Village Belles Author:Anne Manning Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE VICAR'S MENAGE. When Lady Worral heard that Mrs. Wellford had taken John Pearce's cottage at the end of the blackthorn lane, she remarked ... more »that she feared the poor woman would find her less neighbourly than formerly, for that the hill, though very easy to come down, was mighty hard for her to climb up again. Perhaps Mrs. Wellford might have already derived a momentary satisfaction from the idea that this would be the case, though we will not suppose her to have chosen an abode in the valley for the express purpose of freeing herself from an interfering patroness ; and indeed fourteen years of intimacy had so habituated her to the old lady's ways that she was not so sensible in this instance, as many woman might have been, of "the gain of a loss." Curiosity induced Lady Worral to brave the fatigue of the walk a few days after the widow's removal to the White Cottage, when she took occasion to find fault with the colour of the parlour walls, which she said might have been washed with a good buff at half the expense. Green indeed! There was too much green every where round them already. Green hedgesl green trees, green fields—one would think they had sore eyes; and to be sure Mrs. Wellford's did look rather blood-shot. Buff would have been cheaper, and twice as cheerful. Her ladyship took leave with a threat that she should not be able to call again for some time. However the morning after Mr. Russell's first sermon, she could restrain herself no longer, and posted down the lane to her old friend and favourite. " A very promising young man," said she, as soon as she recovered her breath, "is our new minister. He dined with me yesterday after service, which I never could prevail on Mr. Wellford to do, and extremely to the purpose was his conversation, I ...« less