eing made squeamish by doubts and qualms and lofty
aspirations. Life was not a task to him, but a sinecure. He fingered the
guineas in his pocket, and ate his dinners, and slept the sleep of the
irresponsible, for had he not kept up his character by going to church
on the Sunday afternoons?

Fine old Leisure! Do not be severe upon him, and judge him by our modern
standard. He never went to Exeter Hall, or heard a popular preacher, or
read Tracts for the Times or Sartor Resartus.

Chapter LIII

The Harvest Supper

As Adam was going homeward, on Wednesday evening, in the six o'clock
sunlight, he saw in the distance the last load of barley winding its way
towards the yard-gate of the Hall Farm, and heard the chant of "Harvest
Home!" rising and sinking like a wave. Fainter and fainter, and more
musical through the growing distance, the falling dying sound still
reached him, as he neared the Willow Brook. The low westering sun shone
right on the shoulders of the old Binton Hills, turning the unconscious
sheep into bright spots of light; shone on the windows of the cottage
too, and made them a-flame with a glory beyond that of amber or
amethyst. It was enough to make Adam feel that he was in a great temple,
and that the distant chant was a sacred song.

"It's wonderful," he thought, "how that sound goes to one's heart almost
like a funeral bell, for all it tells one o' the joyfullest time o' the
year, and the time when men are mostly the thankfullest. I suppose it's
a bit hard to us to think anything's over and gone in our lives; and
there's a parting at the root of all our joys. It's like what I feel
about Dinah. I should never ha' come to know that her love 'ud be the
greatest o' blessings to me, if what I counted a blessing hadn't been
wrenched and torn away from me, and left me with a greater need, so as I
could crave and hunger for a greater and a better comfort."

He expected to see Dinah again this evening, and get leave to accompany
her as far as Oakbourne; and then he would ask her to fix some time when
he might go to Snowfield, and learn whether the last best hope that had
been born to him must be resigned like the rest. The work he had to do
at home, besides putting on his best clothes, made it seven before he
was on his way again to the Hall Farm, and it was questionable whether,
with his longest and quickest strides, he should be there in time even
for the roast beef, which came after the plum pudding