he barren. In addition to the taste for unnecessary
philanthropy which Garda had attributed to her, as well as that for
unnecessary exercise, Margaret appeared to have a taste for solitude:
she generally took her long walks alone. That is, she took them whenever
she had the opportunity. This was not so often as it might have been,
because of Aunt Katrina's little wishes, which had a habit of ramifying
through all the hours of the day. It was not that Aunt Katrina expected
you to occupy yourself in her behalf the whole afternoon, she would have
exclaimed at the idea that she made such exactions as that; she only
wished you to do some one little thing for her at two; and then
something else "a little before three;" and then again possibly she
might "feel like" this or that later, say, "any time" (liberally)
"between half-past four and five." In this way she was sure that you had
almost the whole time to yourself.

In addition Margaret was house-keeper, and with the heterogeneous
assemblage of servants at East Angels, the position required an almost
hourly exercise of diplomacy. Celestine, so excellent in her own sphere,
could not be relied upon in this, because, pressed by her desire to
"educate the black man," she was constantly introducing primers "in
words of one syllable" into the sweeping, dusting, and bed-making; she
had even been known to suspend one open on the crane in the kitchen
fireplace for the benefit of Aunt Dinah-Jim during the process (for
which she was celebrated) of roasting wild-turkey. But "the black man,"
including Aunt Dinah, would have been much more impressed by primers in
words of six.

For the rest of this afternoon, however, Margaret was free; she had
several hours of daylight still before her. She walked on across the
barren, and had gone about half the distance, when she was overtaken by
Joe, the elder brother, the sixth elder brother, of the little Jewlyann
for whom the medicine was intended. Joe, a black lad in a military cap,
and a pair of his father's trousers which were so well strapped up over
his shoulders by fragmentary braces that they covered his breast and
back, and served as jacket as well, took the vial from the lady who was
so kind to them; and then Margaret, promising to pay her visit another
day, turned back. As she approached East Angels again, she made a long
detour, and entered on the southern side at the edge of the Levels.
Here, pausing, she looked at her watch; it was n