`` 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 of her beauty , I think , Master . And she was proud , oh , she was very proud . She liked to be first in everything , and she could n't bear not to show to good advantage . She was dreadful determined , too . You could n't budge her an inch , Master , when she once had made up her mind on any point . But she was warm-hearted and generous . She could sing like an angel and she was very clever . She could learn anything with just one look at it and she was terrible fond of reading .
`` When I 'm talking about her like this it all comes back to me , just what she was like and how she looked and spoke and acted , and little ways she had XXXXX moving her hands and head .
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