Chapter V

The Cry in the Corridor

At first each day which passed by for Mary Lennox
was exactly like the others. Every
morning she awoke in her tapestried room and
found Martha kneeling upon the hearth building
her fire; every morning she ate her breakfast in
the nursery which had nothing amusing in it; and
after each breakfast she gazed out of the window
across to the huge moor which seemed to spread
out on all sides and climb up to the sky, and after
she had stared for a while she realized that if she
did not go out she would have to stay in and do
nothing -- and so she went out. She did not know
that this was the best thing she could have done,
and she did not know that, when she began to
walk quickly or even run along the paths and down
the avenue, she was stirring her slow blood and
making herself stronger by fighting with the wind
which swept down from the moor. She ran only
to make herself warm, and she hated the wind
which rushed at her face and roared and held her
back as if it were some giant she could not see.

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v?