Page:Gaskell - North and South, vol. I, 1855.djvu/80

 "You know, we have very little society here, mamma. The Gormans, who are our nearest neighbours (to call society—and we hardly ever see them), have been in trade just as much as these Milton-Northern people."

"Yes," said Mrs. Hale, almost indignantly, "but, at any rate, the Gormans made carriages for half the gentry of the county, and were brought into some kind of intercourse with them; but these factory people, who on earth wears cotton that can afford linen?"

"Well, mamma, I give up the cotton-spinners; I am not standing up for them, any more than for any other trades-people. Only we shall have little enough to do with them."

Why on earth has your father fixed on Milton- Northern to live in?"

"Partly," said Margaret, sighing, "because it is so very different from Helstone—partly because Mr. Bell says there is an opening there for a private tutor."

"Private tutor in Milton! Why can't he go to Oxford, and be a tutor to gentlemen?"

"You forget, mamma! He is leaving the Church on account of his opinions—his doubts would do him no good at Oxford."

Mrs. Hale was silent for some time, quietly crying. At last she said:—

"And the furniture—How in the world are we to manage the removal? I never removed in my life, and only a fortnight to think about it!"

Margaret was inexpressibly relieved to find that her mother's anxiety and distress was lowered to this