But the wind was in the east; the weather was piercing cold, as it had been for weeks; there would be no demand for light summer goods this year.
That hope for the revival of trade must utterly be given up.
It was a great comfort to have had this conversation with his mother; and to feel sure that, however they might henceforward keep silence on all these anxieties, they yet understood each other's feelings, and were, if not in harmony, at least not in discord with each other, in their way of viewing them.
Fanny's husband was vexed at Thornton's refusal to take any share in the speculation which he had offered to him, and withdrew from any possibility of being supposed able to assist him with the ready money, which indeed the speculator needed for his own venture.
There was nothing for it at last, but that which Mr. Thornton had dreaded for many weeks; he had to give up the business in which he had been so long engaged with so much honour and success; and look out for a subordinate situation.
Marlborough Mills and the adjacent dwelling were held under a long lease; they must, if possible, be relet.
There was an immediate choice of situations offered to Mr. Thornton.
Mr. Hamper would have been only too glad to have secured him as a steady and experienced partner for his son, whom he was setting up with a large capital in a neighbouring town; but the young man was half-educated as regarded information, and wholly uneducated as regarded any other responsibility than that of getting money, and brutalised both as to his pleasures and his pains.
Mr. Thornton declined having any share in a partnership, which would frustrate what few plans he had that survived the wreck of his fortunes.
He would sooner consent to be only a manager, where he could have a certain degree of power beyond the mere money-getting part, than have to fall in with the tyrannical humours of a moneyed partner with whom he felt sure that he should quarrel in a few months.
So he waited, and stood on one side with profound humility, as the news swept through the Exchange, of the enormous fortune which his brother-in-law had made by his daring speculation.
It was a nine days' wonder.
Success brought with it its worldly consequence of extreme admiration.
No one was considered so wise and far-seeing as Mr. Watson.
Chapter 51 Meeting again
'Bear up, brave heart! we will be calm and strong;
Sure, we can master eyes, or cheek, or tongue,
Nor let the smallest tell-tale sign appear
She ever was, and is, and will be dear.'
RHYMING PLAY.
It was a hot summer's evening.
Edith came into Margaret's bedroom, the first time in her habit, the second ready dressed for dinner.
No one was there at first; the next time Edith found Dixon laying out Margaret's dress on the bed; but no Margaret.
Edith remained to fidget about.
'Oh, Dixon! not those horrid blue flowers to that dead gold-coloured gown.
What taste!
Wait a minute, and I will bring you some pomegranate blossoms.'
'It's not a dead gold-colour, ma'am.
It's a straw-colour.
And blue always goes with straw-colour.'
But Edith had brought the brilliant scarlet flowers before Dixon had got half through her remonstrance.
'Where is Miss Hale?' asked Edith, as soon as she had tried the effect of the garniture.
'I can't think,' she went on, pettishly, 'how my aunt allowed her to get into such rambling habits in Milton!
I'm sure I'm always expecting to hear of her having met with something horrible among all those wretched places she pokes herself into.
I should never dare to go down some of those streets without a servant.
They're not fit for ladies.'
Dixon was still huffed about her despised taste; so she replied, rather shortly:
'It's no wonder to my mind, when I hear ladies talk such a deal about being ladies—and when they're such fearful, delicate, dainty ladies too—I say it's no wonder to me that there are no longer any saints on earth——'
'Oh, Margaret! here you are!
I have been so wanting you.
But how your cheeks are flushed with the heat, poor child!
But only think what that tiresome Henry has done; really, he exceeds brother-in-law's limits.
Just when my party was made up so beautifully—fitted in so precisely for Mr. Colthurst—there has Henry come, with an apology it is true, and making use of your name for an excuse, and asked me if he may bring that Mr. Thornton of Milton—your tenant, you know—who is in London about some law business.
It will spoil my number, quite.'
'I don't mind dinner.
I don't want any,' said Margaret, in a low voice.
'Dixon can get me a cup of tea here, and I will be in the drawing-room by the time you come up.
I shall really be glad to lie down.'
'No, no! that will never do.