He dwelt a deal on the
coming meeting at Hendon Hall; what a surprise it would be to
everybody, and what an outburst of thanksgiving and delight there
would be.
It was a fair region, dotted with cottages and orchards, and the
road led through broad pasture-lands whose receding expanses, marked
with gentle elevations and depressions, suggested the swelling and
subsiding undulations of the sea. In the afternoon the returning
prodigal made constant deflections from his course to see if by
ascending some hillock he might not pierce the distance and catch a
glimpse of his home. At last he was successful, and cried out
excitedly:
'There is the village, my prince, and there is the Hall close
by! You may see the towers from here; and that wood there- that is
my father's park. Ah, now thou'lt know what state and grandeur be! A
house with seventy rooms- think of that!- and seven and twenty
servants! A brave lodging for such as we, is it not so? Come, let us
speed- my impatience will not brook further delay.'
All possible hurry was made; still, it was after three o'clock
before the village was reached. The travelers scampered through it,
Hendon's tongue going all the time. 'Here is the church- covered
with the same ivy- none gone, none added.' 'Yonder is the inn, the old
Red Lion- and yonder is the market-place.' 'Here is the Maypole, and
here the pump- nothing is altered; nothing but the people, at any
rate; ten years make a change in people; some of these I seem to know,
but none know me.
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