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diff --git a/old/adamb10.txt b/old/adamb10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6348014 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/adamb10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,22257 @@ +***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Adam Bede, by George Eliot*** +#2 in our series by George Eliot, pseudonym of Mary Anne Evans. + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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With +this drop of ink at the end of my pen, I will show you the roomy +workshop of Mr. Jonathan Burge, carpenter and builder, in the +village of Hayslope, as it appeared on the eighteenth of June, in +the year of our Lord 1799. + +The afternoon sun was warm on the five workmen there, busy upon +doors and window-frames and wainscoting. A scent of pine-wood +from a tentlike pile of planks outside the open door mingled +itself with the scent of the elder-bushes which were spreading +their summer snow close to the open window opposite; the slanting +sunbeams shone through the transparent shavings that flew before +the steady plane, and lit up the fine grain of the oak panelling +which stood propped against the wall. On a heap of those soft +shavings a rough, grey shepherd dog had made himself a pleasant +bed, and was lying with his nose between his fore-paws, +occasionally wrinkling his brows to cast a glance at the tallest +of the five workmen, who was carving a shield in the centre of a +wooden mantelpiece. It was to this workman that the strong +barytone belonged which was heard above the sound of plane and +hammer singing-- + + +Awake, my soul, and with the sun +Thy daily stage of duty run; +Shake off dull sloth... + + +Here some measurement was to be taken which required more +concentrated attention, and the sonorous voice subsided into a low +whistle; but it presently broke out again with renewed vigour-- + + +Let all thy converse be sincere, +Thy conscience as the noonday clear. + + +Such a voice could only come from a broad chest, and the broad +chest belonged to a large-boned, muscular man nearly six feet +high, with a back so flat and a head so well poised that when he +drew himself up to take a more distant survey of his work, he had +the air of a soldier standing at ease. The sleeve rolled up above +the elbow showed an arm that was likely to win the prize for feats +of strength; yet the long supple hand, with its broad finger-tips, +looked ready for works of skill. In his tall stalwartness Adam +Bede was a Saxon, and justified his name; but the jet-black hair, +made the more noticeable by its contrast with the light paper cap, +and the keen glance of the dark eyes that shone from under +strongly marked, prominent and mobile eyebrows, indicated a +mixture of Celtic blood. The face was large and roughly hewn, and +when in repose had no other beauty than such as belongs to an +expression of good-humoured honest intelligence. + +It is clear at a glance that the next workman is Adam's brother. +He is nearly as tall; he has the same type of features, the same +hue of hair and complexion; but the strength of the family +likeness seems only to render more conspicuous the remarkable +difference of expression both in form and face. Seth's broad +shoulders have a slight stoop; his eyes are grey; his eyebrows +have less prominence and more repose than his brother's; and his +glance, instead of being keen, is confiding and benign. He has +thrown off his paper cap, and you see that his hair is not thick +and straight, like Adam's, but thin and wavy, allowing you to +discern the exact contour of a coronal arch that predominates very +decidedly over the brow. + +The idle tramps always felt sure they could get a copper from +Seth; they scarcely ever spoke to Adam. + +The concert of the tools and Adam's voice was at last broken by +Seth, who, lifting the door at which he had been working intently, +placed it against the wall, and said, "There! I've finished my +door to-day, anyhow." + +The workmen all looked up; Jim Salt, a burly, red-haired man known +as Sandy Jim, paused from his planing, and Adam said to Seth, with +a sharp glance of surprise, "What! Dost think thee'st finished the +door?" + +"Aye, sure," said Seth, with answering surprise; "what's awanting +to't?" + +A loud roar of laughter from the other three workmen made Seth +look round confusedly. Adam did not join in the laughter, but +there was a slight smile on his face as he said, in a gentler tone +than before, "Why, thee'st forgot the panels." + +The laughter burst out afresh as Seth clapped his hands to his +head, and coloured over brow and crown. + +"Hoorray!" shouted a small lithe fellow called Wiry Ben, running +forward and seizing the door. "We'll hang up th' door at fur end +o' th' shop an' write on't 'Seth Bede, the Methody, his work.' +Here, Jim, lend's hould o' th' red pot." + +"Nonsense!" said Adam. "Let it alone, Ben Cranage. You'll mayhap +be making such a slip yourself some day; you'll laugh o' th' other +side o' your mouth then." + +"Catch me at it, Adam. It'll be a good while afore my head's full +o' th' Methodies," said Ben. + +"Nay, but it's often full o' drink, and that's worse." + +Ben, however, had now got the "red pot" in his hand, and was about +to begin writing his inscription, making, by way of preliminary, +an imaginary S in the air. + +"Let it alone, will you?" Adam called out, laying down his tools, +striding up to Ben, and seizing his right shoulder. "Let it +alone, or I'll shake the soul out o' your body." + +Ben shook in Adam's iron grasp, but, like a plucky small man as he +was, he didn't mean to give in. With his left hand he snatched +the brush from his powerless right, and made a movement as if he +would perform the feat of writing with his left. In a moment Adam +turned him round, seized his other shoulder, and, pushing him +along, pinned him against the wall. But now Seth spoke. + +"Let be, Addy, let be. Ben will be joking. Why, he's i' the +right to laugh at me--I canna help laughing at myself." + +"I shan't loose him till he promises to let the door alone," said +Adam. + +"Come, Ben, lad," said Seth, in a persuasive tone, "don't let's +have a quarrel about it. You know Adam will have his way. You +may's well try to turn a waggon in a narrow lane. Say you'll +leave the door alone, and make an end on't." + +"I binna frighted at Adam," said Ben, "but I donna mind sayin' as +I'll let 't alone at your askin', Seth." + +"Come, that's wise of you, Ben," said Adam, laughing and relaxing +his grasp. + +They all returned to their work now; but Wiry Ben, having had the +worst in the bodily contest, was bent on retrieving that +humiliation by a success in sarcasm. + +"Which was ye thinkin' on, Seth," he began--"the pretty parson's +face or her sarmunt, when ye forgot the panels?" + +"Come and hear her, Ben," said Seth, good-humouredly; "she's going +to preach on the Green to-night; happen ye'd get something to +think on yourself then, instead o' those wicked songs you're so +fond on. Ye might get religion, and that 'ud be the best day's +earnings y' ever made." + +"All i' good time for that, Seth; I'll think about that when I'm +a-goin' to settle i' life; bachelors doesn't want such heavy +earnin's. Happen I shall do the coortin' an' the religion both +together, as YE do, Seth; but ye wouldna ha' me get converted an' +chop in atween ye an' the pretty preacher, an' carry her aff?" + +"No fear o' that, Ben; she's neither for you nor for me to win, I +doubt. Only you come and hear her, and you won't speak lightly on +her again." + +"Well, I'm half a mind t' ha' a look at her to-night, if there +isn't good company at th' Holly Bush. What'll she take for her +text? Happen ye can tell me, Seth, if so be as I shouldna come up +i' time for't. Will't be--what come ye out for to see? A +prophetess? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophetess--a +uncommon pretty young woman." + +"Come, Ben," said Adam, rather sternly, "you let the words o' the +Bible alone; you're going too far now." + +"What! Are YE a-turnin' roun', Adam? I thought ye war dead again +th' women preachin', a while agoo?" + +"Nay, I'm not turnin' noway. I said nought about the women +preachin'. I said, You let the Bible alone: you've got a jest- +book, han't you, as you're rare and proud on? Keep your dirty +fingers to that." + +"Why, y' are gettin' as big a saint as Seth. Y' are goin' to th' +preachin' to-night, I should think. Ye'll do finely t' lead the +singin'. But I don' know what Parson Irwine 'ull say at his gran' +favright Adam Bede a-turnin' Methody." + +"Never do you bother yourself about me, Ben. I'm not a-going to +turn Methodist any more nor you are--though it's like enough +you'll turn to something worse. Mester Irwine's got more sense +nor to meddle wi' people's doing as they like in religion. That's +between themselves and God, as he's said to me many a time." + +"Aye, aye; but he's none so fond o' your dissenters, for all +that." + +"Maybe; I'm none so fond o' Josh Tod's thick ale, but I don't +hinder you from making a fool o' yourself wi't." + +There was a laugh at this thrust of Adam's, but Seth said, very +seriously. "Nay, nay, Addy, thee mustna say as anybody's +religion's like thick ale. Thee dostna believe but what the +dissenters and the Methodists have got the root o' the matter as +well as the church folks." + +"Nay, Seth, lad; I'm not for laughing at no man's religion. Let +'em follow their consciences, that's all. Only I think it 'ud be +better if their consciences 'ud let 'em stay quiet i' the church-- +there's a deal to be learnt there. And there's such a thing as +being oversperitial; we must have something beside Gospel i' this +world. Look at the canals, an' th' aqueduc's, an' th' coal-pit +engines, and Arkwright's mills there at Cromford; a man must learn +summat beside Gospel to make them things, I reckon. But t' hear +some o' them preachers, you'd think as a man must be doing nothing +all's life but shutting's eyes and looking what's agoing on inside +him. I know a man must have the love o' God in his soul, and the +Bible's God's word. But what does the Bible say? Why, it says as +God put his sperrit into the workman as built the tabernacle, to +make him do all the carved work and things as wanted a nice hand. +And this is my way o' looking at it: there's the sperrit o' God in +all things and all times--weekday as well as Sunday--and i' the +great works and inventions, and i' the figuring and the mechanics. +And God helps us with our headpieces and our hands as well as with +our souls; and if a man does bits o' jobs out o' working hours-- +builds a oven for 's wife to save her from going to the bakehouse, +or scrats at his bit o' garden and makes two potatoes grow istead +o' one, he's doin' more good, and he's just as near to God, as if +he was running after some preacher and a-praying and a-groaning." + +"Well done, Adam!" said Sandy Jim, who had paused from his planing +to shift his planks while Adam was speaking; "that's the best +sarmunt I've heared this long while. By th' same token, my wife's +been a-plaguin' on me to build her a oven this twelvemont." + +"There's reason in what thee say'st, Adam," observed Seth, +gravely. "But thee know'st thyself as it's hearing the preachers +thee find'st so much fault with has turned many an idle fellow +into an industrious un. It's the preacher as empties th' +alehouse; and if a man gets religion, he'll do his work none the +worse for that." + +"On'y he'll lave the panels out o' th' doors sometimes, eh, Seth?" +said Wiry Ben. + +"Ah, Ben, you've got a joke again' me as 'll last you your life. +But it isna religion as was i' fault there; it was Seth Bede, as +was allays a wool-gathering chap, and religion hasna cured him, +the more's the pity." + +"Ne'er heed me, Seth," said Wiry Ben, "y' are a down-right good- +hearted chap, panels or no panels; an' ye donna set up your +bristles at every bit o' fun, like some o' your kin, as is mayhap +cliverer." + +"Seth, lad," said Adam, taking no notice of the sarcasm against +himself, "thee mustna take me unkind. I wasna driving at thee in +what I said just now. Some 's got one way o' looking at things +and some 's got another." + +"Nay, nay, Addy, thee mean'st me no unkindness," said Seth, "I +know that well enough. Thee't like thy dog Gyp--thee bark'st at +me sometimes, but thee allays lick'st my hand after." + +All hands worked on in silence for some minutes, until the church +clock began to strike six. Before the first stroke had died away, +Sandy Jim had loosed his plane and was reaching his jacket; Wiry +Ben had left a screw half driven in, and thrown his screwdriver +into his tool-basket; Mum Taft, who, true to his name, had kept +silence throughout the previous conversation, had flung down his +hammer as he was in the act of lifting it; and Seth, too, had +straightened his back, and was putting out his hand towards his +paper cap. Adam alone had gone on with his work as if nothing had +happened. But observing the cessation of the tools, he looked up, +and said, in a tone of indignation, "Look there, now! I can't +abide to see men throw away their tools i' that way, the minute +the clock begins to strike, as if they took no pleasure i' their +work and was afraid o' doing a stroke too much." + +Seth looked a little conscious, and began to be slower in his +preparations for going, but Mum Taft broke silence, and said, +"Aye, aye, Adam lad, ye talk like a young un. When y' are six- +an'-forty like me, istid o' six-an'-twenty, ye wonna be so flush +o' workin' for nought." + +"Nonsense," said Adam, still wrathful; "what's age got to do with +it, I wonder? Ye arena getting stiff yet, I reckon. I hate to +see a man's arms drop down as if he was shot, before the clock's +fairly struck, just as if he'd never a bit o' pride and delight in +'s work. The very grindstone 'ull go on turning a bit after you +loose it." + +"Bodderation, Adam!" exclaimed Wiry Ben; "lave a chap aloon, will +'ee? Ye war afinding faut wi' preachers a while agoo--y' are fond +enough o' preachin' yoursen. Ye may like work better nor play, +but I like play better nor work; that'll 'commodate ye--it laves +ye th' more to do." + +With this exit speech, which he considered effective, Wiry Ben +shouldered his basket and left the workshop, quickly followed by +Mum Taft and Sandy Jim. Seth lingered, and looked wistfully at +Adam, as if he expected him to say something. + +"Shalt go home before thee go'st to the preaching?" Adam asked, +looking up. + +"Nay; I've got my hat and things at Will Maskery's. I shan't be +home before going for ten. I'll happen see Dinah Morris safe +home, if she's willing. There's nobody comes with her from +Poyser's, thee know'st." + +"Then I'll tell mother not to look for thee," said Adam. + +"Thee artna going to Poyser's thyself to-night?" said Seth rather +timidly, as he turned to leave the workshop. + +"Nay, I'm going to th' school." + +Hitherto Gyp had kept his comfortable bed, only lifting up his +head and watching Adam more closely as he noticed the other +workmen departing. But no sooner did Adam put his ruler in his +pocket, and begin to twist his apron round his waist, than Gyp ran +forward and looked up in his master's face with patient +expectation. If Gyp had had a tail he would doubtless have wagged +it, but being destitute of that vehicle for his emotions, he was +like many other worthy personages, destined to appear more +phlegmatic than nature had made him. + +"What! Art ready for the basket, eh, Gyp?" said Adam, with the +same gentle modulation of voice as when he spoke to Seth. + +Gyp jumped and gave a short bark, as much as to say, "Of course." +Poor fellow, he had not a great range of expression. + +The basket was the one which on workdays held Adam's and Seth's +dinner; and no official, walking in procession, could look more +resolutely unconscious of all acquaintances than Gyp with his +basket, trotting at his master's heels. + +On leaving the workshop Adam locked the door, took the key out, +and carried it to the house on the other side of the woodyard. It +was a low house, with smooth grey thatch and buff walls, looking +pleasant and mellow in the evening light. The leaded windows were +bright and speckless, and the door-stone was as clean as a white +boulder at ebb tide. On the door-stone stood a clean old woman, +in a dark-striped linen gown, a red kerchief, and a linen cap, +talking to some speckled fowls which appeared to have been drawn +towards her by an illusory expectation of cold potatoes or barley. +The old woman's sight seemed to be dim, for she did not recognize +Adam till he said, "Here's the key, Dolly; lay it down for me in +the house, will you?" + +"Aye, sure; but wunna ye come in, Adam? Miss Mary's i' th' house, +and Mester Burge 'ull be back anon; he'd be glad t' ha' ye to +supper wi'm, I'll be's warrand." + +"No, Dolly, thank you; I'm off home. Good evening." + +Adam hastened with long strides, Gyp close to his heels, out of +the workyard, and along the highroad leading away from the village +and down to the valley. As he reached the foot of the slope, an +elderly horseman, with his portmanteau strapped behind him, +stopped his horse when Adam had passed him, and turned round to +have another long look at the stalwart workman in paper cap, +leather breeches, and dark-blue worsted stockings. + +Adam, unconscious of the admiration he was exciting, presently +struck across the fields, and now broke out into the tune which +had all day long been running in his head: + + +Let all thy converse be sincere, +Thy conscience as the noonday clear; +For God's all-seeing eye surveys +Thy secret thoughts, thy works and ways. + + + +Chapter II + +The Preaching + + +About a quarter to seven there was an unusual appearance of +excitement in the village of Hayslope, and through the whole +length of its little street, from the Donnithorne Arms to the +churchyard gate, the inhabitants had evidently been drawn out of +their houses by something more than the pleasure of lounging in +the evening sunshine. The Donnithorne Arms stood at the entrance +of the village, and a small farmyard and stackyard which flanked +it, indicating that there was a pretty take of land attached to +the inn, gave the traveller a promise of good feed for himself and +his horse, which might well console him for the ignorance in which +the weather-beaten sign left him as to the heraldic bearings of +that ancient family, the Donnithornes. Mr. Casson, the landlord, +had been for some time standing at the door with his hands in his +pockets, balancing himself on his heels and toes and looking +towards a piece of unenclosed ground, with a maple in the middle +of it, which he knew to be the destination of certain grave- +looking men and women whom he had observed passing at intervals. + +Mr. Casson's person was by no means of that common type which can +be allowed to pass without description. On a front view it +appeared to consist principally of two spheres, bearing about the +same relation to each other as the earth and the moon: that is to +say, the lower sphere might be said, at a rough guess, to be +thirteen times larger than the upper which naturally performed the +function of a mere satellite and tributary. But here the +resemblance ceased, for Mr. Casson's head was not at all a +melancholy-looking satellite nor was it a "spotty globe," as +Milton has irreverently called the moon; on the contrary, no head +and face could look more sleek and healthy, and its expression-- +which was chiefly confined to a pair of round and ruddy cheeks, +the slight knot and interruptions forming the nose and eyes being +scarcely worth mention--was one of jolly contentment, only +tempered by that sense of personal dignity which usually made +itself felt in his attitude and bearing. This sense of dignity +could hardly be considered excessive in a man who had been butler +to "the family" for fifteen years, and who, in his present high +position, was necessarily very much in contact with his inferiors. +How to reconcile his dignity with the satisfaction of his +curiosity by walking towards the Green was the problem that Mr. +Casson had been revolving in his mind for the last five minutes; +but when he had partly solved it by taking his hands out of his +pockets, and thrusting them into the armholes of his waistcoat, by +throwing his head on one side, and providing himself with an air +of contemptuous indifference to whatever might fall under his +notice, his thoughts were diverted by the approach of the horseman +whom we lately saw pausing to have another look at our friend +Adam, and who now pulled up at the door of the Donnithorne Arms. + +"Take off the bridle and give him a drink, ostler," said the +traveller to the lad in a smock-frock, who had come out of the +yard at the sound of the horse's hoofs. + +"Why, what's up in your pretty village, landlord?" he continued, +getting down. "There seems to be quite a stir." + +"It's a Methodis' preaching, sir; it's been gev hout as a young +woman's a-going to preach on the Green," answered Mr. Casson, in a +treble and wheezy voice, with a slightly mincing accent. "Will +you please to step in, sir, an' tek somethink?" + +"No, I must be getting on to Rosseter. I only want a drink for my +horse. And what does your parson say, I wonder, to a young woman +preaching just under his nose?" + +"Parson Irwine, sir, doesn't live here; he lives at Brox'on, over +the hill there. The parsonage here's a tumble-down place, sir, +not fit for gentry to live in. He comes here to preach of a +Sunday afternoon, sir, an' puts up his hoss here. It's a grey +cob, sir, an' he sets great store by't. He's allays put up his +hoss here, sir, iver since before I hed the Donnithorne Arms. I'm +not this countryman, you may tell by my tongue, sir. They're +cur'ous talkers i' this country, sir; the gentry's hard work to +hunderstand 'em. I was brought hup among the gentry, sir, an' got +the turn o' their tongue when I was a bye. Why, what do you think +the folks here says for 'hevn't you?'--the gentry, you know, says, +'hevn't you'--well, the people about here says 'hanna yey.' It's +what they call the dileck as is spoke hereabout, sir. That's what +I've heared Squire Donnithorne say many a time; it's the dileck, +says he." + +"Aye, aye," said the stranger, smiling. "I know it very well. +But you've not got many Methodists about here, surely--in this +agricultural spot? I should have thought there would hardly be +such a thing as a Methodist to be found about here. You're all +farmers, aren't you? The Methodists can seldom lay much hold on +THEM." + +"Why, sir, there's a pretty lot o' workmen round about, sir. +There's Mester Burge as owns the timber-yard over there, he +underteks a good bit o' building an' repairs. An' there's the +stone-pits not far off. There's plenty of emply i' this +countryside, sir. An' there's a fine batch o' Methodisses at +Treddles'on--that's the market town about three mile off--you'll +maybe ha' come through it, sir. There's pretty nigh a score of +'em on the Green now, as come from there. That's where our people +gets it from, though there's only two men of 'em in all Hayslope: +that's Will Maskery, the wheelwright, and Seth Bede, a young man +as works at the carpenterin'." + +"The preacher comes from Treddleston, then, does she?" + +"Nay, sir, she comes out o' Stonyshire, pretty nigh thirty mile +off. But she's a-visitin' hereabout at Mester Poyser's at the +Hall Farm--it's them barns an' big walnut-trees, right away to the +left, sir. She's own niece to Poyser's wife, an' they'll be fine +an' vexed at her for making a fool of herself i' that way. But +I've heared as there's no holding these Methodisses when the +maggit's once got i' their head: many of 'em goes stark starin' +mad wi' their religion. Though this young woman's quiet enough to +look at, by what I can make out; I've not seen her myself." + +"Well, I wish I had time to wait and see her, but I must get on. +I've been out of my way for the last twenty minutes to have a look +at that place in the valley. It's Squire Donnithorne's, I +suppose?" + +"Yes, sir, that's Donnithorne Chase, that is. Fine hoaks there, +isn't there, sir? I should know what it is, sir, for I've lived +butler there a-going i' fifteen year. It's Captain Donnithorne as +is th' heir, sir--Squire Donnithorne's grandson. He'll be comin' +of hage this 'ay-'arvest, sir, an' we shall hev fine doin's. He +owns all the land about here, sir, Squire Donnithorne does." + +"Well, it's a pretty spot, whoever may own it," said the +traveller, mounting his horse; "and one meets some fine strapping +fellows about too. I met as fine a young fellow as ever I saw in +my life, about half an hour ago, before I came up the hill--a +carpenter, a tall, broad-shouldered fellow with black hair and +black eyes, marching along like a soldier. We want such fellows +as he to lick the French." + +"Aye, sir, that's Adam Bede, that is, I'll be bound--Thias Bede's +son everybody knows him hereabout. He's an uncommon clever stiddy +fellow, an' wonderful strong. Lord bless you, sir--if you'll +hexcuse me for saying so--he can walk forty mile a-day, an' lift a +matter o' sixty ston'. He's an uncommon favourite wi' the gentry, +sir: Captain Donnithorne and Parson Irwine meks a fine fuss wi' +him. But he's a little lifted up an' peppery-like." + +"Well, good evening to you, landlord; I must get on." + +"Your servant, sir; good evenin'." + +The traveller put his horse into a quick walk up the village, but +when he approached the Green, the beauty of the view that lay on +his right hand, the singular contrast presented by the groups of +villagers with the knot of Methodists near the maple, and perhaps +yet more, curiosity to see the young female preacher, proved too +much for his anxiety to get to the end of his journey, and he +paused. + +The Green lay at the extremity of the village, and from it the +road branched off in two directions, one leading farther up the +hill by the church, and the other winding gently down towards the +valley. On the side of the Green that led towards the church, the +broken line of thatched cottages was continued nearly to the +churchyard gate; but on the opposite northwestern side, there was +nothing to obstruct the view of gently swelling meadow, and wooded +valley, and dark masses of distant hill. That rich undulating +district of Loamshire to which Hayslope belonged lies close to a +grim outskirt of Stonyshire, overlooked by its barren hills as a +pretty blooming sister may sometimes be seen linked in the arm of +a rugged, tall, swarthy brother; and in two or three hours' ride +the traveller might exchange a bleak treeless region, intersected +by lines of cold grey stone, for one where his road wound under +the shelter of woods, or up swelling hills, muffled with hedgerows +and long meadow-grass and thick corn; and where at every turn he +came upon some fine old country-seat nestled in the valley or +crowning the slope, some homestead with its long length of barn +and its cluster of golden ricks, some grey steeple looking out +from a pretty confusion of trees and thatch and dark-red tiles. +It was just such a picture as this last that Hayslope Church had +made to the traveller as he began to mount the gentle slope +leading to its pleasant uplands, and now from his station near the +Green he had before him in one view nearly all the other typical +features of this pleasant land. High up against the horizon were +the huge conical masses of hill, like giant mounds intended to +fortify this region of corn and grass against the keen and hungry +winds of the north; not distant enough to be clothed in purple +mystery, but with sombre greenish sides visibly specked with +sheep, whose motion was only revealed by memory, not detected by +sight; wooed from day to day by the changing hours, but responding +with no change in themselves--left for ever grim and sullen after +the flush of morning, the winged gleams of the April noonday, the +parting crimson glory of the ripening summer sun. And directly +below them the eye rested on a more advanced line of hanging +woods, divided by bright patches of pasture or furrowed crops, and +not yet deepened into the uniform leafy curtains of high summer, +but still showing the warm tints of the young oak and the tender +green of the ash and lime. Then came the valley, where the woods +grew thicker, as if they had rolled down and hurried together from +the patches left smooth on the slope, that they might take the +better care of the tall mansion which lifted its parapets and sent +its faint blue summer smoke among them. Doubtless there was a +large sweep of park and a broad glassy pool in front of that +mansion, but the swelling slope of meadow would not let our +traveller see them from the village green. He saw instead a +foreground which was just as lovely--the level sunlight lying like +transparent gold among the gently curving stems of the feathered +grass and the tall red sorrel, and the white ambels of the +hemlocks lining the bushy hedgerows. It was that moment in summer +when the sound of the scythe being whetted makes us cast more +lingering looks at the flower-sprinkled tresses of the meadows. + +He might have seen other beauties in the landscape if he had +turned a little in his saddle and looked eastward, beyond Jonathan +Burge's pasture and woodyard towards the green corn-fields and +walnut-trees of the Hall Farm; but apparently there was more +interest for him in the living groups close at hand. Every +generation in the village was there, from old "Feyther Taft" in +his brown worsted night-cap, who was bent nearly double, but +seemed tough enough to keep on his legs a long while, leaning on +his short stick, down to the babies with their little round heads +lolling forward in quilted linen caps. Now and then there was a +new arrival; perhaps a slouching labourer, who, having eaten his +supper, came out to look at the unusual scene with a slow bovine +gaze, willing to hear what any one had to say in explanation of +it, but by no means excited enough to ask a question. But all +took care not to join the Methodists on the Green, and identify +themselves in that way with the expectant audience, for there was +not one of them that would not have disclaimed the imputation of +having come out to hear the "preacher woman"--they had only come +out to see "what war a-goin' on, like." The men were chiefly +gathered in the neighbourhood of the blacksmith's shop. But do +not imagine them gathered in a knot. Villagers never swarm: a +whisper is unknown among them, and they seem almost as incapable +of an undertone as a cow or a stag. Your true rustic turns his +back on his interlocutor, throwing a question over his shoulder as +if he meant to run away from the answer, and walking a step or two +farther off when the interest of the dialogue culminates. So the +group in the vicinity of the blacksmith's door was by no means a +close one, and formed no screen in front of Chad Cranage, the +blacksmith himself, who stood with his black brawny arms folded, +leaning against the door-post, and occasionally sending forth a +bellowing laugh at his own jokes, giving them a marked preference +over the sarcasms of Wiry Ben, who had renounced the pleasures of +the Holly Bush for the sake of seeing life under a new form. But +both styles of wit were treated with equal contempt by Mr. Joshua +Rann. Mr. Rann's leathern apron and subdued griminess can leave +no one in any doubt that he is the village shoemaker; the +thrusting out of his chin and stomach and the twirling of his +thumbs are more subtle indications, intended to prepare unwary +strangers for the discovery that they are in the presence of the +parish clerk. "Old Joshway," as he is irreverently called by his +neighbours, is in a state of simmering indignation; but he has