#elsbeth barker

[the-hearth-and-the-wild]

She recognized in herself a distaste for people, which was both physical and intellectual; and yet she nurtured a shameful, secret desire for popularity, or at least for acceptance, neither of which came her way.

Elspeth Barker, O Caledonia

[the-hearth-and-the-wild]

Of all the seasons this was the one Janet loved most. In the afternoons she would ride up through the forest onto the lonely moors; she felt then, looking into the unending distance of hills ranged beyond hills, that if only she had the courage to go on, she, like True Thomas, might reach a fairyland, another element, the place of the ballads, of "La Belle Dame Sans Merci".

Elsbeth Barker, O Caledonia

[the-hearth-and-the-wild]

She would live out her days at Auchnasaugh, a bookish spinster attended by cats and parrots, until that time when she might become ethereal, pure spirit untainted by the woes of flesh, a phantom drifting with the winds. What fun she would have as a ghost. She could hardly wait.

Elspeth Barker, O Caledonia