Author Description

THEY were both my neighbours, of course: but to apportionone's heart's love in equal shares according to the claimsof justice is a very different matter. I saw as much of onesister as the other. And Martha was an excellent girl, quitehonest and friendly and good; but as for Ellen, there nevercould be any question about her. One did not even think ofdiscriminating which were her special good qualities. Shewas Ellen, that was enough; or Nelly, which I prefer, formy part. We all lived at Dinglefield Green in these olddays. It is a model of a village, in one sense of the word;not the kind of place, it is true, to which the name isgenerally applied, but a village orné, as there are cottagesornés. The real little hamlet, where the poor people lived,was at a little distance, and gave us plenty of occupationand trouble. But for Dinglefield Green proper, it was sucha village as exists chiefly in novels. The Green was thecentral point, a great triangular breadth of soft grass, morelike a small common than a village green, with the prettiesthouses round--houses inclosed in their own grounds,--houses at the very least embosomed in pretty gardens,peeping out from among the trees. None of us were veryrich; nor was there anything that could be called a 'place'in the circle of dwellings. But I believe there was as muchgood blood and good connection among us as are rarelyto be found even in a much larger community.