XXV.
That evening Sewell went to see an old parishioner of his who lived
on the Hill, and who among his eccentricities had the habit of
occupying his city house all summer long, while his family flitted
with other people of fashion to the seashore. That year they talked
of taking a cottage for the first time since they had sold their own
cottage at Nahant, in a day of narrow things now past. The ladies
urged that he ought to come with them, and not think of staying in
Boston now that he had a trouble of the eyes which had befallen him,
and Boston would be so dull if he could not get about freely and
read as usual.
He answered that he would rather be blind in Boston than telescopic
at Beverly, or any other summer resort; and that as for the want of
proper care, which they urged, he did not think he should lack in
his own house, if they left him where he could reach a bell. His
youngest daughter, a lively little blonde, laughed with a cousin of
his wife's who was present, and his wife decorously despaired. The
discussion of the topic was rather premature, for they were not
thinking of going to Beverly before middle of May, if they took the
cottage; but an accident had precipitated it, and they were having
it out, as people do, each party in the hope that the other would
yield if kept at long enough before the time of final decision came.
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