was weary and impatient of the accounts which Dixon perpetually brought to Mrs. Hale of the behaviour of these would-be servants.  Not but what Margaret was repelled by the rough uncourteous manners of these people; not but what she shrunk with fastidious pride from their hail-fellow accost and severely resented their unconcealed curiosity as to the means and position of any family who lived in Milton, and yet were not engaged in trade of some kind.  But the more Margaret felt impertinence, the more likely she was to be silent on the subject; and, at any rate, if she took upon herself to make inquiry for a servant, she could spare her mother the recital of all her disappointments and fancied or real insults.

Margaret accordingly went up and down to butchers and grocers, seeking for a nonpareil of a girl; and lowering her hopes and expectations every week, as she found the difficulty of meeting with any one in a manufacturing town who did not prefer the better wages and greater independence of working in a mill.  It was something of a trial to Margaret to go out by herself in this busy bustling place.  Mrs. Shaw’s ideas of propriety and her own helpless dependence on others, had always made her insist that a footman should accompany Edith and Margaret, if they went beyond Harley Street or the immediate neighbourhood.  The limits by which this rule of her aunt’s had circumscribed Margaret’s independence had been silently rebelled against at the time:  and she had doubly enjoyed the free walks and rambles of her forest life, from the contrast which they presented.  She went along there with a bounding fearless step, that occasionally broke out into a run, if she were in a hurry, and occasionally was stilled into perfect repose, as she stood listening to, or watching any of the wild creatures who sang in the leafy courts, or glanced out with their keen bright eyes from the low brushwood or tangled furze.  It was a trial to come down from such motion or such stillness, only guided by her own sweet will, to the even and decorous pace necessary in streets.  But she could have laughed at herself for minding this change, if it had not been accompanied by what was a more serious annoyance.  The side of the town on which Crampton lay was especially a thoroughfare for the factory people.  In the back streets around them there were many mills, out of which poured streams of men and women two or three times a day.  Until Margaret had learnt the times of their ingress and egress, she was very unfortunate in constantly falling in with them.  They came rushing along, with bold, fearless faces, and loud laughs and jests, particularly aimed at all those who appeared to be above them in rank or station.  The tones of their unrestrained voices, and their carelessness of all common rules of street politeness, frightened Margaret a little at first.  The girls, with their rough, but not unfriendly freedom, would comment on her dress, even touch her shawl or gown