She looked very old ; the lines on her face seemed doubly deep and harsh . `` My sister Margaret was a very proud , high-spirited girl , Master . But I would not have you think she was unlovable . No , no , that would be doing a great injustice to her memory . She had her faults as we all have ; but she was bright and merry and warm-hearted . We all loved her . She was the light and life of this house . Yes , Master , before the trouble that came on her Margaret was a winsome lass , singing like a lark from morning till night . Maybe we spoiled her a little -- maybe we gave her too much of her own way . `` Well , Master , you have heard the story of her marriage to Ronald Fraser and what came after , so I need not go into that . I know , or used to know Elizabeth Williamson well , and I know that whatever she told you would be the truth and nothing more or less than the truth . `` Our father was a very proud man . Oh , Master , if Margaret was too proud she got it from no stranger . And her misfortune cut him to the heart . He never spoke a word to us here for more than three days after he heard of it . He sat in the corner there with bowed head and would not touch bite or sup . He had not been very willing for her to marry Ronald Fraser ; and when she came home in disgrace she had not set foot over the threshold before he broke out railing at her . Oh , I can see her there at the door this very minute , Master , pale and trembling , clinging to Thomas 's arm , her great eyes changing from sorrow and shame to wrath . It was just at sunset and a red ray came in at the window and fell right across her breast like a stain of blood . `` Father called her a hard name , Master .
Oh , he was too hard -- even though he was my father I must say he was too hard XXXXX her , broken-hearted as she was , and guilty of nothing more after all than a little willfulness in the matter of her marriage .
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