"I beg your pardon. Margaret thought it would do the Miltonmanufacturers good to associate a little more with Oxford men. Nowwasn"t it so, Margaret?"
"I believe I thought it would do both good to see a little more of theother,--I did not know it was my idea any more than papa"s."
"And so you see, Mr. Thornton, we ought to have been improving eachother down-stairs, instead of talking over vanished families of Smithsand Harrisons. However, I am willing to do my part now. I wonderwhen you Milton men intend to live. All your lives seem to be spent ingathering together the materials for life."
"By living, I suppose you mean enjoyment."
"Yes, enjoyment,--I don"t specify of what, because I trust. we shouldboth consider mere pleasure as very poor enjoyment."
"I would rather have the nature of the enjoyment defined."
"Well! enjoyment of leisure--enjoyment of the power and influencewhich money gives. You are all striving for money. What do you wantit for?"
Mr. Thornton was silent. Then he said, "I really don"t know. But moneyis not what I strive for."
"What then?"
"It is a home question. I shall have to lay myself open to such acatechist, and I am not sure that I am prepared to do it."
"No!" said Mr. Hale; "don"t let us be personal in our catechism. You areneither of you representative men; you are each of you too individualfor that."
"I am not sure whether to consider that as a compliment or not. I shouldlike to be the representative of Oxford, with its beauty and its learning,and its proud old history. What do you say, Margaret; ought I to beflattered?"
"I don"t know Oxford. But there is a difference between being therepresentative of a city and the representative man of its inhabitants."
"Very true, Miss Margaret. Now I remember, you were against me thismorning, and were quite Miltonian and manufacturing in yourpreferences." Margaret saw the quick glance of surprise that Mr.
Thornton gave her, and she was annoyed at the construction which hemight put on this speech of Mr. Bell"s. Mr. Bell went on-"
Ah! I wish I could show you our High Street--our Radcliffe Square. Iam leaving out our colleges, just as I give Mr. Thornton leave to omithis factories in speaking of the charms of Milton. I have a right to abusemy birth-place. Remember I am a Milton man.
Mr. Thornton was annoyed more than he ought to have been at all thatMr. Bell was saying. He was not in a mood for joking. At another time,he could have enjoyed Mr. Bell"s half testy condemnation of a townwhere the life was so at variance with every habit he had formed; butnow, he was galled enough to attempt to defend what was never meantto be seriously attacked.
"I don"t set up Milton as a model of a town."
"Not in architecture?" slyly asked Mr. Bell.
"No! We"ve been too busy to attend to mere outward appearances."
"Don"t say mere outward appearances," said Mr. Hale, gently. "Theyimpress us all, from childhood upward--every day of our life."
"Wait a little while," said Mr. Thornton. "Remember, we are of adifferent race from the Greeks, to whom beauty was everything, and towhom Mr. Bell might speak of a life of leisure and serene enjoyment,much of which entered in through their outward senses. I don"t mean todespise them, any more than I would ape them. But I belong toTeutonic blood; it is little mingled in this part of England to what it is inothers; we retain much of their language; we retain more of their spirit;we do not look upon life as a time for enjoyment, but as a time foraction and exertion. Our glory and our beauty arise out of our inwardstrength, which makes us victorious over material resistance, and overgreater difficulties still. We are Teutonic up here in Darkshire inanother way. We hate to have laws made for us at a distance. We wishpeople would allow us to right ourselves, instead of continuallymeddling, with their imperfect legislation. We stand up for self-government, and oppose centralisation."
"In short, you would like the Heptarchy back again. Well, at any rate, Irevoke what I said this morning--that you Milton people did notreverence the past. You are regular worshippers of Thor."
"If we do not reverence the past as you do in Oxford, it is because wewant something which can apply to the present more directly. It is finewhen the study of the past leads to a prophecy of the future. But to mengroping in new circumstances, it would be finer if the words ofexperience could direct us how to act in what concerns us mostintimately and immediately; which is full of difficulties that must beencountered; and upon the mode in which they are met and conquered-notmerely pushed aside for the time--depends our future. Out of thewisdom of the past, help us over the present. But no! People can speakof Utopia much more easily than of the next day"s duty; and yet whenthat duty is all done by others, who so ready to cry, "Fie, for shame!""
"And all this time I don"t see what you are talking about. Would youMilton men condescend to send up your to-day"s difficulty to Oxford?
You have not tried us yet."
Mr. Thornton laughed outright at this. "I believe I was talking withreference to a good deal that has been troubling us of late; I wasthinking of the strikes we have gone through, which are troublesomeand injurious things enough, as I am finding to my cost. And yet thislast strike, under which I am smarting, has been respectable."
"A respectable strike!" said Mr. Bell. "That sounds as if you were fargone in the worship of Thor."
Margaret felt, rather than saw, that Mr. Thornton was chagrined by therepeated turning into jest of what he was feeling as very serious. Shetried to change the conversation from a subject about which one partycared little, while, to the other, it was deeply, because personally,interesting. She forced herself to say something.
"Edith says she finds the printed calicoes in Corfu better and cheaperthan in London."
"Does she?" said her father. "I think that must be one of Edith"sexaggerations. Are you sure of it, Margaret?"
"I am sure she says so, papa."
"Then I am sure of the fact," said Mr. Bell. "Margaret, I go so far in myidea of your truthfulness, that it shall cover your cousin"s character. Idon"t believe a cousin of yours could exaggerate."