ever so, if I had suspected for a hinstant how things were a going to
be. For Buggins is a man as knows his place, and never puts himself
beyond it! But you was that close, Miss--"
In answer to this Margaret would say that it didn't signify, and that
it wasn't on that account; and I have no doubt but that the two women
thoroughly understood each other.
There was a subject on which, in spite of all her respect, Mrs
Buggins ventured to give Miss Mackenzie much advice, and to insist on
that advice strongly. Mrs Buggins was very anxious that the future
"baronet's lady" should go out upon her grand visit with a proper
assortment of clothing. That argument of the baronet's lady was the
climax of Mrs Buggins' eloquence: "You, my dear, as is going to be
one baronet's lady is going to a lady who is going to be another
baronet's lady, and it's only becoming you should go as is becoming."
Margaret declared that she was not going to be anybody's lady, but
Mrs Buggins altogether pooh-poohed this assertion.
"That, Miss, is your predestination," said Mrs Buggins, "and well
you'll become it. And as for money, doesn't that old party who
found it all out say reg'lar once a month that there's whatever you
want to take for your own necessaries? and you that haven't had a
shilling from him yet! If it was me, I'd send him in such a bill for
necessaries as 'ud open that old party's eyes a bit, and hurry him up
with his lawsuits."
The matter was at last compromised between her and Margaret, and a
very moderate expenditure for smarter clothing was incurred.
On the day appointed Mrs Mackenzie again came, and Margaret was
carried off to Cavendish Square. Here she found herself suddenly
brought into a mode of life altogether different from anything she
had as yet experienced. The Mackenzies were people who went much into
society, and received company frequently at their own house. The
first of these evils for a time Margaret succeeded in escaping, but
from the latter she had no means of withdrawing herself. There was
very much to astonish her at this period of her life, but that which
astonished her perhaps more than anything else was her own celebrity.
Everybody had heard of the Lion and the Lamb, and everybody was aware
that she was supposed to represent the milder of those two favourite
animals. Everybody knew the story of her property, or rather of
the property which had never in truth been hers, and which was now
being made to p
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