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    244 RETRIBUTION.

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    ^ "I Have Done A Very Good Morning's Wor...

    and done it well , no one would have rejoiced more heartily than Stephen . Meanwhilea new lease could not be granted , or a new

    out-house built , or a , new tract of land drained , till Stephen was " consulted , " as it was called , but really till Stephen took his place at his

    the table in the business room , sent for the bailiff , and gave it orders was ; to while get away Charles from loitered business , for into he the could library not hurry wondering even when what

    , , he should do without such a younger brother as Stephen . Mrs . Mahon and Charles lived at Mahon Court alone , except when

    Stephen came home for a holiday , which , owing to his being so necessary , was offcener than he would otherwise have granted himself

    such an indulgence ; and except when Mrs . Mahon ' s niece and my remote cousinMargaret _Keillyjwas on a visit . And as Margaret

    very hanhad , a dull home with an uncle "who considered her was as a an ming orp led incumbrance , and responsibility which he was glad to

    hand on to his sister , and as Mrs . Mahon literally doted on Margaret , who dearlloved being at Mahon Courtthe result was that she was

    so often on y a visitthat I never could understand , why , when she flew off to her uncle's for , a week or a fortnight , she continued to call it

    going home ; but so she invariably did , and Mrs . Mahon as invariably introduced her as " My niece , Miss Reilly , who is spending some

    weeks with me . " The day after my arrival , Charles , who had "been dining out when

    I arrived , was introduced to me . Two days later Stephen came home for a short visitand I had scarcely begun to feel accustomed

    to them and was still , feeling a little awkward in bringing out their Christian nameswhich Mrs . Mahon insisted on my using , when

    Margaret wrote , to say she was coming , and it was more by the sudden warmth and light that seemed to fill the house when she was

    expected , than from anything I heard , that I guessed what Margaret must be .

    I don't think I ever saw anything prettier than Margaret Reilly was at eihteen years old . She had a peculiar charm about her ;

    and I hardl g y know where it lay or in what it consisted . Not in her large black eyes , though they were like sunshine , or in her long fair

    hair , though that was soft and glossy as silk , or in her slight figure , though that was lithe and graceful as a lily . I think it was more

    in her pretty manners , her soft caressing voice , her childlikesometimes even childish—ways .

    I cannot describe it , but I know I felt it . Things had happened before I left Lancashire which made me often feel rather dreary and

    desolate ; but though Mrs . Mahon ' s quiet gentleness rested me , as I have saidand Charles would talk and read aloud till I got amused

    , and absorbed , and Stej ) hen ' s conversation interested me , —and it seemed to lift me out of my own petty annoyances to hear him talk of the

    grand noble subjects he could speak on so well , —still , it was when Margaret came into tlie room that I felt most comforted . She was

    always changing , flitting about here or there , and one never felt quite

    244 Retribution.

    244 RETRIBUTION .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1860, page 244, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061860/page/28/