Читать книгу Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man - Siegfried Sassoon - Страница 24

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From over the fields and orchards Butley Church struck five in mellow tones. Then the clock indoors whizzed and confirmed it with a less resonant tongue. The Flower Show Match was hours away yet—more than six hours in fact. Suppose I’d better go back to bed again, I thought, or I’ll be feeling tired out before the match begins. Soon the maids would be stirring overhead, padding about the floor and talking in muffled voices. Meanwhile I stole down to the pantry to cut myself a piece of cake. What a stuffy, smelling place it was, with the taps dripping into the sink and a bluebottle fly buzzing sleepily on the ceiling. I inspected the village grocer’s calendar which was hanging from a nail. On it there was a picture of ‘The Relief of Ladysmith’ ... Old Kruger and the Boers. I never could make up my mind what it was all about, that Boer War, and it seemed such a long way off.... Yawning and munching I went creaking up to my room. It was broad daylight out of doors, but I was soon asleep again.