"You have probably witnessed many changes," said the Lord Keeper; "but your experience must have taught you to expect them."
"It has taught me to endure them, my lord," was the reply.
"Yet you knew that they must needs arrive in the course of years?" said the statesman.
"Ay; as I know that the stump, on or beside which you sit, once a tall and lofty tree, must needs one day fall by decay, or by the axe; yet I hoped my eyes might not witness the downfall of the tree which overshadowed my dwelling."
"Do not suppose," said the Lord Keeper, "that you will lose any interest with me, for looking back with regret to the days when another family possessed my estates. You had reason, doubtless, to love them, and I respect your gratitude. I will order some repairs in your cottage, and I hope we shall live to be friends when we know each other better."
