He had read
her uncle's letter to her, and to his great surprise found that she
looked on it as a call. Devotedly fond as she herself was of
Hillside, she could see that her father's abilities were wasted on
so small a field, in a manner scarcely good for himself, and she had
been struck with the greater force of his sermons when preaching to
educated congregations abroad. If no one else could or would take
efficient charge of these Beachharbour souls, she could see that it
would weigh on his conscience to take comparative ease in his own
beloved meadows, among a flock almost his vassals. Moreover, she
relieved his mind about her mother. She had discovered, what the
good wife kept out of sight, that the north-country woman never
could entirely have affinities with the south, and she had come to
the conclusion that Mrs. Fordyce's spirits would be heavily tried by
settling down at Hillside in the altered state of things.
After this talk, Mr. Fordyce had suggested a possible incumbent to
his brother-in-law, but left the matter open; and when Sir Horace
came down to the funeral, it was more thoroughly discussed; and, as
soon as Mrs. Fordyce saw that departure would not break her
husband's heart, she made no secret of the way that both her opinion
and her inclinations lay. She told my mother that she had always
believed her own ill-health was caused by the southern climate, and
that she hoped that Anne would grow up stronger than her sister in
the northern breezes.
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