 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Wunam, Sydney, Australia. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. Chapter 11. First Impressions. There's iron, they say, in all our blood. And a grain or two perhaps is good. But his, he makes me harshly feel, has got a little too much of steel. Anon. Margaret said Mr. Hale as he returned from showing his guests downstairs. I could not help watching your face with some anxiety when Mr. Thornton made his confession of having been a shop boy. I knew it all along for Mr. Bell, so I was aware of what was coming. But I half expected to see you get up and leave the room. Oh, papa, you don't mean that you thought me so silly. I really like that account of himself better than anything else, he said. Everything else revolted me from its harshness. But he spoke about himself so simply, with so little of the pretense that makes the vulgarity of shop people, and with such tender respect for his mother that I was less likely to leave the room then than when he was boasting about Milton, as if there was not such another place in the whole world, or quietly confessing to despise people for carelessness, wasteful improvidence, without even seeming to think it his duty to try to make them different, to give them anything of the training which his mother gave him, and to which he evidently owes his position, whatever that may be. No, his statement of having been a shop boy was the thing I liked best of all. I'm surprised that you, Margaret, said her mother. You who were always accusing people of being shoppy at Halston. I don't think, Mr. Hal, you have done quite right in introducing such a person to us without telling us what he had been. I really was very much afraid of showing him how much shock I was at some parts of what he said. His father dying in miserable circumstances. Why, it might have been in the workhouse. I'm not sure if it was not worse than being in the workhouse, replied her husband. I heard a good deal from his previous life, from Mr. Bell before we came here. And as he has told you apart, I will fill up what he left out. His father speculated wildly, failed, and then killed himself because he could not bear the disgrace. All his former friends shunned from the disclosures that had to be made of his dishonest gambling. Wild, hopeless struggles made with other people's money to regain his own moderate portion of wealth. No one came forwards to help the mother and this boy. There was another child, I believe, a girl too young to earn money, but of course she had to be kept. At least no friend came forwards immediately, and Mr. Thornton is not one I fancy to wait till tardy kindness comes to find her out. So they left Milton. I knew he had gone into a shop, and that his earnings, with some fragment of property secured from his mother, had been made up to keep them for a time. Mr. Bell said they absolutely lived upon water porridge for years, how he did not know. But long after the creditors had given up hope of any payment of old Mr. Thornton's debts, if indeed they ever had hoped at all about it after his suicide. This young man returned to Milton, and went quietly round to each creditor, paying him the first instalment of the money owing to him. No noise, no gathering of creditors, it was done very silently and quietly, but all was paid at last, helped on materially by the circumstance of one of the creditors. A crab-dold fellow, Mr. Bell says, taking in Mr. Thornton as a kind of partner. That is really fine, said Margaret. What a pity that such a nature should be tainted by his position as a Milton-manufacturer. How tainted, asked a father. Oh, Papa, by that testing everything by the standard of wealth. When he spoke of the mechanical powers, he evidently looked upon them only as new ways of extending trade and making money. And the poor men around him, they were poor because they were vicious, out of the pale of his sympathies because they had not his iron nature and the capabilities that it gives him for being rich. Not vicious, he never said that. Improvident and self-indulgent were his words. Margaret was collecting her mother's working materials and preparing to go to bed. Just as she was leaving the room, she hesitated. She was inclined to make an acknowledgement which she thought would please her father, but which, to be full and true, must include a little annoyance. However, out it came. Papa, I do think Mr. Thornton a very remarkable man, but personally, I don't like him at all. And I do, said her father, laughing. Personally, as you call it, and all. I don't set him up for a hero or anything of that kind. But good night, child. Your mother looks sadly tired tonight, Margaret. Margaret had noticed her mother's jaded appearance with anxiety for some time past, and this remark of her father's sent her up to bed with a dim fear lying like a weight on a heart. The life in Milton was so different from what Mrs. Hale had been accustomed to live in Hellston, in and out perpetually into the fresh and open air. The air itself so different, deprived of all revivifying principle as it seemed to be here. The domestic worries pressed so very closely, and in so new and sordid a form upon all the women in the family, that there was good reason to fear that her mother's health might be becoming seriously affected. There were several other signs of something wrong about Mrs. Hale. She and Dixon held mysterious consultations in a bedroom, from which Dixon would come out crying and cross, as was accustomed when any distress of her mistress called upon her sympathy. Once Margaret had gone into the chamber soon after Dixon left it, and found her mother on her knees, and as Margaret stole out, she caught a few words which were evidently a prayer for strength and patience to endure severe bodily suffering. Margaret yearned to reunite the bond of intimate confidence, which had been broken by her long residence at Aunt Shaw's, and strove by gentle caresses and softening words to creep into the warmest places in her moth's heart. But though she received caresses and fond words back again, in such profusion as would have gladdened her formally, yet she felt that there was a secret withheld from her, and she believed it bore serious reference to her mother's health. She lay awake very long this night, planning how to lessen the evil influence of their Milton life on her mother. A servant to give Dixon permanent assistance should be got, if she gave up the whole time to the search, and then, at any rate, her mother might have all the personal attention she required, and had been accustomed to her whole life. Visiting register offices, seeing all manner of unlikely people, and very few in the least likely, absorbed Margaret's time and thoughts for several days. One afternoon she met Bessie Higgins in the street, and stopped to speak to her. Well, Bessie, how are you? Better, I hope, for the wind has changed. Better, and not better, if you know what that means. Not exactly, replied Margaret, smiling. I'm better at not being torn to pieces by coughing her nights, but I'm weary and tired of Milton, and longing to get away to the land of Bula. And when I think I'm farther and farther off, my heart sinks, and I'm no better. I'm worse. Margaret turned around to walk alongside of the girl in her feeble progress homeward, but for a minute or two she did not speak. At last she said in a low voice, Bessie, do you wish to die? For she sank from death herself, with all the clinging to life so natural to the young and healthy. Bessie was silent in her turn for a minute or two, then she replied, If you'd led the life I have, and gotten as weary as I have, and thought at times, Maybe it'll last for fifty or sixty years, it does with some, and got dizzy and dazed and sick, As each of them sixty years seems to spin about me, and mock me with the strength of hours and minutes, and endless bits of time. Oh, Wench, I tell thee, thou'd be glad enough when the doctor said he feared thou'd never see another winter. Why, Bessie, what kind of life has yours been? Not worse than many others, I reckon. Only I fretted against it, and they didn't. But what was it? You know, I'm a stranger here, so perhaps I'm not so quick at understanding what you mean, as if I'd lived all my life in Milton. If you'd had come to our house when you'd said you would, I could maybe have told you, but father said you're just like the rest of them, it's out of sight, out of mind with you. I don't know who the rest are, and I've been very busy, and to tell you the truth I had forgotten my promise, you'd offered it, we'd asked none of it. I had forgotten what I said for the time, continued Margaret quietly. I should have thought of it again when I was less busy. May I go with you now? Bessie gave a quick glance at Margaret's face, to see if the wish expressed was really felt. The sharpness in her eye turned to a wistful longing, as she met Margaret's soft and friendly gaze. I have none so much to care for me. If you care, you may come. So they walked together in silence. As they turned up into a small court, opening out into a squalled street, Bessie said, You'll not be daunted if father's at home, and speaks a bit gruffish at first. He took a mind to you, you see, and he thought a deal of you coming to see us, and just because he liked you, he were vexed and put about. Don't fear, Bessie, but Nicholas was not at home when they entered. A great slatheringly girl, not so old as Bessie, but taller and stronger, was busy at the wash tub, knocking about the furniture in a rough, capable way. But altogether making so much noise that Margaret shrunk out of sympathy with poor Bessie, who had sat down on the first chair, as if completely tired out from a walk. Margaret asked the sister for a cup of water, and while she ran to fetch it, knocking down the fire irons, and tumbling over a chair in a way, she unloosened Bessie's bonnet strings to relieve her catching breath. Do you think such life as this is worth caring for? gasped Bessie at last. Margaret did not speak, but held the water to her lips. Bessie took a long and feverish draught, and then fell back and shut her eyes. Margaret heard a murmur to herself. They shall hunker no more, neither thirst no more, neither shall the sunlight on them nor any heat. Margaret bent over and said, Bessie, don't be impatient with your life, whatever it is, or may have been. Remember who gave it to you, and made it what it is? She was startled by hearing Nicholas speak behind her. He had come in without her noticing him. Now I'll not have my wench preached to. She's bad enough as it is, with her dreams and methodive fancies, and her visions of cities with golden gates and precious stones. But if it amuses her, I'll let her be. But I'm none going to have more stuff poured into her. But surely, said Margaret, facing round, you believe in what I said, that God gave her life, and ordered what kind of life it was to be. I believe what I see, and no more. That's what I believe, young woman. I don't believe all I hear. No, not by big deal. I did hear young lass make a do about knowing where we'd live, and coming to see us. And my wench here thought a great deal about it, and flushed up many a time, when who little knew, as I was looking at her, at the sound of a strange step. But who's come at last, and who's welcome, as long as he'll keep from preaching on what he knows not about? Bessie had been watching Margaret's face. Shaft sat up to speak now, laying a hand on Margaret's arm in a gesture of entreaty. Don't be vexed with him. There's none of one thinks like him, many and many a one here. If you could hear them speak, you'd not be shocked at him. He's a rare good man, his father. But oh, she said, falling back into despair. What he says at times makes me long to die more than ever. For I want to know so many things, and I'm so tossed about with wonder. Poor wench. Poor old wench. I loathe the vexed thee I am, but a man must speak out for the truth, and when I see the world going all wrong at this time of day, bothering itself with things it knows not about, and leaving undone all the things that lie in disorder close at its hand. Why I say, leave all this talk about religion alone, and set to work on what you see and know. That's my creed. It's simple, and not far to fetch nor hard to work. But the girl only pleaded the more with Margaret. Don't think hardly on him. He's a good man he is. I sometimes think I shall be milked with sorrow even in the city of