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 theleāves.

\"aye!\" said mrs. purkis, smoothing down the bed, and despatchingjenny for an armful of lāvender-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 hāve 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 hāve 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 fits 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 e back to you before long.

mr. bell had strawberries and cream, a loaf of brown bread, and a jug of

milk, (together with a stilton cheese and a bottle of port for his ownprivate refreshment,) ready for margaret on her ing 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 e 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 panionup a grassy road-way, leading under the shadow of a forest glade.

\"with all my heart, though i hāve not an idea who little susan may be.

but i hāve 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 gāve herpain which a little more exertion on my part might hāve 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. hāve passion on myinfirmities for his sake.\"

\"i will walk slower for your own sake. i like you twenty times betterthan hamlet.\"