not +yet opened his lips except to say, in a resounding bass undertone, +like the tuning of a violoncello, "Sehon, King of the Amorites; +for His mercy endureth for ever; and Og the King of Basan: for His +mercy endureth for ever"--a quotation which may seem to have +slight bearing on the present occasion, but, as with every other +anomaly, adequate knowledge will show it to be a natural sequence. +Mr. Rann was inwardly maintaining the dignity of the Church in the +face of this scandalous irruption of Methodism, and as that +dignity was bound up with his own sonorous utterance of the +responses, his argument naturally suggested a quotation from the +psalm he had read the last Sunday afternoon. + +The stronger curiosity of the women had drawn them quite to the +edge of the Green, where they could examine more closely the +Quakerlike costume and odd deportment of the female Methodists. +Underneath the maple there was a small cart, which had been +brought from the wheelwright's to serve as a pulpit, and round +this a couple of benches and a few chairs had been placed. Some +of the Methodists were resting on these, with their eyes closed, +as if wrapt in prayer or meditation. Others chose to continue +standing, and had turned their faces towards the villagers with a +look of melancholy compassion, which was highly amusing to Bessy +Cranage, the blacksmith's buxom daughter, known to her neighbours +as Chad's Bess, who wondered "why the folks war amakin' faces a +that'ns." Chad's Bess was the object of peculiar compassion, +because her hair, being turned back under a cap which was set at +the top of her head, exposed to view an ornament of which she was +much prouder than of her red cheeks--namely, a pair of large round +ear-rings with false garnets in them, ornaments condemned not only +by the Methodists, but by her own cousin and namesake Timothy's +Bess, who, with much cousinly feeling, often wished "them ear- +rings" might come to good. + +Timothy's Bess, though retaining her maiden appellation among her +familiars, had long been the wife of Sandy Jim, and possessed a +handsome set of matronly jewels, of which it is enough to mention +the heavy baby she was rocking in her arms, and the sturdy fellow +of five in kneebreeches, and red legs, who had a rusty milk-can +round his neck by way of drum, and was very carefully avoided by +Chad's small terrier. This young olive-branch, notorious under +the name of Timothy's Bess's Ben, being of an inquiring +disposition, unchecked by any false modesty, had advanced beyond +the group of women and children, and was walking round the +Methodists, looking up in their faces with his mouth wide open, +and beating his stick against the milk-can by way of musical +accompaniment. But one of the elderly women bending down to take +him by the shoulder, with an air of grave remonstrance, Timothy's +Bess's Ben first kicked out vigorously, then took to his heels and +sought refuge behind his father's legs. + +"Ye gallows young dog," said Sandy Jim, with some paternal pride, +"if ye donna keep that stick quiet, I'll tek it from ye. What +dy'e mane by kickin' foulks?" + +"Here! Gie him here to me, Jim," said Chad Cranage; "I'll tie hirs +up an' shoe him as I do th' hosses. Well, Mester Casson," he +continued, as that personage sauntered up towards the group of +men, "how are ye t' naight? Are ye coom t' help groon? They say +folks allays groon when they're hearkenin' to th' Methodys, as if +they war bad i' th' inside. I mane to groon as loud as your cow +did th' other naight, an' then the praicher 'ull think I'm i' th' +raight way." + +"I'd advise you not to be up to no nonsense, Chad," said Mr. +Casson, with some dignity; "Poyser wouldn't like to hear as his +wife's niece was treated any ways disrespectful, for all he mayn't +be fond of her taking on herself to preach." + +"Aye, an' she's a pleasant-looked un too," said Wiry Ben. "I'll +stick up for the pretty women preachin'; I know they'd persuade me +over a deal sooner nor th' ugly men. I shouldna wonder if I turn +Methody afore the night's out, an' begin to coort the preacher, +like Seth Bede." + +"Why, Seth's looking rether too high, I should think," said Mr. +Casson. "This woman's kin wouldn't like her to demean herself to +a common carpenter." + +"Tchu!" said Ben, with a long treble intonation, "what's folks's +kin got to do wi't? Not a chip. Poyser's wife may turn her nose +up an' forget bygones, but this Dinah Morris, they tell me, 's as +poor as iver she was--works at a mill, an's much ado to keep +hersen. A strappin' young carpenter as is a ready-made Methody, +like Seth, wouldna be a bad match for her. Why, Poysers make as +big a fuss wi' Adam Bede as if he war a nevvy o' their own." + +"Idle talk! idle talk!" said Mr. Joshua Rann. "Adam an' Seth's +two men; you wunna fit them two wi' the same last." + +"Maybe," said Wiry Ben, contemptuously, "but Seth's the lad for +me, though he war a Methody twice o'er. I'm fair beat wi' Seth, +for I've been teasin' him iver sin' we've been workin' together, +an' he bears me no more malice nor a lamb. An' he's a stout- +hearted feller too, for when we saw the old tree all afire a- +comin' across the fields one night, an' we thought as it war a +boguy, Seth made no more ado, but he up to't as bold as a +constable. Why, there he comes out o' Will Maskery's; an' there's +Will hisself, lookin' as meek as if he couldna knock a nail o' the +head for fear o' hurtin't. An' there's the pretty preacher woman! +My eye, she's got her bonnet off. I mun go a bit nearer." + +Several of the men followed Ben's lead, and the traveller pushed +his horse on to the Green, as Dinah walked rather quickly and in +advance of her companions towards the cart under the maple-tree. +While she was near Seth's tall figure, she looked short, but when +she had mounted the cart, and was away from all comparison, she +seemed above the middle height of woman, though in reality she did +not exceed it--an effect which was due to the slimness of her +figure and the simple line of her black stuff dress. The stranger +was struck with surprise as he saw her approach and mount the +cart--surprise, not so much at the feminine delicacy of her +appearance, as at the total absence of self-consciousness in her +demeanour. He had made up his mind to see her advance with a +measured step and a demure solemnity of countenance; he had felt +sure that her face would be mantled with the smile of conscious +saintship, or else charged with denunciatory bitterness. He knew +but two types of Methodist--the ecstatic and the bilious. But +Dinah walked as simply as if she were going to market, and seemed +as unconscious of her outward appearance as a little boy: there +was no blush, no tremulousness, which said, "I know you think me a +pretty woman, too young to preach"; no casting up or down of the +eyelids, no compression of the lips, no attitude of the arms that +said, "But you must think of me as a saint." She held no book in +her ungloved hands, but let them hang down lightly crossed before +her, as she stood and turned her grey eyes on the people. There +was no keenness in the eyes; they seemed rather to be shedding +love than making observations; they had the liquid look which +tells that the mind is full of what it has to give out, rather +than impressed by external objects. She stood with her left hand +towards the descending sun, and leafy boughs screened her from its +rays; but in this sober light the delicate colouring of her face +seemed to gather a calm vividness, like flowers at evening. It +was a small oval face, of a uniform transparent whiteness, with an +egglike line of cheek and chin, a full but firm mouth, a delicate +nostril, and a low perpendicular brow, surmounted by a rising arch +of parting between smooth locks of pale reddish hair. The hair +was drawn straight back behind the ears, and covered, except for +an inch or two above the brow, by a net Quaker cap. The eyebrows, +of the same colour as the hair, were perfectly horizontal and +firmly pencilled; the eyelashes, though no darker, were long and +abundant--nothing was left blurred or unfinished. It was one of +those faces that make one think of white flowers with light +touches of colour on their pure petals. The eyes had no peculiar +beauty, beyond that of expression; they looked so simple, so +candid, so gravely loving, that no accusing scowl, no light sneer +could help melting away before their glance. Joshua Rann gave a +long cough, as if he were clearing his throat in order to come to +a new understanding with himself; Chad Cranage lifted up his +leather skull-cap and scratched his head; and Wiry Ben wondered +how Seth had the pluck to think of courting her. + +"A sweet woman," the stranger said to himself, "but surely nature +never meant her for a preacher." + +Perhaps he was one of those who think that nature has theatrical +properties and, with the considerate view of facilitating art and +psychology, "makes up," her characters, so that there may be no +mistake about them. But Dinah began to speak. + +"Dear friends," she said in a clear but not loud voice "let us +pray for a blessing." + +She closed her eyes, and hanging her head down a little continued +in the same moderate tone, as if speaking to some one quite near +her: "Saviour of sinners! When a poor woman laden with sins, went +out to the well to draw water, she found Thee sitting at the well. +She knew Thee not; she had not sought Thee; her mind was dark; her +life was unholy. But Thou didst speak to her, Thou didst teach +her, Thou didst show her that her life lay open before Thee, and +yet Thou wast ready to give her that blessing which she had never +sought. Jesus, Thou art in the midst of us, and Thou knowest all +men: if there is any here like that poor woman--if their minds are +dark, their lives unholy--if they have come out not seeking Thee, +not desiring to be taught; deal with them according to the free +mercy which Thou didst show to her Speak to them, Lord, open their +ears to my message, bring their sins to their minds, and make them +thirst for that salvation which Thou art ready to give. + +"Lord, Thou art with Thy people still: they see Thee in the night- +watches, and their hearts burn within them as Thou talkest with +them by the way. And Thou art near to those who have not known +Thee: open their eyes that they may see Thee--see Thee weeping +over them, and saying 'Ye will not come unto me that ye might have +life'--see Thee hanging on the cross and saying, 'Father, forgive +them, for they know not what they do'--see Thee as Thou wilt come +again in Thy glory to judge them at the last. Amen." + +Dinah opened her eyes again and paused, looking at the group of +villagers, who were now gathered rather more closely on her right +hand. + +"Dear friends," she began, raising her voice a little, "you have +all of you been to church, and I think you must have heard the +clergyman read these words: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, +because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.' +Jesus Christ spoke those words--he said he came TO PREACH THE +GOSPEL TO THE POOR. I don't know whether you ever thought about +those words much, but I will tell you when I remember first +hearing them. It was on just such a sort of evening as this, when +I was a little girl, and my aunt as brought me up took me to hear +a good man preach out of doors, just as we are here. I remember +his face well: he was a very old man, and had very long white +hair; his voice was very soft and beautiful, not like any voice I +had ever heard before. I was a little girl and scarcely knew +anything, and this old man seemed to me such a different sort of a +man from anybody I had ever seen before that I thought he had +perhaps come down from the sky to preach to us, and I said, 'Aunt, +will he go back to the sky to-night, like the picture in the +Bible?' + +"That man of God was Mr. Wesley, who spent his life in doing what +our blessed Lord did--preaching the Gospel to the poor--and he +entered into his rest eight years ago. I came to know more about +him years after, but I was a foolish thoughtless child then, and I +remembered only one thing he told us in his sermon. He told us as +'Gospel' meant 'good news.' The Gospel, you know, is what the +Bible tells us about God. + +"Think of that now! Jesus Christ did really come down from +heaven, as I, like a silly child, thought Mr. Wesley did; and what +he came down for was to tell good news about God to the poor. +Why, you and me, dear friends, are poor. We have been brought up +in poor cottages and have been reared on oat-cake, and lived +coarse; and we haven't been to school much, nor read books, and we +don't know much about anything but what happens just round us. We +are just the sort of people that want to hear good news. For when +anybody's well off, they don't much mind about hearing news from +distant parts; but if a poor man or woman's in trouble and has +hard work to make out a living, they like to have a letter to tell +'em they've got a friend as will help 'em. To be sure, we can't +help knowing something about God, even if we've never heard the +Gospel, the good news that our Saviour brought us. For we know +everything comes from God: don't you say almost every day, 'This +and that will happen, please God,' and 'We shall begin to cut the +grass soon, please God to send us a little more sunshine'? We +know very well we are altogether in the hands of God. We didn't +bring ourselves into the world, we can't keep ourselves alive +while we're sleeping; the daylight, and the wind, and the corn, +and the cows to give us milk--everything we have comes from God. +And he gave us our souls and put love between parents and +children, and husband and wife. But is that as much as we want to +know about God? We see he is great and mighty, and can do what he +will: we are lost, as if we was struggling in great waters, when +we try to think of him. + +"But perhaps doubts come into your mind like this: Can God take +much notice of us poor people? Perhaps he only made the world for +the great and the wise and the rich. It doesn't cost him much to +give us our little handful of victual and bit of clothing; but how +do we know he cares for us any more than we care for the worms and +things in the garden, so as we rear our carrots and onions? Will +God take care of us when we die? And has he any comfort for us +when we are lame and sick and helpless? Perhaps, too, he is angry +with us; else why does the blight come, and the bad harvests, and +the fever, and all sorts of pain and trouble? For our life is +full of trouble, and if God sends us good, he seems to send bad +too. How is it? How is it? + +"Ah, dear friends, we are in sad want of good news about God; and +what does other good news signify if we haven't that? For +everything else comes to an end, and when we die we leave it all. +But God lasts when everything else is gone. What shall we do if +he is not our friend?" + +Then Dinah told how the good news had been brought, and how the +mind of God towards the poor had been made manifest in the life of +Jesus, dwelling on its lowliness and its acts of mercy. + +"So you see, dear friends," she went on, "Jesus spent his time +almost all in doing good to poor people; he preached out of doors +to them, and he made friends of poor workmen, and taught them and +took pains with them. Not but what he did good to the rich too, +for he was full of love to all men, only he saw as the poor were +more in want of his help. So he cured the lame and the sick and +the blind, and he worked miracles to feed the hungry because, he +said, he was sorry for them; and he was very kind to the little +children and comforted those who had lost their friends; and he +spoke very tenderly to poor sinners that were sorry for their +sins. + +"Ah, wouldn't you love such a man if you saw him--if he were here +in this village? What a kind heart he must have! What a friend +he would be to go to in trouble! How pleasant it must be to be +taught by him. + +"Well, dear friends, who WAS this man? Was he only a good man--a +very good man, and no more--like our dear Mr. Wesley, who has been +taken from us?...He was the Son of God--'in the image of the +Father,' the Bible says; that means, just like God, who is the +beginning and end of all things--the God we want to know about. +So then, all the love that Jesus showed to the poor is the same +love that God has for us. We can understand what Jesus felt, +because he came in a body like ours and spoke words such as we +speak to each other. We were afraid to think what God was before-- +the God who made the world and the sky and the thunder and +lightning. We could never see him; we could only see the things +he had made; and some of these things was very terrible, so as we +might well tremble when we thought of him. But our blessed +Saviour has showed us what God is in a way us poor ignorant people +can understand; he has showed us what God's heart is, what are his +feelings towards us. + +"But let us see a little more about what Jesus came on earth for. +Another time he said, 'I came to seek and to save that which was +lost'; and another time, 'I came not to call the righteous but +sinners to repentance.' + +"The LOST!...SINNERS!...Ah, dear friends, does that mean you and +me?" + +Hitherto the traveller had been chained to the spot against his +will by the charm of Dinah's mellow treble tones, which had a +variety of modulation like that of a fine instrument touched with +the unconscious skill of musical instinct. The simple things she +said seemed like novelties, as a melody strikes us with a new +feeling when we hear it sung by the pure voice of a boyish +chorister; the quiet depth of conviction with which she spoke +seemed in itself an evidence for the truth of her message. He saw +that she had thoroughly arrested her hearers. The villagers had +pressed nearer to her, and there was no longer anything but grave +attention on all faces. She spoke slowly, though quite fluently, +often pausing after a question, or before any transition of ideas. +There was no change of attitude, no gesture; the effect of her +speech was produced entirely by the inflections of her voice, and +when she came to the question, "Will God take care of us when we +die?" she uttered it in such a tone of plaintive appeal that the +tears came into some of the hardest eyes. The stranger had ceased +to doubt, as he had done at the first glance, that she could fix +the attention of her rougher hearers, but still he wondered +whether she could have that power of rousing their more violent +emotions, which must surely be a necessary seal of her vocation as +a Methodist preacher, until she came to the words, "Lost!-- +Sinners!" when there was a great change in her voice and manner. +She had made a long pause before the exclamation, and the pause +seemed to be filled by agitating thoughts that showed themselves +in her features. Her pale face became paler; the circles under +her eyes deepened, as they did when tears half-gather without +falling; and the mild loving eyes took an expression of appalled +pity, as if she had suddenly discerned a destroying angel hovering +over the heads of the people. Her voice became deep and muffled, +but there was still no gesture. Nothing could be less like the +ordinary type of the Ranter than Dinah. She was not preaching as +she heard others preach, but speaking directly from her own +emotions and under the inspiration of her own simple faith. + +But now she had entered into a new current of feeling. Her manner +became less calm, her utterance more rapid and agitated, as she +tried to bring home to the people their guilt their wilful +darkness, their state of disobedience to God--as she dwelt on the +hatefulness of sin, the Divine holiness, and the sufferings of the +Saviour, by which a way had been opened for their salvation. At +last it seemed as if, in her yearning desire to reclaim the lost +sheep, she could not be satisfied by addressing her hearers as a +body. She appealed first to one and then to another, beseeching +them with tears to turn to God while there was yet time; painting +to them the desolation of their souls, lost in sin, feeding on the +husks of this miserable world, far away from God their Father; and +then the love of the Saviour, who was waiting and watching for +their return. + +There was many a responsive sigh and groan from her fellow- +Methodists, but the village mind does not easily take fire, and a +little smouldering vague anxiety that might easily die out again +was the utmost effect Dinah's preaching had wrought in them at +present. Yet no one had retired, except the children and "old +Feyther Taft," who being too deaf to catch many words, had some +time ago gone back to his inglenook. Wiry Ben was feeling very +uncomfortable, and almost wishing he had not come to hear Dinah; +he thought what she said would haunt him somehow. Yet he couldn't +help liking to look at her and listen to her, though he dreaded +every moment that she would fix her eyes on him and address him in +particular. She had already addressed Sandy Jim, who was now +holding the baby to relieve his wife, and the big soft-hearted man +had rubbed away some tears with his fist, with a confused +intention of being a better fellow, going less to the Holly Bush +down by the Stone-pits, and cleaning himself more regularly of a +Sunday. + +In front of Sandy Jim stood Chad's Bess, who had shown an unwonted +quietude and fixity of attention ever since Dinah had begun to +speak. Not that the matter of the discourse had arrested her at +once, for she was lost in a puzzling speculation as to what +pleasure and satisfaction there could be in life to a young woman +who wore a cap like Dinah's. Giving up this inquiry in despair, +she took to studying Dinah's nose, eyes, mouth, and hair, and +wondering whether it was better to have such a sort of pale face +as that, or fat red cheeks and round black eyes like her own. But +gradually the influence of the general gravity told upon her, and +she became conscious of what Dinah was saying. The gentle tones, +the loving persuasion, did not touch her, but when the more severe +appeals came she began to be frightened. Poor Bessy had always +been considered a naughty girl; she was conscious of it; if it was +necessary to be very good, it was clear she must be in a bad way. +She couldn't find her places at church as Sally Rann could, she +had often been tittering when she "curcheyed" to Mr. Irwine; and +these religious deficiencies were accompanied by a corresponding +slackness in the minor morals, for Bessy belonged unquestionably +to that unsoaped lazy class of feminine characters with whom you +may venture to "eat an egg, an apple, or a nut." All this she was +generally conscious of, and hitherto had not been greatly ashamed +of it. But now she began to feel very much as if the constable +had come to take her up and carry her before the justice for some +undefined offence. She had a terrified sense that God, whom she +had always thought of as very far off, was very near to her, and +that Jesus was close by looking at her, though she could not see +him. For Dinah had that belief in visible manifestations of +Jesus, which is common among the Methodists, and she communicated +it irresistibly to her hearers: she made them feel that he was +among them bodily, and might at any moment show himself to them in +some way that would strike anguish and penitence into their +hearts. + +"See!" she exclaimed, turning to the left, with her eyes fixed on +a point above the heads of the people. "See where our blessed +Lord stands and weeps and stretches out his arms towards you. +Hear what he says: 'How often would I have gathered you as a hen +gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!'...and +ye would not," she repeated, in a tone of pleading reproach, +turning her eyes on the people again. "See the print of the nails +on his dear hands and feet. It is your sins that made them! Ah! +How pale and worn he looks! He has gone through all that great +agony in the garden, when his soul was exceeding sorrowful even +unto death, and the great drops of sweat fell like blood to the +ground. They spat upon him and buffeted him, they scourged him, +they mocked him, they laid the heavy cross on his bruised +shoulders. Then they nailed him up. Ah, what pain! His lips are +parched with thirst, and they mock him still in this great agony; +yet with those parched lips he prays for them, 'Father, forgive +them, for they know not what they do.' Then a horror of great +darkness fell upon him, and he felt what sinners feel when they +are for ever shut out from God. That was the last drop in the cup +of bitterness. 'My God, my God!' he cries, 'why hast Thou +forsaken me?' + +"All this he bore for you! For you--and you never think of him; +for you--and you turn your backs on him; you don't care what he +has gone through for you. Yet he is not weary of toiling for you: +he has risen from the dead, he is praying for you at the right +hand of God--'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they +do.' And he is upon this earth too; he is among us; he is there +close to you now; I see his wounded body and his look of love." + +Here Dinah turned to Bessy Cranage, whose bonny youth and evident +vanity had touched her with pity. + +"Poor child! Poor child! He is beseeching you, and you don't +listen to him. You think of ear-rings and fine gowns and caps, +and you never think of the Saviour who died to save your precious +soul. Your cheeks will be shrivelled one day, your hair will be +grey, your poor body will be thin and tottering! Then you will +begin to feel that your soul is not saved; then you will have to +stand before God dressed in your sins, in your evil tempers and +vain thoughts. And Jesus, who stands ready to help you now, won't +help you then; because you won't have him to be your Saviour, he +will be your judge. Now he looks at you with love and mercy and +says, 'Come to me that you may have life'; then he will turn away +from you, and say, 'Depart from me into ever-lasting fire!'" + +Poor Bessy's wide-open black eyes began to fill with tears, her +great red cheeks and lips became quite pale, and her face was +distorted like a little child's before a burst of crying. + +"Ah, poor blind child!" Dinah went on, "think if it should happen +to you as it once happened to a servant of God in the days of her +vanity. SHE thought of her lace caps and saved all her money to +buy 'em; she thought nothing about how she might get a clean heart +and a right spirit--she only wanted to have better lace than other +girls. And one day when she put her new cap on and looked in the +glass, she saw a bleeding Face crowned with thorns. That face is +looking at you now"--here Dinah pointed to a spot close in front +of Bessy--"Ah, tear off those follies! Cast them away from you, +as if they were stinging adders. They ARE stinging you--they are +poisoning your soul--they are dragging you down into a dark +bottomless pit, where you will sink for ever, and for ever, and +for ever, further away from light and God." + +Bessy could bear it no longer: a great terror was upon her, and +wrenching her ear-rings from her ears, she threw them down before +her, sobbing aloud. Her father, Chad, frightened lest he should +be "laid hold on" too, this impression on the rebellious Bess +striking him as nothing less than a miracle, walked hastily away +and began to work at his anvil by way of reassuring himself. +"Folks mun ha' hoss-shoes, praichin' or no praichin': the divil +canna lay hould o' me for that," he muttered to himself. + +But now Dinah began to tell of the joys that were in store for the +penitent, and to describe in her simple way the divine peace and +love with which the soul of the believer is filled--how the sense +of God's love turns poverty into riches and satisfies the soul so +that no uneasy desire vexes it, no fear alarms it: how, at last, +the very temptation to sin is extinguished, and heaven is begun +upon earth, because no cloud passes between the soul and God, who +is its eternal sun. + +"Dear friends," she said at last, "brothers and sisters, whom I +love as those for whom my Lord has died, believe me, I know what +this great blessedness is; and because I know it, I want you to +have it too. I am poor, like you: I have to get my living with my +hands; but no lord nor lady can be so happy as me, if they haven't +got the love of God in their souls. Think what it is--not to hate +anything but sin; to be full of love to every creature; to be +frightened at nothing; to be sure that all things will turn to +good; not to mind pain, because it is our Father's will; to know +that nothing--no, not if the earth was to be burnt up, or the +waters come and drown us--nothing could part us from God who loves +us, and who fills our souls with peace and joy, because we are +sure that whatever he wills is holy, just, and good. + +"Dear friends, come and take this blessedness; it is offered to +you; it is the good news that Jesus came to preach to the poor. +It is not like the riches of this world, so that the more one gets +the less the rest can have. God is without end; his love is +without end-- + + +Its streams the whole creation reach, + So plenteous is the store; +Enough for all, enough for each, + Enough for evermore. + + +Dinah had been speaking at least an hour, and the reddening light +of the parting day seemed to give a solemn emphasis to her closing +words. The stranger, who had been interested in the course of her +sermon as if it had been the development of a drama--for there is +this sort of fascination in all sincere unpremeditated eloquence, +which opens to one the inward drama of the speaker's emotions--now +turned his horse aside and pursued his way, while Dinah said, "Let +us sing a little, dear friends"; and as he was still winding down +the slope, the voices of the Methodists reached him, rising and +falling in that strange blending of exultation and sadness which +belongs to the cadence of a hymn. + + + +Chapter III + +After the Preaching + + +IN less than an hour from that time, Seth Bede was walking by +Dinah's side along the hedgerow-path that skirted the pastures and +green corn-fields which lay between the village and the Hall Farm. +Dinah had taken off her little Quaker bonnet again, and was +holding it in her hands that she might have a freer enjoyment of +the cool evening twilight, and Seth could see the expression of +her face quite clearly as he walked by her side, timidly revolving +something he wanted to say to her. It was an expression of +unconscious placid gravity--of absorption in thoughts that had no +connection with the present moment or with her own personality--an +expression that is most of all discouraging to a lover. Her very +walk was discouraging: it had that quiet elasticity that asks for +no support. Seth felt this dimly; he said to himself, "She's too +good and holy for any man, let alone me," and the words he had +been summoning rushed back again before they had reached his lips. +But another thought gave him courage: "There's no man could love +her better and leave her freer to follow the Lord's work." They +had been silent for many minutes now, since they had done talking +about Bessy Cranage; Dinah seemed almost to have forgotten Seth's +presence, and her pace was becoming so much quicker that the sense +of their being only a few minutes' walk from the yard-gates of the +Hall Farm at last gave Seth courage to speak. + +"You've quite made up your mind to go back to Snowfield o' +Saturday, Dinah?" + +"Yes," said Dinah, quietly. "I'm called there. It was borne in +upon my mind while I was meditating on Sunday night, as Sister +Allen, who's in a decline, is in need of me. I saw her as plain +as we see that bit of thin white cloud, lifting up her poor thin +hand and beckoning to