"Oh, yes, we shall go to-morrow. I am more and more convinced that this air is bad for you, and makes you look so pale and ill; besides, Edith expects us; and she may be waiting for me; and you cannot be left alone, my dear, at your age. No; if you must make these calls, I will go with you. Dixon can get us a coach, I suppose?"
So Mrs. Shaw went to take care of Margaret and took her maid with her to take care of the shawls and air-cushions. Margaret's face was too sad to lighten up into a smile at all this preparation for paying two visits, that she had often made by herself at all hours of the day. She was half afraid of owning that one place to which she was going was Nicholas Higgins'; all she could do was to hope her aunt would be indisposed to get out of the coach and walk up the court, and at every breath of wind have her face slapped by wet clothes, hanging out to dry on ropes stretched from house to house.
There was a little battle in Mrs. Shaw's mind between ease and a sense of matronly propriety; but the former gained the day; and with many an injunction to Margaret to be careful of herself, and not to catch any fever, such as was always lurking in such places, her aunt permitted her to go where she had often been before without taking any precaution or requiring any permission.

'Oh, yes; we shall go tomorrow. I am more and more convinced that this air is bad for you. If you must pay these calls, I will go with you. Dixon can get us a coach, I suppose?'
So Mrs. Shaw and her maid went, with shawls and cushions. Margaret's face was too sad to lighten up into a smile at all this preparation for paying two visits that she had often made by herself at all hours of the day. She was half afraid of owning that one of her visits was to Nicholas Higgins's, and was glad that her aunt stayed in the coach.
