Page:Gaskell - North and South, vol. II, 1855.djvu/296

 and scant o' breath' if I were Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Have compassion on my infirmities for his sake."

"I will walk slower for your own sake. I like you twenty times better than Hamlet."

"On the principle that a living ass is better than a dead lion?"

"Perhaps so. "I don't analyse my feelings."

"I am content to take your liking me, without examining too curiously into the materials it is made of. Only we need not walk at a snail's pace."

"Very well. Walk at your own pace, and I will follow. Or stop still and meditate, like the Hamlet you compare yourself to, if I go too fast."

Thank you. But as my mother has not murdered my father, and afterwards married my uncle, I shouldn't know what to think about, unless it were balancing the chances of our having a well-cooked dinner or not. What do you think?"

"I am in good hopes. She used to be considered a famous cook as far as Helstone opinion went."

"But have you considered the distraction of mind produced by all this haymaking?"

Margaret felt all Mr. Bell's kindness in trying to make cheerful talk about nothing, to endeavour to prevent her from thinking too curiously about the past. But she would rather have gone over these dear-loved walks in silence, if indeed she were not ungrateful enough to wish that she might have been alone.

They reached the cottage where Susan's widowed mother lived. Susan was not there. She was gone to the parochial school. Margaret was disappointed,