Read Under the Greenwood Tree; Or, The Mellstock Quire Page 11

  PART THE SECOND--SPRING

  CHAPTER I: PASSING BY THE SCHOOL

  It followed that, as the spring advanced, Dick walked abroad much morefrequently than had hitherto been usual with him, and was continuallyfinding that his nearest way to or from home lay by the road whichskirted the garden of the school. The first-fruits of his perseverancewere that, on turning the angle on the nineteenth journey by that track,he saw Miss Fancy's figure, clothed in a dark-gray dress, looking from ahigh open window upon the crown of his hat. The friendly greetingresulting from this rencounter was considered so valuable an elixir thatDick passed still oftener; and by the time he had almost trodden a littlepath under the fence where never a path was before, he was rewarded withan actual meeting face to face on the open road before her gate. Thisbrought another meeting, and another, Fancy faintly showing by herbearing that it was a pleasure to her of some kind to see him there; butthe sort of pleasure she derived, whether exultation at the hope herexceeding fairness inspired, or the true feeling which was alone Dick'sconcern, he could not anyhow decide, although he meditated on her everylittle movement for hours after it was made.