me. And this morning when I opened the +Bible for direction, the first words my eyes fell on were, 'And +after we had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go +into Macedonia.' If it wasn't for that clear showing of the +Lord's will, I should be loath to go, for my heart yearns over my +aunt and her little ones, and that poor wandering lamb Hetty +Sorrel. I've been much drawn out in prayer for her of late, and I +look on it as a token that there may be mercy in store for her." + +"God grant it," said Seth. "For I doubt Adam's heart is so set on +her, he'll never turn to anybody else; and yet it 'ud go to my +heart if he was to marry her, for I canna think as she'd make him +happy. It's a deep mystery--the way the heart of man turns to one +woman out of all the rest he's seen i' the world, and makes it +easier for him to work seven year for HER, like Jacob did for +Rachel, sooner than have any other woman for th' asking. I often +think of them words, 'And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and +they seemed to him but a few days for the love he had to her.' I +know those words 'ud come true with me, Dinah, if so be you'd give +me hope as I might win you after seven years was over. I know you +think a husband 'ud be taking up too much o' your thoughts, +because St. Paul says, 'She that's married careth for the things +of the world how she may please her husband'; and may happen +you'll think me overbold to speak to you about it again, after +what you told me o' your mind last Saturday. But I've been +thinking it over again by night and by day, and I've prayed not to +be blinded by my own desires, to think what's only good for me +must be good for you too. And it seems to me there's more texts +for your marrying than ever you can find against it. For St. Paul +says as plain as can be in another place, 'I will that the younger +women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to +the adversary to speak reproachfully'; and then 'two are better +than one'; and that holds good with marriage as well as with other +things. For we should be o' one heart and o' one mind, Dinah. We +both serve the same Master, and are striving after the same gifts; +and I'd never be the husband to make a claim on you as could +interfere with your doing the work God has fitted you for. I'd +make a shift, and fend indoor and out, to give you more liberty-- +more than you can have now, for you've got to get your own living +now, and I'm strong enough to work for us both." + +When Seth had once begun to urge his suit, he went on earnestly +and almost hurriedly, lest Dinah should speak some decisive word +before he had poured forth all the arguments he had prepared. His +cheeks became flushed as he went on his mild grey eyes filled with +tears, and his voice trembled as he spoke the last sentence. They +had reached one of those very narrow passes between two tall +stones, which performed the office of a stile in Loamshire, and +Dinah paused as she turned towards Seth and said, in her tender +but calm treble notes, "Seth Bede, I thank you for your love +towards me, and if I could think of any man as more than a +Christian brother, I think it would be you. But my heart is not +free to marry. That is good for other women, and it is a great +and a blessed thing to be a wife and mother; but 'as God has +distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every man, so +let him walk.' God has called me to minister to others, not to +have any joys or sorrows of my own, but to rejoice with them that +do rejoice, and to weep with those that weep. He has called me to +speak his word, and he has greatly owned my work. It could only +be on a very clear showing that I could leave the brethren and +sisters at Snowfield, who are favoured with very little of this +world's good; where the trees are few, so that a child might count +them, and there's very hard living for the poor in the winter. It +has been given me to help, to comfort, and strengthen the little +flock there and to call in many wanderers; and my soul is filled +with these things from my rising up till my lying down. My life +is too short, and God's work is too great for me to think of +making a home for myself in this world. I've not turned a deaf +ear to your words, Seth, for when I saw as your love was given to +me, I thought it might be a leading of Providence for me to change +my way of life, and that we should be fellow-helpers; and I spread +the matter before the Lord. But whenever I tried to fix my mind +on marriage, and our living together, other thoughts always came +in--the times when I've prayed by the sick and dying, and the +happy hours I've had preaching, when my heart was filled with +love, and the Word was given to me abundantly. And when I've +opened the Bible for direction, I've always lighted on some clear +word to tell me where my work lay. I believe what you say, Seth, +that you would try to be a help and not a hindrance to my work; +but I see that our marriage is not God's will--He draws my heart +another way. I desire to live and die without husband or +children. I seem to have no room in my soul for wants and fears +of my own, it has pleased God to fill my heart so full with the +wants and sufferings of his poor people." + +Seth was unable to reply, and they walked on in silence. At last, +as they were nearly at the yard-gate, he said, "Well, Dinah, I +must seek for strength to bear it, and to endure as seeing Him who +is invisible. But I feel now how weak my faith is. It seems as +if, when you are gone, I could never joy in anything any more. I +think it's something passing the love of women as I feel for you, +for I could be content without your marrying me if I could go and +live at Snowfield and be near you. I trusted as the strong love +God has given me towards you was a leading for us both; but it +seems it was only meant for my trial. Perhaps I feel more for you +than I ought to feel for any creature, for I often can't help +saying of you what the hymn says-- + + +In darkest shades if she appear, +My dawning is begun; +She is my soul's bright morning-star, +And she my rising sun. + + +That may be wrong, and I am to be taught better. But you wouldn't +be displeased with me if things turned out so as I could leave +this country and go to live at Snowfield?" + +"No, Seth; but I counsel you to wait patiently, and not lightly to +leave your own country and kindred. Do nothing without the Lord's +clear bidding. It's a bleak and barren country there, not like +this land of Goshen you've been used to. We mustn't be in a hurry +to fix and choose our own lot; we must wait to be guided." + +"But you'd let me write you a letter, Dinah, if there was anything +I wanted to tell you?" + +"Yes, sure; let me know if you're in any trouble. You'll be +continually in my prayers." + +They had now reached the yard-gate, and Seth said, "I won't go in, +Dinah, so farewell." He paused and hesitated after she had given +him her hand, and then said, "There's no knowing but what you may +see things different after a while. There may be a new leading." + +"Let us leave that, Seth. It's good to live only a moment at a +time, as I've read in one of Mr. Wesley's books. It isn't for you +and me to lay plans; we've nothing to do but to obey and to trust. +Farewell." + +Dinah pressed his hand with rather a sad look in her loving eyes, +and then passed through the gate, while Seth turned away to walk +lingeringly home. But instead of taking the direct road, he chose +to turn back along the fields through which he and Dinah had +already passed; and I think his blue linen handkerchief was very +wet with tears long before he had made up his mind that it was +time for him to set his face steadily homewards. He was but +three-and-twenty, and had only just learned what it is to love--to +love with that adoration which a young man gives to a woman whom +he feels to be greater and better than himself. Love of this sort +is hardly distinguishable from religious feeling. What deep and +worthy love is so, whether of woman or child, or art or music. +Our caresses, our tender words, our still rapture under the +influence of autumn sunsets, or pillared vistas, or calm majestic +statues, or Beethoven symphonies all bring with them the +consciousness that they are mere waves and ripples in an +unfathomable ocean of love and beauty; our emotion in its keenest +moment passes from expression into silence, our love at its +highest flood rushes beyond its object and loses itself in the +sense of divine mystery. And this blessed gift of venerating love +has been given to too many humble craftsmen since the world began +for us to feel any surprise that it should have existed in the +soul of a Methodist carpenter half a century ago, while there was +yet a lingering after-glow from the time when Wesley and his +fellow-labourer fed on the hips and haws of the Cornwall hedges, +after exhausting limbs and lungs in carrying a divine message to +the poor. + +That afterglow has long faded away; and the picture we are apt to +make of Methodism in our imagination is not an amphitheatre of +green hills, or the deep shade of broad-leaved sycamores, where a +crowd of rough men and weary-hearted women drank in a faith which +was a rudimentary culture, which linked their thoughts with the +past, lifted their imagination above the sordid details of their +own narrow lives, and suffused their souls with the sense of a +pitying, loving, infinite Presence, sweet as summer to the +houseless needy. It is too possible that to some of my readers +Methodism may mean nothing more than low-pitched gables up dingy +streets, sleek grocers, sponging preachers, and hypocritical +jargon--elements which are regarded as an exhaustive analysis of +Methodism in many fashionable quarters. + +That would be a pity; for I cannot pretend that Seth and Dinah +were anything else than Methodists--not indeed of that modern type +which reads quarterly reviews and attends in chapels with pillared +porticoes, but of a very old-fashioned kind. They believed in +present miracles, in instantaneous conversions, in revelations by +dreams and visions; they drew lots, and sought for Divine guidance +by opening the Bible at hazard; having a literal way of +interpreting the Scriptures, which is not at all sanctioned by +approved commentators; and it is impossibie for me to represent +their diction as correct, or their instruction as liberal. Still-- +if I have read religious history aright--faith, hope, and charity +have not always been found in a direct ratio with a sensibility to +the three concords, and it is possible--thank Heaven!--to have +very erroneous theories and very sublime feelings. The raw bacon +which clumsy Molly spares from her own scanty store that she may +carry it to her neighbour's child to "stop the fits," may be a +piteously inefficacious remedy; but the generous stirring of +neighbourly kindness that prompted the deed has a beneficent +radiation that is not lost. + +Considering these things, we can hardly think Dinah and Seth +beneath our sympathy, accustomed as we may be to weep over the +loftier sorrows of heroines in satin boots and crinoline, and of +heroes riding fiery horses, themselves ridden by still more fiery +passions. + +Poor Seth! He was never on horseback in his life except once, +when he was a little lad, and Mr. Jonathan Burge took him up +bebind, telling him to "hold on tight"; and instead of bursting +out into wild accusing apostrophes to God and destiny, he is +resolving, as he now walks homewards under the solemn starlight, +to repress his sadness, to be less bent on having his own will, +and to live more for others, as Dinah does. + + + +Chapter IV + +Home and Its Sorrows + + +A GREEN valley with a brook running through it, full almost to +overflowing with the late rains, overhung by low stooping willows. +Across this brook a plank is thrown, and over this plank Adam Bede +is passing with his undoubting step, followed close by Gyp with +the basket; evidently making his way to the thatched house, with a +stack of timber by the side of it, about twenty yards up the +opposite slope. + +The door of the house is open, and an elderly woman is looking +out; but she is not placidly contemplating the evening sunshine; +she has been watching with dim eyes the gradually enlarging speck +which for the last few minutes she has been quite sure is her +darling son Adam. Lisbeth Bede loves her son with the love of a +woman to whom her first-born has come late in life. She is an +anxious, spare, yet vigorous old woman, clean as a snowdrop. Her +grey hair is turned neatly back under a pure linen cap with a +black band round it; her broad chest is covered with a buff +neckerchief, and below this you see a sort of short bedgown made +of blue-checkered linen, tied round the waist and descending to +the hips, from whence there is a considerable length of linsey- +woolsey petticoat. For Lisbeth is tall, and in other points too +there is a strong likeness between her and her son Adam. Her dark +eyes are somewhat dim now--perhaps from too much crying--but her +broadly marked eyebrows are still black, her teeth are sound, and +as she stands knitting rapidly and unconsciously with her work- +hardened hands, she has as firmly upright an attitude as when she +is carrying a pail of water on her head from the spring. There is +the same type of frame and the same keen activity of temperament +in mother and son, but it was not from her that Adam got his well- +filled brow and his expression of large-hearted intelligence. + +Family likeness has often a deep sadness in it. Nature, that +great tragic dramatist, knits us together by bone and muscle, and +divides us by the subtler web of our brains; blends yearning and +repulsion; and ties us by our heart-strings to the beings that jar +us at every movement. We hear a voice with the very cadence of +our own uttering the thoughts we despise; we see eyes--ah, so like +our mother's!--averted from us in cold alienation; and our last +darling child startles us with the air and gestures of the sister +we parted from in bitterness long years ago. The father to whom +we owe our best heritage--the mechanical instinct, the keen +sensibility to harmony, the unconscious skill of the modelling +hand--galls us and puts us to shame by his daily errors; the long- +lost mother, whose face we begin to see in the glass as our own +wrinkles come, once fretted our young souls with her anxious +humours and irrational persistence. + +It is such a fond anxious mother's voice that you hear, as Lisbeth +says, "Well, my lad, it's gone seven by th' clock. Thee't allays +stay till the last child's born. Thee wants thy supper, I'll +warrand. Where's Seth? Gone arter some o's chapellin', I +reckon?" + +"Aye, aye, Seth's at no harm, mother, thee mayst be sure. + +But where's father?" said Adam quickly, as he entered the house +and glanced into the room on the left hand, which was used as a +workshop. "Hasn't he done the coffin for Tholer? There's the +stuff standing just as I left it this morning." + +"Done the coffin?" said Lisbeth, following him, and knitting +uninterruptedly, though she looked at her son very anxiously. +"Eh, my lad, he went aff to Treddles'on this forenoon, an's niver +come back. I doubt he's got to th' 'Waggin Overthrow' again." + +A deep flush of anger passed rapidly over Adam's face. He said +nothing, but threw off his jacket and began to roll up his shirt- +sleeves again. + +"What art goin' to do, Adam?" said the mother, with a tone and +look of alarm. "Thee wouldstna go to work again, wi'out ha'in thy +bit o' supper?" + +Adam, too angry to speak, walked into the workshop. But his +mother threw down her knitting, and, hurrying after him, took hold +of his arm, and said, in a tone of plaintive remonstrance, "Nay, +my lad, my lad, thee munna go wi'out thy supper; there's the +taters wi' the gravy in 'em, just as thee lik'st 'em. I saved 'em +o' purpose for thee. Come an' ha' thy supper, come." + +"Let be!" said Adam impetuously, shaking her off and seizing one +of the planks that stood against the wall. "It's fine talking +about having supper when here's a coffin promised to be ready at +Brox'on by seven o'clock to-morrow morning, and ought to ha' been +there now, and not a nail struck yet. My throat's too full to +swallow victuals." + +"Why, thee canstna get the coffin ready," said Lisbeth. "Thee't +work thyself to death. It 'ud take thee all night to do't." + +"What signifies how long it takes me? Isn't the coffin promised? +Can they bury the man without a coffin? I'd work my right hand +off sooner than deceive people with lies i' that way. It makes me +mad to think on't. I shall overrun these doings before long. +I've stood enough of 'em." + +Poor Lisbeth did not hear this threat for the first time, and if +she had been wise she would have gone away quietly and said +nothing for the next hour. But one of the lessons a woman most +rarely learns is never to talk to an angry or a drunken man. +Lisbeth sat down on the chopping bench and began to cry, and by +the time she had cried enough to make her voice very piteous, she +burst out into words. + +"Nay, my lad, my lad, thee wouldstna go away an' break thy +mother's heart, an' leave thy feyther to ruin. Thee wouldstna ha' +'em carry me to th' churchyard, an' thee not to follow me. I +shanna rest i' my grave if I donna see thee at th' last; an' how's +they to let thee know as I'm a-dyin', if thee't gone a-workin' i' +distant parts, an' Seth belike gone arter thee, and thy feyther +not able to hold a pen for's hand shakin', besides not knowin' +where thee art? Thee mun forgie thy feyther--thee munna be so +bitter again' him. He war a good feyther to thee afore he took to +th' drink. He's a clever workman, an' taught thee thy trade, +remember, an's niver gen me a blow nor so much as an ill word--no, +not even in 's drink. Thee wouldstna ha' 'm go to the workhus-- +thy own feyther--an' him as was a fine-growed man an' handy at +everythin' amost as thee art thysen, five-an'-twenty 'ear ago, +when thee wast a baby at the breast." + +Lisbeth's voice became louder, and choked with sobs--a sort of +wail, the most irritating of all sounds where real sorrows are to +be borne and real work to be done. Adam broke in impatiently. + +"Now, Mother, don't cry and talk so. Haven't I got enough to vex +me without that? What's th' use o' telling me things as I only +think too much on every day? If I didna think on 'em, why should +I do as I do, for the sake o' keeping things together here? But I +hate to be talking where it's no use: I like to keep my breath for +doing i'stead o' talking." + +"I know thee dost things as nobody else 'ud do, my lad. But +thee't allays so hard upo' thy feyther, Adam. Thee think'st +nothing too much to do for Seth: thee snapp'st me up if iver I +find faut wi' th' lad. But thee't so angered wi' thy feyther, +more nor wi' anybody else." + +"That's better than speaking soft and letting things go the wrong +way, I reckon, isn't it? If I wasn't sharp with him he'd sell +every bit o' stuff i' th' yard and spend it on drink. I know +there's a duty to be done by my father, but it isn't my duty to +encourage him in running headlong to ruin. And what has Seth got +to do with it? The lad does no harm as I know of. But leave me +alone, Mother, and let me get on with the work." + +Lisbeth dared not say any more; but she got up and called Gyp, +thinking to console herself somewhat for Adam's refusal of the +supper she had spread out in the loving expectation of looking at +him while he ate it, by feeding Adam's dog with extra liberality. +But Gyp was watching his master with wrinkled brow and ears erect, +puzzled at this unusual course of things; and though he glanced at +Lisbeth when she called him, and moved his fore-paws uneasily, +well knowing that she was inviting him to supper, he was in a +divided state of mind, and remained seated on his haunches, again +fixing his eyes anxiously on his master. Adam noticed Gyp's +mental conflict, and though his anger had made him less tender +than usual to his mother, it did not prevent him from caring as +much as usual for his dog. We are apt to be kinder to the brutes +that love us than to the women that love us. Is it because the +brutes are dumb? + +"Go, Gyp; go, lad!" Adam said, in a tone of encouraging command; +and Gyp, apparently satisfied that duty and pleasure were one, +followed Lisbeth into the house-place. + +But no sooner had he licked up his supper than he went back to his +master, while Lisbeth sat down alone to cry over her knitting. +Women who are never bitter and resentful are often the most +querulous; and if Solomon was as wise as he is reputed to be, I +feel sure that when he compared a contentious woman to a continual +dropping on a very rainy day, he had not a vixen in his eye--a +fury with long nails, acrid and selfish. Depend upon it, he meant +a good creature, who had no joy but in the happiness of the loved +ones whom she contributed to make uncomfortable, putting by all +the tid-bits for them and spending nothing on herself. Such a +woman as Lisbeth, for example--at once patient and complaining, +self-renouncing and exacting, brooding the livelong day over what +happened yesterday and what is likely to happen to-morrow, and +crying very readily both at the good and the evil. But a certain +awe mingled itself with her idolatrous love of Adam, and when he +said, "Leave me alone," she was always silenced. + +So the hours passed, to the loud ticking of the old day-clock and +the sound of Adam's tools. At last he called for a light and a +draught of water (beer was a thing only to be drunk on holidays), +and Lisbeth ventured to say as she took it in, "Thy supper stan's +ready for thee, when thee lik'st." + +"Donna thee sit up, mother," said Adam, in a gentle tone. He had +worked off his anger now, and whenever he wished to be especially +kind to his mother, he fell into his strongest native accent and +dialect, with which at other times his speech was less deeply +tinged. "I'll see to Father when he comes home; maybe he wonna +come at all to-night. I shall be easier if thee't i' bed." + +"Nay, I'll bide till Seth comes. He wonna be long now, I reckon." + +It was then past nine by the clock, which was always in advance of +the days, and before it had struck ten the latch was lifted and +Seth entered. He had heard the sound of the tools as he was +approaching. + +"Why, Mother," he said, "how is it as Father's working so late?" + +"It's none o' thy feyther as is a-workin'--thee might know that +well anoof if thy head warna full o' chapellin'--it's thy brother +as does iverything, for there's niver nobody else i' th' way to do +nothin'." + +Lisbeth was going on, for she was not at all afraid of Seth, and +usually poured into his ears all the querulousness which was +repressed by her awe of Adam. Seth had never in his life spoken a +harsh word to his mother, and timid people always wreak their +peevishness on the gentle. But Seth, with an anxious look, had +passed into the workshop and said, "Addy, how's this? What! +Father's forgot the coffin?" + +"Aye, lad, th' old tale; but I shall get it done," said Adam, +looking up and casting one of his bright keen glances at his +brother. "Why, what's the matter with thee? Thee't in trouble." + +Seth's eyes were red, and there was a look of deep depression on +his mild face. + +"Yes, Addy, but it's what must be borne, and can't be helped. +Why, thee'st never been to the school, then?" + +"School? No, that screw can wait," said Adam, hammering away +again. + +"Let me take my turn now, and do thee go to bed," said Seth. + +"No, lad, I'd rather go on, now I'm in harness. Thee't help me to +carry it to Brox'on when it's done. I'll call thee up at sunrise. +Go and eat thy supper, and shut the door so as I mayn't hear +Mother's talk." + +Seth knew that Adam always meant what he said, and was not to be +persuaded into meaning anything else. So he turned, with rather a +heavy heart, into the house-place. + +"Adam's niver touched a bit o' victual sin' home he's come," said +Lisbeth. "I reckon thee'st hed thy supper at some o' thy Methody +folks." + +"Nay, Mother," said Seth, "I've had no supper yet." + +"Come, then," said Lisbeth, "but donna thee ate the taters, for +Adam 'ull happen ate 'em if I leave 'em stannin'. He loves a bit +o' taters an' gravy. But he's been so sore an' angered, he +wouldn't ate 'em, for all I'd putten 'em by o' purpose for him. +An' he's been a-threatenin' to go away again," she went on, +whimpering, "an' I'm fast sure he'll go some dawnin' afore I'm up, +an' niver let me know aforehand, an' he'll niver come back again +when once he's gone. An' I'd better niver ha' had a son, as is +like no other body's son for the deftness an' th' handiness, an' +so looked on by th' grit folks, an' tall an' upright like a +poplar-tree, an' me to be parted from him an' niver see 'm no +more." + +"Come, Mother, donna grieve thyself in vain," said Seth, in a +soothing voice. "Thee'st not half so good reason to think as Adam +'ull go away as to think he'll stay with thee. He may say such a +thing when he's in wrath--and he's got excuse for being wrathful +sometimes--but his heart 'ud never let him go. Think how he's +stood by us all when it's been none so easy--paying his savings to +free me from going for a soldier, an' turnin' his earnin's into +wood for father, when he's got plenty o' uses for his money, and +many a young man like him 'ud ha' been married and settled before +now. He'll never turn round and knock down his own work, and +forsake them as it's been the labour of his life to stand by." + +"Donna talk to me about's marr'in'," said Lisbeth, crying afresh. +"He's set's heart on that Hetty Sorrel, as 'ull niver save a +penny, an' 'ull toss up her head at's old mother. An' to think as +he might ha' Mary Burge, an' be took partners, an' be a big man +wi' workmen under him, like Mester Burge--Dolly's told me so o'er +and o'er again--if it warna as he's set's heart on that bit of a +wench, as is o' no more use nor the gillyflower on the wall. An' +he so wise at bookin' an' figurin', an' not to know no better nor +that!" + +"But, Mother, thee know'st we canna love just where other folks +'ud have us. There's nobody but God can control the heart of man. +I could ha' wished myself as Adam could ha' made another choice, +but I wouldn't reproach him for what he can't help. And I'm not +sure but what he tries to o'ercome it. But it's a matter as he +doesn't like to be spoke to about, and I can only pray to the Lord +to bless and direct him." + +"Aye, thee't allays ready enough at prayin', but I donna see as +thee gets much wi' thy prayin'. Thee wotna get double earnin's o' +this side Yule. Th' Methodies 'll niver make thee half the man +thy brother is, for all they're a-makin' a preacher on thee." + +"It's partly truth thee speak'st there, Mother," said Seth, +mildly; "Adam's far before me, an's done more for me than I can +ever do for him. God distributes talents to every man according +as He sees good. But thee mustna undervally prayer. Prayer mayna +bring money, but it brings us what no money can buy--a power to +keep from sin and be content with God's will, whatever He may +please to send. If thee wouldst pray to God to help thee, and +trust in His goodness, thee wouldstna be so uneasy about things." + +"Unaisy? I'm i' th' right on't to be unaisy. It's well seen on +THEE what it is niver to be unaisy. Thee't gi' away all thy +earnin's, an' niver be unaisy as thee'st nothin' laid up again' a +rainy day. If Adam had been as aisy as thee, he'd niver ha' had +no money to pay for thee. Take no thought for the morrow--take no +thought--that's what thee't allays sayin'; an' what comes on't? +Why, as Adam has to take thought for thee." + +"Those are the words o' the Bible, Mother," said Seth. "They +don't mean as we should be idle. They mean we shouldn't be +overanxious and worreting ourselves about what'll happen to- +morrow, but do our duty and leave the rest to God's will." + +"Aye, aye, that's the way wi' thee: thee allays makes a peck o' +thy own words out o' a pint o' the Bible's. I donna see how +thee't to know as 'take no thought for the morrow' means all that. +An' when the Bible's such a big book, an' thee canst read all +thro't, an' ha' the pick o' the texes, I canna think why thee +dostna pick better words as donna mean so much more nor they say. +Adam doesna pick a that'n; I can understan' the tex as he's allays +a-sayin', 'God helps them as helps theirsens.'" + +"Nay, Mother," said Seth, "that's no text o' the Bible. It comes +out of a book as Adam picked up at the stall at Treddles'on. It +was wrote by a knowing man, but overworldly, I doubt. However, +that saying's partly true; for the Bible tells us we must be +workers together with God." + +"Well, how'm I to know? It sounds like a tex. But what's th' +matter wi' th' lad? Thee't hardly atin' a bit o' supper. Dostna +mean to ha' no more nor that bit o' oat-cake? An' thee lookst as +white as a flick o' new bacon. What's th' matter wi' thee?" + +"Nothing to mind about, Mother; I'm not hungry. I'll just look in +at Adam again, and see if he'll let me go on with the coffin." + +"Ha' a drop o' warm broth?" said Lisbeth, whose motherly feeling +now got the better of her "nattering" habit. "I'll set two-three +sticks a-light in a minute." + +"Nay, Mother, thank thee; thee't very good," said Seth, +gratefully; and encouraged by this touch of tenderness, he went +on: "Let me pray a bit with thee for Father, and Adam, and all of +us--it'll comfort thee, happen, more than thee thinkst." + +"Well, I've nothin' to say again' it." + +Lisbeth, though disposed always to take the negative side in her +conversations with Seth, had a vague sense that there was some +comfort and safety in the fact of his piety, and that it somehow +relieved her from the trouble of any spiritual transactions on her +own behalf. + +So the mother and son knelt down together, and Seth prayed for the +poor wandering father and for those who were sorrowing for him at +home. And when he came to the petition that Adam might never be +called to set up his tent in a far country, but that his mother +might be cheered and comforted by his presence all the days of her +pilgrimage, Lisbeth's ready tears flowed again, and she wept +aloud. + +When they rose from their knees, Seth went to Adam again and said, +"Wilt only lie down for an hour or two, and let me go on the +while?" + +"No, Seth, no. Make Mother go to bed, and go thyself." + +Meantime Lisbeth had dried her eyes, and now followed Seth, +holding something in her hands. It was the brown-and-yellow +platter containing the baked potatoes with the gravy in them and +bits of meat which she had cut and mixed among them. Those were +dear times, when wheaten bread and fresh meat were delicacies to +working people. She set the dish down rather timidly on the bench +by Adam's side and said, "Thee canst pick a bit while thee't +workin'. I'll bring thee another drop o' water." + +"Aye, Mother, do," said Adam, kindly; "I'm getting very thirsty." + +In half an hour all was quiet; no sound was to be heard in the +house but the loud ticking of the old day-clock and the ringing of +Adam's tools. The night was very still: when Adam opened the door +to look out at twelve o'clock, the only motion seemed to be in the +glowing, twinkling stars; every blade of grass was asleep. + +Bodily haste and exertion usually leave our thoughts very much at +the mercy of our feelings and imagination; and it was so to-night +with Adam. While his muscles were working lustily, his mind +seemed as passive as a spectator at a diorama: scenes of the sad +past, and probably sad future, floating before him and giving +place one to the other in swift sucession. + +He saw how it would be to-morrow morning, when he had carried the +coffin to Broxton and was at home again, having his breakfast: his +father perhaps would come in ashamed to meet his son's glance-- +would sit down, looking older and more tottering than he had done +the morning before, and hang down his head, examining the floor- +quarries; while Lisbeth would ask him how he supposed the coffin +had been got ready, that he had slinked off and left undone--for +Lisbeth was always the first to utter the word of reproach, +although she cried at Adam's severity towards his father. + +"So it will go on, worsening and worsening," thought Adam; +"there's no slipping uphill again, and no standing still when once +youve begun to slip down." And then the day came back to him when +he was a little fellow and used to run by his father's side, proud +to be taken out to work, and prouder still to hear his father +boasting to his fellow-workmen how "the little chap had an +uncommon notion o' carpentering." What a fine active fellow his +father was then! When people asked Adam whose little lad he was, +he had a sense of distinction as he answered, "I'm Thias Bede's +lad." He was quite sure everybody knew Thias Bede--didn't he make +the wonderful pigeon-house at Broxton parsonage? Those were happy +days, especially when Seth, who was three years the younger, began +to go out working too, and Adam began to be a teacher as well as a +learner. But then came the days of sadness, when Adam was someway +on in his teens, and Thias began to loiter at the public-houses, +and Lisbeth began to cry at home, and to pour forth her plaints in +the hearing of her sons. Adam remembered well the night of shame +and anguish when he first saw his father quite wild and foolish, +shouting a song out fitfully among his drunken companions at the +"Waggon Overthrown." He had run away once when he was only +eighteen, making his escape in the morning twilight with a little +blue bundle over his shoulder, and his "mensuration book" in his +pocket, and saying to himself very decidedly that he could bear +the vexations of home no longer--he would go and seek his fortune, +setting up his stick at the crossways and bending his steps the +way it fell. But by the time he got to Stoniton, the thought of +his mother and Seth, left behind to endure everything without him, +became too importunate, and his resolution failed him. He came +back the next day, but the misery and terror his mother had gone +through in those two days had haunted her ever since. + +"No!" Adam said to himself to-night, "that must never happen +again. It 'ud make a poor balance when my doings are cast up at +the last, if my poor old mother stood o' the wrong side. My +back's broad enough and strong enough; I should be no better than +a coward to go away and leave the troubles to be borne by them as +aren't half so able. 