Violet Jacob > Irresolute Catherine

BETHESDA
11
by reason of his gauntness and his thin
beard. He had sole charge of the flock on
a fair-sized sheep farm, and was counted by
his employer a responsible, if inconveniently
independent, fellow. He was a convinced
chapel-goer, rather bigoted and with qualities
which made certain wildnesses in him doubly
marked by contrast.
He looked wild enough this afternoon,
with his battered, wide-brimmed hat and
the arm which swung the rope-end showing
sharply against the sky. He was a figure
which by no stretch of imagination could
be supposed to belong to the valley lying
below his feet, rich, chequered, and green ;
its soft luxuriance pertained to another
world from that which had given birth to
this crude son of action.
The afternoon was wearing on and he
was anxious to get the crowd in front of
him to its destination in a pen farther along
the plateau; when the sheep were off*
his hands there would be other matters