Page:Gaskell - North and South, vol. II, 1855.djvu/295

 trunk of the venerable beech, among whose roots they had sate down was there no more; the old man, the inhabitant of the ruinous cottage, was dead; the cottage had been pulled down, and a new one, tidy and respectable, had been built in its stead. There was a small garden 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 that make such a mystery of time to the young, afterwards we lose the sense of the mysterious. I take changes in all I see as a matter of course. The instability of all human things is familiar to me, to you it is new and oppressive."

"Let us go on to see little Susan," said Margaret, drawing her companion up 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 her goodbye; and it has been on my conscience ever since, that I gave her pain which a little more exertion on my part might have prevented. But it 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 no views that can give one an excuse for stopping to take breath. You would think it romantic to be walking with a person 'fat