'They that are strong ought to bear the +infirmities of those that are weak, and not to please themselves.' +There's a text wants no candle to show't; it shines by its own +light. It's plain enough you get into the wrong road i' this life +if you run after this and that only for the sake o' making things +easy and pleasant to yourself. A pig may poke his nose into the +trough and think o' nothing outside it; but if you've got a man's +heart and soul in you, you can't be easy a-making your own bed an' +leaving the rest to lie on the stones. Nay, nay, I'll never slip +my neck out o' the yoke, and leave the load to be drawn by the +weak uns. Father's a sore cross to me, an's likely to be for many +a long year to come. What then? I've got th' health, and the +limbs, and the sperrit to bear it." + +At this moment a smart rap, as if with a willow wand, was given at +the house door, and Gyp, instead of barking, as might have been +expected, gave a loud howl. Adam, very much startled, went at +once to the door and opened it. Nothing was there; all was still, +as when he opened it an hour before; the leaves were motionless, +and the light of the stars showed the placid fields on both sides +of the brook quite empty of visible life. Adam walked round the +house, and still saw nothing except a rat which darted into the +woodshed as he passed. He went in again, wondering; the sound was +so peculiar that the moment he heard it it called up the image of +the willow wand striking the door. He could not help a little +shudder, as he remembered how often his mother had told him of +just such a sound coming as a sign when some one was dying. Adam +was not a man to be gratuitously superstitious, but he had the +blood of the peasant in him as well as of the artisan, and a +peasant can no more help believing in a traditional superstition +than a horse can help trembling when he sees a camel. Besides, he +had that mental combination which is at once humble in the region +of mystery and keen in the region of knowledge: it was the depth +of his reverence quite as much as his hard common sense which gave +him his disinclination to doctrinal religion, and he often checked +Seth's argumentative spiritualism by saying, "Eh, it's a big +mystery; thee know'st but little about it." And so it happened +that Adam was at once penetrating and credulous. If a new +building had fallen down and he had been told that this was a +divine judgment, he would have said, "May be; but the bearing o' +the roof and walls wasn't right, else it wouldn't ha' come down"; +yet he believed in dreams and prognostics, and to his dying day he +bated his breath a little when he told the story of the stroke +with the willow wand. I tell it as he told it, not attempting to +reduce it to its natural elements--in our eagerness to explain +impressions, we often lose our hold of the sympathy that +comprehends them. + +But he had the best antidote against imaginative dread in the +necessity for getting on with the coffin, and for the next ten +minutes his hammer was ringing so uninterruptedly, that other +sounds, if there were any, might well be overpowered. A pause +came, however, when he had to take up his ruler, and now again +came the strange rap, and again Gyp howled. Adam was at the door +without the loss of a moment; but again all was still, and the +starlight showed there was nothing but the dew-laden grass in +front of the cottage. + +Adam for a moment thought uncomfortably about his father; but of +late years he had never come home at dark hours from Treddleston, +and there was every reason for believing that he was then sleeping +off his drunkenness at the "Waggon Overthrown." Besides, to Adam, +the conception of the future was so inseparable from the painful +image of his father that the fear of any fatal accident to him was +excluded by the deeply infixed fear of his continual degradation. +The next thought that occurred to him was one that made him slip +off his shoes and tread lightly upstairs, to listen at the bedroom +doors. But both Seth and his mother were breathing regularly. + +Adam came down and set to work again, saying to himself, "I won't +open the door again. It's no use staring about to catch sight of +a sound. Maybe there's a world about us as we can't see, but th' +ear's quicker than the eye and catches a sound from't now and +then. Some people think they get a sight on't too, but they're +mostly folks whose eyes are not much use to 'em at anything else. +For my part, I think it's better to see when your perpendicular's +true than to see a ghost." + +Such thoughts as these are apt to grow stronger and stronger as +daylight quenches the candles and the birds begin to sing. By the +time the red sunlight shone on the brass nails that formed the +initials on the lid of the coffin, any lingering foreboding from +the sound of the willow wand was merged in satisfaction that the +work was done and the promise redeemed. There was no need to call +Seth, for he was already moving overhead, and presently came +downstairs. + +"Now, lad," said Adam, as Seth made his appearance, "the coffin's +done, and we can take it over to Brox'on, and be back again before +half after six. I'll take a mouthful o' oat-cake, and then we'll +be off." + +The coffin was soon propped on the tall shoulders of the two +brothers, and they were making their way, followed close by Gyp, +out of the little woodyard into the lane at the back of the house. +It was but about a mile and a half to Broxton over the opposite +slope, and their road wound very pleasantly along lanes and across +fields, where the pale woodbines and the dog-roses were scenting +the hedgerows, and the birds were twittering and trilling in the +tall leafy boughs of oak and elm. It was a strangely mingled +picture--the fresh youth of the summer morning, with its Edenlike +peace and loveliness, the stalwart strength of the two brothers in +their rusty working clothes, and the long coffin on their +shoulders. They paused for the last time before a small farmhouse +outside the village of Broxton. By six o'clock the task was done +the coffin nailed down, and Adam and Seth were on their way home. +They chose a shorter way homewards, which would take them across +the fields and the brook in front of the house. Adam had not +mentioned to Seth what had happened in the night, but he still +retained sufficient impression from it himself to say, "Seth, lad, +if Father isn't come home by the time we've had our breakfast, I +think it'll be as well for thee to go over to Treddles'on and look +after him, and thee canst get me the brass wire I want. Never +mind about losing an hour at thy work; we can make that up. What +dost say?" + +"I'm willing," said Seth. "But see what clouds have gathered +since we set out. I'm thinking we shall have more rain. It'll be +a sore time for th' haymaking if the meadows are flooded again. +The brook's fine and full now: another day's rain 'ud cover the +plank, and we should have to go round by the road." + +They were coming across the valley now, and had entered the +pasture through which the brook ran. + +"Why, what's that sticking against the willow?" continued Seth, +beginning to walk faster. Adam's heart rose to his mouth: the +vague anxiety about his father was changed into a great dread. He +made no answer to Seth, but ran forward preceded by Gyp, who began +to bark uneasily; and in two moments he was at the bridge. + +This was what the omen meant, then! And the grey-haired father, +of whom he had thought with a sort of hardness a few hours ago, as +certain to live to be a thorn in his side was perhaps even then +struggling with that watery death! This was the first thought +that flashed through Adam's conscience, before he had time to +seize the coat and drag out the tall heavy body. Seth was already +by his side, helping him, and when they had it on the bank, the +two sons in the first moment knelt and looked with mute awe at the +glazed eyes, forgetting that there was need for action--forgetting +everything but that their father lay dead before them. Adam was +the first to speak. + +"I'll run to Mother," he said, in a loud whisper. "I'll be back +to thee in a minute." + +Poor Lisbeth was busy preparing her sons' breakfast, and their +porridge was already steaming on the fire. Her kitchen always +looked the pink of cleanliness, but this morning she was more than +usually bent on making her hearth and breakfast-table look +comfortable and inviting. + +"The lads 'ull be fine an' hungry," she said, half-aloud, as she +stirred the porridge. "It's a good step to Brox'on, an' it's +hungry air o'er the hill--wi' that heavy coffin too. Eh! It's +heavier now, wi' poor Bob Tholer in't. Howiver, I've made a drap +more porridge nor common this mornin'. The feyther 'ull happen +come in arter a bit. Not as he'll ate much porridge. He swallers +sixpenn'orth o' ale, an' saves a hap'orth o' por-ridge--that's his +way o' layin' by money, as I've told him many a time, an' am +likely to tell him again afore the day's out. Eh, poor mon, he +takes it quiet enough; there's no denyin' that." + +But now Lisbeth heard the heavy "thud" of a running footstep on +the turf, and, turning quickly towards the door, she saw Adam +enter, looking so pale and overwhelmed that she screamed aloud and +rushed towards him before he had time to speak. + +"Hush, Mother," Adam said, rather hoarsely, "don't be frightened. +Father's tumbled into the water. Belike we may bring him round +again. Seth and me are going to carry him in. Get a blanket and +make it hot as the fire." + +In reality Adam was convinced that his father was dead but he knew +there was no other way of repressing his mother's impetuous +wailing grief than by occupying her with some active task which +had hope in it. + +He ran back to Seth, and the two sons lifted the sad burden in +heart-stricken silence. The wide-open glazed eyes were grey, like +Seth's, and had once looked with mild pride on the boys before +whom Thias had lived to hang his head in shame. Seth's chief +feeling was awe and distress at this sudden snatching away of his +father's soul; but Adam's mind rushed back over the past in a +flood of relenting and pity. When death, the great Reconciler, +has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our +severity. + + + +Chapter V + +The Rector + + +BEFORE twelve o'clock there had been some heavy storms of rain, +and the water lay in deep gutters on the sides of the gravel walks +in the garden of Broxton Parsonage; the great Provence roses had +been cruelly tossed by the wind and beaten by the rain, and all +the delicate-stemmed border flowers had been dashed down and +stained with the wet soil. A melancholy morning--because it was +nearly time hay-harvest should begin, and instead of that the +meadows were likely to be flooded. + +But people who have pleasant homes get indoor enjoyments that they +would never think of but for the rain. If it had not been a wet +morning, Mr. Irwine would not have been in the dining-room playing +at chess with his mother, and he loves both his mother and chess +quite well enough to pass some cloudy hours very easily by their +help. Let me take you into that dining-room and show you the Rev. +Adolphus Irwine, Rector of Broxton, Vicar of Hayslope, and Vicar +of Blythe, a pluralist at whom the severest Church reformer would +have found it difficult to look sour. We will enter very softly +and stand still in the open doorway, without awaking the glossy- +brown setter who is stretched across the hearth, with her two +puppies beside her; or the pug, who is dozing, with his black +muzzle aloft, like a sleepy president. + +The room is a large and lofty one, with an ample mullioned oriel +window at one end; the walls, you see, are new, and not yet +painted; but the furniture, though originally of an expensive +sort, is old and scanty, and there is no drapery about the window. +The crimson cloth over the large dining-table is very threadbare, +though it contrasts pleasantly enough with the dead hue of the +plaster on the walls; but on this cloth there is a massive silver +waiter with a decanter of water on it, of the same pattern as two +larger ones that are propped up on the sideboard with a coat of +arms conspicuous in their centre. You suspect at once that the +inhabitants of this room have inherited more blood than wealth, +and would not be surprised to find that Mr. Irwine had a finely +cut nostril and upper lip; but at present we can only see that he +has a broad flat back and an abundance of powdered hair, all +thrown backward and tied behind with a black ribbon--a bit of +conservatism in costume which tells you that he is not a young +man. He will perhaps turn round by and by, and in the meantime we +can look at that stately old lady, his mother, a beautiful aged +brunette, whose rich-toned complexion is well set off by the +complex wrappings of pure white cambric and lace about her head +and neck. She is as erect in her comely embonpoint as a statue of +Ceres; and her dark face, with its delicate aquiline nose, firm +proud mouth, and small, intense, black eye, is so keen and +sarcastic in its expression that you instinctively substitute a +pack of cards for the chess-men and imagine her telling your +fortune. The small brown hand with which she is lifting her queen +is laden with pearls, diamonds, and turquoises; and a large black +veil is very carefully adjusted over the crown of her cap, and +falls in sharp contrast on the white folds about her neck. It +must take a long time to dress that old lady in the morning! But +it seems a law of nature that she should be dressed so: she is +clearly one of those children of royalty who have never doubted +their right divine and never met with any one so absurd as to +question it. + +"There, Dauphin, tell me what that is!" says this magnificent old +lady, as she deposits her queen very quietly and folds her arms. +"I should be sorry to utter a word disagreeable to your feelings." + +"Ah, you witch-mother, you sorceress! How is a Christian man to +win a game off you? I should have sprinkled the board with holy +water before we began. You've not won that game by fair means, +now, so don't pretend it." + +"Yes, yes, that's what the beaten have always said of great +conquerors. But see, there's the sunshine falling on the board, +to show you more clearly what a foolish move you made with that +pawn. Come, shall I give you another chance?" + +"No, Mother, I shall leave you to your own conscience, now it's +clearing up. We must go and plash up the mud a little, mus'n't +we, Juno?" This was addressed to the brown setter, who had jumped +up at the sound of the voices and laid her nose in an insinuating +way on her master's leg. "But I must go upstairs first and see +Anne. I was called away to Tholer's funeral just when I was going +before." + +"It's of no use, child; she can't speak to you. Kate says she has +one of her worst headaches this morning." + +"Oh, she likes me to go and see her just the same; she's never too +ill to care about that." + +If you know how much of human speech is mere purposeless impulse +or habit, you will not wonder when I tell you that this identical +objection had been made, and had received the same kind of answer, +many hundred times in the course of the fifteen years that Mr. +Irwine's sister Anne had been an invalid. Splendid old ladies, +who take a long time to dress in the morning, have often slight +sympathy with sickly daughters. + +But while Mr. Irwine was still seated, leaning back in his chair +and stroking Juno's head, the servant came to the door and said, +"If you please, sir, Joshua Rann wishes to speak with you, if you +are at liberty." + +"Let him be shown in here," said Mrs. Irwine, taking up her +knitting. "I always like to hear what Mr. Rann has got to say. +His shoes will be dirty, but see that he wipes them Carroll." + +In two minutes Mr. Rann appeared at the door with very deferential +bows, which, however, were far from conciliating Pug, who gave a +sharp bark and ran across the room to reconnoitre the stranger's +legs; while the two puppies, regarding Mr. Rann's prominent calf +and ribbed worsted stockings from a more sensuous point of view, +plunged and growled over them in great enjoyment. Meantime, Mr. +Irwine turned round his chair and said, "Well, Joshua, anything +the matter at Hayslope, that you've come over this damp morning? +Sit down, sit down. Never mind the dogs; give them a friendly +kick. Here, Pug, you rascal!" + +It is very pleasant to see some men turn round; pleasant as a +sudden rush of warm air in winter, or the flash of firelight in +the chill dusk. Mr. Irwine was one of those men. He bore the +same sort of resemblance to his mother that our loving memory of a +friend's face often bears to the face itself: the lines were all +more generous, the smile brighter, the expression heartier. If +the outline had been less finely cut, his face might have been +called jolly; but that was not the right word for its mixture of +bonhomie and distinction. + +"Thank Your Reverence," answered Mr. Rann, endeavouring to look +unconcerned about his legs, but shaking them alternately to keep +off the puppies; "I'll stand, if you please, as more becoming. I +hope I see you an' Mrs. Irwine well, an' Miss Irwine--an' Miss +Anne, I hope's as well as usual." + +"Yes, Joshua, thank you. You see how blooming my mother looks. +She beats us younger people hollow. But what's the matter?" + +"Why, sir, I had to come to Brox'on to deliver some work, and I +thought it but right to call and let you know the goins-on as +there's been i' the village, such as I hanna seen i' my time, and +I've lived in it man and boy sixty year come St. Thomas, and +collected th' Easter dues for Mr. Blick before Your Reverence come +into the parish, and been at the ringin' o' every bell, and the +diggin' o' every grave, and sung i' the choir long afore Bartle +Massey come from nobody knows where, wi' his counter-singin' and +fine anthems, as puts everybody out but himself--one takin' it up +after another like sheep a-bleatin' i' th' fold. I know what +belongs to bein' a parish clerk, and I know as I should be wantin' +i' respect to Your Reverence, an' church, an' king, if I was t' +allow such goins-on wi'out speakin'. I was took by surprise, an' +knowed nothin' on it beforehand, an' I was so flustered, I was +clean as if I'd lost my tools. I hanna slep' more nor four hour +this night as is past an' gone; an' then it was nothin' but +nightmare, as tired me worse nor wakin'." + +"Why, what in the world is the matter, Joshua? Have the thieves +been at the church lead again?" + +"Thieves! No, sir--an' yet, as I may say, it is thieves, an' a- +thievin' the church, too. It's the Methodisses as is like to get +th' upper hand i' th' parish, if Your Reverence an' His Honour, +Squire Donnithorne, doesna think well to say the word an' forbid +it. Not as I'm a-dictatin' to you, sir; I'm not forgettin' myself +so far as to be wise above my betters. Howiver, whether I'm wise +or no, that's neither here nor there, but what I've got to say I +say--as the young Methodis woman as is at Mester Poyser's was a- +preachin' an' a-prayin' on the Green last night, as sure as I'm a- +stannin' afore Your Reverence now." + +"Preaching on the Green!" said Mr. Irwine, looking surprised but +quite serene. "What, that pale pretty young woman I've seen at +Poyser's? I saw she was a Methodist, or Quaker, or something of +that sort, by her dress, but I didn't know she was a preacher." + +"It's a true word as I say, sir," rejoined Mr. Rann, compressing +his mouth into a semicircular form and pausing long enough to +indicate three notes of exclamation. "She preached on the Green +last night; an' she's laid hold of Chad's Bess, as the girl's been +i' fits welly iver sin'." + +"Well, Bessy Cranage is a hearty-looking lass; I daresay she'll +come round again, Joshua. Did anybody else go into fits?" + +"No, sir, I canna say as they did. But there's no knowin' what'll +come, if we're t' have such preachin's as that a-goin' on ivery +week--there'll be no livin' i' th' village. For them Methodisses +make folks believe as if they take a mug o' drink extry, an' make +theirselves a bit comfortable, they'll have to go to hell for't as +sure as they're born. I'm not a tipplin' man nor a drunkard-- +nobody can say it on me--but I like a extry quart at Easter or +Christmas time, as is nat'ral when we're goin' the rounds a- +singin', an' folks offer't you for nothin'; or when I'm a- +collectin' the dues; an' I like a pint wi' my pipe, an' a +neighbourly chat at Mester Casson's now an' then, for I was +brought up i' the Church, thank God, an' ha' been a parish clerk +this two-an'-thirty year: I should know what the church religion +is." + +"Well, what's your advice, Joshua? What do you think should be +done?" + +"Well, Your Reverence, I'm not for takin' any measures again' the +young woman. She's well enough if she'd let alone preachin'; an' +I hear as she's a-goin' away back to her own country soon. She's +Mr. Poyser's own niece, an' I donna wish to say what's anyways +disrespectful o' th' family at th' Hall Farm, as I've measured for +shoes, little an' big, welly iver sin' I've been a shoemaker. But +there's that Will Maskery, sir as is the rampageousest Methodis as +can be, an' I make no doubt it was him as stirred up th' young +woman to preach last night, an' he'll be a-bringin' other folks to +preach from Treddles'on, if his comb isn't cut a bit; an' I think +as he should be let know as he isna t' have the makin' an' mendin' +o' church carts an' implemen's, let alone stayin' i' that house +an' yard as is Squire Donnithorne's." + +"Well, but you say yourself, Joshua, that you never knew any one +come to preach on the Green before; why should you think they'll +come again? The Methodists don't come to preach in little +villages like Hayslope, where there's only a handful of labourers, +too tired to listen to them. They might almost as well go and +preach on the Binton Hills. Will Maskery is no preacher himself, +I think." + +"Nay, sir, he's no gift at stringin' the words together wi'out +book; he'd be stuck fast like a cow i' wet clay. But he's got +tongue enough to speak disrespectful about's neebors, for he said +as I was a blind Pharisee--a-usin' the Bible i' that way to find +nick-names for folks as are his elders an' betters!--and what's +worse, he's been heard to say very unbecomin' words about Your +Reverence; for I could bring them as 'ud swear as he called you a +'dumb dog,' an' a 'idle shepherd.' You'll forgi'e me for sayin' +such things over again." + +"Better not, better not, Joshua. Let evil words die as soon as +they're spoken. Will Maskery might be a great deal worse fellow +than he is. He used to be a wild drunken rascal, neglecting his +work and beating his wife, they told me; now he's thrifty and +decent, and he and his wife look comfortable together. If you can +bring me any proof that he interferes with his neighbours and +creates any disturbance, I shall think it my duty as a clergyman +and a magistrate to interfere. But it wouldn't become wise people +like you and me to be making a fuss about trifles, as if we +thought the Church was in danger because Will Maskery lets his +tongue wag rather foolishly, or a young woman talks in a serious +way to a handful of people on the Green. We must 'live and let +live,' Joshua, in religion as well as in other things. You go on +doing your duty, as parish clerk and sexton, as well as you've +always done it, and making those capital thick boots for your +neighbours, and things won't go far wrong in Hayslope, depend upon +it." + +"Your Reverence is very good to say so; an' I'm sensable as, you +not livin' i' the parish, there's more upo' my shoulders." + +"To be sure; and you must mind and not lower the Church in +people's eyes by seeming to be frightened about it for a little +thing, Joshua. I shall trust to your good sense, now to take no +notice at all of what Will Maskery says, either about you or me. +You and your neighbours can go on taking your pot of beer soberly, +when you've done your day's work, like good churchmen; and if Will +Maskery doesn't like to join you, but to go to a prayermeeting at +Treddleston instead, let him; that's no business of yours, so long +as he doesn't hinder you from doing what you like. And as to +people saying a few idle words about us, we must not mind that, +any more than the old church-steeple minds the rooks cawing about +it. Will Maskery comes to church every Sunday afternoon, and does +his wheelwright's business steadily in the weekdays, and as long +as he does that he must be let alone." + +"Ah, sir, but when he comes to church, he sits an' shakes his +head, an' looks as sour an' as coxy when we're a-singin' as I +should like to fetch him a rap across the jowl--God forgi'e me-- +an' Mrs. Irwine, an' Your Reverence too, for speakin' so afore +you. An' he said as our Christmas singin' was no better nor the +cracklin' o' thorns under a pot." + +"Well, he's got a bad ear for music, Joshua. When people have +wooden heads, you know, it can't be helped. He won't bring the +other people in Hayslope round to his opinion, while you go on +singing as well as you do." + +"Yes, sir, but it turns a man's stomach t' hear the Scripture +misused i' that way. I know as much o' the words o' the Bible as +he does, an' could say the Psalms right through i' my sleep if you +was to pinch me; but I know better nor to take 'em to say my own +say wi'. I might as well take the Sacriment-cup home and use it +at meals." + +"That's a very sensible remark of yours, Joshua; but, as I said +before----" + +While Mr. Irwine was speaking, the sound of a booted step and the +clink of a spur were heard on the stone floor of the entrance- +hall, and Joshua Rann moved hastily aside from the doorway to make +room for some one who paused there, and said, in a ringing tenor +voice, + +"Godson Arthur--may he come in?" + +"Come in, come in, godson!" Mrs. Irwine answered, in the deep +half-masculine tone which belongs to the vigorous old woman, and +there entered a young gentleman in a riding-dress, with his right +arm in a sling; whereupon followed that pleasant confusion of +laughing interjections, and hand-shakings, and "How are you's?" +mingled with joyous short barks and wagging of tails on the part +of the canine members of the family, which tells that the visitor +is on the best terms with the visited. The young gentleman was +Arthur Donnithorne, known in Hayslope, variously, as "the young +squire," "the heir," and "the captain." He was only a captain in +the Loamshire Militia, but to the Hayslope tenants he was more +intensely a captain than all the young gentlemen of the same rank +in his Majesty's regulars--he outshone them as the planet Jupiter +outshines the Milky Way. If you want to know more particularly +how he looked, call to your remembrance some tawny-whiskered, +brown-locked, clear-complexioned young Englishman whom you have +met with in a foreign town, and been proud of as a fellow- +countryman--well-washed, high-bred, white-handed, yet looking as +if he could deliver well from 'the left shoulder and floor his +man: I will not be so much of a tailor as to trouble your +imagination with the difference of costume, and insist on the +striped waistcoat, long-tailed coat, and low top-boots. + +Turning round to take a chair, Captain Donnithorne said, "But +don't let me interrupt Joshua's business--he has something to +say." + +"Humbly begging Your Honour's pardon," said Joshua, bowing low, +"there was one thing I had to say to His Reverence as other things +had drove out o' my head." + +"Out with it, Joshua, quickly!" said Mr. Irwine. + +"Belike, sir, you havena heared as Thias Bede's dead--drownded +this morning, or more like overnight, i' the Willow Brook, again' +the bridge right i' front o' the house." + +"Ah!" exclaimed both the gentlemen at once, as if they were a good +deal interested in the information. + +"An' Seth Bede's been to me this morning to say he wished me to +tell Your Reverence as his brother Adam begged of you particular +t' allow his father's grave to be dug by the White Thorn, because +his mother's set her heart on it, on account of a dream as she +had; an' they'd ha' come theirselves to ask you, but they've so +much to see after with the crowner, an' that; an' their mother's +took on so, an' wants 'em to make sure o' the spot for fear +somebody else should take it. An' if Your Reverence sees well and +good, I'll send my boy to tell 'em as soon as I get home; an' +that's why I make bold to trouble you wi' it, His Honour being +present." + +"To be sure, Joshua, to be sure, they shall have it. I'll ride +round to Adam myself, and see him. Send your boy, however, to say +they shall have the grave, lest anything should happen to detain +me. And now, good morning, Joshua; go into the kitchen and have +some ale." + +"Poor old Thias!" said Mr. Irwine, when Joshua was gone. "I'm +afraid the drink helped the brook to drown him. I should have +been glad for the load to have been taken off my friend Adam's +shoulders in a less painful way. That fine fellow has