Page:Gaskell - North and South, vol. II, 1855.djvu/230

 folk that she is going to marry into. So, though she was afraid at the time, it has all ended well."

"Miss Fanny going to be married!" exclaimed Margaret.

"Yes; and to a rich gentleman, too, only he's a deal older than she is. His name is Watson; and his mills are somewhere out beyond Hayleigh; it's a very good marriage, for all he's got such gray hair."

At this piece of information, Margaret was silent long enough for Martha to recover her propriety, and, with it, her habitual shortness of answer. She swept up the hearth, asked at what time she should prepare tea, and quitted the room with the same wooden face with which she had entered it. Margaret had to pull herself up from indulging a bad trick, which she had lately fallen into, of trying to imagine how every event that she heard of in relation to Mr. Thornton would affect him: whether he would like it or dislike it.

The next day she had the little Boucher children for their lessons, and took a long walk, and ended by a visit to Mary Higgins. Somewhat to Margaret's surprise, she found Nicholas already come home from his work; the lengthening light had deceived her as to the lateness of the evening. He too seemed, by his manners, to have entered a little more on the way of humility; he was quieter, and less self-asserting.

"So th' oud gentleman's away on his travels, is he?" said he. "Little 'uns telled me so. Eh! but the're sharp 'uns, they are; I a'most think they beat my own wenches for sharpness, though mappen it's