Margaret bent over her book, and seeing nothing but that--hearing

the buzz of children's voices, old times rose up, and she thought

of them, and her eyes filled with tears, till all at once there

was a pause--one of the girls was stumbling over the apparently

simple word 'a,' uncertain what to call it.

'A, an indefinite article,' said Margaret, mildly.

'I beg your pardon,' said the Vicar's wife, all eyes and ears;

'but we are taught by Mr. Milsome to call "a" an--who can

remember?' 'An adjective absolute,' said half-a-dozen voices at once. And

Margaret sate abashed. The children knew more than she did. Mr.

Bell turned away, and smiled.

Margaret spoke no more during the lesson. But after it was over,

she went quietly round to one or two old favourites, and talked

to them a little. They were growing out of children into great

girls; passing out of her recollection in their rapid

development, as she, by her three years' absence, was vanishing

from theirs. Still she was glad to have seen them all again,

though a tinge of sadness mixed itself with her pleasure. When

school was over for the day, it was yet early in the summer

afternoon; and Mrs. Hepworth proposed to Margaret that she and

Mr. Bell should accompany her to the parsonage, and see the--the

word 'improvements' had half slipped out of her mouth, but she

substituted the more cautious term 'alterations' which the

present Vicar was making. Margaret did not care a straw about

seeing the alterations, which jarred upon her fond recollection

of what her home had been; but she longed to see the old place

once more, even though she shivered away from the pain which she

knew she should feel.

The parsonage was so altered, both inside and out, that the real

pain was less than she had anticipated. It was not like the same

place. The garden, the grass-plat, formerly so daintily trim that

even a stray rose-leaf seemed like a fleck on its exquisite

arrangement and propriety, was strewed with children's things; a

bag of marbles here, a hoop there; a straw-hat forced down upon a

rose-tree as on a peg, to the destruction of a long beautiful

tender branch laden with flowers, which in former days would have

been trained up tenderly, as if beloved. The little square matted

hall was equally filled with signs of merry healthy rough

childhood.

'Ah!' said Mrs. Hepworth, 'you must excuse this untidiness, Miss

Hale. When the nursery is finished, I shall insist upon a little

order. We are building a nursery out of your room, I believe. How

did you manage, Miss Hale, without a nursery?' 'We were but two,' said Margaret. 'You have many children, I

presume?' 'Seven. Look here! we are throwing out a window to the road on

this side. Mr. Hepworth is spending an immense deal of money on

this house; but really it was scarcely habitable when we

came--for so large a family as ours I mean, of course.' Every

room in the house was changed, besides the one of which Mrs.

Hepworth spoke, which had been Mr. Hale's study formerly; and

where the green gloom and delicious quiet of the place had

conduced, as he had said, to a habit of meditation, but, perhaps,

in some degree to the formation of a character more fitted for

thought than action. The new window gave a view of the road, and

had many advantages, as Mrs. Hepworth pointed out. From it the

wandering sheep of her husband's flock might be seen, who

straggled to the tempting beer-house, unobserved as they might

hope, but not unobserved in reality; for the active Vicar kept

his eye on the road, even during the composition of his most

orthodox sermons, and had a hat and stick hanging ready at hand

to seize, before sallying out after his parishioners, who had

need of quick legs if they could take refuge in the 'Jolly

Forester' before the teetotal Vicar had arrested them. The whole

family were quick, brisk, loud-talking, kind-hearted, and not

troubled with much delicacy of perception. Margaret feared that

Mrs. Hepworth would find out that Mr. Bell was playing upon her,

in the admiration he thought fit to express for everything that

especially grated on his taste. But no! she took it all

literally, and with such good faith, that Margaret could not help

remonstrating with him as they walked slowly away from the

parsonage back to their inn.




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