I ate it, hoping sincerely she would prove a regular gossip, and either rouse me to animation, or lull me to sleep by her talk.
"You have lived here a considerable time," I commenced; "did you not say sixteen years?"
"Eighteen, sir; I came, when the mistress was married, to wait on her; after she died, the master retained me for his house-keeper."
"Indeed."
There ensued a pause. She was not a gossip, I feared, unless about her own affairs, and those could hardly interest me.
However, having studied for an interval, with a fist on either knee, and a cloud of meditation over her ruddy countenance, she ejaculated—
"Ah, times are greatly changed since then!"
"Yes," I remarked, "you've seen a good many alterations, I suppose?"
"I have: and troubles too," she said.
