The little casement window in Margaret"s bed-chamber was almostfilled up with rose and vine branches; but pushing them aside, andstretching a little out, she could see the tops of the parsonage chimneysabove the trees; and distinguish many a well-known line through theleaves.
"Aye!" said Mrs. Purkis, smoothing down the bed, and despatchingJenny for an armful of lavender-scented towels, "times is changed, miss;our new Vicar has seven children, and is building a nursery ready formore, just out where the arbour and tool-house used to be in old times.
And he has had new grates put in, and a plate-glass window in thedrawing-room. He and his wife are stirring people, and have done a dealof good; at least they say it"s doing good; if it were not, I should call itturning things upside down for very little purpose. The new Vicar is ateetotaller, miss, and a magistrate, and his wife has a deal of receipts foreconomical cooking, and is for making bread without yeast; and theyboth talk so much, and both at a time, that they knock one down as itwere, and it"s not till they"re gone, and one"s a little at peace, that onecan think that there were things one might have said on one"s own sideof the question. He"ll be after the men"s cans in the hay-field, andpeeping in; and then there"ll be an ado because it"s not ginger beer, but Ican"t help it. My mother and my grandmother before me sent good maltliquor to haymakers; and took salts and senna when anything ailedthem; and I must e"en go on in their ways, though Mrs. Hepworth doeswant to give me comfits instead of medicine, which, as she says, is adeal pleasanter, only I"ve no faith in it. But I must go, miss, though I"mwanting to hear many a thing; I"ll come back to you before long.
Mr. Bell had strawberries and cream, a loaf of brown bread, and a jug ofmilk, (together with a Stilton cheese and a bottle of port for his ownprivate refreshment,) ready for Margaret on her coming down stairs;and after this rustic luncheon they set out to walk, hardly knowing inwhat direction to turn, so many old familiar inducements were there ineach.
"Shall we go past the vicarage?" asked Mr. Bell.
"No, not yet. We will go this way, and make a round so as to come backby it," replied Margaret.
Here and there old trees had been felled the autumn before; or asquatter"s roughly-built and decaying cottage had disappeared. Margaretmissed them each and all, and grieved over them like old friends. Theycame past the spot where she and Mr. Lennox had sketched. The white,lightning-scarred trunk of the venerable beech, among whose roots theyhad sate down was there no more; the old man, the inhabitant of theruinous cottage, was dead; the cottage had been pulled down, and a newone, tidy and respectable, had been built in its stead. There was a smallgarden on the place where the beech-tree had been.
"I did not think I had been so old," said Margaret after a pause of silence;and she turned away sighing.
"Yes!" said Mr. Bell. "It is the first changes among familiar things thatmake such a mystery of time to the young, afterwards we lose the senseof the mysterious. I take changes in all I see as a matter of course. Theinstability of all human things is familiar to me, to you it is new andoppressive."
"Let us go on to see little Susan," said Margaret, drawing her companionup a grassy road-way, leading under the shadow of a forest glade.
"With all my heart, though I have not an idea who little Susan may be.
But I have a kindness for all Susans, for simple Susan"s sake."
"My little Susan was disappointed when I left without wishing hergoodbye; and it has been on my conscience ever since, that I gave herpain which a little more exertion on my part might have prevented. Butit is a long way. Are you sure you will not be tired?"
"Quite sure. That is, if you don"t walk so fast. You see, here there are noviews that can give one an excuse for stopping to take breath. Youwould think it romantic to be walking with a person "fat and scant o"
breath" if I were Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Have compassion on myinfirmities for his sake."
"I will walk slower for your own sake. I like you twenty times betterthan Hamlet."
"On the principle that a living ass is better than a dead lion?"
"Perhaps so. I don"t analyse my feelings."
"I am content to take your liking me, without examining too curiouslyinto the materials it is made of. Only we need not walk at a snail"s"
pace."
"Very well. Walk at your own pace, and I will follow. Or stop still andmeditate, like the Hamlet you compare yourself to, if I go too fast."
"Thank you. But as my mother has not murdered my father, andafterwards married my uncle, I shouldn"t know what to think about,unless it were balancing the chances of our having a well-cooked dinneror not. What do you think?"
"I am in good hopes. She used to be considered a famous cook as far asHelstone opinion went."
"But have you considered the distraction of mind produced by all thishaymaking?"
Margaret felt all Mr. Bell"s kindness in trying to make cheerful talkabout nothing, to endeavour to prevent her from thinking too curiouslyabout the past. But she would rather have gone over these dear-lovedwalks in silence, if indeed she were not ungrateful enough to wish thatshe might have been alone.
They reached the cottage where Susan"s widowed mother lived. Susanwas not there. She was gone to the parochial school. Margaret wasdisappointed, and the poor woman saw it, and began to make a kind ofapology.
"Oh! it is quite right," said Margaret. "I am very glad to hear it. I mighthave thought of it. Only she used to stop at home with you."
"Yes, she did; and I miss her sadly. I used to teach her what little I knewat nights. It were not much to be sure. But she were getting such ahandy girl, that I miss her sore. But she"s a deal above me in learningnow." And the mother sighed.
"I"m all wrong," growled Mr. Bell. "Don"t mind what I say. I"m a hundredyears behind the world. But I should say, that the child was getting abetter and simpler, and more natural education stopping at home, andhelping her mother, and learning to read a chapter in the NewTestament every night by her side, than from all the schooling under thesun."
Margaret did not want to encourage him to go on by replying to him,and so prolonging the discussion before the mother. So she turned toher and asked,"How is old Betty Barnes?"