been +propping up his father from ruin for the last five or six years." + +"He's a regular trump, is Adam," said Captain Donnithorne. "When +I was a little fellow, and Adam was a strapping lad of fifteen, +and taught me carpentering, I used to think if ever I was a rich +sultan, I would make Adam my grand-vizier. And I believe now he +would bear the exaltation as well as any poor wise man in an +Eastern story. If ever I live to be a large-acred man instead of +a poor devil with a mortgaged allowance of pocket-money, I'll have +Adam for my right hand. He shall manage my woods for me, for he +seems to have a better notion of those things than any man I ever +met with; and I know he would make twice the money of them that my +grandfather does, with that miserable old Satchell to manage, who +understands no more about timber than an old carp. I've mentioned +the subject to my grandfather once or twice, but for some reason +or other he has a dislike to Adam, and I can do nothing. But +come, Your Reverence, are you for a ride with me? It's splendid +out of doors now. We can go to Adam's together, if you like; but +I want to call at the Hall Farm on my way, to look at the whelps +Poyser is keeping for me." + +"You must stay and have lunch first, Arthur," said Mrs. Irwine. +"It's nearly two. Carroll will bring it in directly." + +"I want to go to the Hall Farm too," said Mr. Irwine, "to have +another look at the little Methodist who is staying there. Joshua +tells me she was preaching on the Green last night." + +"Oh, by Jove!" said Captain Donnithorne, laughing. "Why, she +looks as quiet as a mouse. There's something rather striking +about her, though. I positively felt quite bashful the first time +I saw her--she was sitting stooping over her sewing in the +sunshine outside the house, when I rode up and called out, without +noticing that she was a stranger, 'Is Martin Poyser at home?' I +declare, when she got up and looked at me and just said, 'He's in +the house, I believe: I'll go and call him,' I felt quite ashamed +of having spoken so abruptly to her. She looked like St. +Catherine in a Quaker dress. It's a type of face one rarely sees +among our common people." + +"I should like to see the young woman, Dauphin," said Mrs. Irwine. +"Make her come here on some pretext or other." + +"I don't know how I can manage that, Mother; it will hardly do for +me to patronize a Methodist preacher, even if she would consent to +be patronized by an idle shepherd, as Will Maskery calls me. You +should have come in a little sooner, Arthur, to hear Joshua's +denunciation of his neighbour Will Maskery. The old fellow wants +me to excommunicate the wheelwright, and then deliver him over to +the civil arm--that is to say, to your grandfather--to be turned +out of house and yard. If I chose to interfere in this business, +now, I might get up as pretty a story of hatred and persecution as +the Methodists need desire to publish in the next number of their +magazine. It wouldn't take me much trouble to persuade Chad +Cranage and half a dozen other bull-headed fellows that they would +be doing an acceptable service to the Church by hunting Will +Maskery out of the village with rope-ends and pitchforks; and +then, when I had furnished them with half a sovereign to get +gloriously drunk after their exertions, I should have put the +climax to as pretty a farce as any of my brother clergy have set +going in their parishes for the last thirty years." + +"It is really insolent of the man, though, to call you an 'idle +shepherd' and a 'dumb dog,'" said Mrs. Irwine. "I should be +inclined to check him a little there. You are too easy-tempered, +Dauphin." + +"Why, Mother, you don't think it would be a good way of sustaining +my dignity to set about vindicating myself from the aspersions of +Will Maskery? Besides, I'm not so sure that they ARE aspersions. +I AM a lazy fellow, and get terribly heavy in my saddle; not to +mention that I'm always spending more than I can afford in bricks +and mortar, so that I get savage at a lame beggar when he asks me +for sixpence. Those poor lean cobblers, who think they can help +to regenerate mankind by setting out to preach in the morning +twilight before they begin their day's work, may well have a poor +opinion of me. But come, let us have our luncheon. Isn't Kate +coming to lunch?" + +"Miss Irwine told Bridget to take her lunch upstairs," said +Carroll; "she can't leave Miss Anne." + +"Oh, very well. Tell Bridget to say I'll go up and see Miss Anne +presently. You can use your right arm quite well now, Arthur," +Mr. Irwine continued, observing that Captain Donnithorne had taken +his arm out of the sling. + +"Yes, pretty well; but Godwin insists on my keeping it up +constantly for some time to come. I hope I shall be able to get +away to the regiment, though, in the beginning of August. It's a +desperately dull business being shut up at the Chase in the summer +months, when one can neither hunt nor shoot, so as to make one's +self pleasantly sleepy in the evening. However, we are to +astonish the echoes on the 30th of July. My grandfather has given +me carte blanche for once, and I promise you the entertainment +shall be worthy of the occasion. The world will not see the grand +epoch of my majority twice. I think I shall have a lofty throne +for you, Godmamma, or rather two, one on the lawn and another in +the ballroom, that you may sit and look down upon us like an +Olympian goddess." + +"I mean to bring out my best brocade, that I wore at your +christening twenty years ago," said Mrs. Irwine. "Ah, I think I +shall see your poor mother flitting about in her white dress, +which looked to me almost like a shroud that very day; and it WAS +her shroud only three months after; and your little cap and +christening dress were buried with her too. She had set her heart +on that, sweet soul! Thank God you take after your mother's +family, Arthur. If you had been a puny, wiry, yellow baby, I +wouldn't have stood godmother to you. I should have been sure you +would turn out a Donnithorne. But you were such a broad-faced, +broad-chested, loud-screaming rascal, I knew you were every inch +of you a Tradgett." + +"But you might have been a little too hasty there, Mother," said +Mr. Irwine, smiling. "Don't you remember how it was with Juno's +last pups? One of them was the very image of its mother, but it +had two or three of its father's tricks notwithstanding. Nature +is clever enough to cheat even you, Mother." + +"Nonsense, child! Nature never makes a ferret in the shape of a +mastiff. You'll never persuade me that I can't tell what men are +by their outsides. If I don't like a man's looks, depend upon it +I shall never like HIM. I don't want to know people that look +ugly and disagreeable, any more than I want to taste dishes that +look disagreeable. If they make me shudder at the first glance, I +say, take them away. An ugly, piggish, or fishy eye, now, makes +me feel quite ill; it's like a bad smell." + +"Talking of eyes," said Captain Donnithorne, "that reminds me that +I've got a book I meant to bring you, Godmamma. It came down in a +parcel from London the other day. I know you are fond of queer, +wizardlike stories. It's a volume of poems, 'Lyrical Ballads.' +Most of them seem to be twaddling stuff, but the first is in a +different style--'The Ancient Mariner' is the title. I can hardly +make head or tail of it as a story, but it's a strange, striking +thing. I'll send it over to you; and there are some other books +that you may like to see, Irwine--pamphlets about Antinomianism +and Evangelicalism, whatever they may be. I can't think what the +fellow means by sending such things to me. I've written to him to +desire that from henceforth he will send me no book or pamphlet on +anything that ends in ISM." + +"Well, I don't know that I'm very fond of isms myself; but I may +as well look at the pamphlets; they let one see what is going on. +I've a little matter to attend to, Arthur," continued Mr. Irwine, +rising to leave the room, "and then I shall be ready to set out +with you." + +The little matter that Mr. Irwine had to attend to took him up the +old stone staircase (part of the house was very old) and made him +pause before a door at which he knocked gently. "Come in," said a +woman's voice, and he entered a room so darkened by blinds and +curtains that Miss Kate, the thin middle-aged lady standing by the +bedside, would not have had light enough for any other sort of +work than the knitting which lay on the little table near her. +But at present she was doing what required only the dimmest light-- +sponging the aching head that lay on the pillow with fresh +vinegar. It was a small face, that of the poor sufferer; perhaps +it had once been pretty, but now it was worn and sallow. Miss +Kate came towards her brother and whispered, "Don't speak to her; +she can't bear to be spoken to to-day." Anne's eyes were closed, +and her brow contracted as if from intense pain. Mr. Irwine went +to the bedside and took up one of the delicate hands and kissed +it, a slight pressure from the small fingers told him that it was +worth-while to have come upstairs for the sake of doing that. He +lingered a moment, looking at her, and then turned away and left +the room, treading very gently--he had taken off his boots and put +on slippers before he came upstairs. Whoever remembers how many +things he has declined to do even for himself, rather than have +the trouble of putting on or taking off his boots, will not think +this last detail insignificant. + +And Mr. Irwine's sisters, as any person of family within ten miles +of Broxton could have testified, were such stupid, uninteresting +women! It was quite a pity handsome, clever Mrs. Irwine should +have had such commonplace daughters. That fine old lady herself +was worth driving ten miles to see, any day; her beauty, her well- +preserved faculties, and her old-fashioned dignity made her a +graceful subject for conversation in turn with the King's health, +the sweet new patterns in cotton dresses, the news from Egypt, and +Lord Dacey's lawsuit, which was fretting poor Lady Dacey to death. +But no one ever thought of mentioning the Miss Irwines, except the +poor people in Broxton village, who regarded them as deep in the +science of medicine, and spoke of them vaguely as "the +gentlefolks." If any one had asked old Job Dummilow who gave him +his flannel jacket, he would have answered, "the gentlefolks, last +winter"; and widow Steene dwelt much on the virtues of the "stuff" +the gentlefolks gave her for her cough. Under this name too, they +were used with great effect as a means of taming refractory +children, so that at the sight of poor Miss Anne's sallow face, +several small urchins had a terrified sense that she was cognizant +of all their worst misdemeanours, and knew the precise number of +stones with which they had intended to hit Farmer Britton's ducks. +But for all who saw them through a less mythical medium, the Miss +Irwines were quite superfluous existences--inartistic figures +crowding the canvas of life without adequate effect. Miss Anne, +indeed, if her chronic headaches could have been accounted for by +a pathetic story of disappointed love, might have had some +romantic interest attached to her: but no such story had either +been known or invented concerning her, and the general impression +was quite in accordance with the fact, that both the sisters were +old maids for the prosaic reason that they had never received an +eligible offer. + +Nevertheless, to speak paradoxically, the existence of +insignificant people has very important consequences in the world. +It can be shown to affect the price of bread and the rate of +wages, to call forth many evil tempers from the selfish and many +heroisms from the sympathetic, and, in other ways, to play no +small part in the tragedy of life. And if that handsome, +generous-blooded clergyman, the Rev. Adolphus Irwine, had not had +these two hopelessly maiden sisters, his lot would have been +shaped quite differently: he would very likely have taken a comely +wife in his youth, and now, when his hair was getting grey under +the powder, would have had tall sons and blooming daughters--such +possessions, in short, as men commonly think will repay them for +all the labour they take under the sun. As it was--having with +all his three livings no more than seven hundred a-year, and +seeing no way of keeping his splendid mother and his sickly +sister, not to reckon a second sister, who was usually spoken of +without any adjective, in such ladylike ease as became their birth +and habits, and at the same time providing for a family of his +own--he remained, you see, at the age of eight-and-forty, a +bachelor, not making any merit of that renunciation, but saying +laughingly, if any one alluded to it, that he made it an excuse +for many indulgences which a wife would never have allowed him. +And perhaps he was the only person in the world who did not think +his sisters uninteresting and superfluous; for his was one of +those large-hearted, sweet-blooded natures that never know a +narrow or a grudging thought; Epicurean, if you will, with no +enthusiasm, no self-scourging sense of duty; but yet, as you have +seen, of a sufficiently subtle moral fibre to have an unwearying +tenderness for obscure and monotonous suffering. It was his +large-hearted indulgence that made him ignore his mother's +hardness towards her daughters, which was the more striking from +its contrast with her doting fondness towards himself; he held it +no virtue to frown at irremediable faults. + +See the difference between the impression a man makes on you when +you walk by his side in familiar talk, or look at him in his home, +and the figure he makes when seen from a lofty historical level, +or even in the eyes of a critical neighbour who thinks of him as +an embodied system or opinion rather than as a man. Mr. Roe, the +"travelling preacher" stationed at Treddleston, had included Mr. +Irwine in a general statement concerning the Church clergy in the +surrounding district, whom he described as men given up to the +lusts of the flesh and the pride of life; hunting and shooting, +and adorning their own houses; asking what shall we eat, and what +shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed?--careless of +dispensing the bread of life to their flocks, preaching at best +but a carnal and soul-benumbing morality, and trafficking in the +souls of men by receiving money for discharging the pastoral +office in parishes where they did not so much as look on the faces +of the people more than once a-year. The ecclesiastical +historian, too, looking into parliamentary reports of that period, +finds honourable members zealous for the Church, and untainted +with any sympathy for the "tribe of canting Methodists," making +statements scarcely less melancholy than that of Mr. Roe. And it +is impossible for me to say that Mr. Irwine was altogether belied +by the generic classification assigned him. He really had no very +lofty aims, no theological enthusiasm: if I were closely +questioned, I should be obliged to confess that he felt no serious +alarms about the souls of his parishioners, and would have thought +it a mere loss of time to talk in a doctrinal and awakening manner +to old "Feyther Taft," or even to Chad Cranage the blacksmith. If +he had been in the habit of speaking theoretically, he would +perhaps have said that the only healthy form religion could take +in such minds was that of certain dim but strong emotions, +suffusing themselves as a hallowing influence over the family +affections and neighbourly duties. He thought the custom of +baptism more important than its doctrine, and that the religious +benefits the peasant drew from the church where his fathers +worshipped and the sacred piece of turf where they lay buried were +but slightly dependent on a clear understanding of the Liturgy or +the sermon. Clearly the rector was not what is called in these +days an "earnest" man: he was fonder of church history than of +divinity, and had much more insight into men's characters than +interest in their opinions; he was neither laborious, nor +obviously self-denying, nor very copious in alms-giving, and his +theology, you perceive, was lax. His mental palate, indeed, was +rather pagan, and found a savouriness in a quotation from +Sophocles or Theocritus that was quite absent from any text in +Isaiah or Amos. But if you feed your young setter on raw flesh, +how can you wonder at its retaining a relish for uncooked +partridge in after-life? And Mr. Irwine's recollections of young +enthusiasm and ambition were all associated with poetry and ethics +that lay aloof from the Bible. + +On the other hand, I must plead, for I have an affectionate +partiality towards the rector's memory, that he was not +vindictive--and some philanthropists have been so; that he was not +intolerant--and there is a rumour that some zealous theologians +have not been altogether free from that blemish; that although he +would probably have declined to give his body to be burned in any +public cause, and was far from bestowing all his goods to feed the +poor, he had that charity which has sometimes been lacking to very +illustrious virtue--he was tender to other men's failings, and +unwilling to impute evil. He was one of those men, and they are +not the commonest, of whom we can know the best only by following +them away from the marketplace, the platform, and the pulpit, +entering with them into their own homes, hearing the voice with +which they speak to the young and aged about their own +hearthstone, and witnessing their thoughtful care for the everyday +wants of everyday companions, who take all their kindness as a +matter of course, and not as a subject for panegyric. + +Such men, happily, have lived in times when great abuses +flourished, and have sometimes even been the living +representatives of the abuses. That is a thought which might +comfort us a little under the opposite fact--that it is better +sometimes NOT to follow great reformers of abuses beyond the +threshold of their homes. + +But whatever you may think of Mr. Irwine now, if you had met him +that June afternoon riding on his grey cob, with his dogs running +beside him--portly, upright, manly, with a good-natured smile on +his finely turned lips as he talked to his dashing young companion +on the bay mare, you must have felt that, however ill he +harmonized with sound theories of the clerical office, he somehow +harmonized extremely well with that peaceful landscape. + +See them in the bright sunlight, interrupted every now and then by +rolling masses of cloud, ascending the slope from the Broxton +side, where the tall gables and elms of the rectory predominate +over the tiny whitewashed church. They will soon be in the parish +of Hayslope; the grey church-tower and village roofs lie before +them to the left, and farther on, to the right, they can just see +the chimneys of the Hall Farm. + + + +Chapter VI + +The Hall Farm + + +EVIDENTLY that gate is never opened, for the long grass and the +great hemlocks grow close against it, and if it were opened, it is +so rusty that the force necessary to turn it on its hinges would +be likely to pull down the square stone-built pillars, to the +detriment of the two stone lionesses which grin with a doubtful +carnivorous affability above a coat of arms surmounting each of +the pillars. It would be easy enough, by the aid of the nicks in +the stone pillars, to climb over the brick wall with its smooth +stone coping; but by putting our eyes close to the rusty bars of +the gate, we can see the house well enough, and all but the very +corners of the grassy enclosure. + +It is a very fine old place, of red brick, softened by a pale +powdery lichen, which has dispersed itself with happy +irregularity, so as to bring the red brick into terms of friendly +companionship with the limestone ornaments surrounding the three +gables, the windows, and the door-place. But the windows are +patched with wooden panes, and the door, I think, is like the +gate--it is never opened. How it would groan and grate against +the stone fioor if it were! For it is a solid, heavy, handsome +door, and must once have been in the habit of shutting with a +sonorous bang behind a liveried lackey, who had just seen his +master and mistress off the grounds in a carriage and pair. + +But at present one might fancy the house in the early stage of a +chancery suit, and that the fruit from that grand double row of +walnut-trees on the right hand of the enclosure would fall and rot +among the grass, if it were not that we heard the booming bark of +dogs echoing from great buildings at the back. And now the half- +weaned calves that have been sheltering themselves in a gorse- +built hovel against the left-hand wall come out and set up a silly +answer to that terrible bark, doubtless supposing that it has +reference to buckets of milk. + +Yes, the house must be inhabited, and we will see by whom; for +imagination is a licensed trespasser: it has no fear of dogs, but +may climb over walls and peep in at windows with impunity. Put +your face to one of the glass panes in the right-hand window: what +do you see? A large open fireplace, with rusty dogs in it, and a +bare boarded floor; at the far end, fleeces of wool stacked up; in +the middle of the floor, some empty corn-bags. That is the +furniture of the dining-room. And what through the left-hand +window? Several clothes-horses, a pillion, a spinning-wheel, and +an old box wide open and stuffed full of coloured rags. At the +edge of this box there lies a great wooden doll, which, so far as +mutilation is concerned, bears a strong resemblance to the finest +Greek sculpture, and especially in the total loss of its nose. +Near it there is a little chair, and the butt end of a boy's +leather long-lashed whip. + +The history of the house is plain now. It was once the residence +of a country squire, whose family, probably dwindling down to mere +spinsterhood, got merged in the more territorial name of +Donnithorne. It was once the Hall; it is now the Hall Farm. Like +the life in some coast town that was once a watering-place, and is +now a port, where the genteel streets are silent and grass-grown, +and the docks and warehouses busy and resonant, the life at the +Hall has changed its focus, and no longer radiates from the +parlour, but from the kitchen and the farmyard. + +Plenty of life there, though this is the drowsiest time of the +year, just before hay-harvest; and it is the drowsiest time of the +day too, for it is close upon three by the sun, and it is half- +past three by Mrs. Poyser's handsome eight-day clock. But there +is always a stronger sense of life when the sun is brilliant after +rain; and now he is pouring down his beams, and making sparkles +among the wet straw, and lighting up every patch of vivid green +moss on the red tiles of the cow-shed, and turning even the muddy +water that is hurrying along the channel to the drain into a +mirror for the yellow-billed ducks, who are seizing the +opportunity of getting a drink with as much body in it as +possible. There is quite a concert of noises; the great bull-dog, +chained against the stables, is thrown into furious exasperation +by the unwary approach of a cock too near the mouth of his kennel, +and sends forth a thundering bark, which is answered by two fox- +hounds shut up in the opposite cow-house; the old top-knotted +hens, scratching with their chicks among the straw, set up a +sympathetic croaking as the discomfited cock joins them; a sow +with her brood, all very muddy as to the legs, and curled as to +the tail, throws in some deep staccato notes; our friends the +calves are bleating from the home croft; and, under all, a fine +ear discerns the continuous hum of human voices. + +For the great barn-doors are thrown wide open, and men are busy +there mending the harness, under the superintendence of Mr. Goby, +the "whittaw," otherwise saddler, who entertains them with the +latest Treddleston gossip. It is certainly rather an unfortunate +day that Alick, the shepherd, has chosen for having the whittaws, +since the morning turned out so wet; and Mrs. Poyser has spoken +her mind pretty strongly as to the dirt which the extra nurnber of +men's shoes brought into the house at dinnertime. Indeed, she has +not yet recovered her equanimity on the subject, though it is now +nearly three hours since dinner, and the house-floor is perfectly +clean again; as clean as everything else in that wonderful house- +place, where the only chance of collecting a few grains of dust +would be to climb on the salt-coffer, and put your finger on the +high mantel-shelf on which the glittering brass candlesticks are +enjoying their summer sinecure; for at this time of year, of +course, every one goes to bed while it is yet light, or at least +light enough to discern the outline of objects after you have +bruised your shins against them. Surely nowhere else could an oak +clock-case and an oak table have got to such a polish by the hand: +genuine "elbow polish," as Mrs. Poyser called it, for she thanked +God she never had any of your varnished rubbish in her house. +Hetty Sorrel often took the opportunity, when her aunt's back was +turned, of looking at the pleasing reflection of herself in those +polished surfaces, for the oak table was usually turned up like a +screen, and was more for ornament than for use; and she could see +herself sometimes in the great round pewter dishes that were +ranged on the shelves above the long deal dinner-table, or in the +hobs of the grate, which always shone like jasper. + +Everything was looking at its brightest at this moment, for the +sun shone right on the pewter dishes, and from their reflecting +surfaces pleasant jets of light were thrown on mellow oak and +bright brass--and on a still pleasanter object than these, for +some of the rays fell on Dinah's finely moulded cheek, and lit up +her pale red hair to auburn, as she bent over the heavy household +linen which she was mending for her aunt. No scene could have +been more peaceful, if Mrs. Poyser, who was ironing a few things +that still remained from the Monday's wash, had not been making a +frequent clinking with her iron and moving to and fro whenever she +wanted it to cool; carrying the keen glance of her blue-grey eye +from the kitchen to the dairy, where Hetty was making up the +butter, and from the dairy to the back kitchen, where Nancy was +taking the pies out of the oven. Do not suppose, however, that +Mrs. Poyser was elderly or shrewish in her appearance; she was a +good-looking woman, not more than eight-and-thirty, of fair +complexion and sandy hair, well-shapen, light-footed. The most +conspicuous article in her attire was an ample checkered linen +apron, which almost covered her skirt; and nothing could be +plainer or less noticeable than her cap and gown, for there was no +weakness of which she was less tolerant than feminine vanity, and +the preference of ornament to utility. The family likeness +between her and her niece Dinah Morris, with the contrast between +her keenness and Dinah's seraphic gentleness of expression, might +have served a painter as an excellent suggestion for a Martha and +Mary. Their eyes were just of the same colour, but a striking +test of the difference in their operation was seen in the +demeanour of Trip, the black-and-tan terrier, whenever that much- +suspected dog unwarily exposed himself to the freezing arctic ray +of Mrs. Poyser's glance. Her tongue was not less keen than her +eye, and, whenever a damsel came within earshot, seemed to take up +an unfinished lecture, as a barrel-organ takes up a tune, +precisely at the point where it had left off. + +The fact that it was churning day was another reason why it was +inconvenient to have the whittaws, and why, consequently, Mrs. +Poyser should scold Molly the housemaid with unusual severity. To +all appearance Molly had got through her after-dinner work in an +exemplary manner, had "cleaned herself" with great dispatch, and +now came to ask, submissively, if she should sit down to her +spinning till milking time. But this blameless conduct, according +to Mrs. Poyser, shrouded a secret indulgence of unbecoming wishes, +which she now dragged forth and held up to Molly's view with +cutting eloquence. + +"Spinning, indeed! It isn't spinning as you'd be at, I'll be +bound, and let you have your own way. I never knew your equals +for gallowsness. To think of a gell o' your age wanting to go and +sit with half-a-dozen men! I'd ha' been ashamed to let the words +pass over my lips if I'd been you. And you, as have been here ever +since last Michaelmas, and I hired you at Treddles'on stattits, +without a bit o' character--as I say, you might be grateful to be +hired in that way to a respectable place; and you knew no more o' +what belongs to work when you come here than the mawkin i' the +field. As poor a two-fisted thing as ever I saw, you know you +was. Who taught you to scrub a floor, I should like to know? +Why, you'd leave the dirt in heaps i' the corners--anybody 'ud +think you'd never been brought up among Christians. And as for +spinning, why, you've wasted as much as your wage i' the flax +you've spoiled learning to spin. And you've a right to feel that, +and not to go about as gaping and as thoughtless as if you was +beholding to nobody. Comb the wool for the whittaws, indeed! +That's what you'd like to be doing, is it? That's the way with +you--that's the road you'd all like to go, headlongs to ruin. +You're never easy till you've got some sweetheart as is as big a +fool as yourself: you think you'll be finely off when you're +married, I daresay, and have got a three-legged stool to sit on, +and never a blanket to cover you, and a bit o' oat-cake for your +dinner, as three children are a-snatching at." + +"I'm sure I donna want t' go wi' the whittaws," said Molly, +whimpering, and quite overcome by this Dantean picture of her +future, "on'y we allays used to comb the wool for 'n at Mester +Ottley's; an' so I just axed ye. I donna want to set eyes on the +whittaws again; I wish I may never stir if I do." + +"Mr. Ottley's, indeed! It's fine talking o' what you did at Mr. +Ottley's. Your missis there might like her floors dirted wi' +whittaws for what I know. There's no knowing what people WONNA +like--such ways as I've heard of! I never had a gell come into my +house as seemed to know what cleaning was; I think people live +like pigs, for my part. And as to that Betty as was dairymaid at +Trent's before she come to me, she'd ha' left the cheeses without +turning from week's end to week's end, and the dairy thralls, I +might ha' wrote my name on 'em, when I come downstairs after my +illness, as the doctor said it was inflammation--it was a mercy I +got well of it. And to think o' your knowing no better, Molly, +and been here a-going i' nine months, and not for want o' talking +to, neither--and what are you stanning there for, like a jack as +is run down, instead o' getting your wheel out? You're a rare un +for sitting down to your work a little while after it's time to +put by." + +"Munny, my iron's twite told; pease put it down to warm." + +The small chirruping voice that uttered this request came from a +little sunny-haired girl between three and four, who, seated on a +high chair at the end of the ironing table, was arduously +clutching the handle of a miniature iron with her tiny fat fist, +and ironing rags with an assiduity that required her to put her +little red tongue out as far as anatomy would allow. + +"Cold, is it, my darling? Bless your sweet face!" said Mrs. +Poyser, who was remarkable for the facility with which she could +relapse from her official objurgatory to one of fondness or of +friendly converse. "Never mind! Mother's done her ironing now. +She's going to put the ironing things away." + +"Munny, I