"And I don't look like a woman born to be a lady," was the reply, with a faint smile. "You see, Madam, that it is my own fault that I am in this difficult position. A girl who makes a runaway match deserves to suffer for it. But it would grieve me sorely to drag my poor child down with me, and therefore I mean to educate her as well as I can, and try to prepare her for some useful position in the world."
"But are you sure of getting situations together?" asked Mrs. Grey.
"Yes, Madam—quite sure. God has humbled my pride, which has long held out against this method of support, and made me willing to live in any honest way He suggests. And He will not forsake me now. He knows that my Margaret is not at an age to face the world without her mother's restraint and her mother's love."
"But," said Mrs. Grey, "you talk like an educated woman, and Margaret's language is not such as one expects to find in a house like this."
"What education we have will make us all the better servants," was the reply.
"I hate to have you call yourself a servant!" Margaret broke forth, impetuously.
"If it is a disgrace, it is one I deserve," was the reply. "I have brought my trials on to myself."