God if Arthur is not there. The feverish colour came into her cheeks, and the feverish flame into her eye. But you'll be there, Father, you shall. Oh, my heart! She put her hand to it, and became ghastly pale. Margaret held her in her arms, and put the weary head to rest upon her bosom. She lifted the thin, soft hair off the temples, and bathed them with water. Nicholas understood all her signs, for different articles with the quickness of love, and even the round-eyed sister moved with laborious gentleness at Margaret's hush. Presently the spasm that foreshadowed death had passed away, and Bessie roused herself and said, I'll go to bed. It's best place. But, catching that Margaret scound, you'll come again. I know you will. But just say it. I'll come tomorrow, said Margaret. Bessie leaned back against her father, who prepared to carry her upstairs. But as Margaret rose to go, he struggled to say something. I could wish there was a god, if it were only to ask him to bless thee. Margaret went away very sad and thoughtful. She was late for tea at home. At Hilston, unpunchuality at mealtimes was a great fault in her mother's eyes. But now this, as well as many other little irregularities, seem to have lost their power of irritation, and Margaret almost longed for the old complainings. Have you met with a servant, dear? No, Mama, that Anne Buckley would never have done. Suppose I try, said Mr. Hale. Everybody else has had their turn at this great difficulty. Now, let me try. I may be the Cinderella to put on the slipper after all. Margaret could hardly smile at this little joke, so her press was her by her visit to the Higgins'. What would you do, Papa? How would you say it about it? Well, I would apply it to some good housemother to recommend me, one known to herself or her servants. Very good, but we must first catch our housemother. You have caught her. Or, rather, she's coming into the snare, and you'll catch her tomorrow, if you're skillful. What do you mean, Mr. Hale? said his wife, her curiosity aroused. Why, my paragon pupil, as Margaret calls him, has told me that his mother intends to call on Mrs. and Miss Hale tomorrow. Mr. Thornton exclaimed Miss Hale. The mother of whom he spoke to us, said Margaret. Mr. Thornton, the only mother he has, I believe, said Mr. Hale quietly. I shall like to see her. She must be an uncommon person, her mother added. Perhaps she may have a relation who might suit us and be glad of our place. She sounded to be such a careful, economical person that I should like anyone out of the same family. My dear, said Mr. Hale, alarmed. Probably don't go off on that idea. I fancy Mrs. Thornton is as haughty and proud in her own way as our little Margaret here is in hers, and that she completely ignores that old time of trial and poverty and economy of which he speaks so openly. I'm sure at any rate she would not like strangers to know anything about it. Take notice that this is not my kind of haughtiness, Papa, if I have any at all, which I don't agree to, so you're always accusing me of it. I don't know positively that it is hers either, but from little things I've gathered from him I fancy so. They cared too little to ask in what manner her son had spoken about her. Margaret only wanted to know if she must stay in to receive this call, as it would prevent her from going to see how busy was until late in the day, since the early morning was always occupied in household affairs, and then she reconciled that her mother must not be left to have the whole weight of entertaining her visitor. Chapter 12. Morning Calls. Well, I suppose we must, friends in Council. Mr. Thornton had had some difficulty in working up his mother to the desired point of civility. She did not often make calls, and when she did it was in heavy state that she went through her duties. Her son had given her a carriage, but she refused to let him keep horses for it. They were hired for the solemn occasions when she paid morning or evening visits. She had had horses for three days, not a fortnight before, and had comfortably killed off all of her acquaintances, who might now put themselves to trouble and expense in their turn. Yet Crampton was too far off for her to walk, and she had repeatedly questioned her son as to whether his wish that she should call on the hails was strong enough to bear the expense of cab hire. She would have been thankful if it had not for, as she said, she saw no use in making up friendships and intimacies with all the teachers and masters in Milton, why he would be wanting her to call on Fanny's dancing master's wife the next thing. And so I would, mother, if Mr. Mason and his wife were friendless in a strange place, like the hails. Oh, you need not speak so hastily. I am going to-morrow. I only wanted you exactly to understand about it. If you are going to-morrow, I shall order horses. Nonsense, John! One would think you were made of money. Not quite, yet. But about the horses I'm determined. The last time you were out in the cab, you came home with a headache from the jolting. I never complained of it, I'm sure. No. My mother is not given to complaints, said he, a little proudly. But so much the more I have to watch over you. Now, as for Fanny there, a little hardship would do her good. She is not made of the same stuff as you are, John. She could not bear it. Mrs. Thornton was silent after this, for her last words bore relation to a subject which mortified her. She had an unconscious contempt for a weak character, and Fanny was weak in the very points in which her mother and brother were strong. Mrs. Thornton was not a woman much given to reasoning. Her quick judgment and firm resolution served her in good stead of any long arguments and discussions with herself. She felt instinctively that nothing could strengthen Fanny to endure hardships patiently, or face difficulties bravely. And though she winced as she made this acknowledgement to herself about her daughter, it only gave her a kind of pitying tenderness of manner towards her. Much of the same description of demeanor with which mothers are wont to treat their weak and sickly children. A stranger, a careless observer, might have considered that Mrs. Thornton's manner to her children be token far more love to Fanny than to John. But such a one would have been deeply mistaken. The very daringness with which mother and son spoke out unpalatable truths, the one to the other, showed a reliance on the firm center of each other's souls, which the uneasy tenderness of Mrs. Thornton's manner to her daughter, the shame with which she thought to hide the poverty of her child and all the grand qualities which she herself possessed unconsciously, and which she set so high a value upon in others, this shame, I say, betrayed the want of a secure resting place for her affection. She never called her son by any name but John. Love and dear, and such like terms, were reserved for Fanny. But her heart gave thanks for him day and night, and she walked proudly among women for his sake. Fanny, dear, I shall have horses to the carriage today to go and call on these hails. Should you not go and see nurse? It's in the same direction, and she's always so glad to see you. You could go on there while I am at Mrs. Hales. Oh, Mama, it's such a long way, and I'm so tired. With what? asked Mrs. Thornton, her brow slightly contracting. I don't know. The weather, I think. It's so relaxing. Couldn't you bring nurse here, Mama? The carriage could fetch her, and she could spend the rest of the day here, which I know she would like. Mrs. Thornton did not speak, but she laid her work on the table and seemed to think. It will be a long way for her to walk back at night, she remarked at last. Oh, but I will send her home in a cab. I never thought of her walking. At this point Mr. Thornton came in, just before going to the mill. Mother, I need hardly say that if there is any little thing that could serve Mrs. Hale as an invalid, you will offer it, I'm sure. If I can find it out I will, but I have never been ill myself, so I am not much up to invalid's fancies. Well, here is Fanny, then, who has seldom without an ailment. She will be able to suggest something, perhaps. Won't you, Fan? I have not always an ailment, said Fanny pettishly, and I am not going with Mama. I have a headache today, and I shan't go out. Mr. Thornton looked annoyed. His mother's eyes were bent on her work, at which she was now stitching away busily. Fanny, I wish you to go, said he authoritatively. It will do you good instead of harm. You will oblige me by going without saying anything more about it. He went abruptly out of the room after saying this. If he had stayed a minute longer, Fanny would have cried out at his tone of command, even when he used the words, you will oblige me. As it was, she grumbled. John always speaks as if I fancied I was ill, and I'm sure I never do fancy any such thing. Who are these hails that he makes such a fuss about? Fanny, don't speak so of your brother. He has good reasons of some kind or other, or he would not wish us to go. Make haste and put your things on. But the little altercation between her son and her daughter did not incline Mrs. Thornton more favourably towards these hails. Her jealous heart repeated her daughter's question. Who are they that he is so anxious we should pay them all this attention? It came up like a burden to a song long after Fanny had forgotten all about it in the pleasant excitement of seeing the effect of a new bonnet in the looking glass. Mrs. Thornton was shy. It was only of late years that she had had leisure enough in her life to go into society, and a society she did not enjoy it. As dinner-giving and as criticising other people's dinners she took satisfaction in it, but this going to make acquaintance with strangers was a very different thing. She was ill at ease, and looked more than usually stern and forbidding as she entered the hails' little drawing-room. Margaret was busy embroidering a small piece of cambrick for some little article of dress for Edith's expected baby. Flimsy useless work, as Mrs. Thornton observed to herself. She liked Mrs. Hale's double knitting far better. That was sensible of its kind. The room altogether was full of knick-knacks, which must take a long time to dust, and time to people of limited income was money. She made all these reflections as she was talking in her stately way to Mrs. Hale, and uttering all the stereotyped commonplaces that most people can find to say with their senses blindfolded. Mrs. Hale was making rather more exertion in her answers, captivated by some real old lace which Mrs. Thornton wore—lace, as she afterwards observed to Dixon—of that old English point which has not been made for this seventy years and which cannot be bought. It must have been an heirloom, and shows that she had ancestors. So the owner of the ancestral lace became worthy of something more than the languid exertion to be agreeable to a visitor, by which Mrs. Hale's effort and conversation would have been otherwise bounded. And presently Margaret, racking her brain to talk to Fanny, heard her mother and Mrs. Thornton plunge into the interminable subject of servants. I suppose you're not musical, said Fanny, as I see no piano. I'm fond of hearing good music. I cannot play well myself, and Papa and Mama don't care much about it, so we sold our old piano when we came here. I wonder how you can exist without one? It almost seems to me unnecessary of life. Fifteen shillings a week and three saved out of them, thought Margaret to herself. But she must have been very young. She probably has forgotten her own personal experience, but she must know of those days. Margaret's manner had an extra tinge of coldness in it when she next spoke. You have good concerts here, I believe. Oh yes! Delicious! Too crowded, that is the worst. The directors admit so indiscriminately. But one is sure to hear the newest music there. I always have a large order to give to Johnson's the day after a concert. Do you like new music simply for its newness, then? Oh, one knows it's the fashion in London, or else the singers would not bring it down here. You have been in London, of course. Yes, said Margaret. I've lived there for several years. Oh, London and the Ahammer are the two places I long to see. London and the Alhambra? Yes! Ever since I read the tales of the Alhambra, don't you know them? I don't think I do, but surely it is a very easy journey to London. Yes, but somehow, said Fanny, lowering her voice. Mama