For company's sake I hulloed to
Esm
, who had lagged somewhat behind. With a few springy
bounds he drew up level, and then shot past us.
``The wailing accompaniment was explained. The gipsy
child was firmly, and I expect painfully, held in his jaws.
`` `Merciful Heaven!' screamed Constance, `what on earth
shall we do? What are we to do?'
``I am perfectly certain that at the Last Judgment
Constance will ask more questions than any of the examining
Seraphs.
`` `Can't we do something?' she persisted tearfully, as
Esm cantered easily along in front of our tired horses.
``Personally I was doing everything that occurred to me at
the moment. I stormed and scolded and coaxed in English and
French and gamekeeper language; I made absurd, ineffectual
cuts in the air with my thongless hunting-crop; I hurled my
sandwich case at the brute; in fact, I really don't know
what more I could have done. And still we lumbered on
through the deepening dusk, with that dark uncouth shape
lumbering ahead of us, and a drone of lugubrious music
floating in our ears. Suddenly Esm bounded aside into
some thick bushes, where we could not follow; the wail rose
to a shriek and then stopped altogether.
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