y abroad; but their peace was perpetually on the increase at home.
Morris and they were so completely in one interest, Edward was so easily
pleased, and they were so free from jealous dependants, that they could
carry their economy to any extent that suited their conscience and
convenience. One superfluity after another vanished from the table;
every day something which had always been a want was discovered to be a
fancy; and with every new act of frugality, each fresh exertion of
industry, their spirits rose with a sense of achievement, and the
complacency proper to cheerful sacrifice. In the evenings of their busy
days, the sisters went out with Edward into their garden, or into the
meadows, or spent an hour in the Greys' pretty shrubbery. Maria often
saw them thus, and thought how happy are they who can ramble abroad, and
find their cares dispersed by the breeze, or dissolved in the sunshine
of the fields. The little Rowlands sometimes met them in the lanes: and
the younger ones would thrust upon them the wild flowers which Mr
Walcot had helped them to gather, while Mrs Rowland and Matilda would
draw down their black crape veils, and walk on with scarcely a passing
salutation. Every such meeting with the lady, every civil bow from Mr
Walcot, every tale which Mrs Grey and Sophia had to tell against the
new surgeon, seemed to do Hester good, and make her happier. These
things were appeals to her magnanimity; and she could bear for Edward's
sake many a trial which she could not otherwise have endured. All this
told upon the intercourse at home; and Morris's heart was often cheered,
as she pursued her labours in kitchen or chamber, with the sound of such
merry laughter as had seldom been heard in the family, during the
anxious winter that had gone by. It seemed as if nothing depressed her
young ladies now. There was frequent intelligence of the going over of
another patient to Mr Walcot; the summer was not a favourable one, and
everybody else was complaining of unseasonable weather, of the certainty
of storms in the autumn, of blight, and the prospect of scarcity; yet,
though Mr Grey shook his head, and the parish clerk could never be seen
but with a doleful prophecy in his mouth, Morris's young master and
mistresses were gay as she could desire. She was piously thankful for
Margaret's engagement; for she concluded that it was by means of this
that other hearts were working round into their true relation, and into