has never been to London herself and can't understand my longing. She's very proud of Milton, dirty, smoky places I feel it to be. I believe she admires it the more for those very qualities. If it has been Mrs. Thornton's home for some years, I can well understand her loving it, said Margaret, in her clear bell-like voice. What are you saying about me, Miss Hale? May I inquire? Margaret had not the words ready for an answer to this question, which took her a little by surprise. So Mrs. Thornton replied, Oh, Mama, we are just trying to account for your being so fond of Milton. Thank you, said Mrs. Thornton. I do not feel that my very natural liking for the place where I was born and brought up, and which has since been my residence for some years, requires any accounting for— Margaret was vexed. As Fanny had put it, it did seem as if they had been impertently discussing Mrs. Thornton's feelings. But she also rose up against that lady's manner of showing that she was offended. Mrs. Thornton went on after a moment's pause. Do you know anything of Milton, Miss Hale? Have you seen any of our factories? Our magnificent warehouses? No, said Margaret. I have not seen anything of that description as yet. Then she felt that by concealing her utter indifference to all such places, she was hardly speaking with truth. So she went on. I daresay Papa would have taken me before now if I had cared, but I really do not find much pleasure in going over manufactories. They are very curious places, said Mrs. Hale, but there is so much noise and dirt always. I remember once going in a lilac silk to see candles made, and my gown was utterly ruined. Very probably, said Mrs. Thornton, in a short, displeased manner. I merely thought that as strangers newly come to reside in a town which has risen to eminence in the country from the character and progress of its peculiar business, you might have cared to visit some of the places where it is carried on, places unique in the kingdom I am informed. If Miss Hale changes her mind and condescends to be curious as to the manufacturers of Milton, I can only say I shall be glad to ensure her admission to print-works or readmaking or the more simplistic operations of spinning carried on in my son's mill. Every improvement of machinery is, I believe, to be seen there in its highest perfection. I am so glad you don't like mills and manufactories and all those kinds of things, said Fanny and a half-whisper, as she rose to accompany her mother, who was taking leave of Mrs. Hale with rustling dignity. I think I should like to know all about them if I were you. replied Margaret quietly. Fanny! said her mother, as they drove away. We will be civil to these hails, but don't form one of your hasty friendships with the daughter. She will do you no good, I see. The mother looks very ill and seems a nice, quiet kind of person. I don't want to form any friendship with Miss Hale, Mama, said Fanny, pouting. I thought I was doing my duty by talking to her and trying to amuse her. Well, at any rate, John must be satisfied now. End of Chapter 12 That death itself shall not remain. That weary deserts we may tread, a dreary labyrinth may thread. Through dark ways underground be led. Yet if we will one guide obey, the drearyest path the darkest way shall issue out in heavenly day. And we on diver's shores now cast shall meet our perilous voyage past, all in our father's house at last, RC Trench. Margaret flew upstairs as soon as their visitors were gone and put on her bonnet and shore to run and inquire how Bessie Higgins was and sit with her as long as she could before dinner. As she went along the crowded narrow streets, she felt how much of interest they had gained by the simple fact of her having learnt to care for a dweller in them. Mary Higgins, the slater only younger sister, had endeavored as well as she could to tidy up the house for the expected visit. There had been rough stoning done in the middle of the floor, while the flags under the chairs and table and round the walls retained their dark unwashed appearance. Although the day was hot, there burnt a large fire in the grate, making the whole place feel like an oven. Margaret did not understand that the lavishness of coals was a sign of hospitable welcome to her on Mary's part and thought that perhaps the oppressive heat was necessary for Bessie. Bessie herself lay on a squab or short sofa placed under the window. She was very much more feeble than on the previous day and tired with raising herself at every step to look out and see if it was Margaret coming. And now that Margaret was there and had taken a chair by her, Bessie lay back silent and content to look at Margaret's face and touch her articles of dress with the childish admiration of their fineness of texture. I never knew why folk in the Bible cared for soft rain and a four, but it must be nice to go dressed as you do. It's different from common. Most fine folk tie my eyes out with their colours, but somehow yours rest me. Where did you get this frock? In London, said Margaret, much amused. London, have you been in London? Yes, I lived there for some years, but my home was in a forest in the country. Tell me about it, said Bessie. I like to hear you speak of the country and trees and such like things. She lent back and shut her eyes and crossed her hands over her breast, lying at perfect rest as if to receive all the ideas Margaret could suggest. Margaret had never spoken of Hellston since she left it, except just naming the place incidentally. She saw it in dreams more vivid than life and as she fell away to slumber at nights her memory wandered in all its pleasant places. But her heart was open to this girl. Oh Bessie, I love the home we've left so dearly. I wish you could see it. I cannot tell you half its beauty. There are great trees standing all about it with their branches stretching long and level and making a deep shade of rest even at noonday. And yet though every leaf may seem still there is a continual rushing sound of movement all round, not close at hand. Then sometimes the turf is as soft and fine as velvet and sometimes quite lush with the perpetual moisture of a little hidden tinkling book near at hand. And then in other parts there are billowy ferns, whole stretches of fern, some in the green shadow, some with long streaks of golden sunlight lying on them just like the sea. I have never seen the sea, Mehmed Bessie, but go on. Then here and there there are wide commons, high up as if above the very tops of the trees. I'm glad of that. I felt smothered like down below. When I've gone for an out, I've always wanted to get high up and see far away and take a deep breath of fullness in that air. I get smothered enough in Milton and I think the sound you speak of among the trees going on forever and ever would send me dazed. It's that made me at my head ache so in the mill. Now on these commons I reckon there is but little noise. No said Margaret, nothing but here and there are like high in the air. Sometimes I used to hear a farmer speaking sharp and loud to his servants, but it was so far away that it only reminded me pleasantly that other people were hard at work in some distant place while I just sat on the heather and did nothing. I used to think once that if I could have a day of doing nothing, to rest me a day in some quiet place that you speak on, it would maybe set me up. But now I've had many days of idleness and I'm just as weary of them as I was in my work. Sometimes I'm so tired out I think I cannot enjoy heaven without a piece of rest first. I'm rather afraid of going straight there without getting a good sleep in the grave to set me up. Don't be afraid, Bessie, said Margaret, laying her hand on the girls. God can give you more perfect rest than even idleness on earth or the dead sleep of the grave can do. Bessie moved uneasily. Then she said, I wish Father would not speak as he does. He means well. I told you yesterday and I'll tell you again and again. But you see though, I don't believe him a bit by day, yet by night when I'm in a fever, I'll sleep in half awake. It comes back upon me. Oh, so bad. And I think if this should be the end of all, and if all I have been born for is just to work my heart and my life away and to sicken in this dreary place with their mill noises in my ears forever, until I could scream out for them to stop and let me have a little peace acquired and with the fluff fillin' me lungs until I thirst to death for one long deep breath of the clear air you speak on and my mother gone, and I'm never able to tell her again how I loved her. And oh, all my troubles, I think if this life is the end and that there's no God to wipe away all the tears from all eyes, yo whench yo, said she, sitting up and clutching violently almost fiercely at Margaret's hand. I could go mad and kill you. I could. She fell back completely worn out with her passion. Margaret knelt down by her. Bessie, we have a father in heaven. I know it, I know it, moon she turning her head uneasily from side to side. I'm very wicked. I've spoken very wickedly. Oh, don't be frightened by me and never come again. I would not harm a hair of your head and opening her eyes and looking earnestly at Margaret. I believe perhaps more than you do or what is to come. I read the book of revelations until I know it off my heart and I never doubt when I'm waking and in my senses of all the glory I'm to come to. Don't let us talk of what fancies come into your head when you are feverish. I would rather hear something about what you used to do when you were well. I think I was well when mother died, but I've never been rightly strong since somewhere about that time. I began to work in a carding room soon after and the fluff got into my lungs and poisoned me. Fluff, said Margaret inquiringly. Fluff repeated Bessie. Little bits as fly off from the cotton when they're carding it and fill the air till it looks all fine white dust. They say it winds round the lungs and tightens them up. Anyhow, there's many a one works in a carding room that falls into a waste, coughing and spitting blood because they're just poisoned by the fluff. But can't it be helped, asked Margaret? I don't know, some folk have a great wheel at one end of their carding rooms to make a draft and carry off the dust. But that wheel costs a deal of money, five or six hundred pound maybe and brings in no profit. So it's but a few of the masters as we'll put them up. But I've heard teller men who didn't like working in places where there was a wheel because they said how it made them hungry and they've been long used to swallowing fluff to go without it and so that their wage ought to be raised if they were to work in such places. So between masters and men the wheels fall through. I know I wish there'd been a wheel in our place though. Did not your father know about it, asked Margaret? Yes, and he was sorry, but our factory were a good one on the whole and a steady likely set of people and father was feared of letting me go to a strange place. For though you would not think it now, many a one then used to call me a greatly less enough. And I didn't like to be recognition soft and Mary schooling would have be kept up, mother said and father he was always liking to buy books and go to lectures of one kind or another, all which took money. So I just worked on till I shall never get the wear out of my ears or the fluff out of my throat in this world, that's all. How old are you, asked Margaret? Nineteen come July and I too am nineteen she thought more sorrowfully than Bessie did of the contrast between them. She could not speak for a moment or two for the emotion she was trying to keep down. About Mary, said Bessie. I wanted to ask you to be a friend to her. She's seventeen but she's the last on us and I don't want her to go to the mill and yet I don't know what she's fit for. She could not do Margaret Glanson consciously at the unclean corners of the room. She could hardly undertake a servant's place could she? We have an old faithful servant almost a friend who wants help but who is very particular and it would not be right to plague her with giving her any assistance that would really be an annoyance and an irritation. No I see, I reckon you're right our Mary's a good wench but who has she had to teach her what to do about a house? No mother and me at the mill to lie were good for nothing scolding her for doing badly what I didn't know how to do a bit but I wish she could have lived with you for all that but