"Of course, she did not wish to hurry her mother; but she
would feel, in her place, how much more comfortable for all a change
would be. And mother had her dower-house in the village; a very
comfortable home, quite large enough for Charlotte and herself and a
couple of maids, which was certainly all they needed."
Where did such thoughts and feelings spring from? Were they lying
dormant in her heart that summer when the squire drove home his harvest,
and her mother went joyfully up and down the sunny old rooms, always
devising something for her girls' comfort or pleasures? In those days
how proud Sophia had been of her father and mother! What indignation she
would have felt had one suggested that the time was coming when she
would be glad to see a stranger in her father's place, and feel
impatient to say to her mother, "Step down lower; I would be mistress in
your room"! Alas! there are depths in the human heart we fear to look
into; for we know that often all that is necessary to assuage a great
grief, or obliterate a great loss, is the inheritance of a fine mansion,
or a little money, or a few jewels, or even a rich garment. And as soon
as the squire was in his grave, Julius and Sophia began to discuss the
plans which only a very shallow shame had made them reticent about
before.
Indeed, it soon became necessary for others, also, to discuss the
future. People soon grow unwelcome in a house that is not their own; and
the new squire of Sandal-Side was eager to so renovate and change the
place that it would cease to remind him of his immediate predecessors.
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