\"as angels in some brighter dreamscall to the soul when man doth sleep,so some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes,and into glory peep.\"

henry vaughan.

mrs. hale was curiously amused and interested by the idea of thethornton dinner party. she kept wondering about the details, withsomething of the simplicity of a little child, who wants to hāve all itsanticipated pleasures described beforehand. but the monotonous life ledby invalids often makes them like children, inasmuch as they hāveneither of them any sense of proportion in events, and seem each tobelieve that the walls and curtains which shut in their world, and shutout everything else, must of necessity be larger than anything hiddenbeyond. besides, mrs. hale had had her vanities as a girl; had perhapsunduly felt their mortification when she became a poor clergyman\"swife;--they had been smothered and kept down; but they were notextinct; and she liked to think of seeing margaret dressed for a party,and discussed what she should wear, with an unsettled anxiety thatamused margaret, who had been more accustomed to society in her onein harley street than her mother in five and twenty years of helstone.

\"then you think you shall wear your white silk. are you sure it will fit?

it\"s nearly a year since edith was married!\"

\"oh yes, mamma! mrs. murray made it, and it\"s sure to be right; it maybe a straw\"s breadth shorter or longer-waisted, according to my hāvinggrown fat or thin. but i don\"t think i\"ve altered in the least.\"

\"hadn\"t you better let dixon see it? it may hāve gone yellow with lyingby.\"

\"if you like, mamma. but if the worst es to the worst, i\"ve a verynice pink gauze which aunt shaw gāve me, only two or three monthsbefore edith was married. that can\"t hāve gone yellow.\"

\"no! but it may hāve faded.\"

\"well! then i\"ve a green silk. i feel more as if it was the embarrassmentof riches.\"

\"i wish i knew what you ought to wear,\" said mrs. hale, nervously.

margaret\"s manner changed instantly. \"shall i go and put them on oneafter another, mamma, and then you could see which you liked best?\"

\"but--yes! perhaps that will be best.\"

so off margaret went. she was very much inclined to play some pranks

when she was dressed up at such an unusual hour; to make her richwhite silk balloon out into a cheese, to retreat backwards from hermother as if she were the queen; but when she found that these freaks ofhers were regarded as interruptions to the serious business, and as suchannoyed her mother, she became grāve and sedate. what had possessedthe world (her world) to fidget so about her dress, she could notunderstand; but that very after noon, on naming her engagement tobessy higgins (apropos of the servant that mrs. thornton had promisedto inquire about), bessy quite roused up at the intelligence.

\"dear! and are you going to dine at thornton\"s at marlborough mills?\"

\"yes, bessy. why are you so surprised?\"

\"oh, i dunno. but they visit wi\" a\" th\" first folk in milton.\"

\"and you don\"t think we\"re quite the first folk in milton, eh, bessy?\"

bessy\"s cheeks flushed a little at her thought being thus easily read.

\"well,\" said she, \"yo\" see, they thinken a deal o\" money here and i reckonyo\"ve not getten much.\"

\"no,\" said margaret, \"that\"s very true. but we are educated people, andhāve lived amongst educated people. is there anything so wonderful, inour being asked out to dinner by a man who owns himself inferior tomy father by ing to him to be instructed? i don\"t mean to blame mr.

thornton. few drapers\" assistants, as he was once, could hāve madethemselves what he is.\"