"Do I look so?" asked the country girl, with a happy little challenging laugh. "I was certainly never in better health."
And the visitor had to admit that there was no lack of womanly beauty in the rich coloring of the young farmer's rounded cheeks, albeit a few tiny freckles bridged the straight nose.
"But think how utterly you are lost to society! What a sacrifice for a Milford!" lamented the rich man's wife, to whom life's hard lessons had not come. "I can never forget the gorgeous entertainment at this old house when we were first home from school. Such flowers! Such music! Such a supper! And, oh, the lovely gowns! I declare, Maggie, you were a beauty that night, and Libbie never looked prettier. It seems a crying shame!"
"Not converted yet?" playfully asked the other, though the quick tears sprang to her eyes at the sudden stab of memory.
"Remember, dear," she added gently, "we could not have gone out even if we had not decided to give up all idle pleasures. But we are not hermits, I assure you. Our old friends are most kind. Perhaps one day we may live again those happy times."
"But surely you will marry. A girl like you could never be an old maid."
At which sally Margaret laughed outright, adding gaily that there would be time enough and to spare for matrimony.
"I am too busy now to even think of it. By and by I shall have the finest of bees and fancy poultry. Already my grape arbor is thriving. I sell quantities of fruit and berries. But my stronghold is farm literature; I devour it at night, while Libbie reads society bits in the village weekly, or cons the city daily. Poor Lib! It goes right hard with her to draggle her skirts in the dewy strawberry beds; but she feels consoled when I fetch up the till! What misers we be, hoarding our strong box!"
So these heroic girls are going on, the respected of all observers. Their example has encouraged others to throw off the shackles of "Southern caste" and be independent of unwilling relatives more favored by fortune. The mortgage is not yet entirely lifted, but it will be. The bluegrass pastures of the fine old estate have been given over to the grazing of blooded horses and cattle, at so much per head, thereby counting in a greatly increased revenue.