tould 'ike to do into de barn to Tommy, to see de +whittawd." + +"No, no, no; Totty 'ud get her feet wet," said Mrs. Poyser, +carrying away her iron. "Run into the dairy and see cousin Hetty +make the butter." + +"I tould 'ike a bit o' pum-take," rejoined Totty, who seemed to be +provided with several relays of requests; at the same time, taking +the opportunity of her momentary leisure to put her fingers into a +bowl of starch, and drag it down so as to empty the contents with +tolerable completeness on to the ironing sheet. + +"Did ever anybody see the like?" screamed Mrs. Poyser, running +towards the table when her eye had fallen on the blue stream. +"The child's allays i' mischief if your back's turned a minute. +What shall I do to you, you naughty, naughty gell?" + +Totty, however, had descended from her chair with great swiftness, +and was already in retreat towards the dairy with a sort of +waddling run, and an amount of fat on the nape of her neck which +made her look like the metamorphosis of a white suckling pig. + +The starch having been wiped up by Molly's help, and the ironing +apparatus put by, Mrs. Poyser took up her knitting which always +lay ready at hand, and was the work she liked best, because she +could carry it on automatically as she walked to and fro. But now +she came and sat down opposite Dinah, whom she looked at in a +meditative way, as she knitted her grey worsted stocking. + +"You look th' image o' your Aunt Judith, Dinah, when you sit a- +sewing. I could almost fancy it was thirty years back, and I was +a little gell at home, looking at Judith as she sat at her work, +after she'd done the house up; only it was a little cottage, +Father's was, and not a big rambling house as gets dirty i' one +corner as fast as you clean it in another--but for all that, I +could fancy you was your Aunt Judith, only her hair was a deal +darker than yours, and she was stouter and broader i' the +shoulders. Judith and me allays hung together, though she had +such queer ways, but your mother and her never could agree. Ah, +your mother little thought as she'd have a daughter just cut out +after the very pattern o' Judith, and leave her an orphan, too, +for Judith to take care on, and bring up with a spoon when SHE was +in the graveyard at Stoniton. I allays said that o' Judith, as +she'd bear a pound weight any day to save anybody else carrying a +ounce. And she was just the same from the first o' my remembering +her; it made no difference in her, as I could see, when she took +to the Methodists, only she talked a bit different and wore a +different sort o' cap; but she'd never in her life spent a penny +on herself more than keeping herself decent." + +"She was a blessed woman," said Dinah; "God had given her a +loving, self-forgetting nature, and He perfected it by grace. And +she was very fond of you too, Aunt Rachel. I often heard her talk +of you in the same sort of way. When she had that bad illness, +and I was only eleven years old, she used to say, 'You'll have a +friend on earth in your Aunt Rachel, if I'm taken from you, for +she has a kind heart,' and I'm sure I've found it so." + +"I don't know how, child; anybody 'ud be cunning to do anything +for you, I think; you're like the birds o' th' air, and live +nobody knows how. I'd ha' been glad to behave to you like a +mother's sister, if you'd come and live i' this country where +there's some shelter and victual for man and beast, and folks +don't live on the naked hills, like poultry a-scratching on a +gravel bank. And then you might get married to some decent man, +and there'd be plenty ready to have you, if you'd only leave off +that preaching, as is ten times worse than anything your Aunt +Judith ever did. And even if you'd marry Seth Bede, as is a poor +wool-gathering Methodist and's never like to have a penny +beforehand, I know your uncle 'ud help you with a pig, and very +like a cow, for he's allays been good-natur'd to my kin, for all +they're poor, and made 'em welcome to the house; and 'ud do for +you, I'll be bound, as much as ever he'd do for Hetty, though +she's his own niece. And there's linen in the house as I could +well spare you, for I've got lots o' sheeting and table-clothing, +and towelling, as isn't made up. There's a piece o' sheeting I +could give you as that squinting Kitty spun--she was a rare girl +to spin, for all she squinted, and the children couldn't abide +her; and, you know, the spinning's going on constant, and there's +new linen wove twice as fast as the old wears out. But where's +the use o' talking, if ye wonna be persuaded, and settle down like +any other woman in her senses, i'stead o' wearing yourself out +with walking and preaching, and giving away every penny you get, +so as you've nothing saved against sickness; and all the things +you've got i' the world, I verily believe, 'ud go into a bundle no +bigger nor a double cheese. And all because you've got notions i' +your head about religion more nor what's i' the Catechism and the +Prayer-book." + +"But not more than what's in the Bible, Aunt," said Dinah. + +"Yes, and the Bible too, for that matter," Mrs. Poyser rejoined, +rather sharply; "else why shouldn't them as know best what's in +the Bible--the parsons and people as have got nothing to do but +learn it--do the same as you do? But, for the matter o' that, if +everybody was to do like you, the world must come to a standstill; +for if everybody tried to do without house and home, and with poor +eating and drinking, and was allays talking as we must despise the +things o' the world as you say, I should like to know where the +pick o' the stock, and the corn, and the best new-milk cheeeses +'ud have to go. Everybody 'ud be wanting bread made o' tail ends +and everybody 'ud be running after everybody else to preach to +'em, istead o' bringing up their families, and laying by against a +bad harvest. It stands to sense as that can't be the right +religion." + +"Nay, dear aunt, you never heard me say that all people are called +to forsake their work and their families. It's quite right the +land should be ploughed and sowed, and the precious corn stored, +and the things of this life cared for, and right that people +should rejoice in their families, and provide for them, so that +this is done in the fear of the Lord, and that they are not +unmindful of the soul's wants while they are caring for the body. +We can all be servants of God wherever our lot is cast, but He +gives us different sorts of work, according as He fits us for it +and calls us to it. I can no more help spending my life in trying +to do what I can for the souls of others, than you could help +running if you heard little Totty crying at the other end of the +house; the voice would go to your heart, you would think the dear +child was in trouble or in danger, and you couldn't rest without +running to help her and comfort her." + +"Ah," said Mrs. Poyser, rising and walking towards the door, "I +know it 'ud be just the same if I was to talk to you for hours. +You'd make me the same answer, at th' end. I might as well talk +to the running brook and tell it to stan' still." + +The causeway outside the kitchen door was dry enough now for Mrs. +Poyser to stand there quite pleasantly and see what was going on +in the yard, the grey worsted stocking making a steady progress in +her hands all the while. But she had not been standing there more +than five minutes before she came in again, and said to Dinah, in +rather a flurried, awe-stricken tone, "If there isn't Captain +Donnithorne and Mr. Irwine a-coming into the yard! I'll lay my +life they're come to speak about your preaching on the Green, +Dinah; it's you must answer 'em, for I'm dumb. I've said enough +a'ready about your bringing such disgrace upo' your uncle's +family. I wouldn't ha' minded if you'd been Mr. Poyser's own +niece--folks must put up wi' their own kin, as they put up wi' +their own noses--it's their own flesh and blood. But to think of +a niece o' mine being cause o' my husband's being turned out of +his farm, and me brought him no fortin but my savin's----" + +"Nay, dear Aunt Rachel," said Dinah gently, "you've no cause for +such fears. I've strong assurance that no evil will happen to you +and my uncle and the children from anything I've done. I didn't +preach without direction." + +"Direction! I know very well what you mean by direction," said +Mrs. Poyser, knitting in a rapid and agitated manner. "When +there's a bigger maggot than usial in your head you call it +'direction'; and then nothing can stir you--you look like the +statty o' the outside o' Treddles'on church, a-starin' and a- +smilin' whether it's fair weather or foul. I hanna common +patience with you." + +By this time the two gentlemen had reached the palings and had got +down from their horses: it was plain they meant to come in. Mrs. +Poyser advanced to the door to meet them, curtsying low and +trembling between anger with Dinah and anxiety to conduct herself +with perfect propriety on the occasion. For in those days the +keenest of bucolic minds felt a whispering awe at the sight of the +gentry, such as of old men felt when they stood on tiptoe to watch +the gods passing by in tall human shape. + +"Well, Mrs. Poyser, how are you after this stormy morning?" said +Mr. Irwine, with his stately cordiality. "Our feet are quite dry; +we shall not soil your beautiful floor." + +"Oh, sir, don't mention it," said Mrs. Poyser. "Will you and the +captain please to walk into the parlour?" + +"No, indeed, thank you, Mrs. Poyser," said the captain, looking +eagerly round the kitchen, as if his eye were seeking something it +could not find. "I delight in your kitchen. I think it is the +most charming room I know. I should like every farmer's wife to +come and look at it for a pattern." + +"Oh, you're pleased to say so, sir. Pray take a seat," said Mrs. +Poyser, relieved a little by this compliment and the captain's +evident good-humour, but still glancing anxiously at Mr. Irwine, +who, she saw, was looking at Dinah and advancing towards her. + +"Poyser is not at home, is he?" said Captain Donnithorne, seating +himself where he could see along the short passage to the open +dairy-door. + +"No, sir, he isn't; he's gone to Rosseter to see Mr. West, the +factor, about the wool. But there's Father i' the barn, sir, if +he'd be of any use." + +"No, thank you; I'll just look at the whelps and leave a message +about them with your shepherd. I must come another day and see +your husband; I want to have a consultation with him about horses. +Do you know when he's likely to be at liberty?" + +"Why, sir, you can hardly miss him, except it's o' Treddles'on +market-day--that's of a Friday, you know. For if he's anywhere on +the farm we can send for him in a minute. If we'd got rid o' the +Scantlands, we should have no outlying fields; and I should be +glad of it, for if ever anything happens, he's sure to be gone to +the Scantlands. Things allays happen so contrairy, if they've a +chance; and it's an unnat'ral thing to have one bit o' your farm +in one county and all the rest in another." + +"Ah, the Scantlands would go much better with Choyce's farm, +especially as he wants dairyland and you've got plenty. I think +yours is the prettiest farm on the estate, though; and do you +know, Mrs. Poyser, if I were going to marry and settle, I should +be tempted to turn you out, and do up this fine old house, and +turn farmer myself." + +"Oh, sir," said Mrs. Poyser, rather alarmed, "you wouldn't like it +at all. As for farming, it's putting money into your pocket wi' +your right hand and fetching it out wi' your left. As fur as I +can see, it's raising victual for other folks and just getting a +mouthful for yourself and your children as you go along. Not as +you'd be like a poor man as wants to get his bread--you could +afford to lose as much money as you liked i' farming--but it's +poor fun losing money, I should think, though I understan' it's +what the great folks i' London play at more than anything. For my +husband heard at market as Lord Dacey's eldest son had lost +thousands upo' thousands to the Prince o' Wales, and they said my +lady was going to pawn her jewels to pay for him. But you know +more about that than I do, sir. But, as for farming, sir, I canna +think as you'd like it; and this house--the draughts in it are +enough to cut you through, and it's my opinion the floors upstairs +are very rotten, and the rats i' the cellar are beyond anything." + +"Why, that's a terrible picture, Mrs. Poyser. I think I should be +doing you a service to turn you out of such a place. But there's +no chance of that. I'm not likely to settle for the next twenty +years, till I'm a stout gentleman of forty; and my grandfather +would never consent to part with such good tenants as you." + +"Well, sir, if he thinks so well o' Mr. Poyser for a tenant I wish +you could put in a word for him to allow us some new gates for the +Five closes, for my husband's been asking and asking till he's +tired, and to think o' what he's done for the farm, and's never +had a penny allowed him, be the times bad or good. And as I've +said to my husband often and often, I'm sure if the captain had +anything to do with it, it wouldn't be so. Not as I wish to speak +disrespectful o' them as have got the power i' their hands, but +it's more than flesh and blood 'ull bear sometimes, to be toiling +and striving, and up early and down late, and hardly sleeping a +wink when you lie down for thinking as the cheese may swell, or +the cows may slip their calf, or the wheat may grow green again i' +the sheaf--and after all, at th' end o' the year, it's like as if +you'd been cooking a feast and had got the smell of it for your +pains." + +Mrs. Poyser, once launched into conversation, always sailed along +without any check from her preliminary awe of the gentry. The +confidence she felt in her own powers of exposition was a motive +force that overcame all resistance. + +"I'm afraid I should only do harm instead of good, if I were to +speak about the gates, Mrs. Poyser," said the captain, "though I +assure you there's no man on the estate I would sooner say a word +for than your husband. I know his farm is in better order than +any other within ten miles of us; and as for the kitchen," he +added, smiling, "I don't believe there's one in the kingdom to +beat it. By the by, I've never seen your dairy: I must see your +dairy, Mrs. Poyser." + +"Indeed, sir, it's not fit for you to go in, for Hetty's in the +middle o' making the butter, for the churning was thrown late, and +I'm quite ashamed." This Mrs. Poyser said blushing, and believing +that the captain was really interested in her milk-pans, and would +adjust his opinion of her to the appearance of her dairy. + +"Oh, I've no doubt it's in capital order. Take me in," said the +captain, himself leading the way, while Mrs. Poyser followed. + + + +Chapter VII + +The Dairy + + +THE dairy was certainly worth looking at: it was a scene to sicken +for with a sort of calenture in hot and dusty streets--such +coolness, such purity, such fresh fragrance of new-pressed cheese, +of firm butter, of wooden vessels perpetually bathed in pure +water; such soft colouring of red earthenware and creamy surfaces, +brown wood and polished tin, grey limestone and rich orange-red +rust on the iron weights and hooks and hinges. But one gets only +a confused notion of these details when they surround a +distractingly pretty girl of seventeen, standing on little pattens +and rounding her dimpled arm to lift a pound of butter out of the +scale. + +Hetty blushed a deep rose-colour when Captain Donnithorne entered +the dairy and spoke to her; but it was not at all a distressed +blush, for it was inwreathed with smiles and dimples, and with +sparkles from under long, curled, dark eyelashes; and while her +aunt was discoursing to him about the limited amount of milk that +was to be spared for butter and cheese so long as the calves were +not all weaned, and a large quantity but inferior quality of milk +yielded by the shorthorn, which had been bought on experiment, +together with other matters which must be interesting to a young +gentleman who would one day be a landlord, Hetty tossed and patted +her pound of butter with quite a self-possessed, coquettish air, +slyly conscious that no turn of her head was lost. + +There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of +themselves in various styles, from the desperate to the sheepish; +but there is one order of beauty which seems made to turn the +heads not only of men, but of all intelligent mammals, even of +women. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or very small downy +ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or +babies just beginning to toddle and to engage in conscious +mischief--a beauty with which you can never be angry, but that you +feel ready to crush for inability to comprehend the state of mind +into which it throws you. Hetty Sorrel's was that sort of beauty. +Her aunt, Mrs. Poyser, who professed to despise all personal +attractions and intended to be the severest of mentors, +continually gazed at Hetty's charms by the sly, fascinated in +spite of herself; and after administering such a scolding as +naturally flowed from her anxiety to do well by her husband's +niece--who had no mother of her own to scold her, poor thing!--she +would often confess to her husband, when they were safe out of +hearing, that she firmly believed, "the naughtier the little huzzy +behaved, the prettier she looked." + +It is of little use for me to tell you that Hetty's cheek was like +a rose-petal, that dimples played about her pouting lips, that her +large dark eyes hid a soft roguishness under their long lashes, +and that her curly hair, though all pushed back under her round +cap while she was at work, stole back in dark delicate rings on +her forehead, and about her white shell-like ears; it is of little +use for me to say how lovely was the contour of her pink-and-white +neckerchief, tucked into her low plum-coloured stuff boddice, or +how the linen butter-making apron, with its bib, seemed a thing to +be imitated in silk by duchesses, since it fell in such charming +lines, or how her brown stockings and thick-soled buckled shoes +lost all that clumsiness which they must certainly have had when +empty of her foot and ankle--of little use, unless you have seen a +woman who affected you as Hetty affected her beholders, for +otherwise, though you might conjure up the image of a lovely +woman, she would not in the least resemble that distracting +kittenlike maiden. I might mention all the divine charms of a +bright spring day, but if you had never in your life utterly +forgotten yourself in straining your eyes after the mounting lark, +or in wandering through the still lanes when the fresh-opened +blossoms fill them with a sacred silent beauty like that of +fretted aisles, where would be the use of my descriptive +catalogue? I could never make you know what I meant by a bright +spring day. Hetty's was a spring-tide beauty; it was the beauty +of young frisking things, round-limbed, gambolling, circumventing +you by a false air of innocence--the innocence of a young star- +browed calf, for example, that, being inclined for a promenade out +of bounds, leads you a severe steeplechase over hedge and ditch, +and only comes to a stand in the middle of a bog. + +And they are the prettiest attitudes and movements into which a +pretty girl is thrown in making up butter--tossing movements that +give a charming curve to the arm, and a sideward inclination of +the round white neck; little patting and rolling movements with +the palm of the hand, and nice adaptations and finishings which +cannot at all be effected without a great play of the pouting +mouth and the dark eyes. And then the butter itself seems to +communicate a fresh charm--it is so pure, so sweet-scented; it is +turned off the mould with such a beautiful firm surface, like +marble in a pale yellow light! Moreover, Hetty was particularly +clever at making up the butter; it was the one performance of hers +that her aunt allowed to pass without severe criticism; so she +handled it with all the grace that belongs to mastery. + +"I hope you will be ready for a great holiday on the thirtieth of +July, Mrs. Poyser," said Captain Donnithorne, when he had +sufficiently admired the dairy and given several improvised +opinions on Swede turnips and shorthorns. "You know what is to +happen then, and I shall expect you to be one of the guests who +come earliest and leave latest. Will you promise me your hand for +two dances, Miss Hetty? If I don't get your promise now, I know I +shall hardly have a chance, for all the smart young farmers will +take care to secure you." + +Hetty smiled and blushed, but before she could answer, Mrs. Poyser +interposed, scandalized at the mere suggestion that the young +squire could be excluded by any meaner partners. + +"Indeed, sir, you are very kind to take that notice of her. And +I'm sure, whenever you're pleased to dance with her, she'll be +proud and thankful, if she stood still all the rest o' th' +evening." + +"Oh no, no, that would be too cruel to all the other young fellows +who can dance. But you will promise me two dances, won't you?" +the captain continued, determined to make Hetty look at him and +speak to him. + +Hetty dropped the prettiest little curtsy, and stole a half-shy, +half-coquettish glance at him as she said, "Yes, thank you, sir." + +"And you must bring all your children, you know, Mrs. Poyser; your +little Totty, as well as the boys. I want all the youngest +children on the estate to be there--all those who will be fine +young men and women when I'm a bald old fellow." + +"Oh dear, sir, that 'ull be a long time first," said Mrs. Poyser, +quite overcome at the young squire's speaking so lightly of +himself, and thinking how her husband would be interested in +hearing her recount this remarkable specimen of high-born humour. +The captain was thought to be "very full of his jokes," and was a +great favourite throughout the estate on account of his free +manners. Every tenant was quite sure things would be different +when the reins got into his hands--there was to be a millennial +abundance of new gates, allowances of lime, and returns of ten per +cent. + +"But where is Totty to-day?" he said. "I want to see her." + +"Where IS the little un, Hetty?" said Mrs. Poyser. "She came in +here not long ago." + +"I don't know. She went into the brewhouse to Nancy, I think." + +The proud mother, unable to resist the temptation to show her +Totty, passed at once into the back kitchen, in search of her, +not, however, without misgivings lest something should have +happened to render her person and attire unfit for presentation. + +"And do you carry the butter to market when you've made it?" said +the Captain to Hetty, meanwhile. + +"Oh no, sir; not when it's so heavy. I'm not strong enough to +carry it. Alick takes it on horseback." + +"No, I'm sure your pretty arms were never meant for such heavy +weights. But you go out a walk sometimes these pleasant evenings, +don't you? Why don't you have a walk in the Chase sometimes, now +it's so green and pleasant? I hardly ever see you anywhere except +at home and at church." + +"Aunt doesn't like me to go a-walking only when I'm going +somewhere," said Hetty. "But I go through the Chase sometimes." + +"And don't you ever go to see Mrs. Best, the housekeeper? I think +I saw you once in the housekeeper's room." + +"It isn't Mrs. Best, it's Mrs. Pomfret, the lady's maid, as I go +to see. She's teaching me tent-stitch and the lace-mending. I'm +going to tea with her to-morrow afternoon." + +The reason why there had been space for this tete-a-tete can only +be known by looking into the back kitchen, where Totty had been +discovered rubbing a stray blue-bag against her nose, and in the +same moment allowing some liberal indigo drops to fall on her +afternoon pinafore. But now she appeared holding her mother's +hand--the end of her round nose rather shiny from a recent and +hurried application of soap and water. + +"Here she is!" said the captain, lifting her up and setting her on +the low stone shelf. "Here's Totty! By the by, what's her other +name? She wasn't christened Totty." + +"Oh, sir, we call her sadly out of her name. Charlotte's her +christened name. It's a name i' Mr. Poyser's family: his +grandmother was named Charlotte. But we began with calling her +Lotty, and now it's got to Totty. To be sure it's more like a +name for a dog than a Christian child." + +"Totty's a capital name. Why, she looks like a Totty. Has she +got a pocket on?" said the captain, feeling in his own waistcoat +pockets. + +Totty immediately with great gravity lifted up her frock, and +showed a tiny pink pocket at present in a state of collapse. + +"It dot notin' in it," she said, as she looked down at it very +earnestly. + +"No! What a pity! Such a pretty pocket. Well, I think I've got +some things in mine that will make a pretty jingle in it. Yes! I +declare I've got five little round silver things, and hear what a +pretty noise they make in Totty's pink pocket." Here he shook the +pocket with the five sixpences in it, and Totty showed her teeth +and wrinkled her nose in great glee; but, divining that there was +nothing more to be got by staying, she jumped off the shelf and +ran away to jingle her pocket in the hearing of Nancy, while her +mother called after her, "Oh for shame, you naughty gell! Not to +thank the captain for what he's given you I'm sure, sir, it's very +kind of you; but she's spoiled shameful; her father won't have her +said nay in anything, and there's no managing her. It's being the +youngest, and th' only gell." + +"Oh, she's a funny little fatty; I wouldn't have her different. +But I must be going now, for I suppose the rector is waiting for +me." + +With a "good-bye," a bright glance, and a bow to Hetty Arthur left +the dairy. But he was mistaken in imagining himself waited for. +The rector had been so much interested in his conversation with +Dinah that he would not have chosen to close it earlier; and you +shall hear now what they had been saying to each other. + + + +Chapter VIII + +A Vocation + + +DINAH, who had risen when the gentlemen came in, but still kept +hold of the sheet she was mending, curtsied respectfully when she +saw Mr. Irwine looking at her and advancing towards her. He had +never yet spoken to her, or stood face to face with her, and her +first thought, as her eyes met his, was, "What a well-favoured +countenance! Oh that the good seed might fall on that soil, for +it would surely flourish." The agreeable impression must have +been mutual, for Mr. Irwine bowed to her with a benignant +deference, which would have been equally in place if she had been +the most dignified lady of his acquaintance. + +"You are only a visitor in this neighbourhood, I think?" were his +first words, as he seated himself opposite to her. + +"No, sir, I come from Snowfield, in Stonyshire. But my aunt was +very kind, wanting me to have rest from my work there, because I'd +been ill, and she invited me to come and stay with her for a +while." + +"Ah, I remember Snowfield very well; I once had occasion to go +there. It's a dreary bleak place. They were building a cotton- +mill there; but that's many years ago now. I suppose the place is +a good deal changed by the employment that mill must have +brought." + +"It IS changed so far as the mill has brought people there, who +get a livelihood for themselves by working in it, and make it +better for the tradesfolks. I work in it myself, and have reason +to be grateful, for thereby I have enough and to spare. But it's +still a bleak place, as you say, sir--very different from this +country." + +"You have relations living there, probably, so that you are +attached to the place as your home?" + +"I had an aunt there once; she brought me up, for I was an orphan. +But she was taken away seven years ago, and I have no other +kindred that I know of, besides my Aunt Poyser, who is very good +to me, and would have me come and live in this country, which to +be sure is a good land, wherein they eat bread without scarceness. +But I'm not free to leave Snowfield, where I was first planted, +and have grown deep into it, like the small grass on the hill- +top." + +"Ah, I daresay you have many religious friends and companions +there; you are a Methodist--a Wesleyan, I think?" + +"Yes, my aunt at Snowfield belonged to the Society, and I have +cause to be thankful for the privileges I have had thereby from my +earliest childhood." + +"And have you been long in the habit of preaching? For I +understand you preached at Hayslope last night." + +"I first took to the work four years since, when I was twenty- +one." + +"Your Society sanctions women's preaching, then?" + +"It doesn't forbid them, sir, when they've a clear call to the +work, and when their ministry is owned by the conversion of +sinners and the strengthening of God's people. Mrs. Fletcher, as +you may have heard about, was the first woman to preach in the +Society, I believe, before she was married, when she was Miss +Bosanquet; and Mr. Wesley approved of her undertaking the work. +She had a great gift, and there are many others now living who are +precious fellow-helpers in the work of the ministry. I understand +there's been voices raised against it in the Society of late, but +I cannot but think their counsel will come to nought. It isn't +for men to make channels for God's Spirit, as they make channels +for the watercourses, and say, 'Flow here, but flow not there.'" + +"But don't you find some danger among your people--I don't mean to +say that it is so with you, far from it--but don't you find +sometimes that both men and women fancy themselves channels for +God's Spirit, and are quite mistaken, so that they set about a +work for which they are unfit and bring holy things into +contempt?" + +"Doubtless it is so sometimes; for there have been evil-doers +among us who have sought to deceive the brethren, and some there +are who deceive their own selves. But we are not without +discipline and correction to put a check upon these things. +There's a very strict order kept among us, and the brethren and +sisters watch for each other's souls as they that must give +account. They don't go every one his own way and say, 'Am I my +brother's keeper?'" + +"But tell me--if I may ask, and I am really interested in knowing +it--how you first came to think of preaching?" + +"Indeed, sir, I didn't think of it at all--I'd been used from the +time I was sixteen to talk to the little children, and teach them, +and sometimes I had had my heart enlarged to speak in class, and +was much drawn out in prayer with the sick. But I had felt no +call to preach, for when I'm not greatly wrought upon, I'm too +much given to sit still and keep by myself. It seems as if I +could sit silent all day long with the thought of God overflowing +my soul--as the pebbles lie bathed in the Willow Brook. For +thoughts are so great--aren't they, sir? They seem to lie upon us +like a deep flood; and it's my besetment to forget where I am and +everything about me, and lose myself in thoughts that I could give +no account of, for I could neither make a beginning nor ending of +them in words. That was my way as long as I can remember; but +sometimes it seemed as if speech came to me without any will of my +own, and words were given to me that came out as the tears come, +because our hearts are full and we can't help it. And those were +always times of great blessing, though I had never thought it +could be so with me before a congregation of people. But, sir, we +are led on, like the little children, by a way that we know not. +I was called to preach quite suddenly, and since then I have never +been left in doubt about the work that was laid upon me." + +"But tell me the