pretty, but her countenance had something more than ever pleasing in the animated and thoughtful expression on those marked features. She was sitting near the window, with a book, a dictionary, and pencil, as she replied to Margaret, with the sigh that made her sister smile.
'Poor Ethel! I condole with you.'
'And I wonder at you!' said Ethel, 'especially as Flora and Mrs. Hoxton say it is all for your sake;' then, nettled by Margaret's laugh, 'Such a nice occupation for her, poor thing, as if you were Mrs. Hoxton, and had no resource but fancy-work.'
'You know I am base enough to be so amused,' said Margaret; 'but, seriously, Ethel dear, I cannot bear to see you so much hurt by it. I did not know you were really grieved.'
'Grieved! I am ashamed--sickened!' cried Ethel vehemently. 'Poor Cocksmoor! As soon as anything is done there, Flora must needs go about implying that we have set some grand work in hand, and want only means--'
'Stop, Ethel; Flora does not boast.'
'No, she does not boast. I wish she did! That would be straightforward and simple; but she has too good taste for that--so she does worse--she tells a little, and makes that go a long way, as if she were keeping back a great deal! You don't know how furious it makes me!'
'Ethel!'
'So,' said Ethel, disregarding, 'she stirs up all Stoneborough to hear what the Miss Mays are doing at Cocksmoor. So the Ladies' Committee must needs have their finger in! Much they cared for the place when it was wild and neglected! But they go to inspect Cherry and her school--Mrs. Ledwich and all--and, back they come, shocked-- no system, no order, the mistress untrained, the school too small, with no apparatus! They all run about in despair, as if we had ever asked them to help us. And so Mrs. Hoxton, who cares for poor children no more than for puppy-dogs, but who can't live without useless work, and has filled her house as full of it as it can hold, devises a bazaar--a field for her trumpery, and a show-off for all the young ladies; and Flora treats it like an inspiration! Off they trot, to the old Assembly Rooms. I trusted that the smallness of them would have knocked it on the head; but, still worse, Flora's talking of it makes Mr. Rivers think it our pet scheme; so, what does he do but offer his park, and so we are to have a regular fancy fair, and Cocksmoor School will be founded in vanity and frivolity! But I believe you like it!'
'I am not sure of my own feeling,' said Margaret. 'It has been settled without our interposition, and I have never been able to talk it over calmly with you. Papa does not seem to disapprove.'
'No,' said Ethel. 'He will only laugh, and say it will spare him a great many of Mrs. Hoxton's nervous attacks. He thinks of it nearly as I do, at the bottom, but I cannot get him to stop it, nor even to say he does not wish Flora to sell.'
'I did not understand that you really had such strong objections,' said Margaret. 'I thought it was only as a piece of folly, and--'
'And interference with my Cocksmoor?' said Ethel. I had better own to what may be wrong personal feeling at first.'
'I can hardly call it wrong,' said Margaret tenderly, 'considering what Cocksmoor is to you, and what the Ladies' Committee is.'
'Oh, Margaret, if the lawful authority--if a good clergyman would only come, how willingly would I work under him! But Mrs. Ledwich and--it is like having all the Spaniards and savages spoiling Robinson Crusoe's desert island!'
'It is not come to that yet,' said Margaret; 'but about the fancy fair. We all know that the school is very much wanted.'
'Yes, but I hoped to wait in patience and perseverance, and do it at last.'
'All yourself?'
'Now, Margaret! you know I was glad of Alan's help.'
'I should think so!' said Margaret. 'You need not make a favour of that!'
'Yes, but, don't you see, that came as almsgiving, in the way which brings a blessing. We want nothing to make us give money and work to Cocksmoor. We do all we can already; and I don't want to get a fine bag or a ridiculous pincushion in exchange!'
'Not you, but--'
'Well, for the rest. If they like to offer their money, well and good, the better for them; but why must they not give it to Cocksmoor--but for that unnatural butterfly of Blanche's, with black pins for horns, that they will go and sell at an extortionate rate.'
'The price will be given for Cocksmoor's sake!'
'Pooh! Margaret. Do you think it is for Cocksmoor's sake that Lady Leonora Langdale and her fine daughter come down from London? Would Mrs. Hoxton spend the time in making frocks for Cocksmoor children that she does in cutting out paper, and stuffing glass bottles with it? Let people be honest--alms, or pleasure, or vanity! let them say which they mean; but don't make charity the excuse for the others; and, above all, don't make my poor Cocksmoor the victim of it.'
'This is very severe,' said Margaret, pausing, almost confounded. 'Do you think no charity worth having but what is given on unmixed motives? Who, then, could give?'
'Margaret--we see much evil arise in the best-planned institutions; nay, in what are not human. Don't you think we ought to do our utmost to have no flaw in the foundation? Schools are not such perfect places that we can build them without fear, and, if the means are to be raised by a bargain for amusement--if they are to come from frivolity instead of self-denial, I am afraid of them. I do not mean that Cocksmoor has not been the joy of my life, and of Mary's, but that was not because we did it for pleasure.'
'No!' said Margaret, sighing, 'you found pleasure by the way. But why did you not say all this to Flora?'
'It is of no use to talk to Flora,' said Ethel; 'she would say it was high-flown and visionary. Oh! she wants it for the bazaar's own sake, and that is one reason why I hate it.'
'Now, Ethel!'
'I do believe it was very unfortunate for Flora that the Hoxtons took to patronising her, because Norman would not be patronised. Ever since it began, her mind has been full of visitings, and parties, and county families, and she has left off the home usefulness she used to care about.'
'But you are old enough for that,' said Margaret. 'It would be hard to keep Flora at home, now that you can take her place, and do not care for going out. One of us must be the representative Miss May, you know, and keep up the civilities; and you may think yourself lucky it is not you.'
'If it was only that, I should not care, but I may as well tell you, Margaret, for it is a weight to me. It is not the mere pleasure in gaieties--Flora cares for them, in themselves, as little as I do--nor is it neighbourliness, as a duty to others, for, you may observe, she always gets off any engagement to the Wards, or any of the town folk, to whom it would be a gratification to have her--she either eludes them, or sends me. The thing is, that she is always trying to be with the great people, the county set, and I don't think that is the safe way of going on.'
Margaret mused sadly. 'You frighten me, Ethel! I cannot say it is not so, and these are so like the latent faults that dear mamma's letter spoke of--'
Ethel sat meditating, and at last said, 'I wish I had not told you! I don't always believe it myself, and it is so unkind, and you will make yourself unhappy too. I ought not to have thought it of her! Think of her ever-ready kindness and helpfulness; her pretty courteous ways to the very least; her obligingness and tact!'
'Yes,' said Margaret, 'she is one of the kindest people there is, and I am sure that she thought the gaining funds for Cocksmoor was the best thing to be done, that you would be pleased, and a great deal of pleasant occupation provided for us all.'
'That is the bright side, the surface side,' said Ethel.
'And not an untrue one,' said Margaret; 'Meta will not be vain, and will work the more happily for Cocksmoor's sake. Mary and Blanche, poor Mrs. Boulder, and many good ladies who hitherto have not known how to help Cocksmoor, will do so now with a good will, and though it is not what we should have chosen, I think we had better take it in good part.'
'You think so?'
'Yes, indeed I do. If you go about with that dismal face and strong disapproval, it will really seem as if it was the having your dominion muddled with that you dislike. Besides, it is putting yourself forward to censure what is not absolutely wrong in itself, and that cannot be desirable.'
