’Don’t be afraid, Edith.  I’ll faint on your hands at the servants’ dinner-time, the very first opportunity; and then, what with Sholto playing with the fire, and the baby crying, you’ll begin to wish for a strong-minded woman, equal to any emergency.’

‘And you’ll not grow too good to joke and be merry?’

’Not I. I shall be merrier than I have ever been, now I have got my own way.’

’And you’ll not go a figure, but let me buy your dresses for you?’

’Indeed I mean to buy them for myself.  You shall come with me if you like; but no one can please me but myself.’

’Oh!  I was afraid you’d dress in brown and dust-colour, not to show the dirt you’ll pick up in all those places.  I’m glad you’re going to keep one or two vanities, just by way of specimens of the old Adam.’

’I’m going to be just the same, Edith, if you and my aunt could but fancy so.  Only as I have neither husband nor child to give me natural duties, I must make myself some, in addition to ordering my gowns.’

In the family conclave, which was made up of Edith, her mother, and her husband, it was decided that perhaps all these plans of hers would only secure her the more for Henry Lennox.  They kept her out of the way of other friends who might have eligible sons or brothers; and it was also agreed that she never seemed to take much pleasure in the society of any one but Henry, out of their own family.  The other admirers, attracted by her appearance or the reputation of her fortune, were swept away, by her unconscious smiling disdain, into the paths frequented by other beauties less fastidious, or other heiresses with a larger amount of gold.  Henry and she grew slowly into closer intimacy; but neither he nor she were people to brook the slightest notice of their proceedings.

CHAPTER L

CHANGES AT MILTON

’Here we go up, up, up;
And here we go down, down, downee!’
NURSERY SONG.

Meanwhile, at Milton the chimneys smoked, the ceaseless roar and mighty beat, and dizzying whirl of machinery, struggled and strove perpetually.  Senseless and purposeless were wood and iron and steam in their endless labours; but the persistence of their monotonous work was rivalled in tireless endurance by the strong crowds, who, with sense and with purpose, were busy and restless in seeking after—­What?  In the streets there were few loiterers,—­none walking for mere pleasure; every man’s face was set in lines of eagerness or anxiety; news was sought for with fierce avidity; and men jostled each other aside in the Mart and in the Exchange, as they did in life, in the deep selfishness of competition.  There was gloom over the town.  Few came to buy, and those who did were looked at suspiciously by the sellers; for credit was insecure, and the most stable might have their fortunes affected by the sweep in the great neighbouring port among the shipping houses.