e 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 Jan Vertonghen Jersey daintily Steven Gerrard Jersey 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 Ryan Mason Jersey 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 Xabier Etxeita Jersey 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 Andros Townsend Jersey did you Daniel Cleary Jersey 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, Fulham Drakter 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 |
