212
PARTISAN REVIEW
a gig, a light gig with big wheels, exactly right for our country roads;
muffled in furs, my bag of instruments in my hand, I was in the court–
yard all ready for the journey; but there was no horse to be had, no
horse. My own horse had died in the night, worn out by the fatigues
of this icy winter; my servant girl was now running round the village
trying to borrow a horse; but it was hopeless, I knew it, and I stood
there forlornly, with the snow gathering more and more thickly upon
me, more and more unable to move. In the gateway the girl appeared,
alone, and waved the lantern; of course, who would lend a horse at this
time for such a journey? I strode through the courtyard once more; I
could see no way out;
in
my confused distress I kicked at the dilapi–
dated door of the yearlong uninhabited pigsty. It flew open and
flapped to and fro on its hinges. A steam and smell as of horses came
out from it. A dim stable lantern was swinging inside from a rope. A
man, crouching on his hams in that low space, showed an open blue–
eyed face. "Shall I yoke up?" he asked, crawling out on all fours . I did
not know what to say and merely stooped down to see what else was
in the sty. The servant girl was standing beside me. "You never know
what you're going to find in your own house," she said, and we both
laughed. "Hey there, Brother, hey there, Sister!" called the groom,
and two horses, enormous creatures with powerful flanks, one after
the other, their legs tucked close to their bodies, each well-shaped
head lowered like a camel's, by sheer strength of buttocking squeezed
out through the door hole which they filled entirely. But at once they
were standing up, their legs long and their bodies steaming thickly.
"Give him a hand," I said, and the willing girl hurried to help the
groom with the harnessing. Yet hardly was she beside him when the
groom clipped hold of her and pushed his face against hers. She
screamed and fled back to me; on her cheek stood out in red the
marks of two rows of teeth. "You brute," I yelled in fury, "do you
want a whipping?" but in the same moment reflected that the man
was a stranger; that I did not know where he came from, and that of
his own free will he was helping me out when everyone else had
failed me. As if he knew my thoughts he took no offense at my threat
but, still busied with the horses, only turned round once towards me.
"Get in," he said then, and indeed: everything was ready. A magnifi–
cent pair of horses, I observed, such as I had never sat behind, and I
climbed in happily. "But I'll drive, you don't know the way," I said.
"Of course," said he, "I'm not corning with you anyway, I'm staying
with Rose." "No," shrieked Rose, fleeing into the house with a jus–
tified presentiment that her fate was inescapable; I heard the door
chain rattle as he put it up; I heard the key turn in the lock; I could
see, moreover, how she put out the lights in the entrance hall and in
further flight all through the rooms to keep herself from being dis–
covered. "You're coming with me," I said to the groom, "or I won't
