“They are so. ’Tain’t no concern of mine, though, now she’s hooked it.”
Billy says this with a grave face, and means no irreverence in thus speaking of his dead mother.
“Mr Hawkesbury will be almost sorry to see it pulled down,” says Jack, “for he had done so much good there.”
“Poor Mr Hawkesbury!” says Mary. “I wish he would have come to us to-day. But he says he would be happier at his regular work, and we hadn’t the heart to urge him.”
“He’s good deal happier now, though,” says Fred, “since he heard from his son. In fact, he’s had one or two letters, and Hawkesbury really seems to be turning over a new leaf; so the father is quite hopeful.”
There is a pause, and then Jack changes the subject.
“Talking of pulling down places,” says he, “I saw an advertisement to-day, Fred, of the sale of that valuable and desirable place, Stonebridge House.”
“Did you?” says Fred.
And then follows a talk about old school days in which more present are interested than the two who actually take part.
“It seems a long while since we were there,” says Jack.