even though she may not be exactly fitted to come and live with us as a servant and I know about that I will always try and be a friend to her for your sake Bessie and now I must go I will come again as soon as I can but if it should not be tomorrow or the next day or even a week or a fortnight hence don't think I've forgotten you I may be busy. I'll know you won't forget me again I'll not mistrust you no more but remember in a week or a fortnight I may be dead and buried I'll come as soon as I can Bessie said Margaret squeezing her hand tight but you'll let me know if you're worse I that I will said Bessie returning the pressure from that day forwards Mrs. Hale became more and more of a suffering invalid it was now drawing near to the anniversary of Edith's marriage and looking back upon the years accumulated heap of troubles she wondered how they'd been born if she could have anticipated them how she would have shrunk away and hit herself from the coming time and yet day by day had of itself and by itself been very indurable small keen bright little spots of positive enjoyment having come sparkling into the very middle of the sorrows a year ago when she first went to Halston and first became silently conscious of the quarrelousness in her mother's temper she would have grown bitterly over the idea of a long illness to be born in a strange, desolate, noisy, busy place with diminished comforts on every side of their home life but with the increase of serious and just ground of complaint a new kind of patience had sprung up in her mother's mind she was gentle and quiet in intense bodily suffering almost in proportion as she had been restless and depressed when there had been no real cause for grief Mr. Hale wasn't exactly that stage of apprehension which in many of his stance takes the shape of willful blindness he was more irritated than Margaret had ever known him and his daughters expressed anxiety indeed Margaret you are growing fanciful God knows I should be the first to take the alarm if your mother were really ill we always saw when she had her headaches at Halston even without her telling us she looks quite pale and white when she is ill and now she has a bright healthy colour in her cheeks just as she used to have when I first knew her but Papa said Margaret with hesitation do you know I think that is the flush of pain nonce Margaret I tell you you are too fanciful you are the person not well I think send for the doctor tomorrow for yourself and then if it will make your mind easier he can see your mother thank you dear Papa it will make me happier indeed and she went up to him to kiss him but he pushed her away gently enough but still as if she had suggested unpleasant ideas which he should be glad to get rid of as readily as he could have her presence he walked uneasily up and down the room poor Maria said he half soliloquizing well which one could do right without sacrificing others I shall hate this town on myself too if she pray Margaret does your mother often talk to you of the old places of Halston I mean no Papa so Margaret sadly then you see she can't be fretting after them eh it has always been a comfort to me to think that your mother was so simple and open that I knew every little grievance she had she never would conceal anything seriously affecting her health from me would she eh Margaret I'm quite sure she would not so don't let me hear of these foolish morbid ideas come give me a kiss and run off to bed but she heard him pacing about racooning as she and Edith used to call it long after her slow and languid undressing was finished long after she began to listen as she lay in bed End of Chapter 13 Chapter 14 North and South This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Hanna Finland North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell Chapter 14 The Mutiny I was used to sleep at nights as sweetly as a child now if the wind blew rough it made me start and think of my poor boy tossing about upon the roaring seas and then I seemed to feel that it was hard to take him from me for such a little fault It was a comfort to Margaret about this time to find that her mother drew more tenderly and intimately towards her than she had ever done since the days of her childhood She took her to her heart as a confidential friend the post Margaret had always longed to fill and had envied Dixon for being preferred to Margaret took pains to respond to every call made upon her for sympathy and there were many even when they bore relation to truffles which she would no more have noticed or regarded herself than the elephant would perceive a little pin at his feet which yet he lifts carefully up at the bidding of his keeper All unconsciously Margaret drew near to a reward One evening Mr. Hale being absent her mother began to talk to her about her brother Frederick the very subject on which Margaret had longed to ask questions and almost the only one on which her timidity overcame her natural openness The more she wanted to hear about him the less likely she was to speak Oh Margaret, it was so windy last night it came howling down the chimney in our room I could not sleep I never can when there is such a terrible wind I got into a wakeful habit when poor Frederick was at sea and now even if I don't wake in all at once I dream of him in some stormy sea with great clear glass green walls of waves on either side of his ship but far higher than her very masts curling over her with that cruel terrible white foam like some gigantic crested serpent It is an old dream but it always comes back on windy nights till I am thankful to Waken sitting straight and stiff up in my bed with my terror Poor Frederick he is on land now so wind can do him no harm though I did think it might shake down some of those tall tunies Where is Frederick now Mama? Our letters are directed to the care of Monsignor Bardot at Cadiz I know but where is he himself? I can't remember the name of the place but he is not called Hale you must remember that Margaret Notice the FD in every corner of the letters he has taken the name of Dickinson I wanted him to have been called Beresford to which he had kind of right but your father thought he had better not he might be recognized you know if he were called by my name Mama said Margaret I was at Aunt Sean's when it all happened and I suppose I was not old enough to be told plainly about it but I should like to know now if I may if it does not give you too much pain to speak about it Pain no replied Mrs. Hale her cheeks flushing yet it is pain to think that perhaps I may never see my darling boy again or else he did right Margaret they may say what they like but I have his own letters to show and I'll believe him though he is my son sooner than any court martial on earth go to my little Japan cabinet dear and in the second left hand drawer you will find a packet of letters Margaret went there were the yellow sea stained letters with the peculiar fragments which ocean letters have Margaret carried them back to her mother who untied the silken string with trembling fingers and examining their dates she gave them to Margaret to read making her hurried anxious remarks on their contents almost before her daughter could have understood what they were you see Margaret how from the very first he disliked Captain Reed he was second lieutenant in the ship the Orion in which Frederick sailed the very first time poor little fellow how well he looks in his midship mad stress with this jerk in his hand cutting open all the newspapers with it as if it were a paper knife but this Mr. Reed as it was then seemed to take a dislike to Frederick from the very beginning and then stay these are the letters he wrote on board the Russell when he was appointed to her and found his old enemy Captain Reed in command he did mean to bear all his tyranny patiently look this is the letter just read it Margaret where is it he says stop my father may rely upon me that I will bear with all proper patience everything that one officer and gentlemen can take from another but from my former knowledge of my present captain I confess I look forward with apprehension to a long course of tyranny on board the Russell you see he promises to bear patiently and I am sure he did for he was the sweetest tempered boy when he was not next that could possibly be is that the letter in which he speaks of Captain Reed's impatience with the men for not going through the ship's maneuvers as quickly as the Avenger you see he says that they had many new hands on board the Russell while the Avenger had been nearly three years on the station with nothing to do but to keep slavers off and work her men till they ran up and down the rigging like rats or monkeys Margaret slowly read the letter half illegible through the fading of the ink it might be it probably was a statement of Captain Reed's imperiousness in trifles very much exaggerated by the narrator who had written it while fresh and warm from the scene of altercation some sailors being aloft in the main top sail rigging the captain had ordered them to raise down threatening the hint most with a cat of nine tails he who was the furthest on the spar feeling the impossibility of passing his companions and yet passionately dreading the disgrace of the flogging threw himself desperately down to catch a rope considerably lower failing and fell senseless on deck he only survived for a few hours afterwards and the indignation of the ship's crew was at boiling point when young Hale wrote but we did not receive this letter till long long after we heard of the mutiny poor Fred I dare say it was a comfort to him to write it even though he could not have known how to send it poor fellow and then we saw a report in the papers that's to say long before Fred's letter reached us of an atrocious mutiny having broken out on board the Russell and that mutineers had remained in possession of the ship which had gone off it was supposed to be a pirate and that captain Reid was sent to drift in a boat with some men officers or something whose names were all giving for they were picked up by a West Indian steamer oh Margaret how your father and I turned sick over that list when there was no name Frederick Hale we thought it must be some mistake for poor Fred was such a fine fellow only perhaps rather too passionate and we hoped that the name of Carr which was in the list was a misprint for that of Hale newspapers are so careless and towards the post time the next day Papa set off to walk to Southampton to get the papers and I could not stop at home so I went to meet him he was very late much later than I thought he would have been and I sat down under the edge to wait for him he came at last his arms hanging loose down his head sunk and walking heavily along as if every step was a labor and a trouble Margaret I see him now don't go on Mama I can understand it all said Margaret leaning up caressingly against her mother's side and kissing her hand no you can't Margaret no one can who did not see him then I could hardly lift myself up to go and meet him everything seems so to reel around me all at once and when I got to him he did not speak or seemed surprised to see me there more than three miles from home beside the old home beach tree but he put my arm in his and kept stroking my hand as if he wanted to soothe me to be very quiet under some great heavy blow and when I trembled so all over that I could not speak he took me in his arms and stooped down his head on mine and began to shake and to cry in a strange muffled groaning voice till I, for very fright stood quite still and only begged him to tell me what he had heard and then with his hand jerking as if someone else moved it against his will he gave me a wicked newspaper to read calling our Frederick a traitor of the blackest dye a base ungrateful disgrace to his profession why cannot tell what bad words they did not use I took the paper in my hands as soon as I had read it I tore it up to little bits I tore it oh, I believe Margaret I tore it with my teeth I did not cry I could not my cheeks were as hot as fire and my very eyes burnt in my head I saw your father looking grave at me I said it was a lie and so it was months after this letter came and you see what provocation Frederick had it was not for himself or his own injuries he rebelled but he would speak his mind to Captain Reed and so it went on from bad to worse and you see most of the sailors stuck by Frederick I think Margaret she continued after a pause in a weak