id flavors of fashionable
amusement, in the hope that Margaret might find them sweet, and now at
the end she had to own to herself that she had failed. It was coming
Lent again, and the girl had only grown thinner and more serious
with the diversions that did not divert her from the baleful works of
beneficence on which Mrs. Horn felt that she was throwing her youth
away. Margaret could have borne either alone, but together they were
wearing her out. She felt it a duty to undergo the pleasures her aunt
appointed for her, but she could not forego the other duties in which
she found her only pleasure.
She kept up her music still because she could employ it at the
meetings for the entertainment, and, as she hoped, the elevation of her
working-women; but she neglected the other aesthetic interests which
once occupied her; and, at sight of Beaton talking with her, Mrs.
Horn caught at the hope that he might somehow be turned to account in
reviving Margaret's former interest in art. She asked him if Mr. Wetmore
had his classes that winter as usual; and she said she wished Margaret
could be induced to go again: Mr. Wetmore always said that she did not
draw very well, but that she had a great deal of feeling for it, and her
work was interesting. She asked, were the Leightons in town again; and
she murmured a regret that she had not been able to see anything of
them, without explaining why; she said she had a fancy that if Margaret
knew Miss Leighton, and what she was doing, it might stimulate her,
perhaps. She supposed Miss Leighton was still going on with her art?
Beaton said, Oh yes, he believed so.
But his manner did not encourage Mrs. Horn to pursue her aims in that
direction, and she said, with a sigh, she wished he still had a class;
she always fancied that Margaret got more good from his instruction than
from any one else's.
He said that she was very good; but there was really nobody who knew
half as much as Wetmore, or could make any one understand half as much.
Mrs. Horn was afraid, she said, that Mr. Wetmore's terrible sincerity
discouraged Margaret; he would not let her have any illusions about the
outcome of what she was doing; and did not Mr. Beaton think that some
illusion was necessary with young people? Of course, it was very nice of
Mr. Wetmore to be so honest, but it did not always seem to be the wisest
thing. She begged Mr. Beaton to try to think of some one who would be a
little less severe. Her tone as
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