I said frankly that it would be a
relief to me to leave a house so sadly haunted by memory, and that
I should myself prefer to live elsewhere, framing our household on
very simple lines--and to let the power of writing come back if it
would, not to try and force it. It would be a dreadful prospect to
me to live thus, overshadowed by recollection, working dismally for
money; but I suppose it would be possible, even bracing. Maud did
not hesitate: she spoke quite frankly; on the one hand the very
associations, which I dread most, were evidently to her a source of
sad delight; and the thought of strangers living in rooms so
hallowed by grief was like a profanation. Then there was the fact
of all her relations with our friends and neighbours; but she said
quite simply that my feeling outweighed it all, and that she would
far rather begin life afresh somewhere else, than put me in the
position I described. We determined to try and find a small house
in the neighbourhood of her own old home in Gloucestershire; and
this thought, I am sure, gave her real happiness. We determined at
once what we would do; we would let our house for a term of years,
take what furniture we needed, and dispose of the rest; we arranged
to go off to Gloucestershire, as soon as possible, to look for a
house.
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