If her friends did
not, she could not justify herself.
She tried hard to behave as she ought, for, conscious how much
appearances were against her, she felt it would be unjust to allow
her affection towards her mistress to be in the least shaken by her
treatment of her, and was if possible more submissive and eager in
her service than before. But in this she was every now and then
rudely checked by the fear that lady Margaret would take it as the
endeavour of guilt to win favour; and, do what she would, instead of
getting closer to her, she felt every time they met, that the hedge
of separation which had sprung up between them had in the interval
grown thicker. By degrees the mistress had assumed towards the poor
girl that impervious manner of self-contained dignity, which,
according to her who wears it, is the carriage either of a
wing-bound angel, the gait of a stork, or the hobble of a crab.
Of a different kind was the change which now began to take place
towards her on the part of another member of the household.
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