Page:Gaskell - North and South, vol. II, 1855.djvu/292

 then she went up to Margaret, and shook her hands with motherly fondness.

"And how are you all? How's the Vicar and Miss Dixon? The Vicar above all! God bless him! We've never ceased to be sorry that he left."

Margaret tried to speak and tell her of her father's death; of her mother's it was evident that Mrs. Purkis was aware, from her omission of her name. But she choked in the effort, and could only touch her deep mourning, and say the one word, "Papa."

"Surely, sir, it's never so!" said Mrs. Purkis, turning to Mr. Bell for confirmation of the sad suspicion that now entered her mind. "There was a gentleman here in the spring—it might have been as long ago as last winter—who told us a deal of Mr. Hale and Miss Margaret; and he said Mrs. Hale was gone, poor lady. But never a word of the Vicar's being ailing!"

"It is so, however," said Mr. Bell. "He died quite suddenly, when on a visit to me at Oxford. He was a good man, Mrs. Purkis, and there's many of us that might be thankful to have as calm an end as his. Come Margaret, my dear! Her father was my oldest friend, and she 's my god-daughter, so I thought we would just come down together and see the old place; and I know of old you can give us comfortable rooms and a capital dinner. You don't remember me I see, but my name is Bell, and once or twice when the parsonage has been full, I've slept here, and tasted your good ale."

"To be sure; I ask your pardon; but you see I was taken up with Miss Hale. Let me show you