'
'Then you really prefer London to Great Oakhurst?' said Clara.
'Why, my dear, of course I do. Don't you think it's pleasanter being
here with you and your sister and that precious little creature, and
my daughter, than down in that dead-alive place? Not that I don't
miss my walk sometimes into Darkin; you remember that way as I took
you once, Baruch, across the hill, and we went over Ranmore Common
and I showed you Camilla Lacy, and you said as you knew a woman who
wrote books who once lived there? You remember them beech-woods?
Ah, it was one October! Weren't they a colour--weren't they lovely?'
Baruch remembered them well enough. Who that had ever seen them
could forget them?
'And it was I as took you! You wouldn't think it, my dear, though
he's always a-arguin', I do believe he'd love to go that walk again,
even with an old woman, and see them heavenly beeches. But, Lord,
how I do talk, and you've neither of you got any tea.'
'Have you lived long in London, Miss Hopgood?' inquired Baruch.
'Not very long.'
'Do you feel the change?'
'I cannot say I do not.'
'I suppose, however, you have brought yourself to believe in Mrs
Caffyn's philosophy?'
'I cannot say that, but I may say that I am scarcely strong enough
for mere endurance, and I therefore always endeavour to find
something agreeable in circumstances from which there is no escape.
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