Page:My people stories of the peasantry of West Wales.djvu/251

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GREATER THAN LOVE


said: “Come you down to the brim now, and let us wash our little bodies.” The men bathed nakedly: the women had brought spare petticoats with them, and these they wore when they were in the water.

Esther changed her behaviour when she got to Morfa, and she feigned herself above all who had come from Manteg, and while she sat alone in the shadow of a cliff there came to her Hws Morris, a young man who was in training to be a minister. Mishtir Morris was elegant: his clothes were black and he had a white collar around his neck and white cuffs at the ends of his sleeves, and on his feet he had brown shoes of canvas.

Hws Morris took off from his head his black hat, which was of straw, and said to Esther:

“Sure now, come you from Squire Pryce’s household? You are his daughter indeed?”

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