hollowest mock- ery, there was no reason why everybody should be informed thereof, but very much the reverse. He could not see her alone in the house, for it was always full of people, and when it was not, still, the walls were thin. He could not takeher for a ride outside the settlement, for 1n those early days the enemy was daring, and did not always keep at a respectful distance. It would not doto run any more risks. Im the next place, all the “ talking big,” and indeed the talking at all, that went on, morning, noon, and night, on the well-worn and threadbare topic was wearisome tohim. Thething had become, in fact, a bore of the first water. Butthe most dis- tasteful side of it all was the notoriety which he himself had, all involuntarily, attained. A man who had been reported slain, and then turned up safe and sound after having been held a prisoner for some weeks by the savage and ordinarily ruthless enemy they were then fighting, was sure to attract considerable attention throughout the frontier conimunity. Friends, neighbours, intJmates, people they had never seen or heard of before, would call on the Hostes all day and every day—literally in swarms, as the victim of these atten- tions put it—in order to see Eustace, and haply, to extract a “yarn” as to his late captivity. If he walked through the township some effusive individual was bound to rush at him with an “I say, Mister, ’scuse me, but we’re told you’re the man that was taken prisoner by old Kreli. Now, do us the favour to step round and have a drink. We don’t see a man who has escaped from them black devils every day.” And then, under pain of being regarded as churlish to a de- gree, he would find himself compelled to join a group of jovial, but under the circumstances excessively unwelcome, strangers, and proceed to the nearest bar to be cross ques- tioned within an inch of his life, and expected to put away sundry “splits” that he did not want. Or those in charge of operations, offensive and defensive, would make his ac- quaintance and ask him to dine, always with the object of eliciting useful information. But to these Eustace was very reticent and proved, in fact, a sore disappointment. He (e(oypaylicel exexoy <3