"That"s the bonnet I got her!" said Edith, triumphantly. "I knew it wouldsuit her the moment I saw it."
"I beg your pardon," said Mr. Lennox, in the half-contemptuous, half-indulgent tone he generally used to Edith. "But I believe I know thedifference between the charms of a dress and the charms of a woman.
No mere bonnet would have made Miss Hale"s eyes so lustrous and yetso soft, or her lips so ripe and red--and her face altogether so full ofpeace and light.--She is like, and yet more,"--he dropped his voice,--"likethe Margaret Hale of Helstone."
From this time the clever and ambitious man bent all his powers togaining Margaret. He loved her sweet beauty. He saw the latent sweepof her mind, which could easily (he thought) be led to embrace all theobjects on which he had set his heart. He looked upon her fortune onlyas a part of the complete and superb character of herself and herposition: yet he was fully aware of the rise which it would immediatelyenable him, the poor barrister, to take. Eventually he would earn suchsuccess, and such honours, as would enable him to pay her back, withinterest, that first advance in wealth which he should owe to her. He hadbeen to Milton on business connected with her property, on his returnfrom Scotland; and with the quick eye of a skilled lawyer, ready ever totake in and weigh contingencies, he had seen that much additional valuewas yearly accruing to the lands and tenements which she owned in thatprosperous and increasing town. He was glad to find that the presentrelationship between Margaret and himself, of client and legal adviser,was gradually superseding the recollection of that unlucky, mismanagedday at Helstone. He had thus unusual opportunities of intimateintercourse with her, besides those that arose from the connectionbetween the families.
Margaret was only too willing to listen as long as he talked of Milton,though he had seen none of the people whom she more especially knew.
It had been the tone with her aunt and cousin to speak of Milton withdislike and contempt; just such feelings as Margaret was ashamed toremember she had expressed and felt on first going to live there. ButMr. Lennox almost exceeded Margaret in his appreciation of thecharacter of Milton and its inhabitants. Their energy, their power, theirindomitable courage in struggling and fighting; their lurid vividness ofexistence, captivated and arrested his attention. He was never tired oftalking about them; and had never perceived how selfish and materialwere too many of the ends they proposed to themselves as the result ofall their mighty, untiring endeavour, till Margaret, even in the midst ofher gratification, had the candour to point this out, as the tainting sin inso much that was noble, and to be admired. Still, when other subjects palled upon her, and she gave but short answers to many questions,Henry Lennox found out that an enquiry as to some Darkshirepeculiarity of character, called back the light into her eye, the glow intoher cheek.