He has taken a cottage about a
quarter of a mile up the dale; and only left his books here,
because he is going into --shire in a day or two, on some
business, that may be will take him a week or so. The books
are safer here you see for the present, for Stephen lives
alone, and is a good deal away, for he edits a paper at
Mowbray, and that must be looked after. He is to be my
gardener still. I promised him that. Well done, dame," said
Gerard, as the old woman entered; "I hope for the honour of
the house a good brew. Now comrade sit down: it will do you
good after your long stroll. You should eat your own trout if
you would wait?"
"By no means. You will miss your friend, I should think?"
"We shall see a good deal of him, I doubt not, what with the
garden and neighbourhood and so on; besides, in a manner, he
is master of his own time. His work is not like ours; and
though the pull on the brain is sometimes great, I have often
wished I had a talent that way. It's a drear life to do the
same thing every day at the same hour. But I never could
express my ideas except with my tongue; and there I feel
tolerably at home."
"It will be a pity to see this room without these books," said
Egremont, encouraging conversation on domestic subjects.
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