argaret related this piece of domestic news, too private to be told to
any one else till the last moment. Maria forgot her own troubles, or
despised them as she listened, so grieved was she for her friends,
including Morris. Margaret was not very sorry on Morris's own account.
Morris wanted rest--an easier place. She had had too much upon her for
some time past.

"What then will you have, when she is gone?"

"If I have work enough to drive all thought out of my head, I shall be
thankful. Meantime, I will bestow my best wit upon your case."

"I am ashamed of my case already. While sitting in all this comfort
here, I can hardly believe in my own tremors, of no earlier date than
last night. Come, let us draw to the fire. I hope we shall not end
with sitting up all night; but I feel as if I should like it very much."

Margaret stirred up a blaze, and put out the candles. No economy was
now beneath her care. As she took her seat beside her friend, she said:

"Maria, did you ever know any place so dull and dismal as Deerbrook is
now? Is it not enough to make any heart as heavy as the fortunes of the
place?"

"Even the little that I see of it, in going to and from the Greys, looks
sad enough. You see the outskirts, which I suppose are worse still."

"The very air feels too heavy to breathe. The cottages, and even the
better houses, appear to my eyes damp and weather-stained on the
outside, and silent within. The children sit shivering on the
thresholds--do not they?--instead of shouting at their play as they did.
Every one looks discontented, and complains--the poor of want of bread,
and every one else of hard times, and all manner of woes, that one never
hears of in prosperous seasons. Mr James says the actions for trespass
are beyond all example; Mr Tucker declares his dog, that died the other
day, was poisoned; and I never pass the Green but the women are even
quarrelling for precedence at the pump."

"I have witnessed some of this, but not all: and neither, I suspect,
have you, Margaret, though you think you have. We see the affairs of
the world in shadow, you know, when our own hearts are sad."

"My heart is not so sad as you think. You do not believe me: but that
is because you do not believe what I am sure of--that he is not to blame
for anything that has happened--that, at least, he has only been
mistaken,--that there his been no fickleness, no selfishness, in him. I
could not speak of this, e