Page:Alice Lauder.pdf/177

Mrs. Granby had said that Lizzie was standing on a precipice—but what of that? No one in society ever takes any notice of such a trifle; if you were to say to one of your fellow-creatures, “Take care!” you would be considered mad, if not mischief-making. Perhaps religion teaches us otherwise, and one can’t help thinking about the good Samaritan sometimes; but after all we don’t know all the circumstances. Most likely it was the traveller’s own fault that he fell among thieves; he had no business to go by that road. As to taking him to an inn, you might be robbed and murdered yourself, or catch a fever, or something dreadful. There are always the police to call to, and, if not, then one can send a ticket to the Charity Organization Society. These reflections were lulled to a pleasant dimness by the drowsy hum of the afternoon; half awake and half asleep they slipped through the long serpentine valley, lying uncoiled in the summery blaze; past little white wooden-walled towns set down in the grassy, treeless plain; past churches and farms and countryhouses, each islanded in its own dark circle of trees from the surrounding ocean of verdure; past orchards rolling in blossom, which in a few months would be raining apples and peaches on the long grass; past sleek hayfields