Explore "The Pedestrian. an Incident of 1883" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"SIR, will you let me give you a ride? / _Nox Venit_, and the heath is wide. " / -My phaeton-lantern shone on one / Young, fair, even fresh, / But burdened with flesh: / A leathern satchel at his side, / His breathings short, his coat undone.
'Twas as if his corpulent figure slopped / With the shake of his walking when he stopped, / And, though the night's pinch grew acute, / He wore but a thin / Wind-thridded suit, / Yet well-shaped shoes for walking in, / Artistic beaver, cane gold-topped.