Look at the
difference between the walk of a gentleman who has always worn
well fitting boots and that of a countryman who has gone about in
thick iron shod boots all his life. Breeding goes for something,
no doubt, and alters a man's walk just as it alters a horse's gait."
Bathurst could not help laughing at the Doctor dropping into his
usual style of discussing things.
"Are your feet feeling tender, Isobel?" the latter asked cheerfully,
as he overtook those in front.
"No, Doctor," she said, with a smile; "I don't know that I was ever
thankful for dust before, but I am now; it is so soft that it is
like walking on a carpet, but, of course, it feels very strange."
"You have only to fancy, my dear, that you are by the seaside,
walking down from your bathing machine across the sands; once get
that in your mind and you will get perfectly comfortable."
"It requires too great a stretch of the imagination, Doctor, to
think for a moment, in this sweltering heat, that I am enjoying a
sea breeze on our English coast. It is silly, of course, to give
it even a thought, when one is accustomed to see almost every woman
without shoes. I think I should mind it more than I do if my feet
were not stained. I don't know why, but I should. But please don't
talk about it. I try to forget it, and to fancy that I am really
a native."
They met but few people on the road. Those they did meet passed
them with the usual salutation. There was nothing strange in a
party of peasants passing along the road.
Pages:
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500