When they returned to town, Margaret fulfilled one of her
sea-side resolves, and took her life into her own hands. Before
they went to Cromer, she had been as docile to her aunt's laws as
if she were still the scared little stranger who cried herself to
sleep that first night in the Harley Street nursery. But she had
learnt, in those solemn hours of thought, that she herself must
one day answer for her own life, and what she had done with it;
and she tried to settle that most difficult problem for women,
how much was to be utterly merged in obedience to authority, and
how much might be set apart for freedom in working. Mrs. Shaw was
as good-tempered as could be; and Edith had inherited this
charming domestic quality; Margaret herself had probably the
worst temper of the three, for her quick perceptions, and
over-lively imagination made her hasty, and her early isolation
from sympathy had made her proud; but she had an indescribable
childlike sweetness of heart, which made her manners, even in her
rarely wilful moods, irresistible of old; and now, chastened even
by what the world called her good fortune, she charmed her
reluctant aunt into acquiescence with her will. So Margaret
gained the acknowledgment of her right to follow her own ideas of
duty.
'Only don't be strong-minded,' pleaded Edith. 'Mamma wants you to
have a footman of your own; and I'm sure you're very welcome, for
they're great plagues. Only to please me, darling, don't go and
have a strong mind; it's the only thing I ask. Footman or no
footman, don't be strong-minded.' 'Don't be afraid, Edith. I'll faint on your hands at the
servants' dinner-time, the very first opportunity; and then, what
with Sholto playing with the fire, and the baby crying, you'll
begin to wish for a strong-minded woman, equal to any emergency.' 'And you'll not grow too good to joke and be merry?' 'Not I. I shall be merrier than I have ever been, now I have got
my own way.' 'And you'll not go a figure, but let me buy your dresses for
you?' 'Indeed I mean to buy them for myself. You shall come with me if
you like; but no one can please me but myself.' 'Oh! I was afraid you'd dress in brown and dust-colour, not to
show the dirt you'll pick up in all those places. I'm glad you're
going to keep one or two vanities, just by way of specimens of
the old Adam.' 'I'm going to be just the same, Edith, if you and my aunt could
but fancy so. Only as I have neither husband nor child to give me
natural duties, I must make myself some, in addition to ordering
my gowns.' In the family conclave, which was made up of Edith, her mother,
and her husband, it was decided that perhaps all these plans of
hers would only secure her the more for Henry Lennox. They kept
her out of the way of other friends who might have eligible sons
or brothers; and it was also agreed that she never seemed to take
much pleasure in the society of any one but Henry, out of their
own family. The other admirers, attracted by her appearance or
the reputation of her fortune, were swept away, by her
unconscious smiling disdain, into the paths frequented by other
beauties less fastidious, or other heiresses with a larger amount
of gold. Henry and she grew slowly into closer intimacy; but
neither he nor she were people to brook the slightest notice of
their proceedings.