The fact is that no
family is precisely in the same circumstances after an interval of
a year or two. Gold cannot bar the door against sorrow, and tapestry
and eider-down have no covenant with change. Richard had not been many
hours in Hallam when he felt the influence of unusual currents and
the want of customary ones. The squire's face no longer made a kind
of sunshine in the big, low rooms and on the pleasant terraces. He
was confined to his own apartments, and there Richard went to talk
to him. But he was facing death with a calm and grand simplicity. "I'd
hev liked to hev lived a bit longer, Richard, if it hed been _His
will_; but he knows what's best. I s'all answer willingly when he
calls me. He knows t' right hour to make t' change; I'd happen order
it too soon or too late. Now sit thee down, and tell me about this
last fight for liberty. Phyllis hes fair made my old heart burn and
beat to t' varry name o' Texas. I'm none bound by Yorkshire, though
I do think it's the best bit o' land on t' face o' t' world. And I
like to stand up for t' weakest side--that's Yorkshire! If I hed known
nowt o' t' quarrel, I'd hev gone wi' t' seven hundred instead o' t'
two thousand; ay, would I!" Decay had not touched his mind or his
heart; his eyes flashed, and he spoke out with all the fervor of his
youth: "If I'd nobbut been a young man when a' this happened, I'm varry
sure I'd hev pitch'd in and helped 'em.
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