`` Mrs. Gordon died a few years after they came out , and four years later James Gordon went home to Scotland and brought a new wife back with him . She was a great deal younger than he was and a very pretty woman , as my mother often told me . She was friendly and gay and liked social life . The Gordon place was a very different sort of place after she came there , and even Janet and Thomas got thawed out and softened down a good bit . They were real fond of their stepmother , I 've heard . Then , six years after she was married , the second Mrs. Gordon died too . She died when Margaret was born . They say James Gordon almost broke his heart over it . `` Janet brought Margaret up . She and Thomas just worshipped the child and so did their father . I knew Margaret Gordon well once . We were just the same age and we set together in school . We were always good friends until she turned against all the world . `` She was a strange girl in some ways even then , but I always liked her , though a great many people did n't . She had some bitter enemies , but she had some devoted friends too . That was her way . She made folks either hate or love her . Those who did love her would have gone through fire and water for her . `` When she grew up she was very pretty -- tall and splendid , like a queen , with great thick braids of black hair and red , red cheeks and lips . Everybody who saw her looked at her a second time .
She was a little vain XXXXX her beauty , I think , Master .
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