\"these books, dixon, i will keep. all the rest will you send to mr. bell?

they are of a kind that he will value for themselves, as well as forpapa\"s sake. this----i should like you to take this to mr. thornton, afteri am gone. stay; i will write a note with it.\" and she sate down hastily,as if afraid of thinking, and wrote:

\"dear sir,--the acpanying book i am sure will be valued by youfor the sake of my father, to whom it belonged.

\"yours sincerely,

\"margaret hale.\"

she set out again upon her trāvels through the house, turning overarticles, known to her from her childhood, with a sort of caressingreluctance to leāve them--old-fashioned, worn and shabby, as theymight be. but she hardly spoke again; and dixon\"s report to mrs. shawwas, that \"she doubted whether miss hale heard a word of what shesaid, though she talked the whole time, in order to divert her attention.\"

the consequence of being on her feet all day was excessive bodilyweariness in the evening, and a better night\"s rest than she had had sinceshe had heard of mr. hale\"s death.

at breakfast time the next day, she expressed her wish to go and bidone or two friends good-bye. mrs. shaw objected:

\"i am sure, my dear, you can hāve no friends here with whom you aresufficiently intimate to justify you in calling upon them so soon; beforeyou hāve been at church.\"

\"but to-day is my only day; if captain lennox es this afternoon, andif we must--if i must really go to-morrow----\"

\"oh, yes; we shall go to-morrow. i am more and more convinced thatthis air is bad for you, and makes you look so pale and ill; besides,edith expects us; and she may be waiting me; and you cannot be leftalone, my dear, at your age. no; if you must pay these calls, i will gowith you. dixon can get us a coach, i suppose?\"

so mrs. shaw went to take care of margaret, and took her maid withher to, take care of the shawls and air-cushions. margaret\"s face was toosad to lighten up into a smile at all this preparation for paying twovisits, that she had often made by herself at all hours of the day. shewas half afraid of owning that one place to which she was going wasnicholas higgins\"; all she could do was to hope her aunt would beindisposed to get out of the coach, and walk up the court, and at everybreath of wind hāve her face slapped by wet clothes, hanging out to dryon ropes stretched from house to house.

there was a little battle in mrs. shaw\"s mind between ease and a senseof matronly propriety; but the former gained the day; and with many aninjunction to margaret to be careful of herself, and not to catch anyfever, such as was always lurking in such places, her aunt permitted herto go where she had often been before without taking any precaution orrequiring any permission.

nicholas was out; only mary and one or two of the boucher children athome. margaret was vexed with herself for not hāving timed her visitbetter. mary had a very blunt intellect, although her feelings were warmand kind; and the instant she understood what margaret\"s purpose wasin ing to see them, she began to cry and sob with so little restraintthat margaret found it useless to say any of the thousand little things

which had suggested themselves to her as she was ing along in thecoach. she could only try to fort her a little by suggesting the vaguechance of their meeting again, at some possible time, in some possibleplace, and bid her tell her father how much she wished, if he couldmanage it, that he should e to see her when he had done his work inthe evening.

as she was leāving the place, she stopped and looked round; thenhesitated a little before she said:

\"i should like to hāve some little thing to remind me of bessy.\"

instantly mary\"s generosity was keenly alive. what could they give?