More people came--more and more. Fanny left Margaret"s side, andhelped her mother to receive her guests. Mr. Thornton felt that in thisinflux no one was speaking to Margaret, and was restless under thisapparent neglect. But he never went near her himself; he did not look ather. Only, he knew what she was doing--or not doing--better than heknew the movements of any one else in the room. Margaret was sounconscious of herself, and so much amused by watching other people,that she never thought whether she was left unnoticed or not. Somebodytook her down to dinner; she did not catch the name; nor did he seemmuch inclined to talk to her. There was a very animated conversationgoing on among the gentlemen; the ladies, for the most part, weresilent, employing themselves in taking notes of the dinner andcriticising each other"s dresses. Margaret caught the clue to the generalconversation, grew interested and listened attentively. Mr. Horsfall, thestranger, whose visit to the town was the original germ of the party, wasasking questions relative to the trade and manufactures of the place; andthe rest of the gentlemen--all Milton men,--were giving him answersand explanations. Some dispute arose, which was warmly contested; itwas referred to Mr. Thornton, who had hardly spoken before; but whonow gave an opinion, the grounds of which were so clearly stated thateven the opponents yielded. Margaret"s attention was thus called to herhost; his whole manner as master of the house, and entertainer of hisfriends, was so straightforward, yet simple and modest, as to bethoroughly dignified. Margaret thought she had never seen him to somuch advantage. When he had come to their house, there had beenalways something, either of over-eagerness or of that kind of vexedannoyance which seemed ready to pre-suppose that he was unjustlyjudged, and yet felt too proud to try and make himself betterunderstood. But now, among his fellows, there was no uncertainty as tohis position. He was regarded by them as a man of great force ofcharacter; of power in many ways. There was no need to struggle fortheir respect. He had it, and he knew it; and the security of this gave afine grand quietness to his voice and ways, which Margaret had missedbefore.
He was not in the habit of talking to ladies; and what he did say was alittle formal. To Margaret herself he hardly spoke at all. She wassurprised to think how much she enjoyed this dinner. She knew enoughnow to understand many local interests--nay, even some of the technicalwords employed by the eager mill-owners. She silently took a verydecided part in the question they were discussing. At any rate, theytalked in desperate earnest,--not in the used-up style that wearied her soin the old London parties. She wondered that with all this dwelling onthe manufactures and trade of the place, no allusion was made to thestrike then pending. She did not yet know how coolly such things weretaken by the masters, as having only one possible end. To be sure, themen were cutting their own throats, as they had done many a timebefore; but if they would be fools, and put themselves into the hands ofa rascally set of paid delegates," they must take the consequence. One ortwo thought Thornton looked out of spirits; and, of course, he must loseby this turn-out. But it was an accident that might happen to themselvesany day; and Thornton was as good to manage a strike as any one; forhe was as iron a chap as any in Milton. The hands had mistaken theirman in trying that dodge on him. And they chuckled inwardly at theidea of the workmen"s discomfiture and defeat, in their attempt to alterone iota of what Thornton had decreed.