These were simple enough; certain legal forms to be gone through, any
selection from books or furniture to be made, and the rest to be sold by
auction as speedily as convenient, as the successor to the living might
wish to have repairs and alterations effected in the old parsonage. For
some days Ellinor employed herself in business in the house, never going
out except to church. Miss Monro, on the contrary, strolled about
everywhere, noticing all the alterations in place and people, which were
never improvements in her opinion. Ellinor had plenty of callers (her
tenants, Mr. and Mrs. Osbaldistone among others), but, excepting in rare
cases--most of them belonged to humble life--she declined to see every
one, as she had business enough on her hands: sixteen years makes a great
difference in any set of people. The old acquaintances of her father in
his better days were almost all dead or removed; there were one or two
remaining, and these Ellinor received; one or two more, old and infirm,
confined to their houses, she planned to call upon before leaving Hamley.
Every evening, when Dixon had done his work at Mr. Osbaldistone's, he
came up to the Parsonage, ostensibly to help her in moving or packing
books, but really because these two clung to each other--were bound to
each other by a bond never to be spoken about. It was understood between
them that once before Ellinor left she should go and see the old place,
Ford Bank.
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