It fell to Margaret's share to have to look out for a servant to

assist Dixon, who had at first undertaken to find just the person

she wanted to do all the rough work of the house. But Dixon's

ideas of helpful girls were founded on the recollection of tidy

elder scholars at Helstone school, who were only too proud to be

allowed to come to the parsonage on a busy day, and treated Mrs.

Dixon with all the respect, and a good deal more of fright, which

they paid to Mr. and Mrs. Hale. Dixon was not unconscious of this

awed reverence which was given to her; nor did she dislike it; it

flattered her much as Louis the Fourteenth was flattered by his

courtiers shading their eyes from the dazzling light of his

presence.' But nothing short of her faithful love for Mrs. Hale

could have made her endure the rough independent way in which all

the Milton girls, who made application for the servant's place,

replied to her inquiries respecting their qualifications. They

even went the length of questioning her back again; having doubts

and fears of their own, as to the solvency of a family who lived

in a house of thirty pounds a-year, and yet gave themselves airs,

and kept two servants, one of them so very high and mighty. Mr.

Hale was no longer looked upon as Vicar of Helstone, but as a man

who only spent at a certain rate. Margaret was weary and

impatient of the accounts which Dixon perpetually brought to Mrs.

Hale of the behaviour of these would-be servants. Not but what

Margaret was repelled by the rough uncourteous manners of these

people; not but what she shrunk with fastidious pride from their

hail-fellow accost and severely resented their unconcealed

curiosity as to the means and position of any family who lived in

Milton, and yet were not engaged in trade of some kind. But the

more Margaret felt impertinence, the more likely she was to be

silent on the subject; and, at any rate, if she took upon herself

to make inquiry for a servant, she could spare her mother the

recital of all her disappointments and fancied or real insults.

Margaret accordingly went up and down to butchers and grocers,

seeking for a nonpareil of a girl; and lowering her hopes and

expectations every week, as she found the difficulty of meeting

with any one in a manufacturing town who did not prefer the

better wages and greater independence of working in a mill. It

was something of a trial to Margaret to go out by herself in this

busy bustling place. Mrs. Shaw's ideas of propriety and her own

helpless dependence on others, had always made her insist that a

footman should accompany Edith and Margaret, if they went beyond

Harley Street or the immediate neighbourhood. The limits by which

this rule of her aunt's had circumscribed Margaret's independence

had been silently rebelled against at the time: and she had

doubly enjoyed the free walks and rambles of her forest life,

from the contrast which they presented. She went along there with

a bounding fearless step, that occasionally broke out into a run,

if she were in a hurry, and occasionally was stilled into perfect

repose, as she stood listening to, or watching any of the wild

creatures who sang in the leafy courts, or glanced out with their

keen bright eyes from the low brushwood or tangled furze. It was

a trial to come down from such motion or such stillness, only

guided by her own sweet will, to the even and decorous pace

necessary in streets. But she could have laughed at herself for

minding this change, if it had not been accompanied by what was a

more serious annoyance. The side of the town on which Crampton

lay was especially a thoroughfare for the factory people. In the

back streets around them there were many mills, out of which

poured streams of men and women two or three times a day. Until

Margaret had learnt the times of their ingress and egress, she

was very unfortunate in constantly falling in with them. They

came rushing along, with bold, fearless faces, and loud laughs

and jests, particularly aimed at all those who appeared to be

above them in rank or station. The tones of their unrestrained

voices, and their carelessness of all common rules of street

politeness, frightened Margaret a little at first. The girls,

with their rough, but not unfriendly freedom, would comment on

her dress, even touch her shawl or gown to ascertain the exact

material; nay, once or twice she was asked questions relative to

some article which they particularly admired. There was such a

simple reliance on her womanly sympathy with their love of dress,

and on her kindliness, that she gladly replied to these

inquiries, as soon as she understood them; and half smiled back

at their remarks. She did not mind meeting any number of girls,

loud spoken and boisterous though they might be. But she

alternately dreaded and fired up against the workmen, who

commented not on her dress, but on her looks, in the same open

fearless manner. She, who had hitherto felt that even the most

refined remark on her personal appearance was an impertinence,

had to endure undisguised admiration from these outspoken men.

But the very out-spokenness marked their innocence of any

intention to hurt her delicacy, as she would have perceived if

she had been less frightened by the disorderly tumult. Out of her

fright came a flash of indignation which made her face scarlet,

and her dark eyes gather flame, as she heard some of their

speeches. Yet there were other sayings of theirs, which, when she

reached the quiet safety of home, amused her even while they

irritated her.




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