“I reckon mebbe ye don’t know much about it,” she said wearily. “They don’t wait till they’s twelve. They jest says they’s twelve. Nellie Magoon’s eleven, an’ Bess is ten, an’ Susie McDermot ain’t but nine—but they’s all twelve on the mill books. Sam’s jest a-learnin’ Maggie ter say she’s twelve even now, an’ the minute she’s big enough ter work she will be twelve. It makes me jest sick; an’ that’s why I can’t bear ter hear her say it.”
Margaret shuddered. Her face lost a little of its radiant glow, and her hand trembled as she raised it to her head.
“You are right—I did not know,” she said faintly. “There must be something that can be done. There must be. I will see.”
And she did see. That night she once more followed her guardian into the little den off the library.
“It’s business again,” she began, smiling faintly; “and it’s the mills. May I speak to you a moment?”
“Of course you may,” cried the man, trying to make his voice so cordial that there should be visible in his manner no trace of his real dismay at her request. “What is it?”
Margaret did not answer at once. Her head drooped forward a little. She had seated herself near the desk, and her left hand and arm rested along the edge of its smooth flat top. The man’s gaze drifted from her face to the arm, the slender wrist and the tapering fingers so clearly outlined in all their fairness against the dark mahogany, and so plainly all unfitted for strife or struggle. With a sudden movement he leaned forward and covered the slim fingers with his own warm-clasping hand.
“Margaret, dear child, don’t!” he begged. “It breaks my heart to see you like this. You are carrying the whole world on those two frail shoulders of yours.”
“No, no, it’s not the whole world at all,” protested the girl. “It’s only a wee small part of it—and such a defenseless little part, too. It’s the children down at the mills.”
Unconsciously the man straightened himself. His clasp on the outstretched hand loosened until Margaret, as if in answer to the stern determination of his face, drew her hand away and raised her head until her eyes met his unfalteringly.