By so doing I could have three hours with a good gentleman always in a hurry, and yet return for the night to Shoxford, if he should advise me so.
Men and women seem alike to love to have their counsels taken; and the equinox being now gone by, Mrs.Busk was ready to begin before the tardy sun was up, who begins to give you short measure at once when he finds the weights go against him.

Mrs.Busk considered not the sun, neither any of his doings.

The time of day was more momentous than any of the sun's proceedings.

Railway time was what she had to keep (unless a good customer dropped in), and as for the sun--"clock slow, clock fast," in the almanacs, showed how he managed things; and if that was not enough, who could trust him to keep time after what he had done upon the dial of Ahaz?
Reasoning thus--if reason it was--she packed me off in a fly for the nearest railway station, and by midday I found the Major laboring on his ramparts.
After proper salutations, I could not help expressing wonder at the rapid rise of things.

Houses here and houses there, springing up like children's teeth, three or four in a row together, and then a long gap, and then some more.