But the next day when the bailiff and some other
men appeared with the murderer, a new feeling took possession of
me, a feeling of which I could not have imagined myself capable--
an overpowering compassion. A young good-looking lad, well grown,
slightly built, rather small than otherwise, with dark not very
thick hair, with appealing eyes which were now downcast, with a
clear voice, and about his whole personality a certain charm,
almost refinement; a creature to associate with life, not death,
with gladness, with gaiety. I was more sorry for him than I can
say. The bailiff and the other people spoke kindly to him too, so
they must have felt the same. Only the peppery little clerk came
out with some hard words, but the accused stood cap in hand and
made no answer.
He paced up and down the yard in his shirt sleeves--the day was
very warm--with a flat cloth cap over his close-cut hair, and his
hands in his trousers pockets, or toying restlessly with a piece
of straw. The parsonage dog had found companions, and the youth
followed the dog's frolic with his eyes, and gazed at the chickens
and at us children as though he longed to be one of us.
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