THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE BY THOMAS HARDY(2)
BY THOMAS HARDY
What was really peculiar,however,in this couple‘s progress,and would have attracted the attention of any casual observer otherwise disposed to overlook them,was the perfect silence they preserved.They walked side by side in such a way as to suggest afar off the low ,easy,confidential chat of people full of reciprocity;but on closer view it could be discerned that the man was reading ,or pretending to read ,a ballad-sheet which he kept before his eyes with some difficulty by the hand that was passed through the basket-strap.Whether this apparent cause were the real cause ,or whether it were an assumed one to escape an intercourse that would have been irksome to him, nobody but himself could have said precisely;but his taciturnity was unbroken ,and the woman enjoyed no society whatever from his presence.Virtually she walked the higyway alone,save for the child she bore.Sometimes the man‘s bent elbow almost touched her shoulder,for she kept as close to his side as was possible without actual contact;but she seemed to have no idea of taking his arm,nor he of offering it , and far from exhibiting surprise at his ignoring silence she appeared to receive it as a natural thing.If any word at all were uttered by the little group it was an occasional whisper of the woman to the child -a tiny girl in short clothes and blue boots of knitted yarn-- and the murmured babble of the child in reply.
