'Old and young, boy, let 'em all eat, I have it;

Let 'em have ten tire of teeth a-piece, I care not.'

ROLLO, DUKE OF NORMANDY.

Margaret went home so painfully occupied with what she had heard

and seen that she hardly knew how to rouse herself up to the

duties which awaited her; the necessity for keeping up a constant

flow of cheerful conversation for her mother, who, now that she

was unable to go out, always looked to Margaret's return from the

shortest walk as bringing in some news.

'And can your factory friend come on Thursday to see you

dressed?' 'She was so ill I never thought of asking her,' said Margaret,

dolefully.

'Dear! Everybody is ill now, I think,' said Mrs. Hale, with a

little of the jealousy which one invalid is apt to feel of

another. 'But it must be very sad to be ill in one of those

little back streets.' (Her kindly nature prevailing, and the old

Helstone habits of thought returning.) 'It's bad enough here.

What could you do for her, Margaret? Mr. Thornton has sent me

some of his old port wine since you went out. Would a bottle of

that do her good, think you?'

'No, mamma! I don't believe they are very poor,--at least, they

don't speak as if they were; and, at any rate, Bessy's illness is

consumption--she won't want wine. Perhaps, I might take her a

little preserve, made of our dear Helstone fruit. No! there's

another family to whom I should like to give--Oh mamma, mamma!

how am I to dress up in my finery, and go off and away to smart

parties, after the sorrow I have seen to-day?' exclaimed

Margaret, bursting the bounds she had preordained for herself

before she came in, and telling her mother of what she had seen

and heard at Higgins's cottage.

It distressed Mrs. Hale excessively. It made her restlessly

irritated till she could do something. She directed Margaret to

pack up a basket in the very drawing-room, to be sent there and

then to the family; and was almost angry with her for saying,

that it would not signify if it did not go till morning, as she

knew Higgins had provided for their immediate wants, and she

herself had left money with Bessy. Mrs. Hale called her unfeeling

for saying this; and never gave herself breathing-time till the

basket was sent out of the house. Then she said: 'After all, we may have been doing wrong. It was only the last

time Mr. Thornton was here that he said, those were no true

friends who helped to prolong the struggle by assisting the turn

outs. And this Boucher-man was a turn-out, was he not?' The question was referred to Mr. Hale by his wife, when he came

up-stairs, fresh from giving a lesson to Mr. Thornton, which had

ended in conversation, as was their wont. Margaret did not care

if their gifts had prolonged the strike; she did not think far

enough for that, in her present excited state.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024