e, to be more easy
with myself and more indulgent to my neighbours, and I can afford to
laugh at both Lawrence and you.

Partly from accident, partly from wilful negligence on my part (for I was
really beginning to dislike him), several weeks elapsed before I saw my
friend again. When we did meet, it was he that sought me out. One
bright morning, early in June, he came into the field, where I was just
commencing my hay harvest.

'It is long since I saw you, Markham,' said he, after the first few words
had passed between us. 'Do you never mean to come to Woodford again?'

'I called once, and you were out.'

'I was sorry, but that was long since; I hoped you would call again, and
now I have called, and you were out, which you generally are, or I would
do myself the pleasure of calling more frequently; but being determined
to see you this time, I have left my pony in the lane, and come over
hedge and ditch to join you; for I am about to leave Woodford for a
while, and may not have the pleasure of seeing you again for a month or
two.'

'Where are you going?'

'To Grassdale first,' said he, with a half-smile he would willingly have
suppressed if he could.

'To Grassdale! Is she there, then?'

'Yes, but in a day or two she will leave it to accompany Mrs. Maxwell to
F-- for the benefit of the sea air, and I shall go with them.' (F-- was
at that time a quiet but respectable watering-place: it is considerably
more frequented now.)

Lawrence seemed to expect me to take advantage of this circumstance to
entrust him with some sort of a message to his sister; and I believe he
would have undertaken to deliver it without any material objections, if I
had had the sense to ask him, though of course he would not offer to do
so, if I was content to let it alone. But I could not bring myself to
make the request, and it was not till after he was gone, that I saw how
fair an opportunity I had lost; and then, indeed, I deeply regretted my
stupidity and my foolish pride, but it was now too late to remedy the
evil.

He did not return till towards the latter end of August. He wrote to me
twice or thrice from F--, but his letters were most provokingly
unsatisfactory, dealing in generalities or in trifles that I cared
nothing about, or replete with fancies and reflections equally unwelcome
to me at the time, saying next to nothing about his sister, and little
more about himself. I would wait, however, till he came back; perhap