Read "The Old Neighbour and the New" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
'TWAS to greet the new rector I called I here, / But in the arm-chair I see / My old friend, for long years installed here, / Who palely nods to me.
The new man explains what he's planning / In a smart and cheerful tone, / And I listen, the while that I'm scanning / The figure behind his own.
The newcomer urges things on me; / I return a vague smile thereto, / The olden face gazing upon me / Just as it used to do!
And on leaving I scarcely remember / Which neighbour to-day I have seen, / The one carried out in September, / Or him who but entered yestreen.