'Poor Frederick!' thought she, sighing. 'Oh! if Frederick had but

been a clergyman, instead of going into the navy, and being lost

to us all! I wish I knew all about it. I never understood it from

Aunt Shaw; I only knew he could not come back to England because

of that terrible affair. Poor dear papa! how sad he looks! I am

so glad I am going home, to be at hand to comfort him and mamma.

She was ready with a bright smile, in which there was not a trace

of fatigue, to greet her father when he awakened. He smiled back

again, but faintly, as if it were an unusual exertion. His face

returned into its lines of habitual anxiety. He had a trick of

half-opening his mouth as if to speak, which constantly unsettled

the form of the lips, and gave the face an undecided expression.

But he had the same large, soft eyes as his daughter,--eyes which

moved slowly and almost grandly round in their orbits, and were

well veiled by their transparent white eyelids. Margaret was more

like him than like her mother. Sometimes people wondered that

parents so handsome should have a daughter who was so far from

regularly beautiful; not beautiful at all, was occasionally said.

Her mouth was wide; no rosebud that could only open just' enough

to let out a 'yes' and 'no,' and 'an't please you, sir.' But the

wide mouth was one soft curve of rich red lips; and the skin, if

not white and fair, was of an ivory smoothness and delicacy. If

the look on her face was, in general, too dignified and reserved

for one so young, now, talking to her father, it was bright as

the morning,--full of dimples, and glances that spoke of childish

gladness, and boundless hope in the future.

It was the latter part of July when Margaret returned home. The

forest trees were all one dark, full, dusky green; the fern below

them caught all the slanting sunbeams; the weather was sultry and

broodingly still. Margaret used to tramp along by her father's

side, crushing down the fern with a cruel glee, as she felt it

yield under her light foot, and send up the fragrance peculiar to

it,--out on the broad commons into the warm scented light, seeing

multitudes of wild, free, living creatures, revelling in the

sunshine, and the herbs and flowers it called forth. This

life--at least these walks--realised all Margaret's

anticipations. She took a pride in her forest. Its people were

her people. She made hearty friends with them; learned and

delighted in using their peculiar words; took up her freedom

amongst them; nursed their babies; talked or read with slow

distinctness to their old people; carried dainty messes to their

sick; resolved before long to teach at the school, where her

father went every day as to an appointed task, but she was

continually tempted off to go and see some individual

friend--man, woman, or child--in some cottage in the green shade

of the forest. Her out-of-doors life was perfect. Her in-doors

life had its drawbacks. With the healthy shame of a child, she

blamed herself for her keenness of sight, in perceiving that all

was not as it should be there. Her mother--her mother always so

kind and tender towards her--seemed now and then so much

discontented with their situation; thought that the bishop

strangely neglected his episcopal duties, in not giving Mr. Hale

a better living; and almost reproached her husband because he

could not bring himself to say that he wished to leave the

parish, and undertake the charge of a larger. He would sigh aloud

as he answered, that if he could do what he ought in little

Helstone, he should be thankful; but every day he was more

overpowered; the world became more bewildering. At each repeated

urgency of his wife, that he would put himself in the way of

seeking some preferment, Margaret saw that her father shrank more

and more; and she strove at such times to reconcile her mother to

Helstone. Mrs. Hale said that the near neighbourhood of so many

trees affected her health; and Margaret would try to tempt her

forth on to the beautiful, broad, upland, sun-streaked,

cloud-shadowed common; for she was sure that her mother had

accustomed herself too much to an in-doors life, seldom extending

her walks beyond the church, the school, and the neighbouring

cottages. This did good for a time; but when the autumn drew on,

and the weather became more changeable, her mother's idea of the

unhealthiness of the place increased; and she repined even more

frequently that her husband, who was more learned than Mr. Hume,

a better parish priest than Mr. Houldsworth, should not have met

with the preferment that these two former neighbours of theirs

had done.




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