'It can and it shall, if you don't like it. I never think anything of
changes like that.'

'I think they'll be very pretty!' said Clara.

'I dare say,' said the squire,' but at any rate it won't make much
difference to me. I shan't be here long to see them.'

This was rather melancholy; but Belton bore up even against this,
speaking cheery words and expressing bright hopes so that it seemed,
both to Clara and her father, that he had in a great measure overcome
the disappointment of the preceding day. It was probable that he was a
man not prone to be deeply sensitive in such matters for any long
period. The period now had certainly not been long, and yet Will Belton
was alive again.

Immediately after breakfast there occurred a little incident which was
not without its effect upon them all. There came up on the drive
immediately before the front door, under the custody of a boy, a cow.
It was an Alderney cow, and any man or woman at all understanding cows
would at once have perceived that this cow was perfect in her kind. Her
eyes were mild, and soft, and bright. Her legs were like the legs of a
deer; and in her whole gait and demeanour she almost gave the lie to
her own name, asserting herself to have sprung from some more noble
origin among the woods, than maybe supposed to be the origin of the
ordinary domestic cow a useful animal, but heavy in its appearance, and
seen with more pleasure at some little distance than at close quarters.
But this cow was graceful in its movements, and almost tempted one to
regard her as the far-off descendant of the elk or the antelope.