But it was not fated that I should go to London.
Medicine was not the only thing that I studied in those days, however.
Squire Bozard of Ditchingham, the same who told my father of the coming
of the Spanish ship, had two living children, a son and a daughter,
though his wife had borne him many more who died in infancy. The
daughter was named Lily and of my own age, having been born three weeks
after me in the same year. Now the Bozards are gone from these parts,
for my great-niece, the granddaughter and sole heiress of this son, has
married and has issue of another name. But this is by the way.
From our earliest days we children, Bozards and Wingfields, lived almost
as brothers and sisters, for day by day we met and played together in
the snow or in the flowers. Thus it would be hard for me to say when I
began to love Lily or when she began to love me; but I know that when
first I went to school at Norwich I grieved more at losing sight of her
than because I must part from my mother and the rest. In all our games
she was ever my partner, and I would search the country round for days
to find such flowers as she chanced to love. When I came back from
school it was the same, though by degrees Lily grew shyer, and I also
grew suddenly shy, perceiving that from a child she had become a woman.
Still we met often, and though neither said anything of it, it was sweet
to us to meet.
Pages:
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39