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.




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