The Hermit and the Wild Woman, and Other Stories

by Edith Wharton

THE HERMIT AND THE WILD WOMAN
AND OTHER STORIES

BY

EDITH WHARTON

NEW YORK
MCMVIII

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I [The Hermit and the Wild Woman]
II [The Last Asset]
III [In Trust]
IV [The Pretext]
V [The Verdict]
VI [The Pot-Boiler]
VII [The Best Man]

THE HERMIT AND THE WILD WOMAN

I

THE Hermit lived in a cave in the hollow of a hill. Below him was a glen, with a stream in a coppice of oaks and alders, and on the farther side of the valley, half a day's journey distant, another hill, steep and bristling, which raised aloft a little walled town with Ghibelline swallow-tails notched against the sky.