England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
"It is now a reward for our obedience to your wishes, Miss Wilkins, for
if the projected railway passes through the ash-field yonder we should
have been perpetually troubled with the sight of the trains; indeed, the
sound would have been much more distinct than it will be now coming
through the interlacing branches. Then you will not go in, Miss
Wilkins?" Mrs. Osbaldistone desired me to say how happy--"Ah! I can
understand such feelings--Certainly, certainly; it is so much the
shortest way to the town, that we elder ones always go through the stable-
yard; for young people, it is perhaps not quite so desirable. Ha!
Dixon," he continued, "on the watch for the Miss Ellinor we so often hear
of! This old man," he continued to Ellinor, "is never satisfied with the
seat of our young ladies, always comparing their way of riding with that
of a certain missy--"
"I cannot help it, sir; they've quite a different style of hand, and sit
all lumpish-like. Now, Miss Ellinor, there--"
"Hush, Dixon," she said, suddenly aware of why the old servant was not
popular with his mistress. "I suppose I may be allowed to ask for
Dixon's company for an hour or so; we have something to do together
before we leave."
The consent given, the two walked away, as by previous appointment, to
Hamley churchyard, where he was to point out to her the exact spot where
he wished to be buried. Trampling over the long, rank grass, but
avoiding passing directly over any of the thickly-strewn graves, he made
straight for one spot--a little space of unoccupied ground close by,
where Molly, the pretty scullery-maid, lay:
Sacred to the Memory of
MARY GREAVES.
Born 1797. Died 1818.
"We part to meet again."
"I put this stone up over her with my first savings," said he, looking at
it; and then, pulling out his knife, he began to clean out the letters.
"I said then as I would lie by her. And it'll be a comfort to think
you'll see me laid here. I trust no one'll be so crabbed as to take a
fancy to this 'ere spot of ground."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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