Then he came out to me
again.

"Can't say much without an examination, but appears to me the
machinery's getting done. We can none of us last for ever, you know.
Keep her still, if you can, and tell her she needn't be up every two
minutes to flick the dust off the fireirons. Drive her out, now and
then, and let her have exercise without exertion; and don't you pull a
long face before her or get excited or boisterous."

I pulled a face at _him_, and he grinned as he mounted his horse.
"I'll send her up a bottle," he said; "works wonders, does a bottle, if
it's mixed with faith in them that take it;" and the caustic old man
moved slowly away.

The bottle came, but so far it has wrought no miracle, and there has
crept into my heart the unwelcome suggestion of loss. I have tried not
to admit it, not to recognise it when admitted, but the attempt is
vain. Dr. Trempest shakes his head and repeats his sagacious remark
that we can't live for ever, and the squire presses my hand in
sympathy, being too honest to attempt to comfort me with hollow hopes.

Only Mother Hubbard herself is cheerful, and as her physical strength
decreases she appears to gain self-possession and mental vigour. When
the squire suggested that she should be asked to accompany us on the
drives which he so much enjoys I anticipated considerable opposition,
and felt certain that she would yield most reluctantly, but to my
surprise she consented without demur.

"This is very kind of Mr. Evans, love," she said, "and if you do not
mind having an old woman with you I shall be glad to go."

She did not say much on these excursions, but when she was directly
spoken to she answered without confusion, and was quite unconscious
that she occasionally addressed the squire as "love." He never
betrayed any consciousness of it, but I once noticed a repressed smile
steal over Webster's face as he sat upon the box.

Now it was that I saw the full beauty of the moorland which had made so
strong an appeal to my father's heart. I felt my own strangely
stirred, and my two companions were also full of emotion. I believe it
spoke to each of us with a different voice, and had not quite the same
message for any two of us. I have hardly analysed my own feelings, but
I think the rich and yet subdued colouring got hold of my imagination,
and the wildness of the scene impressed me powerfully.

I had always known these moors--known them from my childhood; but only
as o