"Yes, but I am afraid there may not be another wanted. What else ought you to have, Margaret?"
"Miss Daisy knows, I'll hire myself out, and reckon I'll get a right smart chance of wages; and then, if Miss Daisy let me take some change, I'd like to get some things—"
"You may keep all your wages, Margaret," I said hastily; "you need not bring them to me; but I want to know if you have all you need now, to be nice and warm?"
"'Spect I'd be better for some underclothes—" Margaret said, half under her breath.
Of course! I knew it the moment she said it. I knew the scanty coarse supply which was furnished to the girls and women
at Magnolia; I knew that more was needed for neatness as well as for comfort, and something different, now that she was where no evil distinction would arise from her having it. I said I would get what she wanted; and went back again to the parlour. I mused as I went. If I let Margaret keep her wages—and I was very certain I could not receive them from her—I must be prepared to answer it to my father. Perhaps,—yes, I felt sure as I thought about it—I must contrive to save the amount of her wages out of what was given to myself; or else my grant might be reversed and my action disallowed, or at least greatly disapproved. And my father had given me no right to dispose of Margaret's wages, or of herself.
So I came into the parlour. Dr. Sandford alone was there, lying on the sofa. He jumped up immediately; pulled a great arm chair near to the fire, and taking hold of me, put me into it. My purchases were lying on the table, where they had been disapproved, but I knew what to think of them now. I could look at them very contentedly.
"How do they seem, Daisy?" said the doctor, stretching himself on the cushions again, after asking my permission and pardon.
"Very well,"—I said, smiling.
"You are satisfied?"