trembling exhausted voice I am glad of it I am prouder of Frederick standing up against injustice than if he had been simply a good officer I am sure I am said Margaret in a firm decided tone loyalty and obedience to wisdom and justice are fine but it is still finer to defy arbitrary power unjustly and cruelly used not on behalf of ourselves but on behalf of others more helpless for all that I wish I could see Frederick once more just once he was my first baby Margaret Mrs. Hale spoke wistfully and almost as if apologizing for the yearning craving wish as though it were a deprecation of her remaining child but such an idea never crossed Margaret's mind she was thinking how her mother's desire could be fulfilled it is six or seven years ago would they still prosecute him mother if he came and stood his trial what would be the punishment surely he might bring evidence to his great provocation it would do no good replied Mrs. Hale some of the sailors who accompanied Frederick were taken and there was a court martial held on them on board the Amesia I believed all they said in their defense poor fellows because it just agreed with Frederick's story but it was of no use and for the first time during the conversation Mrs. Hale began to cry yet something possessed Margaret to force the information she foresaw yet dreaded from her mother what happened to them mama asked she they were hung at the yard arm said Mrs. Hale solemnly and the worst was that the court in condemning them to death said they had suffered themselves to be led astray from their duty by their superior officers they were silent for a long time and Frederick was in South America for several years was he not yes and now he's in Spain at Cadiz or somewhere near it if he comes to England he will be hung I shall never see his face again for if he comes to England he will be hung there was no comfort to be given Mrs. Hale turned her face to the wall and lay perfectly still in her mother's despair nothing could be said to console her she took her hand out of Margaret with a little impatient movement as if she would feign to be left alone with the recollection of her son when Mr. Hale came in Margaret went out oppressed with gloom and seeing no promise of brightness on any side of the horizon End of Chapter 14 Chapter 15 North and South This is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell Chapter 15 Masters and Men Thought fights with thought out springs the spark of truth from the collision of the sword and shield W. S. Landall Margaret said her father the next day we must return Mrs. Thornton's call your mother is not very well I think she cannot talk so far but you and I will go with this afternoon as they went Mr. Hale began about his wife's health with a kind of veiled anxiety which Margaret was glad to see awakened at last as you consult the doctor on Margaret did you send for him? No, but Pa he spoke of his coming to see me now I was well which if I only knew of some good doctor I would go this afternoon and ask him to come for I'm sure my mother is seriously indisposed she put the truth thus plainly and strongly because her father had served completely shut his mind against the idea when she had last named her fears but no the case was changed he answered in a despondent tone Do you think she is any hidden complete do you think she is really very ill has Dixon said anything? Oh Margaret I am haunted by the fear that our coming to Milton has killed her my poor Maria Ay Papa don't imagine such things said Margaret shocked she is not well that is all many a wound is not well for a time and with good advice gets better and stronger than ever but has Dixon said anything about her? No you know Dixon enjoys making a mystery at her trifles and she has been a little mysterious about my mother's health which has allowed me rather that is all without any reason I dare say you know Papa you said the other day I was getting fanciful I hope and trust you are but don't think of what I said then I like you to be fanciful about your mother's health don't be afraid of telling me your fancies I like to hear them though I dare say I spoke as if I was annoyed but we will ask Mrs. Thornton if she can tell us of a good doctor we won't throw away our money on any but someone first rate stay return up the street the street did not look as if it could contain any house large enough for Mrs. Thornton's habitation her son's presence never gave any impression as to the kind of house she lived in but unconsciously Margaret had imagined that tall massive, handsomely dressed Mrs. Thornton must live in the house of the same character as herself Melmober Street consisted of lone rows of small houses with a black wall here and there at least that was all they could see from the point at which they entered it he told me he lived in Mober Street I'm sure, said Mr. Hale with a much-perplexed air perhaps it is one of the economies he still practices to live in a very small house but here are plenty of people about, let me ask she accordingly inquired of a passerby and was informed that Mrs. Thornton lived close to the mill and had the factory lodge door printed out to her at the end of the long dead wall they had noticed the lodge door was like a common garden door on one side of it were great close gates for the ingress and egress of lorries and wagons the lodge keeper had printed them into a great top-long yard on one side of it were offices for the transaction of business on the opposite, an immense many-winded mill was preceded by a continual clank of machinery and a long-growing wall of steam engine enough to defend those who lived within the enclosure opposite to the wall along which the street ran on one of the narrow sides of the oblong was a handsome stone-coped house lacking to be sure by the smoke but with paint, windows and steps kept scrupulously clean it was evidently a house which had been built some 50 or 60 years stained facings, the long narrow windows and the number of them the flights of steps up to the front door ascending from either side and guarded by railing all witnessed to its age Margaret only wanted by people who could afford to live in so good a house and keep it in such perfect order did not prefer much smaller dwelling in the country or even some suburb not in a continual whirl and din of the factory her unaccustomed ears could highly catch a fire's voice as it stood under steps awaiting the opening of the door the yard too, with the great doors and the dead water's boundary was but a dismal look out for the sitting room of the house as Margaret found when they had mounted the old-fashioned stairs and been dashed into the drawing room three windows of which went over the front door and the room on the right-hand side of the entrance there was no one in the drawing room it seems no one had been in it since the day when the furniture was bagged up with as much chaos as the house was to be overwhelmed with lava and discovered a thousand years hence the walls were pink and gold the pattern on the carpet represented bunches of flowers on the light-ground but it was carefully covered up in the centre by linen and draget, glazed in colourless the window curtains were lace each chair and sofa had its own particular veil of knitting or knitting great alabaster groups occupied every flat space safe from dust under their glass shades in the middle of the room right under the banged-up chandelier there was a large circular table with smartly bound books written at regular intervals around the circumference of its polished surface like ghillie-coloured spokes of a wheel everything reflected light nothing absorbed it the whole room had a painfully spotted spangled speckled look about it which impressed Margaret so unpleasantly that she was hardly conscious of the peculiar cleanliness required to keep everything so white and pure in such an atmosphere or of the trouble that must be willingly expended to secure that effect of icy, sneer discomfort wherever she looked there was evidence of care and labour but not care and labour to procure ease to help on habits of tranquil home employment solely to ornament and then to preserve ornament from dirt or destruction they had leisure to observe and to speak to each other in their voices before mrs. Thornton appeared they were talking of what all the world might hear but it is a common effect of such a rumours this to make people speak alone as if one were willing to awaken their news decos at last mrs. Thornton came in rustling in handsome black silk as was her want her muscles and laces rivaling not excelling the pure whiteness of the muscles and knitting of the room Margaret explained how it was that her mother could not accompany them to mrs. Thornton's hall but in her anxiety not to bring back her father's fears too vividly she gave but a bungling account and left the impression in mrs. Thornton's mind that mrs. Hales was some temporary or fanciful fine alias in disposition which might have been put aside had there been a strong enough motive it was too severe to allow her to come at that day the call might have been deferred remembering too the horses to her carriage hired for her own visit to the hails and her family had been ordered to go by mrs. Thornton in order to pay every respect to them mrs. Thornton drew up slightly offended and gave Margaret no sympathy he did hardly any credit with the statement of her mother's indisposition her always mrs. Thornton asked mrs. Hale I was afraid it was not well from his horrid note yesterday my son is rarely ill and when he is he never speaks about it or makes an excuse for not doing anything he told me he could not get leisure to read with you last night sir he regretted it I'm sure he values the hours spent with you I'm sure they are equally agreeable to me so mrs. Hale it makes me feel young again to see his enjoyment and appreciation of all that is fine in classical literature I have no doubt the classics are very desirable for people who have leisure but I confess it was against my judgment that my son renewed his study of them the time and place in which he lives seemed to me to require all his energy and attention classics may do very well for men who know what to away their lives in the country or oncologists but built in men ought to have their thoughts and powers absorbed in the work of today at least that is my opinion this last clause she gave out of the pride that abes humanity but surely if the mind is too long directed to one object only it will get stiff and rigid and unable to take in many interests said Margaret I do not quite understand what you mean by a mind getting stiff and rigid nor do I admire those worthy good characters that are full of this thing today to be utterly forgetful of it in their new interest to model having many interests does not suit the life of a milk manufacturer it is or to be enough for him to have one great desire and to bring all the purposes of his life to bear on the fulfilment of that and that is mrs. Hale her solid cheek flashed in her eye light and as she answered to hold and maintain her high honour will place the merchants of his country, the men of his town such a place my son has earned for himself Grower, where you will and on seeing England or Lee but in Europe the name of John Thornton of milk is known and respected amongst all men of business of course it is our known in the fashionable circles she continued scornfully our diligent men and ladies are not likely to know much of a milk manufacturer unless he gets into Parliament or marries a Lord's daughter both Mr. Hale and Margaret had an easy ludicrous consciousness that they had never heard of this great name until Mr. Bell had written them right that Mr. Thornton would be a good friend to have in Milton the proud mother's world was not their world of highly strict gentilities on the one hand or country clergymen and hamster squires on the other Margaret's face despite of all her efforts to keep it simply listening in this expression told the sensitive mrs. Thornton's feeling of hers you think you never heard of this wonderful son of mine mrs. Hale you think I'm an old woman his ideas are bounded by Milton what was the whitest ever seen no said Margaret with some spirit it may be true that I was thinking I'd hardly heard mrs. Thornton's name before I came to Milton but since I have come here I have heard me enough to make me respect and admire him and to feel how much justice and truth there is in what you have said of him those