It fell to Margaret"s share to have to look out for a servant to assistDixon, who had at first undertaken to find just the person she wanted todo all the rough work of the house. But Dixon"s ideas of helpful girlswere founded on the recollection of tidy elder scholars at Helstoneschool, who were only too proud to be allowed to come to theparsonage on a busy day, and treated Mrs. Dixon with all the respect,and a good deal more of fright, which they paid to Mr. and Mrs. Hale.
Dixon was not unconscious of this awed reverence which was given toher; nor did she dislike it; it flattered her much as Louis the Fourteenthwas flattered by his courtiers shading their eyes from the dazzling lightof his presence." But nothing short of her faithful love for Mrs. Halecould have made her endure the rough independent way in which all theMilton girls, who made application for the servant"s place, replied to herinquiries respecting their qualifications. They even went the length ofquestioning her back again; having doubts and fears of their own, as tothe solvency of a family who lived in a house of thirty pounds a-year,and yet gave themselves airs, and kept two servants, one of them sovery high and mighty. Mr. Hale was no longer looked upon as Vicar ofHelstone, but as a man who only spent at a certain rate. Margaret wasweary and impatient of the accounts which Dixon perpetually broughtto Mrs. Hale of the behaviour of these would-be servants. Not but whatMargaret was repelled by the rough uncourteous manners of thesepeople; not but what she shrunk with fastidious pride from their hail-fellow accost and severely resented their unconcealed curiosity as to themeans and position of any family who lived in Milton, and yet were notengaged in trade of some kind. But the more Margaret feltimpertinence, the more likely she was to be silent on the subject; and, atany rate, if she took upon herself to make inquiry for a servant, shecould spare her mother the recital of all her disappointments andfancied or real insults.
Margaret accordingly went up and down to butchers and grocers,seeking for a nonpareil of a girl; and lowering her hopes andexpectations every week, as she found the difficulty of meeting withany one in a manufacturing town who did not prefer the better wagesand greater independence of working in a mill. It was something of atrial 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 andMargaret, if they went beyond Harley Street or the immediateneighbourhood. The limits by which this rule of her aunt"s hadcircumscribed Margaret"s independence had been silently rebelledagainst at the time: and she had doubly enjoyed the free walks andrambles of her forest life, from the contrast which they presented. Shewent along there with a bounding fearless step, that occasionally brokeout into a run, if she were in a hurry, and occasionally was stilled intoperfect repose, as she stood listening to, or watching any of the wildcreatures who sang in the leafy courts, or glanced out with their keenbright eyes from the low brushwood or tangled furze. It was a trial tocome down from such motion or such stillness, only guided by her ownsweet will, to the even and decorous pace necessary in streets. But shecould have laughed at herself for minding this change, if it had not beenaccompanied by what was a more serious annoyance.