" I made her take all the milk, but shared the
bread and cheese. Troy went on falling steadily meanwhile, and when we had
finished our scanty nuncheon I once more led the way, and we passed out
into the little yard behind the schoolhouse, and gained the playground,
the outer boundary of which was the town wall, here some twelve feet high
and in a fair state of preservation. Many generations of schoolboys had
cut and worn a series of big notches on each side of the wall, and by long
practice I could run up and down in a trice to fetch ball or tipcat which
had been knocked over.
From the bridge at the Hanyards onwards, Mistress Waynflete had always
acted promptly and exactly to my wish. I felt a boor, and was in truth a
boor, in comparison with her. Brocton's 'yokel blood' gibe had put murder
into my blows, but it had truth enough in it to make it rankle like a
poisoned arrow. Yet here was this wonder-woman, trustful as a child and
meeker than a milkmaid. My work was new, but at any rate I had sometimes
dreamed that I could do a man's work when I got my chance, and I had limbs
of leather and steel to do it with.
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