CHAPTER XXX 441
CHAPTER XXX
The more I knew of the inmates of Moor House , the better I liked them . In a few days I had so far recovered my health that I could sit up all day , and walk out sometimes . I could join with Diana and Mary in all their occupations ; converse with them as much as they wished , and aid them when and where they would allow me . There was a reviving pleasure in this intercourse , of a kind now tasted by me for the first time -- the pleasure arising from perfect congeniality of tastes , sentiments , and principles .
I liked to read what they liked to read : what they enjoyed , delighted me ; what they approved , I reverenced . They loved their sequestered home . I , too , in the grey , small , antique structure , with its low roof , its latticed casements , its mouldering walls , its avenue of aged firs -- all grown aslant under the stress of mountain winds ; its garden , dark with yew and holly -- and where no flowers but of the hardiest species would bloom -- found a charm both potent and permanent . They clung to the purple moors behind and around their dwelling -- to the hollow vale into which the pebbly bridle-path leading from their gate descended , and which wound between fern-banks first , and then amongst a few of the wildest little pasture-fields that ever bordered a wilderness of heath , or gave sustenance to a flock of grey moorland sheep , with their little mossy-faced lambs : - they clung to this scene , I say , with a perfect enthusiasm of attachment . I could comprehend the feeling , and share both its strength and truth . I saw the fascination of the locality . I felt the consecration of its loneliness : my eye feasted on the outline of swell and sweep -- on the wild colouring communicated to ridge and dell by moss , by heath-bell , by flower-sprinkled turf , by brilliant bracken , and mellow granite crag . These details were just to me what they were to them -- so many pure and sweet sources of pleasure . The strong blast and the soft breeze ; the rough and the halcyon day ; the hours of sunrise and sunset ; the moonlight and the clouded night , developed for me , in these regions , the same attraction as for them -- wound round my faculties the same spell that entranced theirs .
Indoors we agreed equally well . They were both more accomplished and better read than I was ; but with eagerness I followed in the path of