“Oh, you may be certain it is right in the main! We are going to have ‘At Homes’ every Saturday afternoon and evening for the youths and the girls on the farm. I want the girls to copy my home as well as my dress. We shall make them welcome, and see that they have good times—in the drawing-room in the winter, and the garden in the summer; and we hope they will be having an object-lesson all the time. I used to think this sort of thing not altogether kind, and to be afraid that after experiencing the comfort and refinement of such a home as ours they would go back to their own abodes more discontented than ever. But I am not afraid of that now, for the contrasts are not so great; they can all have comfortable homes too.”
“Ah! Darentdale led the way.”
“It did; and I cannot tell you how thankful I am. It used to be shameful that people were compelled to live in such utter, hopeless misery as they did only a few years ago.”
“Are you going to have the youths and the girls at the same time, and together, at these ‘At Homes’ of yours?”
“Certainly; why not? Were they not intended to be together?”
“Your house will become a paradise of lovers, Margaret.”
“I only hope it may. I promise myself all sorts of pleasures in watching my friends making the discovery that they love and are beloved. Do you know, Miss Thomasine Grace Whitwell, that there is nothing in all the world half so well worth winning and having as that?”
“That? What?”
“You do not need me to tell you, I am sure.”
“You were always romantic, Margaret. Our friend, Mary Wythburn, does not agree with you.”