spoke to you of him asked mrs. Thornton a little modified yet jealous less than anyone else's words should not have done him full justice Margaret hesitated before she replied she did not like this authority of questioning mrs. Hale came in as he thought to the rescue it was what mrs. Thornton said himself that made us know what the kind of man he was was it not Margaret mrs. Thornton drew herself up and said my son is not the wanted to love his own doings may I again ask him mrs. Hale from whose account you formed your favourable opinion of him and whether his curious ingredient of combination of the children you know Margaret replied it was as much from what mrs. Thornton withheld of that which we had been told of his previous life and mrs. Bell it was more that than what he had said that made us all feel what we didn't have to be proud of him mrs. Bell what can he know of John he living a lazy life in a drowsy college but from a blush to you mrs. Hale many are missing lady with a shrump from giving an old woman the pleasure of hearing that her son was well spoken of why asked Margaret looking straight at mrs. Thornton in the ornament why because I suppose they might have consciousness that told them how surely they were making the old mother into an advocate for them in case they had any plans on the son's hat she smiled a grim smile she had been pleased by Margaret's frankness and perhaps she felt that she had been asking questions too much as if she had any right to cataclyse Margaret laughed out right at the notion presented to her laughed so merrily that it graded on mrs. Thornton's ear which is the words that called forth that laugh must have been utterly and entirely ludicrous Margaret stopped her merriment as soon as she saw mrs. Thornton's annoyed look I beg your pardon madame but I really am very much obliged to you for because I'm narrating this to you I beg your pardon madame but I really am very much obliged to you for because I'm narrating me from making any plans on mrs. Thornton's heart I beg your pardon madame but I really am very much obliged to you for because I'm narrating me from making any plans on mrs. Thornton's heart the day it is half before now said mrs. Thornton stiffly I hope mrs. Thornton as well put in Mr. Hill's desires of changing the current of the conversation she is as well as she ever is she is not strong replied mrs. Thornton shortly and mrs. Thornton I suppose I may hope to see him on Thursday I cannot answer for my son's engagements there is some uncomfortable work going on in the town by threatening of a strike if so his experience and judgment will make him much consorted by his friends but I should think he will come on Thursday at any rate I'm sure he will let you know if he cannot a strike asked margaret what for what are they going to strike for for their master's ship and ownership of other people's property said mrs. Thornton with a fierce nought that is what they always strike for mrs. Thornton's work people strike for mrs. Thornton's work people strike I only say they will pack a long grateful hounds but I have no doubt they will they are wanting higher wages I suppose asked Mr. Hill that is the face of the thing but the truth is they want to be masters and make the masters into slaves on their own ground they always trying at it they always have it in their minds and every 5 or 6 years they come to struggle between masters and men they'll find themselves mistaken this time I fancy a little out there reckoning if they turn out they may find it so easy to go in again I believe the masters have a thing or two in their heads which will teach them not to strike again in a hurry if they try at this time does not make the town very rough asked margaret of course it does but surely you are not a coward are you nothing is not the place for cowards I have known the town when I have had to thread my way through a crowd of white angry men all swearing they would have muckins' blood as soon as he ventured to show his nose out of his factory and d. knowing nothing of it someone had to go and tell him he was a dead man and he needed to be a woman so I went and when I had got in I could not get out it was as much as my life was worth so I went up to the roof where there were storms powered ready to chop on the heads of the crowd they tried to force the factory doors and I would have lifted those heavy storms and dropped them with as good a name as the best man there but as I fainted with the heat I had gone through if you live in Milton you must learn to have a brave heart Miss Hale I would do my best said Margaret, father pale I do not know whether I am brave or not until I am tried but I am afraid I should be a coward South country people are often frightened by what a dark shaman of women only call living and struggling when you've been ten years among the people who are always only a bit as a grudge and only waiting for an opportunity to pay it off you'll know whether you are a coward or not take my word for it Mr. Saunders came that evening to Mr. Hale's he was shown up into the drawing room when Mr. Hale was reading a lie to his wife and daughter I am calm partly to bring you a note from my mother and partly to apologise for not keeping to my time, Mr. Do the note contains the address he asked for Dr. Dodonson Thank you, Mr. Margaret hastily holding at her hand to take the note she did not wish her mother to hear that they had been making an inquiry about her doctor she was pleased that Mr. Saunders immediately did understand her feeling he gave her the note without another word of explanation Mr. Hale began to talk about the strike Mr. Doonson's face assumed an likeness to his mother's worst expression which immediately repelled the watching Margaret Yes, the foes will have a strike and let them be too sauceful enough but we gave them a chance they think trade is flourishing as it was last year we see the storm on the horizon and drawing our sails but because we don't explain our reasons they won't believe we're acting reasonably we also gave them lining letter for the way we choose to spend or save our money Henderson tried to dodge it with his men at Tashley and failed he rather wanted a strike he would have suited his book well enough so when the men came to ask for the 5% deal claiming he told them he'd think about it and give them his answer on the payday knowing all the while that he wanted his answer would be but thinking he'd strengthen the legacy of their own way however they were too deep for him and heard something about the bad prospects of trade so when they came on the Friday and drew back their claim and that has applied to go on working but we, Milton Masters, have to date into our decision we won't have fans of penny we tell them we may have to lower wages but can't afford to raise so here we stand waiting for the next attack and what will that be? asked Mr. Hale our conjecture, the simultaneous strike you will see Milton without smoking a few days I imagine is Hale but why? asked she could you not explain what good reason you have for expecting bad trade I don't know whether I use the right words but you will understand what I mean do you give your servants reasons for your expenditure or your economy in the use of your own money we the honours of capital have a right to choose what we will do with it a human right? said Margaret very low I beg your pardon I did not hear what you said I would rather not repeat it said she, it related to her feeling which I do not think he would share won't you try me? pleaded he his thoughts suddenly bent upon learning what she had said she was displeased with his personality but did not choose to affix too much importance to her words I said you had a human right I meant that there seemed no reason but religious ones I should not do what you like with your own I know we differ in our religious opinions but thought you'd give me credit for having some they're not the same as yours he was speaking in a subdued voice as if to her alone she did not wish to be so exclusively addressed she replied in her usual tone I do not think I have any occasion to consider your special religious opinions in the affair all I'm to say is that there is no human law to prevent the employers from utterly wasting or throwing away all their money if they choose but that there are passages in the Bible which would rather imply to me at least that they neglected their duties as stewards if they did so however I know so little about strikes and rate of wages and capital and labour that I'd better not talk to a political economist like you nay the more reason you said eagerly I shall only be too glad to explain to you all that may seem anomalous or mysterious to a stranger especially at a time like this when all our dooms are sure to be canvas by every scribble who can order pen thank you she answered totally of course I should apply to my father in the first instance for any information he can give me if I get puzzled with living here amongst a strange society you think it's strange why? I don't know I suppose because on the very face of it I see two classes dependent on each other in every possible way yet each evidently regarding the interests of the other as opposed to their own I lived in a place before where there were two sets of people always running each other down who have you heard mean the masters down I don't ask you have heard abusing the men for I see you persist in this understanding what I said the other day but who have you heard abusing the masters Margaret freddened and smart as she said I am not fond of being catacysed I refuse to ask you a question besides it has nothing to do with the fact you must take my word for it that I have heard some people or it may be only some of the word people speaker served with the interests of the employers to keep them from acquiring money that he would make them too independent if they had a sum in the savings pack I dare say it was that man Higgins who told you all this said this is Hale Mr. Thornton did not appear to Hale what Margaret evidently did not wish him to know but he called it nevertheless I heard moreover but it was considered to be the advantage of the masters to have my ignorant workmen not Hedley was as captain Linux who used to call this man in his company who questioned and would know the reason for every order this latter part of her sentence she addressed rather to her father than to Mr. Thornton who was captain Linux asked Mr. Thornton of himself with a strange kind of displeasure that prevented him from the moment when replying to her her father took up the conversation you never were a fond of schools Margaret or you would have seen and known before this how much has been done for education in your time known she said with sudden weakness I know I do not care enough about schools but the knowledge and the intelligence of which I was speaking do not relate to reading and writing teaching of more information one can give to a child I am sure that what was meant was ignorance of the wisdom that should guide men and women I hardly know what it is but he, that is my informant spoke as if the masters would like their hands to be merely tall, large children living in the present moment with a blind and reasoning kind of obedience in short Ms. Hale is very evident that your informant found a pretty ready listener to all this lander he chose to utter against the masters said Mr. Thornton in an offended tone Margaret did not reply she was displeased at the personal character Mr. Thornton affixed to what she had said Mr. Hale spoke next I must confess that although I have not become so intimately acquainted with any work men as Margaret has I am very much struck by the antagonism between the employer and the employed on the very surface of things I even gathered this impression from what you yourself have from time to time said Mr. Thornton paused a while before he spoke Margaret had just left the room and he was fixed to the state of feeling between himself and her however the little annoyance by making a cool animal thoughtful gave a greater dignity to what he said My theory is that my interests are identical with those of my work people in Vasa Versa Ms. Hale I know does not like to hear the men called hands so I won't use that word though it comes most readily to my lips as a technical term whose origin on some future day in some millennium in Utopia this unity may be brought into practice just as I confess to the Republic the most perfect