Page 76 (1/1)
Hetty was quite certain her uncle wanted her to encourage Adam, and would be pleased for her to id demarcation of rank between the farmer and the respectable artisan, and on the hoht be seen taking their jug of ale together; the farht in parish affairs, which sustained him under his conspicuous inferiority in conversation Martin Poyser was not a frequenter of public houses, but he liked a friendly chat over his own hoh it was pleasant to lay down the law to a stupid neighbour who had no notion how to reeable variety to learn soly, for the last three years--ever since he had superintended the building of the new barn--Adam had always been , when the whole family, in patriarchal fashion, master and lorious kitchen, at well-graduated distances fro fire And for the last two years, at least, Hetty had been in the habit of hearing her uncle say, "Adae now, but he'll be a master-e is in the right on't to want hihter, if it's true what they say; the woood take, be't Lady day or Michaelmas," a remark which Mrs Poyser always followed up with her cordial assent "Ah," she would say, "it's all very fine having a ready-made rich man, butyour pocket full o' ood to sit in a spring-cart o' your own, if you've got a soft to drive you: he'll soon turn you over into the ditch I allays said I'd never ot no brains; for where's the use of a woeck as everybody's a-laughing at? She ht as well dress herself fine to sit back'ards on a donkey"
These expressions, though figurative, sufficiently indicated the bent of Mrs Poyser's ht have viewed the subject differently if Hetty had been a daughter of their own, it was clear that they would have welcomed the match with Adam for a penniless niece For what could Hetty have been but a servant elsewhere, if her uncle had not taken her in and brought her up as a domestic help to her aunt, whose health since the birth of Totty had not been equal to more positive labour than the superintendence of servants and children? But Hetty had never given Adaehly conscious of his superiority to her other ad hi, skilful, keen-eyed nant if he had shown the least sign of slipping fro hirateful enough for the e, indeed! Such a sallow-faced girl: if she put on a bit of pink ribbon, she looked as yellow as a croer and her hair was as straight as a hank of cotton" And alhen Adam stayed away for several weeks from the Hall Farm, and otherwise made some show of resistance to his passion as a foolish one, Hetty took care to entice him back into the net by little airs of lect But as toAda in the world to terew a shade deeper when his na along the causeway by the , or advancing towards her unexpectedly in the footpath across the , when his eyes rested on her, but the cold triu that he loved her and would not care to look at Mary Burge He could no more stir in her the e love than thesap in the subtle fibres of the plant She saw him as he was--a poor man with old parents to keep, ould not be able, for a long while to coive her even such luxuries as she shared in her uncle's house And Hetty's dreams were all of luxuries: to sit in a carpeted parlour, and alhite stockings; to have sos, such as were all the fashion; to have Nottingha to make her handkerchief smell nice, like Miss Lydia Donnithorne's when she drew it out at church; and not to be obliged to get up early or be scolded by anybody She thought, if Adas, she loved hih to marry him