Henry's influence that he determined to pay his long
promised visit to Scotland; and Maggie, sad at heart to see how he was
suffering, encouraged him in his determination.
CHAPTER VIII.
After he was gone, there came a November of the most dreary and
characteristic kind. There was incessant rain, and closing-in mists,
without a gleam of sunshine to light up the drops of water, and make the
wet stems and branches of the trees glisten. Every color seemed dimmed
and darkened; and the crisp autumnal glory of leaves fell soddened to the
ground. The latest flowers rotted away without ever coming to their bloom;
and it looked as if the heavy monotonous sky had drawn closer and closer,
and shut in the little moorland cottage as with a shroud. In doors, things
were no more cheerful. Maggie saw that her mother was depressed, and she
thought that Edward's extravagance must be the occasion. Oftentimes she
wondered how far she might speak on the subject; and once or twice she drew
near it in conversation; but her mother winced away, and Maggie could not
as yet see any decided good to be gained from encountering such pain. To
herself it would have been a relief to have known the truth--the worst,
as far as her mother knew it; but she was not in the habit of thinking of
herself. She only tried, by long tender attention, to cheer and comfort
her mother; and she and Nancy strove in every way to reduce the household
expenditure, for there was little ready money to meet it.
Pages:
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107