Thomas Hardy
Life's Little Ironies
A set of tales with some colloquial sketches entitled A Few Crusted Characters
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664653178
Table of Contents
THE MELANCHOLY HUSSAR OF THE GERMAN LEGION
A TRADITION OF EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FOUR
ANDREY SATCHEL AND THE PARSON AND CLERK
OLD ANDREY’S EXPERIENCE AS A MUSICIAN
ABSENT-MINDEDNESS IN A PARISH CHOIR
INCIDENT IN THE LIFE OF MR. GEORGE CROOKHILL
THE SON’S VETO
CHAPTER I
To the eyes of a man viewing it from behind, the nut-brown hair was a wonder and a mystery. Under the black beaver hat, surmounted by its tuft of black feathers, the long locks, braided and twisted and coiled like the rushes of a basket, composed a rare, if somewhat barbaric, example of ingenious art. One could understand such weavings and coilings being wrought to last intact for a year, or even a calendar month; but that they should be all demolished regularly at bedtime, after a single day of permanence, seemed a reckless waste of successful fabrication.
And she had done it all herself, poor thing. She had no maid, and it was almost the only accomplishment she could boast of. Hence the unstinted pains.
She was a young invalid lady—not so very much of an invalid—sitting in a wheeled chair, which had been pulled up in the front part of a green enclosure, close to a bandstand, where a concert was going on, during a warm June afternoon. It had place in one of the minor parks or private gardens that are to be found in the suburbs of London, and was the effort of a local association to