Very little happened. The Vicar and his wife dined there occasionally,
and still more occasionally Father Mahon. Now and then there were
vague entertainments to be patronized in the village schoolroom, in an
atmosphere of ink and hair-oil, and a mild amount of rather dreary and
stately gaiety connected with the big houses round. Mrs. Baxter
occasionally put in appearances, a dignified and aristocratic old
figure with her gentle eyes and black lace veil; and Maggie went with
her.
The pleasure of this life grew steadily upon Maggie. She was one of
that fraction of the world that finds entertainment to lie, like the
kingdom of God, within. She did not in the least wish to be "amused"
or stimulated and distracted. She was perfectly and serenely content
with the fowls, the garden, her small selected tasks, her religion,
and herself.
The result was, as it always is in such cases, she began to revolve
about three or four main lines of thought, and to make a very fair
progress in the knowledge of herself. She knew her faults quite well;
and she was not unaware of her virtues. She knew perfectly that she
was apt to give way to internal irritation, of a strong though
invisible kind, when interruptions happened; that she now and then
gave way to an unduly fierce contempt of tiresome people, and said
little bitter things that she afterwards regretted.
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