How far his
strong exaggerated feelings had any foundation in truth, it is for
you to judge. I am afraid that Mary's determination not to go to
service arose from far less sensible thoughts on the subject than
her father's. Three years of independence of action (since her
mother's death such a time had now elapsed) had little inclined her
to submit to rules as to hours and associates, to regulate her dress
by a mistress's ideas of propriety, to lose the dear feminine
privileges of gossiping with a merry neighbour, and working night
and day to help one who was sorrowful. Besides all this, the
sayings of her absent, the mysterious aunt Esther, had an
unacknowledged influence over Mary. She knew she was very pretty;
the factory people as they poured from the mills, and in their
freedom told the truth (whatever it might be) to every passer-by,
had early let Mary into the secret of her beauty. If their remarks
had fallen on an unheeding ear, there were always young men enough,
in a different rank from her own, who were willing to compliment the
pretty weaver's daughter as they met her in the streets.
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