In response to a rap on the
door, a gruff, thick voice said, "Come in."
Leonard, with a heavy basket on his arm, entered, followed closely by
Amy, who, in her surprise, looked with undisguised wonder at the scene
before her. Never had she even imagined such a home. Indeed, it seemed
like profanation of the word to call the bare, uncleanly room by that
sweetest of English words. It contained not a home-like feature. Her eyes
were not resting on decent poverty, but upon uncouth, repulsive want; and
this awful impoverishment was not seen in the few articles of cheap,
dilapidated furniture so clearly as in the dull, sodden faces of the man
and woman who kennelled there. No trace of manhood or womanhood was
visible--and no animal is so repulsive as a man or woman imbruted.
The man rose unsteadily to his feet and said: "Evenin', Mr. Clifford.
Will yer take a cheer?"
The woman had not the grace or the power to acknowledge their presence,
but after staring stolidly for a moment or two at her visitors through
her dishevelled hair, turned and cowered over the hearth again, her
elfish locks falling forward and hiding her face.
The wretched smoky fire they maintained was the final triumph and
revelation of their utter shiftlessness. With square miles of woodland
all about them, they had prepared no billets of suitable size. The man
had merely cut down two small trees, lopped off their branches, and
dragged them into the room.
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