Another
said it was easy for the rich to be handsome; they had always plenty to
eat, and could ride when they were tired of walking, and had no care for
the morrow to keep them from sleeping at nights. And, in sad
acquiescence with their contrasted lot, the men went on with their
hedging and ditching in silence.
And yet, if they had known--if the poor did know--the troubles and
temptations of the rich; if those men had foreseen the lot darkening over
the father, and including the daughter in its cloud; if Mr. Wilkins
himself had even imagined such a future possible . . . Well, there was
truth in the old heathen saying, "Let no man be envied till his death."
Ellinor had no more rides with her father; no, not ever again; though
they had stopped that afternoon at the summit of a breezy common, and
looked at a ruined hall, not so very far off; and discussed whether they
could reach it that day, and decided that it was too far away for
anything but a hurried inspection, and that some day soon they would make
the old place into the principal object of an excursion. But a rainy
time came on, when no rides were possible; and whether it was the
influence of the weather, or some other care or trouble that oppressed
him, Mr. Wilkins seemed to lose all wish for much active exercise, and
rather sought a stimulus to his spirits and circulation in wine.
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