Excerpt from Sarah De Berenger, Vol. 1 of 3 The curate glanced rather helplessly into that shadowy lane. He wished he was a good way down it. There was something trenchant, capable, and rather defiant about the words and fashions of the cottager's wife. The curate was afraid of her. Young curates often are afraid, and blush under the eyes of such women. We do not half enough consider their difficulties and their fears, especially that fear of making themselves ridiculous, which, perhaps, under the circumstances, this particular young curate felt just then with all the reason in the world. However, he made up his mind to do his duty. To that end he said, Considering how weak she was when I saw her yester day, poor thing, and how very young her infant is (eleven days old come nine o'clock this evening, Mrs. Snep put in as a parenthesis), I think her getting as far as the town to-day, he went on, must be quite impossible. Mrs. Snep, as he spoke, moved towards the fire. You'll excuse me, sir meaning, You'll please to get up. Oh, certainly, he exclaimed, rising, for the place was so small that unless he made way she could not pass; and she took a large iron pot of boiling water from the fire and emptied it over her cooling suds, before she addressed herself to the task of making him any direct answer. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.