form of government we will read Plato's Republic as soon as we have finished Toma well in the Masonic year it may fall out the way of all men, women and children fit for our Republic but give me a constitutional monarchy in our present state of morals and intelligence in our infancy we require great despotism to govern us indeed long past infancy children and young people are the happiest on the unblading rows of a discreet firm authority I agree with Ms. Hale so far as to consider our people in the condition of children while I deny that we, the masters have anything to do with making and keeping themselves I maintain that despotism is the best kind of government for them so that's in the hours in which I come in contact with them I must necessarily be an autocrat I will lose my best discretion from no Homburg or philanthropic feeling to make wise laws or come to just decisions on the conduct of my business laws and decisions which work for my own good in the first instance for theirs in the second but I will neither be forced to give my reasons nor finish from what I have once declared to be my resolution let them turn out I shall suffer as well as they as at the end they will find I have not baited nor altered one dot Margaret had re-entered the room and was sitting at her work but she did not speak dare say I am talking in great ignorance but from the initial I know I just say that the masters were already passing rapidly into the troublesome stage which intervenes between childhood and manhood in the life of the multitude as well as that of the individual now the error which many parents commit in the treatment of the individual at this time is insisting on the same unreasonable obedience as when they all had to do in the way of duty was to obey the simple laws of come when you called and do as you bid at a wise parent she was a desire of independent action so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rules shall cease if I get wrong in my reasoning recollect it is you who adopts the analogy very lately in St. Margaret I had a story of what happened in Nuremberg only three or four years ago a rich man there lived alone in one of the immense mansions which were formerly both dwellings and warehouses which also reported that he had a child but no one knew of it for certain for forty years his dream had kept rising and falling never utterly dying away after his death it was found to be true he had a son an overgrown man with him exercising to take care of a child whom he had kept up in that strange way in order to save him from temptation and error but of course when his old great child was turned loose into the world every bad counselor had power over him he did not know good from evil his father had made the blunder of bringing him up in the ignorance and taking it for innocence and after fourteen months of righteous living the city authorities had to take charge of him in order to save him from salvation he could not even use words effectively enough to be a successful beggar I used the comparison suggested by Miss Hill of the position of the master to the other parent so I am not to complain of your turning the simile into a weapon against me but Mr Hill we knew a setting of a wise parent as a model for us who said he was human to his children in the desire for independent action now certainly the time has not come for the hands to have independent action during business hours I hardly know what you mean by it then and I say that the masters would be trenching on the independence of their hands in the way of time for one should not feel justified in doing if we interfere too much with the life they lead out of the mills because their labor turned out to be a day for us I do not see that we have any right to impose leading strings upon them for the rest of their time I value my own independence so highly that I can fast see no degradation greater than that of having no other man perpetually directing and advising and lecturing me that I am planning too closely in any way about my actions he might be the wisest of men or the most powerful I should equally rebel then instead of his interference I imagine this is a stronger feeling in the north of England than in the south I beg your pardon but this is not that because there has been only the equality of friendship between the advisor and the advice classes because every man has had to stand in a non-Christian and isolated position apart from the jealous of his brother man constantly afraid of his rights being trenched upon I only state the fact I am sorry to say I have an appointment at 8 o'clock and I must just take facts as I find them tonight without trying to account for them which indeed would make no difference in determining how to act as things stand the facts must be granted but, said Margaret in a low voice, it seems to me that he makes all the difference in the world her father made a sign for her to be silent and allow Mr. Thornton to finish what he had to say he was already standing up and preparing to go you must grant me this one point given a strong feeling of independence and every doubt to a man have I any right to obtrude my views of the manner which he shall act upon another hating as I should do most vehemently myself merely because he has laboured a sale in our capital to buy not in the least, said Margaret determined just to say this one thing not in the least because of your labour and capital positions, whichever they are but because you are our man dealing with the sorts of men over whom you have whether you reject the use of this or not just because your liars and your welfare are so constantly and instrumentally interwoven God has made us so that we must be mutually dependent we may ignore our independence or refuse to acknowledge that others depend upon us in more respect than the payment of weekly wages but the thing must be nevertheless neither you nor any other master can help yourselves the most proudly independent man depends on those around him with their insolence for interests on his character, his life and the most isolated of all your dark sheathers has his dependence clinging to him on all sides he cannot shake them off any more than the great what he resembles can shake off very don't go into simile's Margaret, you have lost yourself once already said her father smiling, yet uneasy that the thought that they are detaining was thought and against as well which was a mistake, for he rather liked it as long as Margaret would talk although what she said on the irritated him just tell me Miss Hill are you yourself ever influenced no, that's not a fair way of putting it but if you are ever conscious of being influenced by others and not by circumstances have those others been working directly or indirectly? have they been laboring to exhort to rejoin, to act rightfully for the sake of an example or have they been simple, true men taking up their duty and doing it unflinchingly that's the thought of how their actions were to make this man industrious, that man saving why, if I were a workman I should be 20 times more impressed by the knowledge that my master was honest, punctual quick, resilient in all his doings and hands are keen as spires even than rallies then by any amount of interference however kindly meant was my ways of going on and out of work hours I do not choose to think too closely on what I own myself but I believe I rely on the straightforward honesty of my hands and the open nature of the opposition in contradiction to the way in which the turn out would be managed in some mills just because they know I was going to take a single dishonorable advantage or do an underhand thing myself it goes further than the whole course of lectures on honesty is the best policy life diluted into words no, no, with the master is that will the men be without ever much taking a thought on this part that is a creative mission said Margaret to laugh him when I see men violent and obstinate in position of their rights I miss safely inferred that the master is the same that he is a little ignorant of that spirit which suffers long and is kind and seekers of her own you are just like all strangers who don't understand the working of a system Miss Hale, he said hastily you suppose that our men are puppets of door ready to be moulded into any amiable form please you forget we have all need to do with them for less than a third of their lives and you seem not to perceive that the duties of a manufacturer are far larger and wider than those merely of an employer of labour we have a wide commercial character to maintain which makes us into the great pioneers of civilization it strikes me, said Mr Hale smiling, that you might pioneer a little of your home they are rough, heathen as such fellows these Milton men of yours they are that, replied Mr Thornton rules what a surgery won't do for them Cromwell would have made a capital Milona, Miss Hale, I wish we had him to put down this track for us Cromwell is no hero, mine, said she coldly but I'm trying to reconcile your admiration of despacism with your respect of other men's independence of character you read into her chain I choose to be the unquestioned and irresponsible master of my hands during the hours that they labour for me with those hours passed, our relation ceases comes in the same respect for their independence that I am myself exact he did not speak again for a minute he was too much vexed but he shook it off and bade Mr and Miss Hale good night then, drawing near to Margaret he said in a lower voice I'll spoke hastily to you once this evening and I am afraid, rather rudely but you know I am but an uncouth and wholesome benefactor will you forgive me certainly, said she smiling up in his face the expression of which was somewhat anxious and hardly clear the way for him to sweep to sunny continents after which all the north wind affected the discussion had entirely vanished but she did not put her hand out to him and again he felt the omission and set it down to pride end of chapter 15 chapter 16 north and south this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org north and south by Elizabeth Gaskell chapter 16 the shadow of death trust in that veiled hand which leads none by the path that he would go and always be for change prepared for the world's law is ebb and flow from the Arabic the next afternoon Dr. Donaldson came to pay his first visit to Mrs. Hale the mystery that Margaret hoped the late habits of intimacy had broken through was resumed she was excluded from the room while Dixon was admitted Margaret was not a ready lover but where she loved she loved passionately and with no small degree of jealousy she went into her mother's bedroom just behind the drawing room and paced it up and down while awaiting the doctors coming out every now and then she stopped to listen she fancied she heard a moan she clenched her hands tight and held her breath she was sure she heard a moan then all was still for a few minutes more and then there was the moving of chairs the raised voices all the little disturbances of leave taking and she heard the door open she went quickly out of the bedroom my father is from home Dr. Donaldson he has to attend a pupil at this hour may I trouble you to come into his room downstairs she saw and triumphed over all the obstacles which Dixon threw in her way assuming her rightful position as daughter of the house in something of the spirit of the elder brother which quelled the old servant's officiousness very effectually Margaret's conscious assumption of this unusual dignity of demeanour towards Dixon gave her an instance of amusement in the midst of her anxiety she knew from the surprised expression on Dixon's face how ridiculously grand she herself must be looking and the idea carried her downstairs into the room it gave her that length of oblivion the keen sharpness of the recollection of the actual business in hand now that came back and seemed to take away her breath it was a moment or two before she could utter a word but she spoke with an air of command as she asked what is the matter with Mama you will oblige me by telling the simple truth then seeing a slight hesitation on the doctor's part she added the only child she has here I mean my father is not sufficiently alarmed I fear and therefore if there is any serious apprehension it must be broken to him gently I can do this I can nurse my mother pray speak sir to see your face and not be able to read it gives me a worse dread than I trust any