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child, sent more; so even at that season of the year they had visitors
almost daily. The old man would follow them at a little distance
through the building, listening to the voice he loved so well; and when
the strangers left, and parted from Nell, he would mingle with them to
catch up fragments of their conversation; or he would stand for the
same purpose, with his grey head uncovered, at the gate as they
passed through.
They always praised the child, her sense and beauty, and he was
proud to hear them! But what was that, so often added, which wrung
his heart, and made him sob and weep alone, in some dull corner!
Alas! even careless strangers - they who had no feeling for her, but the
interest of the moment - they who would go away and forget next week
that such a being lived - even they saw it - even they pitied her - even
they bade him good day compassionately, and whispered as they
passed.
The people of the village, too, of whom there was not one but grew to
have a fondness for poor Nell; even among them, there was the same
feeling; a tenderness towards her - a compassionate regard for her,
increasing every day. The very schoolboys, light-hearted and
thoughtless as they were, even they cared for her. The roughest
among them was sorry if he missed her in the usual place upon his
way to school, and would turn out of the path to ask for her at the
latticed window. If she were sitting in the church, they perhaps might
peep in softly at the open door; but they never spoke to her, unless
she rose and went to speak to them. Some feeling was abroad which
raised the child above them all.
So, when Sunday came. They were all poor country people in the
church, for the castle in which the old family had lived, was an empty
ruin, and there were none but humble folks for seven miles around.
There, as elsewhere, they had an interest in Nell. They would gather
round her in the porch, before and after service; young children would
cluster at her skirts; and aged men and women forsake their gossips,
to give her kindly greeting. None of them, young or old, thought of
passing the child without a friendly word. Many who came from three
or four miles distant, brought her little presents; the humblest and
rudest had good wishes to bestow.
She had sought out the young children whom she first saw playing in
the churchyard. One of these - he who had spoken of his brother -
was her little favourite and friend, and often sat by her side in the
church, or climbed with her to the tower-top. It was his delight to help
her, or to fancy that he did so, and they soon became close
companions.
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