"I trust he will not want to turn out my father and mother and pull it
down, but he is an improving landlord, and has built some excellent ugly
farmsteads on his other property. I have a clinging to it, and the
doctor says it would be well for me had I been born and bred in almost
any other place."
Bessie sighed, and said deprecatingly, "Harry, you look as strong as a
castle. If it was Mr. Christie they were always warning, I should not
wonder, but _you_!"
"But _me_! Little Christie looks as though a good puff of wind might
blow him away, and he is as tough as a pin-wire. I stand like a tower,
and they tell me the foundations are sinking. It sounds like a fable to
frighten me."
"Harry dear, it is not serious; don't believe it. Everybody has to take
a little care. You must give up London and hard study if they try you.
We will all help you to bear the disappointment: I know it would be
cruel, but if you must, you must! Leaning towers, I've heard, stand
hundreds of years, and serve their purpose as well as towers that stand
erect."
"Ah, Bessie, cunning little comforter! Tell me which is the worse--a
life that is a failure or death?" said Harry, watching the gyrations of
a straw that the eddies of the rivulet were whirling by.
"Oh, death, death--there is no remedy for death." Bessie shuddered.
There was repulsion in her face as well as awe.
Harry felt surprised: this was his own feeling, but women, he thought,
had more natural resignation.
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