"Squire Hallam were always varry queer in
his ways," he said; "but it beats a', to leave a property like Hallam
to a lass. Whativer's to come o' England if t' land is put under women?
I'd like to know that!"
"Ay; and a lass that's going to wed hersel' wi' a foreign man. I reckon
nowt o' her. Such like goings on don't suit my notions, Eltham."
Just at this point in the conversation Richard passed the gossiping
squires. He raised his hat, but none returned the courtesy. A
Yorkshireman has, at least, the merit of perfect honesty in his likes
and dislikes; and if Richard had cared to ask what offense he had
given, he would have been told his fault with the frankest
distinctness.
But Richard understood the feeling, and could afford to regard it
tolerantly. "With their education and their inherited prejudices I
should act the same," he thought, "and how are they to know that I
have positively refused the very position they suspect me of plotting
to gain?"
But he told Elizabeth of the circumstance, and upon it based the
conversation as to their future, which he had been anxiously desirous
to have. "You must not send me away again, love, upon a general
promise. I think it is my right to understand clearly what you intend
about Hallam, and how soon you will become my wife."
She answered with a frank affection that delighted him: "We must give
one year to my father's memory; then, Richard, come for me as soon
as you desire.
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