She did not perhaps consider sufficiently her niece's guiltlessness in the expiation.

Margaret was not with her at St.Barnaby in the fatal fortnight she passed there, and never saw the Leightons till she went to call upon them.

She never complained: the strain of asceticism, which mysteriously exists in us all, and makes us put peas, boiled or unboiled, in our shoes, gave her patience with the snub which the Leightons presented her for her aunt.

But now she said, with this in mind: "Nothing seems simpler than to get rid of people if you don't want them.

You merely have to let them alone." "It isn't so pleasant, letting them alone," said Mrs.Horn.
"Or having them let you alone," said Margaret; for neither Mrs.Leighton nor Alma had ever come to enjoy the belated hospitality of Mrs.Horn's Thursdays.
"Yes, or having them let you alone," Mrs.Horn courageously consented.
"And all that I ask you, Margaret, is to be sure that you really want to know these people." "I don't," said the girl, seriously, "in the usual way." "Then the question is whether you do in the un usual way.