North and South
Page 316'The sea has done Miss Hale an immense deal of good, I should
fancy,' said he, when she first left the room after his arrival
in their family circle. 'She looks ten years younger than she did
in Harley Street.' 'That's the bonnet I got her!' said Edith, triumphantly. 'I knew
it would suit her the moment I saw it.' 'I beg your pardon,' said Mr. Lennox, in the half-contemptuous,
half-indulgent tone he generally used to Edith. 'But I believe I
know the difference between the charms of a dress and the charms
of a woman. No mere bonnet would have made Miss Hale's eyes so
lustrous and yet so soft, or her lips so ripe and red--and her
face altogether so full of peace and light.--She is like, and yet
more,'--he dropped his voice,--'like the Margaret Hale of
Helstone.' From this time the clever and ambitious man bent all his powers
to gaining Margaret. He loved her sweet beauty. He saw the latent
embrace all the objects on which he had set his heart. He looked
upon her fortune only as a part of the complete and superb
character of herself and her position: yet he was fully aware of
the rise which it would immediately enable him, the poor
barrister, to take. Eventually he would earn such success, and
such honours, as would enable him to pay her back, with interest,
that first advance in wealth which he should owe to her. He had
been to Milton on business connected with her property, on his
return from Scotland; and with the quick eye of a skilled lawyer,
ready ever to take in and weigh contingencies, he had seen that
much additional value was yearly accruing to the lands and
tenements which she owned in that prosperous and increasing town.
Margaret and himself, of client and legal adviser, was gradually
superseding the recollection of that unlucky, mismanaged day at
Helstone. He had thus unusual opportunities of intimate
intercourse with her, besides those that arose from the
connection between the families.
Margaret was only too willing to listen as long as he talked of
Milton, though he had seen none of the people whom she more
especially knew. It had been the tone with her aunt and cousin to
speak of Milton with dislike and contempt; just such feelings as
Margaret was ashamed to remember she had expressed and felt on
first going to live there. But Mr. Lennox almost exceeded
Margaret in his appreciation of the character of Milton and its
in struggling and fighting; their lurid vividness of existence,
captivated and arrested his attention. He was never tired of
talking about them; and had never perceived how selfish and
material were too many of the ends they proposed to themselves as
the result of all their mighty, untiring endeavour, till
Margaret, even in the midst of her gratification, had the candour
to point this out, as the tainting sin in so much that was noble,
and to be admired. Still, when other subjects palled upon her,
and she gave but short answers to many questions, Henry Lennox
found out that an enquiry as to some Darkshire peculiarity of
character, called back the light into her eye, the glow into her
cheek.