Page:Life of Thomas Hardy - Brennecke.pdf/32

 nor of the legend of tlie burnt griddle-cakes. You think of The Moth Signal on Egdon Heath:

In a case under a glass cover rests a bound manuscript, held open by rubber bands. The letters are inked with care. You read:

Darkness has fallen by the time you emerge into the cold air. You are stopping at the King's Arms Hotel. Its "spacious bow window" still "projects into the street over the main portico," just as it did when Donald Farfrae, the caroling Scotsman, inquired for "a respectable hotel more moderate than this."

You hurry to your room. You have ordered a fire to be lighted, and find your quarters swimming in smoke. You open the window. Both smoke and heat fly out. But that doesn't matter. You descend, dine, and join the crowd heading for the Corn Exchange. Hardy's "first real play" goes on the boards tonight. He has entrusted his Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall to the Hardy