words of yours will justify my dear young lady my mother seems to have a most attentive and efficient servant who is more like her friend I am her daughter sir but when I tell you she expressly desired that you might not be told I am not good or patient enough to submit to the prohibition besides I am sure you are too wise to experienced to have promised to keep the secret well said he half smiling sadly enough there you are right I did not promise in fact I fear the secret will be known soon enough without my revealing it he paused Margaret went very white and compressed her lips a little more otherwise not a feature moved with the quick insight into character without which no medical man can rise to the eminence of Dr. Donaldson she would exact the full truth that she would know if one iota was withheld and that the withholding would be torture more acute than the knowledge of it he spoke two short sentences in a low voice watching her all the time for the pupils of her eyes dilated into a black horror and the whiteness of her complexion became livid he ceased speaking he waited for that look to go off for her gasping breath to come then she said I thank you most truly sir for your confidence that dread has haunted me for many weeks it is a true real agony my poor poor mother her lips began to quiver and he let her have the relief of tears short of her power of self control to check them a few tears those were all she shed before she recollected the many questions she longed to ask will there be much suffering he shook his head that we cannot tell it depends on constitution on a thousand things but the late discoveries of medical science have given us large power of alleviation my father said Margaret trembling all over I do not know Mr. Hale I mean it is difficult to give advice but I should say bear on with the knowledge you have forced me to give you so abruptly till the fact which I could not withhold has become in some degree familiar to you so that you may without too great an effort be able to give what comfort you can to your father before then my visits which of course I shall repeat from time to time although I fear I can do nothing but alleviate a thousand little circumstances will have occurred to awaken his alarm to deepen it so that he will be all the better prepared name I dear young lady name I dear I saw Mr. Thornton and I honour your father for the sacrifice he has made however mistaken I may believe him to be well this once if it will please you my dear only remember when I come again I come as a friend and you must learn to look upon me as such because seeing each other getting to know each other at such times as these is worth years of morning calls Margaret could not speak for crying but she wrung his hand at parting that's what I call a fine girl thought Dr. Donaldson when he was seated in his carriage and had time to examine his ringed hand which had slightly suffered from her pressure who would have thought that little hand could have given such a squeeze but the bones were well put together and that gives immense power what a queen she is with her head thrown back at first to force me into speaking the truth and then bent so eagerly forward to listen poor thing I see she does not over strain herself who it's astonishing how much those thoroughbred creatures can do and suffer that girl's gained to the backbone another who had gone that deadly colour could never have come round without either fainting or hysterics but she wouldn't do either not she and the very force of her will brought her round such a girl as that would win my heart if I were 30 years younger it's too late now ah here we are at the archers so out he jumped with thought, wisdom, experience sympathy and ready to attend to the calls made upon him by this family just as if there were none other in the world meanwhile Margaret had returned into her father's study for a moment to recover strength before going upstairs into her mother's presence oh my god my god but this is terrible how shall I pair it such a deadly disease no hope oh mama mama I wish I had never gone to archers and been all those precious years away from you poor mama how much she must have borne oh I pray thee my god my children's drinks may not be too acute too dreadful how shall I bear to see them how can I bear for Paz agony he must not be told yet not all at once it would kill him but I won't lose another moment of my own dear precious mother she ran upstairs Dixon was not in the room Mrs. Hale lay back in an easy chair with a soft white shawl wrapped around her and a becoming cat put on in expectation of the doctor's visit her face had a little faint colour in it and the very exhaustion after the examination gave it a peaceful look Margaret was surprised to see her look so calm why Margaret has changed you look what is the matter and then as the idea stole into her mind of what was the real state of the case she added as if a little displeased you have not been seeing Dr. Donaldson and asking him any questions have you child Margaret did not reply only looked wistfully towards her Mrs. Hale became more displeased he would not surely break his word to me and oh yes mama he did I made him blame me she knelt down by her mother's side and caught her hand she would not let it go though Mrs. Hale tried to pull it away she kept kissing it under the hot tears she shared bathed it Margaret it was very wrong of you you knew I did not wish you to know but as if tired of the contest she left her hand in Margaret's clasp and by and by she returned the pressure faintly encouraged Margaret to speak oh mama let me be your nurse I will learn anything Dixon can teach me but you know I am your child and I do think I have a right to do everything for you you don't know what you're asking said Mrs. Hale with a shudder yes I do I know a great deal more than you are aware of let me be your nurse let me try at any rate no one has ever shall ever try so hard as I will do it will be such a comfort mama my poor child well you shall try do you know Margaret Dixon and I thought you would quite shrink from me if you knew Dixon thought said Margaret her lips curling Dixon could not give me credit for enough true love for as much as herself she thought I suppose that I was one of those poor sickly women young rose leaves and we fanned all day don't let Dixon's fancies come any more between you and me mama don't please implored she don't be angry with Dixon said Mrs. Hale anxiously Margaret recovered herself no I won't I will try and be humble and learn her ways if you will only let me do all I can for you let me be in the first place I am greedy of that I used to fancy you would forget me while I was away at Aunt Shores and cry myself to sleep at nights with that notion in my head and I used to think how will Margaret bear our makeshift poverty after the thorough comfort and luxury in Harley Street till I have many a time been more ashamed of your seeing our contrivances at Halston than of any stranger finding them out oh mama and I did so enjoy them they were so much more amusing than all the jog trot Harley Street ways the wardrobe shelf with handles that served as a supper tray on ground occasions and the old tea chests stuffed and covered for Ottomans I think what you call the makeshift contrivances at dear Halston were a charming part of the life there I shall never see Halston again Margaret said Mrs. Hale the tears welling up into her eyes Margaret could not reply Mrs. Hale went on while I was there I was forever wanting to leave it every place seemed pleasanter and now I shall die far away from it I am rightly punished you must not talk so said Margaret impatiently he said you might live for years oh mother we will have you back at Halston yet no never that I must take as a just penance but Margaret Frederick at the mention of that one word she suddenly cried out loud as in some sharp agony that seemed as if the thought of him upset all her composure destroyed the calm overcame the exhaustion wild passionate cry succeeded to cry Frederick Frederick come to me I am dying little firstborn child come to me once again she was in violent hysterics Margaret went and called Dixon in terror Dixon came in a half and accused Margaret of having over excited her mother Margaret bore all meekly only trusting that her father might not return in spite of her alarm the occasion warranted she obeyed all Dixon's directions promptly and well without a word of self-justification by doing so she mollified her accuser they put her mother to bed and Margaret sat by her till she fell asleep and afterwards till Dixon beckoned her out of the room and with a cell face as if doing something against the grain she made her drink a cup of coffee in the drawing room and stood over her in a commanding attitude as she did so you shouldn't have been so curious miss and then you wouldn't have needed to fret before your time it would have come soon enough and now I suppose you'll tell master on a pretty household I shall have of you no Dixon said Margaret sorrowfully I will not tell papa he cannot bear it as I can and by way of proving how well she bore it she burst into tears I knew how it would be now you'll waken your mama just after she's gone to sleep so quietly miss Margaret my dear I've had to keep it down this many a week and though I don't pretend I can love her as you do yet I loved her better than any other man woman or child no one but master Frederick ever came near her in my mind ever since Lady Burrisworth's maid first took me in to see her dressed out in white crepe and corn ears and scarlet poppies and I ran a needle down into my finger broke it in and she tore up her worked pocket handkerchief after they'd cut it out and came in to wet the bandages again with lotion when she'd returned from the ball where she'd been the prettiest young lady of all I've never loved anyone like her a little thought then that I should live to see her brought so low I don't mean no reproach to nobody many a one cause you pretty and handsome and what not even in this smoky place enough to blind one's eyes the owls can see that but she'll never be like your mother for beauty never not if you live to be a hundred the ma is very pretty still poor mama now don't you set off again or I shall give way at last whimpering you'll never tell masters coming home and questioning at this rate go out and take a walk and come in something like many's the time I've longed to walk it off the thought of what was the matter with her and how it must all end oh Dixon said Margaret how often I've been cross with you not knowing what a terrible secret you had to bear bless you child I like to see you showing a bit of spirit it's the good old Beresford blood by the last to John but two shot his steward down there where he stood for just telling him that he'd rack the tenants and he'd rack the tenants till he could get no more money off them than he could get skin off a flint well Dixon I won't shoot you and I'll try not to be cross again you never have at times it has always been to myself just in private by way of making a little agreeable conversation but there's no one here for it to talk to and when you fire up you're the very image of master Frederick I could find in my heart to put you in a passion any day just to see his stormy look coming like a great cloud over your face but now you go out miss I'll watch over Mrs and as the master his books are company enough for him I will go said Margaret she hung about Dixon for a minute or so as if afraid and irresolute then suddenly kissing her she went quickly out of the room bless her said Dixon she's as sweet as a nut there are three people I love here's Mrs master Frederick and her just them three that's all the recipe hanged for I don't know what they're in the world for master was born I suppose for to marry Mrs if I thought he loved her properly I might get to love him in time but he should have made a deal more on her and not been always reading reading thinking thinking see what it has bought him to many a one who never reads nor thinks either gets to be rector dean and whatnot and I dare say master might if he just minded Mrs and let the weary reading and thinking alone there she goes looking out of the window as she heard the front door shut poor young lady her clothes look shabby to what they did when she came to Halston a year ago then she hadn't so much as a darn stocking or a cleaned pair of gloves in all her wardrobe and now end of chapter 16