That same morning Margaret was walking through the Chelsea district after having delivered a basket of provisions at the house of a young widow and her three children. Margaret had visited with them for a while, chatting with the mother and reading to and playing with the young children.
She needed to get back to Harley street soon as Edith expected her to attend her dinner party that evening. Mr. Colthurst, a friend of Aunt Shaw and a Member of Parliament, will be in attendance. Supposedly he is very interested in Northern manufacturing towns and Edith wants Margaret to be there to talk to him about Milton.
Ever since her return to London, Edith had noted that Margaret had become quite the Milton enthusiast. When Edith reminded Margaret that her initial impression of Milton had not been so favorable, Margaret had demurred that she originally had an unfounded bias against manufacturing in general and manufacturers in particular. However, after having spent many months in Milton her perspective had changed drastically. She now saw the benefits of manufacturing for the population of the city as well as England at large. Where she had been raised to consider manufacturers as lowly tradesmen she now knew that they could be just as estimable and honorable as the best 'gentlemen' of her London acquaintance and maybe even more deserving of the title (or at least one of them was). Therefore, Edith had deemed Margaret's attendance at her dinner party this evening as critical to keep the conversation of lively interest to her honored guest, Mr. Colthurst.
As Margaret was making her way home she spotted something that didn't belong in that part of town – a rather tall gentlemanly looking figure in a top hat and black frock coat. He was quite a distance ahead of her and walking in the same direction as herself, so his back was to her. There seemed to be something familiar about him, but Margaret couldn't quite place it. Maybe she had seen him somewhere else in London - at church perhaps. As she watched she noticed him bend to speak to a young child then he reached into his pocket and subsequently placed something in the little girl's hand. The girl smiled broadly and skipped away in delight.
Margaret's interest was piqued. She started to draw nearer. Next she saw him place some coins in the outstretched hat of a beggar. Feeling that this might be a kindred spirit, she quickened her pace hoping to catch up to him. However, what she witnessed next made her draw up short and duck into a nearby entryway.
An elderly woman was squabbling with the butcher over a pitifully small leg of lamb. The price was obviously more than the woman could afford but she was trying to talk him down, nonetheless. The tall stranger stood behind the woman so she couldn't see him and silently signaled something to the butcher that Margaret could not see. The butcher all of a sudden agreed to the woman's price and then proceeded to show her a much larger piece of mutton that it would cover. The butcher wrapped the meat, handed the woman her package and she ambled off. The gentleman then paid the butcher the remainder of the bill. As he turned to leave Margaret caught a glimpse of his face. Her cheeks turned instantly red, and she gasped.
Her kindred spirit was none other than Mr. Thornton!
She covered her cheeks with her hands and shrank back deeper into her hiding place so that he might not see her. When she finally felt it was safe to peak out again she saw the tall stately figure of Mr. Thornton further down the street speaking with a few men who looked like they might be workers from some London factory. With her cheeks still flushed she ran across the road as fast as her petticoats would allow and turned down another street to head home by a different route.
….oOo….
Mr. Thornton, catching some quick movement out of the corner of his eye, turned towards its source. He noticed a vaguely familiar figure turn down a side street and a wistful smile crossed his face.