Now she had got to love the old nursery, though it was but a

dismantled place; and she looked all round, with a kind of

cat-like regret, at the idea of leaving it for ever in three

days.

'Ah Newton!' said she, 'I think we shall all be sorry to leave

this dear old room.' 'Indeed, miss, I shan't for one. My eyes are not so good as they

were, and the light here is so bad that I can't see to mend laces

except just at the window, where there's always a shocking

draught--enough to give one one's death of cold.'

Well, I dare say you will have both good light and plenty of

warmth at Naples. You must keep as much of your darning as you

can till then. Thank you, Newton, I can take them down--you're

busy.' So Margaret went down laden with shawls, and snuffing up their

spicy Eastern smell. Her aunt asked her to stand as a sort of lay

figure on which to display them, as Edith was still asleep. No

one thought about it; but Margaret's tall, finely made figure, in

the black silk dress which she was wearing as mourning for some

distant relative of her father's, set off the long beautiful

folds of the gorgeous shawls that would have half-smothered

Edith. Margaret stood right under the chandelier, quite silent

and passive, while her aunt adjusted the draperies. Occasionally,

as she was turned round, she caught a glimpse of herself in the

mirror over the chimney-piece, and smiled at her own appearance

there-the familiar features in the usual garb of a princess. She

touched the shawls gently as they hung around her, and took a

pleasure in their soft feel and their brilliant colours, and

rather liked to be dressed in such splendour--enjoying it much as

a child would do, with a quiet pleased smile on her lips. Just

then the door opened, and Mr. Henry Lennox was suddenly

announced. Some of the ladies started back, as if half-ashamed of

their feminine interest in dress. Mrs. Shaw held out her hand to

the new-comer; Margaret stood perfectly still, thinking she might

be yet wanted as a sort of block for the shawls; but looking at

Mr. Lennox with a bright, amused face, as if sure of his sympathy

in her sense of the ludicrousness at being thus surprised.

Her aunt was so much absorbed in asking Mr. Henry Lennox--who had

not been able to come to dinner--all sorts of questions about his

brother the bridegroom, his sister the bridesmaid (coming with

the Captain from Scotland for the occasion), and various other

members of the Lennox family, that Margaret saw she was no more

wanted as shawl-bearer, and devoted herself to the amusement of

the other visitors, whom her aunt had for the moment forgotten.

Almost immediately, Edith came in from the back drawing-room,

winking and blinking her eyes at the stronger light, shaking back

her slightly-ruffled curls, and altogether looking like the

Sleeping Beauty just startled from her dreams. Even in her

slumber she had instinctively felt that a Lennox was worth

rousing herself for; and she had a multitude of questions to ask

about dear Janet, the future, unseen sister-in-law, for whom she

professed so much affection, that if Margaret had not been very

proud she might have almost felt jealous of the mushroom rival.

As Margaret sank rather more into the background on her aunt's

joining the conversation, she saw Henry Lennox directing his look

towards a vacant seat near her; and she knew perfectly well that

as soon as Edith released him from her questioning, he would take

possession of that chair. She had not been quite sure, from her

aunt's rather confused account of his engagements, whether he

would come that night; it was almost a surprise to see him; and

now she was sure of a pleasant evening. He liked and disliked

pretty nearly the same things that she did. Margaret's face was

lightened up into an honest, open brightness. By-and-by he came.

She received him with a smile which had not a tinge of shyness or

self-consciousness in it.




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