circumstances--just how it was, the very day you +began to preach." + +"It was one Sunday I walked with brother Marlowe, who was an aged +man, one of the local preachers, all the way to Hetton-Deeps-- +that's a village where the people get their living by working in +the lead-mines, and where there's no church nor preacher, but they +live like sheep without a shepherd. It's better than twelve miles +from Snowfield, so we set out early in the morning, for it was +summertime; and I had a wonderful sense of the Divine love as we +walked over the hills, where there's no trees, you know, sir, as +there is here, to make the sky look smaller, but you see the +heavens stretched out like a tent, and you feel the everlasting +arms around you. But before we got to Hetton, brother Marlowe was +seized with a dizziness that made him afraid of falling, for he +overworked himself sadly, at his years, in watching and praying, +and walking so many miles to speak the Word, as well as carrying +on his trade of linen-weaving. And when we got to the village, +the people were expecting him, for he'd appointed the time and the +place when he was there before, and such of them as cared to hear +the Word of Life were assembled on a spot where the cottages was +thickest, so as others might be drawn to come. But he felt as he +couldn't stand up to preach, and he was forced to lie down in the +first of the cottages we came to. So I went to tell the people, +thinking we'd go into one of the houses, and I would read and pray +with them. But as I passed along by the cottages and saw the aged +and trembling women at the doors, and the hard looks of the men, +who seemed to have their eyes no more filled with the sight of the +Sabbath morning than if they had been dumb oxen that never looked +up to the sky, I felt a great movement in my soul, and I trembled +as if I was shaken by a strong spirit entering into my weak body. +And I went to where the little flock of people was gathered +together, and stepped on the low wall that was built against the +green hillside, and I spoke the words that were given to me +abundantly. And they all came round me out of all the cottages, +and many wept over their sins, and have since been joined to the +Lord. That was the beginning of my preaching, sir, and I've +preached ever since." + +Dinah had let her work fall during this narrative, which she +uttered in her usual simple way, but with that sincere articulate, +thrilling treble by which she always mastered her audience. She +stooped now to gather up her sewing, and then went on with it as +before. Mr. Irwine was deeply interested. He said to himself, +"He must be a miserable prig who would act the pedagogue here: one +might as well go and lecture the trees for growing in their own +shape." + +"And you never feel any embarrassment from the sense of your +youth--that you are a lovely young woman on whom men's eyes are +fixed?" he said aloud. + +"No, I've no room for such feelings, and I don't believe the +people ever take notice about that. I think, sir, when God makes +His presence felt through us, we are like the burning bush: Moses +never took any heed what sort of bush it was--he only saw the +brightness of the Lord. I've preached to as rough ignorant people +as can be in the villages about Snowfield--men that looked very +hard and wild--but they never said an uncivil word to me, and +often thanked me kindly as they made way for me to pass through +the midst of them." + +"THAT I can believe--that I can well believe," said Mr. Irwine, +emphatically. "And what did you think of your hearers last night, +now? Did you find them quiet and attentive?" + +"Very quiet, sir, but I saw no signs of any great work upon them, +except in a young girl named Bessy Cranage, towards whom my heart +yearned greatly, when my eyes first fell on her blooming youth, +given up to folly and vanity. I had some private talk and prayer +with her afterwards, and I trust her heart is touched. But I've +noticed that in these villages where the people lead a quiet life +among the green pastures and the still waters, tilling the ground +and tending the cattle, there's a strange deadness to the Word, as +different as can be from the great towns, like Leeds, where I once +went to visit a holy woman who preaches there. It's wonderful how +rich is the harvest of souls up those high-walled streets, where +you seemed to walk as in a prison-yard, and the ear is deafened +with the sounds of worldly toil. I think maybe it is because the +promise is sweeter when this life is so dark and weary, and the +soul gets more hungry when the body is ill at ease." + +"Why, yes, our farm-labourers are not easily roused. They take +life almost as slowly as the sheep and cows. But we have some +intelligent workmen about here. I daresay you know the Bedes; +Seth Bede, by the by, is a Methodist." + +"Yes, I know Seth well, and his brother Adam a little. Seth is a +gracious young man--sincere and without offence; and Adam is like +the patriarch Joseph, for his great skill and knowledge and the +kindness he shows to his brother and his parents." + +"Perhaps you don't know the trouble that has just happened to +them? Their father, Matthias Bede, was drowned in the Willow +Brook last night, not far from his own door. I'm going now to see +Adam." + +"Ah, their poor aged mother!" said Dinah, dropping her hands and +looking before her with pitying eyes, as if she saw the object of +her sympathy. "She will mourn heavily, for Seth has told me she's +of an anxious, troubled heart. I must go and see if I can give +her any help." + +As she rose and was beginning to fold up her work, Captain +Donnithorne, having exhausted all plausible pretexts for remaining +among the milk-pans, came out of the dairy, followed by Mrs. +Poyser. Mr. Irwine now rose also, and, advancing towards Dinah, +held out his hand, and said, "Good-bye. I hear you are going away +soon; but this will not be the last visit you will pay your aunt-- +so we shall meet again, I hope." + +His cordiality towards Dinah set all Mrs. Poyser's anxieties at +rest, and her face was brighter than usual, as she said, "I've +never asked after Mrs. Irwine and the Miss Irwines, sir; I hope +they're as well as usual." + +"Yes, thank you, Mrs. Poyser, except that Miss Anne has one of her +bad headaches to-day. By the by, we all liked that nice cream- +cheese you sent us--my mother especially." + +"I'm very glad, indeed, sir. It is but seldom I make one, but I +remembered Mrs. Irwine was fond of 'em. Please to give my duty to +her, and to Miss Kate and Miss Anne. They've never been to look +at my poultry this long while, and I've got some beautiful +speckled chickens, black and white, as Miss Kate might like to +have some of amongst hers." + +"Well, I'll tell her; she must come and see them. Good-bye," said +the rector, mounting his horse. + +"Just ride slowly on, Irwine," said Captain Donnithorne, mounting +also. "I'll overtake you in three minutes. I'm only going to +speak to the shepherd about the whelps. Good-bye, Mrs. Poyser; +tell your husband I shall come and have a long talk with him +soon." + +Mrs. Poyser curtsied duly, and watched the two horses until they +had disappeared from the yard, amidst great excitement on the part +of the pigs and the poultry, and under the furious indignation of +the bull-dog, who performed a Pyrrhic dance, that every moment +seemed to threaten the breaking of his chain. Mrs. Poyser +delighted in this noisy exit; it was a fresh assurance to her that +the farm-yard was well guarded, and that no loiterers could enter +unobserved; and it was not until the gate had closed behind the +captain that she turned into the kitchen again, where Dinah stood +with her bonnet in her hand, waiting to speak to her aunt, before +she set out for Lisbeth Bede's cottage. + +Mrs. Poyser, however, though she noticed the bonnet, deferred +remarking on it until she had disburdened herself of her surprise +at Mr. Irwine's behaviour. + +"Why, Mr. Irwine wasn't angry, then? What did he say to you, +Dinah? Didn't he scold you for preaching?" + +"No, he was not at all angry; he was very friendly to me. I was +quite drawn out to speak to him; I hardly know how, for I had +always thought of him as a worldly Sadducee. But his countenance +is as pleasant as the morning sunshine." + +"Pleasant! And what else did y' expect to find him but pleasant?" +said Mrs. Poyser impatiently, resuming her knitting. "I should +think his countenance is pleasant indeed! And him a gentleman +born, and's got a mother like a picter. You may go the country +round and not find such another woman turned sixty-six. It's +summat-like to see such a man as that i' the desk of a Sunday! As +I say to Poyser, it's like looking at a full crop o' wheat, or a +pasture with a fine dairy o' cows in it; it makes you think the +world's comfortable-like. But as for such creaturs as you +Methodisses run after, I'd as soon go to look at a lot o' bare- +ribbed runts on a common. Fine folks they are to tell you what's +right, as look as if they'd never tasted nothing better than +bacon-sword and sour-cake i' their lives. But what did Mr. Irwine +say to you about that fool's trick o' preaching on the Green?" + +"He only said he'd heard of it; he didn't seem to feel any +displeasure about it. But, dear aunt, don't think any more about +that. He told me something that I'm sure will cause you sorrow, +as it does me. Thias Bede was drowned last night in the Willow +Brook, and I'm thinking that the aged mother will be greatly in +need of comfort. Perhaps I can be of use to her, so I have +fetched my bonnet and am going to set out." + +"Dear heart, dear heart! But you must have a cup o' tea first, +child," said Mrs. Poyser, falling at once from the key of B with +five sharps to the frank and genial C. "The kettle's boiling-- +we'll have it ready in a minute; and the young uns 'ull be in and +wanting theirs directly. I'm quite willing you should go and see +th' old woman, for you're one as is allays welcome in trouble, +Methodist or no Methodist; but, for the matter o' that, it's the +flesh and blood folks are made on as makes the difference. Some +cheeses are made o' skimmed milk and some o' new milk, and it's no +matter what you call 'em, you may tell which is which by the look +and the smell. But as to Thias Bede, he's better out o' the way +nor in--God forgi' me for saying so--for he's done little this ten +year but make trouble for them as belonged to him; and I think it +'ud be well for you to take a little bottle o' rum for th' old +woman, for I daresay she's got never a drop o' nothing to comfort +her inside. Sit down, child, and be easy, for you shan't stir out +till you've had a cup o' tea, and so I tell you." + +During the latter part of this speech, Mrs. Poyser had been +reaching down the tea-things from the shelves, and was on her way +towards the pantry for the loaf (followed close by Totty, who had +made her appearance on the rattling of the tea-cups), when Hetty +came out of the dairy relieving her tired arms by lifting them up, +and clasping her hands at the back of her head. + +"Molly," she said, rather languidly, "just run out and get me a +bunch of dock-leaves: the butter's ready to pack up now." + +"D' you hear what's happened, Hetty?" said her aunt. + +"No; how should I hear anything?" was the answer, in a pettish +tone. + +"Not as you'd care much, I daresay, if you did hear; for you're +too feather-headed to mind if everybody was dead, so as you could +stay upstairs a-dressing yourself for two hours by the clock. But +anybody besides yourself 'ud mind about such things happening to +them as think a deal more of you than you deserve. But Adam Bede +and all his kin might be drownded for what you'd care--you'd be +perking at the glass the next minute." + +"Adam Bede--drowned?" said Hetty, letting her arms fall and +looking rather bewildered, but suspecting that her aunt was as +usual exaggerating with a didactic purpose. + +"No, my dear, no," said Dinah kindly, for Mrs. Poyser had passed +on to the pantry without deigning more precise information. "Not +Adam. Adam's father, the old man, is drowned. He was drowned +last night in the Willow Brook. Mr. Irwine has just told me about +it." + +"Oh, how dreadful!" said Hetty, looking serious, but not deeply +affected; and as Molly now entered with the dock-leaves, she took +them silently and returned to the dairy without asking further +questions. + + + +Chapter IX + +Hetty's World + + +WHILE she adjusted the broad leaves that set off the pale fragrant +butter as the primrose is set off by its nest of green I am afraid +Hetty was thinking a great deal more of the looks Captain +Donnithorne had cast at her than of Adam and his troubles. +Bright, admiring glances from a handsome young gentleman with +white hands, a gold chain, occasional regimentals, and wealth and +grandeur immeasurable--those were the warm rays that set poor +Hetty's heart vibrating and playing its little foolish tunes over +and over again. We do not hear that Memnon's statue gave forth +its melody at all under the rushing of the mightiest wind, or in +response to any other influence divine or human than certain +short-lived sunbeams of morning; and we must learn to accommodate +ourselves to the discovery that some of those cunningly fashioned +instruments called human souls have only a very limited range of +music, and will not vibrate in the least under a touch that fills +others with tremulous rapture or quivering agony. + +Hetty was quite used to the thought that people liked to look at +her. She was not blind to the fact that young Luke Britton of +Broxton came to Hayslope Church on a Sunday afternoon on purpose +that he might see her; and that he would have made much more +decided advances if her uncle Poyser, thinking but lightly of a +young man whose father's land was so foul as old Luke Britton's, +had not forbidden her aunt to encourage him by any civilities. +She was aware, too, that Mr. Craig, the gardener at the Chase, was +over head and ears in love with her, and had lately made +unmistakable avowals in luscious strawberries and hyperbolical +peas. She knew still better, that Adam Bede--tall, upright, +clever, brave Adam Bede--who carried such authority with all the +people round about, and whom her uncle was always delighted to see +of an evening, saying that "Adam knew a fine sight more o' the +natur o' things than those as thought themselves his betters"--she +knew that this Adam, who was often rather stern to other people +and not much given to run after the lasses, could be made to turn +pale or red any day by a word or a look from her. Hetty's sphere +of comparison was not large, but she couldn't help perceiving that +Adam was "something like" a man; always knew what to say about +things, could tell her uncle how to prop the hovel, and had mended +the churn in no time; knew, with only looking at it, the value of +the chestnut-tree that was blown down, and why the damp came in +the walls, and what they must do to stop the rats; and wrote a +beautiful hand that you could read off, and could do figures in +his head--a degree of accomplishment totally unknown among the +richest farmers of that countryside. Not at all like that +slouching Luke Britton, who, when she once walked with him all the +way from Broxton to Hayslope, had only broken silence to remark +that the grey goose had begun to lay. And as for Mr. Craig, the +gardener, he was a sensible man enough, to be sure, but he was +knock-kneed, and had a queer sort of sing-song in his talk; +moreover, on the most charitable supposition, he must be far on +the way to forty. + +Hetty was quite certain her uncle wanted her to encourage Adam, +and would be pleased for her to marry him. For those were times +when there was no rigid demarcation of rank between the farmer and +the respectable artisan, and on the home hearth, as well as in the +public house, they might be seen taking their jug of ale together; +the farmer having a latent sense of capital, and of weight in +parish affairs, which sustained him under his conspicuous +inferiority in conversation. Martin Poyser was not a frequenter +of public houses, but he liked a friendly chat over his own home- +brewed; and though it was pleasant to lay down the law to a stupid +neighbour who had no notion how to make the best of his farm, it +was also an agreeable variety to learn something from a clever +fellow like Adam Bede. Accordingly, for the last three years-- +ever since he had superintended the building of the new barn--Adam +had always been made welcome at the Hall Farm, especially of a +winter evening, when the whole family, in patriarchal fashion, +master and mistress, children and servants, were assembled in that +glorious kitchen, at well-graduated distances from the blazing +fire. And for the last two years, at least, Hetty had been in the +habit of hearing her uncle say, "Adam Bede may be working for wage +now, but he'll be a master-man some day, as sure as I sit in this +chair. Mester Burge is in the right on't to want him to go +partners and marry his daughter, if it's true what they say; the +woman as marries him 'ull have a good take, be't Lady day or +Michaelmas," a remark which Mrs. Poyser always followed up with +her cordial assent. "Ah," she would say, "it's all very fine +having a ready-made rich man, but mayhappen he'll be a ready-made +fool; and it's no use filling your pocket full o' money if you've +got a hole in the corner. It'll do you no good to sit in a +spring-cart o' your own, if you've got a soft to drive you: he'll +soon turn you over into the ditch. I allays said I'd never marry +a man as had got no brains; for where's the use of a woman having +brains of her own if she's tackled to a geck as everybody's a- +laughing at? She might as well dress herself fine to sit +back'ards on a donkey." + +These expressions, though figurative, sufficiently indicated the +bent of Mrs. Poyser's mind with regard to Adam; and though she and +her husband might have viewed the subject differently if Hetty had +been a daughter of their own, it was clear that they would have +welcomed the match with Adam for a penniless niece. For what +could Hetty have been but a servant elsewhere, if her uncle had +not taken her in and brought her up as a domestic help to her +aunt, whose health since the birth of Totty had not been equal to +more positive labour than the superintendence of servants and +children? But Hetty had never given Adam any steady +encouragement. Even in the moments when she was most thoroughly +conscious of his superiority to her other admirers, she had never +brought herself to think of accepting him. She liked to feel that +this strong, skilful, keen-eyed man was in her power, and would +have been indignant if he had shown the least sign of slipping +from under the yoke of her coquettish tyranny and attaching +himself to the gentle Mary Burge, who would have been grateful +enough for the most trifling notice from him. "Mary Burge, +indeed! Such a sallow-faced girl: if she put on a bit of pink +ribbon, she looked as yellow as a crow-flower and her hair was as +straight as a hank of cotton." And always when Adam stayed away +for several weeks from the Hall Farm, and otherwise made some show +of resistance to his passion as a foolish one, Hetty took care to +entice him back into the net by little airs of meekness and +timidity, as if she were in trouble at his neglect. But as to +marrying Adam, that was a very different affair! There was +nothing in the world to tempt her to do that. Her cheeks never +grew a shade deeper when his name was mentioned; she felt no +thrill when she saw him passing along the causeway by the window, +or advancing towards her unexpectedly in the footpath across the +meadow; she felt nothing, when his eyes rested on her, but the +cold triumph of knowing that he loved her and would not care to +look at Mary Burge. He could no more stir in her the emotions +that make the sweet intoxication of young love than the mere +picture of a sun can stir the spring sap in the subtle fibres of +the plant. She saw him as he was--a poor man with old parents to +keep, who would not be able, for a long while to come, to give her +even such luxuries as she shared in her uncle's house. And +Hetty's dreams were all of luxuries: to sit in a carpeted parlour, +and always wear white stockings; to have some large beautiful ear- +rings, such as were all the fashion; to have Nottingham lace round +the top of her gown, and something to make her handkerchief smell +nice, like Miss Lydia Donnithorne's when she drew it out at +church; and not to be obliged to get up early or be scolded by +anybody. She thought, if Adam had been rich and could have given +her these things, she loved him well enough to marry him. + +But for the last few weeks a new influence had come over Hetty-- +vague, atmospheric, shaping itself into no self-confessed hopes or +prospects, but producing a pleasant narcotic effect, making her +tread the ground and go about her work in a sort of dream, +unconscious of weight or effort, and showing her all things +through a soft, liquid veil, as if she were living not in this +solid world of brick and stone, but in a beatified world, such as +the sun lights up for us in the waters. Hetty had become aware +that Mr. Arthur Donnithorne would take a good deal of trouble for +the chance of seeing her; that he always placed himself at church +so as to have the fullest view of her both sitting and standing; +that he was constantly finding reason for calling at the Hall +Farm, and always would contrive to say something for the sake of +making her speak to him and look at him. The poor child no more +conceived at present the idea that the young squire could ever be +her lover than a baker's pretty daughter in the crowd, whom a +young emperor distinguishes by an imperial but admiring smile, +conceives that she shall be made empress. But the baker's +daughter goes home and dreams of the handsome young emperor, and +perhaps weighs the flour amiss while she is thinking what a +heavenly lot it must be to have him for a husband. And so, poor +Hetty had got a face and a presence haunting her waking and +sleeping dreams; bright, soft glances had penetrated her, and +suffused her life with a strange, happy languor. The eyes that +shed those glances were really not half so fine as Adam's, which +sometimes looked at her with a sad, beseeching tenderness, but +they had found a ready medium in Hetty's little silly imagination, +whereas Adam's could get no entrance through that atmosphere. For +three weeks, at least, her inward life had consisted of little +else than living through in memory the looks and words Arthur had +directed towards her--of little else than recalling the sensations +with which she heard his voice outside the house, and saw him +enter, and became conscious that his eyes were fixed on her, and +then became conscious that a tall figure, looking down on her with +eyes that seemed to touch her, was coming nearer in clothes of +beautiful texture with an odour like that of a flower-garden borne +on the evening breeze. Foolish thoughts! But all this happened, +you must remember, nearly sixty years ago, and Hetty was quite +uneducated--a simple farmer's girl, to whom a gentleman with a +white hand was dazzling as an Olympian god. Until to-day, she had +never looked farther into the future than to the next time Captain +Donnithorne would come to the Farm, or the next Sunday when she +should see him at church; but now she thought, perhaps he would +try to meet her when she went to the Chase to-morrow--and if he +should speak to her, and walk a little way, when nobody was by! +That had never happened yet; and now her imagination, instead of +retracing the past, was busy fashioning what would happen to- +morrow--whereabout in the Chase she should see him coming towards +her, how she should put her new rose-coloured ribbon on, which he +had never seen, and what he would say to her to make her return +his glance--a glance which she would be living through in her +memory, over and over again, all the rest of the day. + +In this state of mind, how could Hetty give any feeling to Adam's +troubles, or think much about poor old Thias being drowned? Young +souls, in such pleasant delirium as hers are as unsympathetic as +butterflies sipping nectar; they are isolated from all appeals by +a barrier of dreams--by invisible looks and impalpable arms. + +While Hetty's hands were busy packing up the butter, and her head +filled with these pictures of the morrow, Arthur Donnithorne, +riding by Mr. Irwine's side towards the valley of the Willow +Brook, had also certain indistinct anticipations, running as an +undercurrent in his mind while he was listening to Mr. Irwine's +account of Dinah--indistinct, yet strong enough to make him feel +rather conscious when Mr. Irwine suddenly said, "What fascinated +you so in Mrs. Poyser's dairy, Arthur? Have you become an amateur +of damp quarries and skimming dishes?" + +Arthur knew the rector too well to suppose that a clever invention +would be of any use, so he said, with his accustomed frankness, +"No, I went to look at the pretty butter-maker Hetty Sorrel. +She's a perfect Hebe; and if I were an artist, I would paint her. +It's amazing what pretty girls one sees among the farmers' +daughters, when the men are such clowns. That common, round, red +face one sees sometimes in the men--all cheek and no features, +like Martin Poyser's--comes out in the women of the famuly as the +most charming phiz imaginable." + +"Well, I have no objection to your contemplating Hetty in an +artistic light, but I must not have you feeding her vanity and +filling her little noddle with the notion that she's a great +beauty, attractive to fine gentlemen, or you will spoil her for a +poor man's wife--honest Craig's, for example, whom I have seen +bestowing soft glances on her. The little puss seems already to +have airs enough to make a husband as miserable as it's a law of +nature for a quiet man to be when he marries a beauty. Apropos of +marrying, I hope our friend Adam will get settled, now the poor +old man's gone. He will only have his mother to keep in future, +and I've a notion that there's a kindness between him and that +nice modest girl, Mary Burge, from something that fell from old +Jonathan one day when I was talking to him. But when I mentioned +the subject to Adam he looked uneasy and turned the conversation. +I suppose the love-making doesn't run smooth, or perhaps Adam +hangs back till he's in a better position. He has independence of +spirit enough for two men--rather an excess of pride, if +anything." + +"That would be a capital match for Adam. He would slip into old +Burge's shoes and make a fine thing of that building business, +I'll answer for him. I should like to see him well settled in +this parish; he would be ready then to act as my grand-vizier when +I wanted one. We could plan no end of repairs and improvements +together. I've never seen the girl, though, I think--at least +I've never looked at her." + +"Look at her next Sunday at church--she sits with her father on +the left of the reading-desk. You needn't look quite so much at +Hetty Sorrel then. When I've made up my mind that I can't afford +to buy a tempting dog, I take no notice of him, because if he took +a strong fancy to me and looked lovingly at me, the struggle +between arithmetic and inclination might become unpleasantly +severe. I pique myself on my wisdom there, Arthur, and as an old +fellow to whom wisdom had become cheap, I bestow it upon you." + +"Thank you. It may stand me in good stead some day though I don't +know that I have any present use for it. Bless me! How the brook +has overflowed. Suppose we have a canter, now we're at the bottom +of the hill." + +That is the great advantage of dialogue on horseback; it can be +merged any minute into a trot or a canter, and one might have +escaped from Socrates himself in the saddle. The two friends were +free from the necessity of further conversation till they pulled +up in the lane behind Adam's cottage. + + + +Chapter X + +Dinah Visits Lisbeth + + +AT five o'clock Lisbeth came downstairs with a large key in her +hand: it was the key of the chamber where her husband lay dead. +Throughout the day, except in her occasional outbursts of wailing +grief, she had been in incessant movement, performing the initial +duties to her dead with the awe and exactitude that belong to +religious rites. She had brought out her little store of bleached +linen, which she had for long years kept in reserve for this +supreme use. It seemed but yesterday--that time so many +midsummers ago, when she had told Thias where this linen lay, that +he might be sure and reach it out for her when SHE died, for she +was the elder of the two. Then there had been the work of +cleansing to the strictest purity every object in the sacred +chamber, and of removing from it every trace of common daily +occupation. The small window, which had hitherto freely let in +the frosty moonlight or the warm summer sunrise on the working +man's slumber, must now be darkened with a fair white sheet, for +this was the sleep which is as sacred under the bare rafters as in +ceiled houses. Lisbeth had even mended a long-neglected and +unnoticeable rent in the checkered bit of bed-curtain; for the +moments were few and precious now in which she would be able to do +the smallest office of respect or love for the still corpse, to +which in all her thoughts she attributed some consciousness. Our +dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them: they can +be injured by us, they can be wounded; they know all our +penitence, all our aching sense that their place is empty, all the +kisses we bestow on the smallest relic of their presence. And the +aged peasant woman most of all believes that her dead are +conscious. Decent burial was what Lisbeth had been thinking of +for herself through years of thrift, with an indistinct +expectation that she should know when she was being carried to the +churchyard, followed by her husband and her sons; and now she felt +as if the greatest work of her life were to be done in seeing that +Thias was buried decently before her--under the white thorn, where +once, in a dream, she had thought she lay in the coffin, yet all +the while saw the sunshine above and smelt the white blossoms that +were so thick upon the thorn the Sunday she went to be churched +after Adam was born. + +But now she had done everything that could be done to-day in the +chamber of death--had done it all herself, with some aid from her +sons in lifting, for she would let no one be fetched to help her +from the village, not being fond of female neighbours generally; +and her favourite Dolly, the old housekeeper at Mr. Burge's, who +had come to condole with her in the morning as soon as she heard +of Thias's death, was too dim-sighted to be of much use. She had +locked the door, and now held the key in her hand, as she threw +herself wearily into a chair that stood out of its place in the +middle of the house floor, where in ordinary times she would never +have consented to sit. The kitchen had had none of her attention +that day; it was soiled with the tread of muddy shoes and untidy +with clothes and other objects out of place. But what at another +time would have been intolerable to Lisbeth's habits of order and +cleanliness seemed to her now just what should be: it was right +that things should look strange and disordered and wretched, now +the old man had come to his end in that sad way; the kitchen ought +not to look as if nothing had happened. Adam, overcome with the +agitations and exertions of the day after his night of hard work, +had fallen asleep on a bench in the workshop; and Seth was in the +back kitchen making a fire of sticks that he might get the kettle +to boil, and persuade his mother to have a cup of tea, an +indulgence which she rarely allowed herself. + +There was no one in the kitchen when Lisbeth entered and threw +herself into the chair. She looked round with blank eyes at the +dirt and confusion on which the bright afternoon's sun shone +dismally; it was all of a piece with the sad confusion of her +mind--that confusion which belongs to the first hours of a sudden +sorrow, when the poor human soul is like one who has been +deposited sleeping among the ruins of a vast city, and wakes up in +dreary amazement, not knowing whether it is the growing or the +dying day--not knowing why and whence came this illimitable scene +of desolation, or why he too finds himself desolate in the midst +of it. + +At another time Lisbeth's first thought would have been, "Where is +Adam?" but the sudden death of her husband had restored him in +these hours to that first place in her affections which he had +held six-and-twenty years ago. She had forgotten his faults as we +forget the sorrows of our departed childhood, and thought of +nothing but the young husband's kindness and the old man's +patience. Her eyes continued to wander blankly until Seth came in +and began to remove some of the scattered things, and clear the +small round deal table that he might set out his mother's tea upon +it. + +"What art goin' to do?" she said, rather peevishly. + +"I want thee to have a cup of tea, Mother," answered Seth, +tenderly. "It'll do thee good; and I'll put two or three of these +things away, and make the house look more comfortable." + +"Comfortable! How canst talk o' ma'in' things comfortable? Let +a-be, let a-be. There's no comfort for me no more," she went on, +the tears coming when she began to speak, "now thy poor feyther's +gone, as I'n washed for and mended, an' got's victual for him for +thirty 'ear, an' him allays so pleased wi' iverything I done for +him, an' used to be so handy an' do the jobs for me when I war ill +an' cumbered wi' th' babby, an' made me the posset an' brought it +upstairs as proud as could be, an' carried the lad as war as heavy +as two children for five mile an' ne'er grumbled, all the way to +Warson Wake, 'cause I wanted to go an' see my sister, as war dead +an' gone the very next Christmas as e'er come. An' him to be +drownded in the brook as we passed o'er the day we war married an' +come home together, an' he'd made them lots o' shelves for me to +put my plates an' things on, an' showed 'em me as proud as could +be, 'cause he know'd I should be pleased. An' he war to die an' +me not to know, but to be a-sleepin' i' my bed, as if I caredna +nought about it. Eh! An' me to live to see that! An' us as war +young folks once, an' thought we should do rarely when we war +married. Let a-be, lad, let a-be! I wonna ha' no tay. I carena +if I ne'er ate nor drink no more. When one end o' th' bridge +tumbles down, where's th' use o' th' other stannin'? I may's well +die, an' foller my old man. There's no knowin' but he'll want +me." + +Here Lisbeth broke from words into moans, swaying herself +backwards and forwards on her chair. Seth, always timid in his +behaviour towards his mother, from the sense that he had no +influence over her, felt it was useless to attempt to persuade or +soothe her till this passion was past; so he contented himself +with tending the back kitchen fire and folding up his father's +clothes, which had been hanging out to dry since morning--afraid +to move about in the room where his mother was, lest he should +irritate her further. + +But after Lisbeth had been rocking herself and moaning for some +minutes, she suddenly paused and said aloud to herself, "I'll go +an' see arter Adam, for I canna think where he's gotten; an' I +want him to go upstairs wi' me afore it's dark, for the minutes to +look at the corpse is like the meltin' snow." + +Seth overheard this, and coming into the kitchen again, as his +mother rose from her chair, he said, "Adam's asleep in the +workshop, mother. Thee'dst better not wake him. He was +o'erwrought with work and trouble." + +"Wake him? Who's a-goin' to wake him? I shanna wake him wi' +lookin' at him. I hanna seen the lad this two hour--I'd welly +forgot as he'd e'er growed up from a babby when's feyther carried +him." + +Adam was seated on a rough bench, his head supported by his arm, +which rested from the shoulder to the elbow on the long planing- +table in the middle of the workshop. It seemed as if he had sat +down for a few minutes' rest and had fallen asleep without +slipping from his first attitude of sad, fatigued thought. His +face, unwashed since yesterday, looked pallid and clammy; his hair +was tossed shaggily about his forehead, and his closed eyes had +the sunken look which follows upon watching and sorrow. His brow +was knit, and his whole face had an expression of weariness and +pain. Gyp was evidently uneasy, for he sat on his haunches, +resting his nose on his master's stretched-out leg, and dividing +the time between licking the hand that hung listlessly down and +glancing with a listening air towards the door. The poor dog was +hungry and restless, but would not leave his master, and was +waiting impatiently for some change in the scene. It was owing to +this feeling on Gyp's part that, when Lisbeth came into the +workshop and advanced towards Adam as noiselessly as she could, +her intention not to awaken him was immediately defeated; for +Gyp's excitement was too great to find vent in anything short of a +sharp bark, and in a moment Adam opened his eyes and saw his +mother standing before him. It was not very unlike his dream, for +his sleep had been little more than living through again, in a +fevered delirious way, all that had happened since daybreak, and +his mother with her fretful grief was present to him through it +all. The chief difference between the reality and the vision was +that in his dream Hetty was continually coming before him in +bodily presence--strangely mingling herself as an actor in scenes +with which she had nothing to do. She was even by the Willow +Brook; she made his mother angry by coming into the house; and he +met her with her smart clothes quite wet through, as he walked in +the rain to Treddleston, to tell the coroner. But wherever Hetty +came, his mother was sure to follow soon; and when he opened his +eyes, it was not at all startling to see her standing near him. + +"Eh, my lad, my lad!" Lisbeth burst out immediately, her wailing +impulse returning, for grief in its freshness feels the need of +associating its loss and its lament with every change of scene and +incident, "thee'st got nobody now but thy old mother to torment +thee and be a burden to thee. Thy poor feyther 'ull ne'er anger +thee no more; an' thy mother may's well go arter him--the sooner +the better--for I'm no good to nobody now. One old coat 'ull do +to patch another, but it's good for nought else. Thee'dst like to +ha' a wife to mend thy clothes an' get thy victual, better nor thy +old mother. An' I shall be nought but cumber, a-sittin' i' th' +chimney-corner. (Adam winced and moved uneasily; he dreaded, of +all things, to hear his mother speak of Hetty.) But if thy +feyther had lived, he'd ne'er ha' wanted me to go to make room for +another, for he could no more ha' done wi'out me nor one side o' +the scissars can do wi'out th' other. Eh, we should ha' been both +flung away together, an' then I shouldna ha' seen this day, an' +one buryin' 'ud ha' done for us both." + +Here Lisbeth paused, but Adam sat in pained silence--he could not +speak otherwise than tenderly to his mother to-day, but he could +not help being irritated by this plaint. It was not possible for +poor Lisbeth to know how it affected Adam any more than it is +possible for a wounded dog to know how his moans affect the nerves +of his master. Like all complaining women, she complained in the +expectation of being soothed, and when Adam said nothing, she was +only prompted to complain more bitterly. + +"I know thee couldst do better wi'out me, for thee couldst go +where thee likedst an' marry them as thee likedst. But I donna +want to say thee nay, let thee bring home who thee wut; I'd ne'er +open my lips to find faut, for when folks is old an' o' no use, +they may think theirsens well off to get the bit an' the sup, +though they'n to swallow ill words wi't. An' if thee'st set thy +heart on a lass as'll bring thee nought and waste all, when thee +mightst ha' them as 'ud make a man on thee, I'll say nought, now +thy feyther's dead an' drownded, for I'm no better nor an old haft +when the blade's gone." + +Adam, unable to bear this any longer, rose silently from the bench +and walked out of the workshop into the kitchen. But Lisbeth +followed him. + +"Thee wutna go upstairs an' see thy feyther then? I'n done +everythin' now, an' he'd like thee to go an' look at him, for he +war allays so pleased when thee wast mild to him." + +Adam turned round at once and said, "Yes, mother; let us go +upstairs. Come, Seth, let us go together." + +They went upstairs, and for five minutes all was silence. Then +the key was turned again, and there was a sound of footsteps on +the stairs. But Adam did not come down again; he was too weary +and worn-out to encounter more of his mother's querulous grief, +and he went to rest on his bed. Lisbeth no sooner entered the +kitchen and sat down than she threw her apron over her head, and +began to cry and moan and rock herself as before. Seth thought, +"She will be quieter by and by, now we have been upstairs"; and he +went into the back kitchen again, to tend his little fire, hoping +that he should presently induce her to have some tea. + +Lisbeth had been rocking herself in this way for more than five +minutes, giving a low moan with every forward movement of her +body, when she suddenly felt a hand placed gently on hers, and a +sweet treble voice said to her, "Dear sister, the Lord has sent me +to see if I can be a comfort to you." + +Lisbeth paused, in a listening attitude, without removing her +apron from her face. The voice was strange to her. Could it be +her sister's spirit come back to her from the dead after all those +years? She trembled and dared not look. + +Dinah, believing that this pause of wonder was in itself a relief +for the sorrowing woman, said no more just yet, but quietly took +off her bonnet, and then, motioning silence to Seth, who, on +hearing her voice, had come in with a beating heart, laid one hand +on the back of Lisbeth's chair and leaned over her, that she might +be aware of a friendly presence. + +Slowly Lisbeth drew down her apron, and timidly she opened her dim +dark eyes. She saw nothing at first but a face--a pure, pale +face, with loving grey eyes, and it was quite unknown to her. Her +wonder increased; perhaps it WAS an angel. But in the same +instant Dinah had laid her hand on Lisbeth's again, and the old +woman looked down at it. It was a much smaller hand than her own, +but it was not white and delicate, for Dinah had never worn a +glove in her life, and her hand bore the traces of labour from her +childhood upwards. Lisbeth looked earnestly at the hand for a +moment, and then, fixing her eyes again on Dinah's face, said, +with something of restored courage, but in a tone of surprise, +"Why, ye're a workin' woman!" + +"Yes, I am Dinah Morris, and I work in the cotton-mill when I am +at home." + +"Ah!" said Lisbeth slowly, still wondering; "ye comed in so light, +like the shadow on the wall, an' spoke i' my ear, as I thought ye +might be a sperrit. Ye've got a'most the face o' one as is a- +sittin' on the grave i' Adam's new Bible." + +"I come from the Hall Farm now. You know Mrs. Poyser--she's my +aunt, and she has heard of your great affliction, and is very +sorry; and I'm come to see if I can be any help to you in your +trouble; for I know your sons Adam and Seth, and I know you have +no daughter; and when the clergyman told me how the hand of God +was heavy upon you, my heart went out towards you, and I felt a +command to come and be to you in the place of a daughter in this +grief, if you will let me." + +"Ah! I know who y' are now; y' are a Methody, like Seth; he's +tould me on you," said Lisbeth fretfully, her overpowering sense +of pain returning, now her wonder was gone. "Ye'll make it out as +trouble's a good thing, like HE allays does. But where's the use +o' talkin' to me a-that'n? Ye canna make the smart less wi' +talkin'. Ye'll ne'er make me believe as it's better for me not to +ha' my old man die in's bed, if he must die, an' ha' the parson to +pray by him, an' me to sit by him, an' tell him ne'er to mind th' +ill words I've gi'en him sometimes when I war angered, an' to gi' +him a bit an' a sup, as long as a bit an' a sup he'd swallow. But +eh! To die i' the cold water, an' us close to him, an' ne'er to +know; an' me a-sleepin', as if I ne'er belonged to him no more nor +if he'd been a journeyman tramp from nobody knows where!" + +Here Lisbeth began to cry and rock herself again; and Dinah said, +"Yes, dear friend, your affliction is great. It would be hardness +of heart to say that your trouble was not heavy to bear. God +didn't send me to you to make light of your sorrow, but to mourn +with you, if you will let me. If you had a table spread for a +feast, and was making merry with your friends, you would think it +was kind to let me come and sit down and rejoice with you, because +you'd think I should like to share those good things; but I should +like better to share in your trouble and your labour, and it would +seem harder to me if you denied me that. You won't send me away? +You're not angry with me for coming?" + +"Nay, nay; angered! who said I war angered? It war good on you to +come. An' Seth, why donna ye get her some tay? Ye war in a hurry +to get some for me, as had no need, but ye donna think o' gettin' +'t for them as wants it. Sit ye down; sit ye down. I thank you +kindly for comin', for it's little wage ye get by walkin' through +the wet fields to see an old woman like me....Nay, I'n got no +daughter o' my own--ne'er had one--an' I warna sorry, for they're +poor queechy things, gells is; I allays wanted to ha' lads, as +could fend for theirsens. An' the lads 'ull be marryin'--I shall +ha' daughters eno', an' too many. But now, do ye make the tay as +ye like it, for I'n got no taste i' my mouth this day--it's all +one what I swaller--it's all got the taste o' sorrow wi't." + +Dinah took care not to betray that she had had her tea, and +accepted Lisbeth's invitation very readily, for the sake of +persuading the old woman herself to take the food and drink she so +much needed after a day of hard work and fasting. + +Seth was so happy now Dinah was in the house that he could not +help thinking her presence was worth purchasing with a life in +which grief incessantly followed upon grief; but the next moment +he reproached himself--it was almost as if he were rejoicing in +his father's sad death. Nevertheless the joy of being with Dinah +WOULD triumph--it was like the influence of climate, which no +resistance can overcome. And the feeling even suffused itself +over his face so as to attract his mother's notice, while she was +drinking her tea. + +"Thee may'st well talk o' trouble bein' a good thing, Seth, for +thee thriv'st on't. Thee look'st as if thee know'dst no more o' +care an' cumber nor when thee wast a babby a-lyin' awake i' th' +cradle. For thee'dst allays lie still wi' thy eyes open, an' Adam +ne'er 'ud lie still a minute when he wakened. Thee wast allays +like a bag o' meal as can ne'er be bruised--though, for the matter +o' that, thy poor feyther war just such another. But ye've got +the same look too" (here Lisbeth turned to Dinah). "I reckon it's +wi' bein' a Methody. Not as I'm a-findin' faut wi' ye for't, for +ye've no call to be frettin', an' somehow ye looken sorry too. +Eh! Well, if the Methodies are fond o' trouble, they're like to +thrive: it's a pity they canna ha't all, an' take it away from +them as donna like it. I could ha' gi'en 'em plenty; for when I'd +gotten my old man I war worreted from morn till night; and now +he's gone, I'd be glad for the worst o'er again." + +"Yes," said Dinah, careful not to oppose any feeling of Lisbeth's, +for her reliance, in her smallest words and deeds, on a divine +guidance, always issued in that finest woman's tact which proceeds +from acute and ready sympathy; "yes, I remember too, when my dear +aunt died, I longed for the sound of her bad cough in the nights, +instead of the silence that came when she was gone. But now, dear +friend, drink this other cup of tea and eat a little more." + +"What!" said Lisbeth, taking the cup and speaking in a less +querulous tone, "had ye got no feyther and mother, then, as ye war +so sorry about your aunt?" + +"No, I never knew a father or mother; my aunt brought me up from a +baby. She had no children, for she was never married and she +brought me up as tenderly as if I'd been her own child." + +"Eh, she'd fine work wi' ye, I'll warrant, bringin' ye up from a +babby, an' her a lone woman--it's ill bringin' up a cade lamb. +But I daresay ye warna franzy, for ye look as if ye'd ne'er been +angered i' your life. But what did ye do when your aunt died, an' +why didna ye come to live in this country, bein' as Mrs. Poyser's +your aunt too?" + +Dinah, seeing that Lisbeth's attention was attracted, told her the +story of her early life--how she had been brought up to work hard, +and what sort of place Snowfield was, and how many people had a +hard life there--all the details that she thought likely to +interest Lisbeth. The old woman listened, and forgot to be +fretful, unconsciously subject to the soothing influence of +Dinah's face and voice. After a while she was persuaded to let +the kitchen be made tidy; for Dinah was bent on this, believing +that the sense of order and quietude around her would help in +disposing Lisbeth to join in the prayer she longed to pour forth +at her side. Seth, meanwhile, went out to chop wood, for he +surmised that Dinah would like to be left alone with his mother. + +Lisbeth sat watching her as she moved about in her still quick +way, and said at last, "Ye've got a notion o' cleanin' up. I +wouldna mind ha'in ye for a daughter, for ye wouldna spend the +lad's wage i' fine clothes an' waste. Ye're not like the lasses +o' this countryside. I reckon folks is different at Snowfield +from what they are here." + +"They have a different sort of life, many of 'em," said Dinah; +"they work at different things--some in the mill, and many in the +mines, in the villages round about. But the heart of man is the +same everywhere, and there are the children of this world and the +children of light there as well as elsewhere. But we've many more +Methodists there than in this country." + +"Well, I didna know as the Methody women war like ye, for there's +Will Maskery's wife, as they say's a big Methody, isna pleasant to +look at, at all. I'd as lief look at a tooad. An' I'm thinkin' I +wouldna mind if ye'd stay an' sleep here, for I should like to see +ye i' th' house i' th' mornin'. But mayhappen they'll be lookin +for ye at Mester Poyser's." + +"No," said Dinah, "they don't expect me, and I should like to +stay, if you'll let me." + +"Well, there's room; I'n got my bed laid i' th' little room o'er +the back kitchen, an' ye can lie beside me. I'd be glad to ha' ye +wi' me to speak to i' th' night, for ye've got a nice way o' +talkin'. It puts me i' mind o' the swallows as was under the +thack last 'ear when they fust begun to sing low an' soft-like i' +th' mornin'. Eh, but my old man war fond o' them birds! An' so +war Adam, but they'n ne'er comed again this 'ear. Happen THEY'RE +dead too." + +"There," said Dinah, "now the kitchen looks tidy, and now, dear +Mother--for I'm your daughter to-night, you know--I should like +you to wash your face and have a clean cap on. Do you remember +what David did, when God took away his child from him? While the +child was yet alive he fasted and prayed to God to spare it, and +he would neither eat nor drink, but lay on the ground all night, +beseeching God for the child. But when he knew it was dead, he +rose up from the ground and washed and anointed himself, and +changed his clothes, and ate and drank; and when they asked him +how it was that he seemed to have left off grieving now the child +was dead, he said, 'While the child was yet alive, I fasted and +wept; for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, +that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I +fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he +shall not return to me.'" + +"Eh, that's a true word," said Lisbeth. "Yea, my old man wonna +come back to me, but I shall go to him--the sooner the better. +Well, ye may do as ye like wi' me: there's a clean cap i' that +drawer, an' I'll go i' the back kitchen an' wash my face. An' +Seth, thee may'st reach down Adam's new Bible wi' th' picters in, +an' she shall read us a chapter. Eh, I like them words--'I shall +go to him, but he wonna come back to me.'" + +Dinah and Seth were both inwardly offering thanks for the greater +quietness of spirit that had come over Lisbeth. This was what +Dinah had been trying to bring about, through all her still +sympathy and absence from exhortation. From her girlhood upwards +she had had experience among the sick and the mourning, among +minds hardened and shrivelled through poverty and ignorance, and +had gained the subtlest perception of the mode in which they could +best be touched and softened into willingness to receive words of +spiritual consolation or warning. As Dinah expressed it, "she was +never left to herself; but it was always given her when to keep +silence and when to speak." And do we not all agree to call rapid +thought and noble impulse by the name of inspiration? After our +subtlest analysis of the mental process, we must still say, as +Dinah did, that our highest thoughts and our best deeds are all +given to us. + +And so there was earnest prayer--there was faith, love, and hope +pouring forth that evening in the littie kitchen. And poor, aged, +fretful Lisbeth, without grasping any distinct idea, without going +through any course of religious emotions, felt a vague sense of +goodness and love, and of something right lying underneath and +beyond all this sorrowing life. She couldn't understand the +sorrow; but, for these moments, under the subduing influence of +Dinah's spirit, she felt that she must be patient and still. + + + +Chapter XI + +In the Cottage + + +IT was but half-past four the next morning when Dinah, tired of +lying awake listening to the birds and watching the growing light +through the little window in the garret roof, rose and began to +dress herself very quietly, lest she should disturb Lisbeth. But +already some one else was astir in the house, and had gone +downstairs, preceded by Gyp. The dog's pattering step was a sure +sign that it was Adam who went down; but Dinah was not aware of +this, and she thought it was more likely to be Seth, for he had +told her how Adam had stayed up working the night before. Seth, +however, had only just awakened at the sound of the opening door. +The exciting influence of the previous day, heightened at last by +Dinah's unexpected presence, had not been counteracted by any +bodily weariness, for he had not done his ordinary amount of hard +work; and so when he went to bed; it was not till he had tired +himself with hours of tossing wakefulness that drowsiness came, +and led on a heavier morning sleep than was usual with him. + +But Adam had been refreshed by his long rest, and with his +habitual impatience of mere passivity, he was eager to begin the +new day and subdue sadness by his strong will and strong arm. The +white mist lay in the valley; it was going to be a bright warm +day, and he would start to work again when he had had his +breakfast. + +"There's nothing but what's bearable as long as a man can work," +he said to himself; "the natur o' things doesn't change, though it +seems as if one's own life was nothing but change. The square o' +four is sixteen, and you must lengthen your lever in proportion to +your weight, is as true when a man's miserable as when he's happy; +and the best o' working is, it gives you a grip hold o' things +outside your own lot." + +As he dashed the cold water over his head and face, he felt +completely himself again, and with his black eyes as keen as ever +and his thick black hair all glistening with the fresh moisture, +he went into the workshop to look out the wood for his father's +coffin, intending that he and Seth should carry it with them to +Jonathan Burge's and have the coffin made by one of the workmen +there, so that his mother might not see and hear the sad task +going forward at home. + +He had just gone into the workshop when his quick ear detected a +light rapid foot on the stairs--certainly not his mother's. He +had been in bed and asleep when Dinah had come in, in the evening, +and now he wondered whose step this could be. A foolish thought +came, and moved him strangely. As if it could be Hetty! She was +the last person likely to be in the house. And yet he felt +reluctant to go and look and have the clear proof that it was some +one else. He stood leaning on a plank he had taken hold of, +listening to sounds which his imagination interpreted for him so +pleasantly that the keen strong face became suffused with a timid +tenderness. The light footstep moved about the kitchen, followed +by the sound of the sweeping brush, hardly making so much noise as +the lightest breeze that chases the autumn leaves along the dusty +path; and Adam's imagination saw a dimpled face, with dark bright +eyes and roguish smiles looking backward at this brush, and a +rounded figure just leaning a little to clasp the handle. A very +foolish thought--it could not be Hetty; but the only way of +dismissing such nonsense from his head was to go and see WHO it +was, for his fancy only got nearer and nearer to belief while he +stood there listening. He loosed the plank and went to the +kitchen door. + +"How do you do, Adam Bede?" said Dinah, in her calm treble, +pausing from her sweeping and fixing her mild grave eyes upon him. +"I trust you feel rested and strengthened again to bear the burden +and heat of the day." + +It was like dreaming of the sunshine and awaking in the moonlight. +Adam had seen Dinah several times, but always at the Hall Farm, +where he was not very vividly conscious of any woman's presence +except Hetty's, and he had only in the last day or two begun to +suspect that Seth was in love with her, so that his attention had +not hitherto been drawn towards her for his brother's sake. But +now her slim figure, her plain black gown, and her pale serene +face impressed him with all the force that belongs to a reality +contrasted with a preoccupying fancy. For the first moment or two +he made no answer, but looked at her with the concentrated, +examining glance which a man gives to an object in which he has +suddenly begun to be interested. Dinah, for the first time in her +life, felt a painful self-consciousness; there was something in +the dark penetrating glance of this strong man so different from +the mildness and timidity of his brother Seth. A faint blush +came, which deepened as she wondered at it. This blush recalled +Adam from his forgetfulness. + +"I was quite taken by surprise; it was very good of you to come +and see my mother in her trouble," he said, in a gentle grateful +tone, for his quick mind told him at once how she came to be +there. "I hope my mother was thankful to have you," he added, +wondering rather anxiously what had been Dinah's reception. + +"Yes," said Dinah, resuming her work, "she seemed greatly +comforted after a while, and she's had a good deal of rest in the +night, by times. She was fast asleep when I left her." + +"Who was it took the news to the Hall Farm?" said Adam, his +thoughts reverting to some one there; he wondered whether SHE had +felt anything about it. + +"It was Mr. Irwine, the clergyman, told me, and my aunt was +grieved for your mother when she heard it, and wanted me to come; +and so is my uncle, I'm sure, now he's heard it, but he was gone +out to Rosseter all yesterday. They'll look for you there as soon +as you've got time to go, for there's nobody round that hearth but +what's glad to see you." + +Dinah, with her sympathetic divination, knew quite well that Adam +was longing to hear if Hetty had said anything about their +trouble; she was too rigorously truthful for benevolent invention, +but she had contrived to say something in which Hetty was tacitly +included. Love has a way of cheating itself consciously, like a +child who plays at solitary hide-and-seek; it is pleased with +assurances that it all the while disbelieves. Adam liked what +Dinah had said so much that his mind was directly full of the next +visit he should pay to the Hall Farm, when Hetty would perhaps +behave more kindly to him than she had ever done before. + +"But you won't be there yourself any longer?" he said to Dinah. + +"No, I go back to Snowfield on Saturday, and I shall have to set +out to Treddleston early, to be in time for the Oakbourne carrier. +So I must go back to the farm to-night, that I may have the last +day with my aunt and her children. But I can stay here all to- +day, if your mother would like me; and her heart seemed inclined +towards me last night." + +"Ah, then, she's sure to want you to-day. If mother takes to +people at the beginning, she's sure to get fond of 'em; but she's +a strange way of not liking young women. Though, to be sure," +Adam went on, smiling, "her not liking other young women is no +reason why she shouldn't like you." + +Hitherto Gyp had been assisting at this conversation in motionless +silence, seated on his haunches, and alternately looking up in his +master's face to watch its expression and observing Dinah's +movements about the kitchen. The kind smile with which Adam +uttered the last words was apparently decisive with Gyp of the +light in which the stranger was to be regarded, and as she turned +round after putting aside her sweeping-brush, he trotted towards +her and put up his muzzle against her hand in a friendly way. + +"You see Gyp bids you welcome," said Adam, "and he's very slow to +welcome strangers." + +"Poor dog!" said Dinah, patting the rough grey coat, "I've a +strange feeling about the dumb things as if they wanted to speak, +and it was a trouble to 'em because they couldn't. I can't help +being sorry for the dogs always, though perhaps there's no need. +But they may well have more in them than they know how to make us +understand, for we can't say half what we feel, with all our +words." + +Seth came down now, and was pleased to find Adam talking with +Dinah; he wanted Adam to know how much better she was than all +other women. But after a few words of greeting, Adam drew him +into the workshop to consult about the coffin, and Dinah went on +with her cleaning. + +By six o'clock they were all at breakfast with Lisbeth in a +kitchen as clean as she could have made it herself. The window +and door were open, and the morning air brought with it a mingled +scent of southernwood, thyme, and sweet-briar from the patch of +garden by the side of the cottage. Dinah did not sit down at +first, but moved about, serving the others with the warm porridge +and the toasted oat-cake, which she had got ready in the usual +way, for she had asked Seth to tell her just what his mother gave +them for breakfast. Lisbeth had been unusually silent since she +came downstairs, apparently requiring some time to adjust her +ideas to a state of things in which she came down like a lady to +find all the work done, and sat still to be waited on. Her new +sensations seemed to exclude the remembrance of her grief. At +last, after tasting the porridge, she broke silence: + +"Ye might ha' made the parridge worse," she said to Dinah; "I can +ate it wi'out its turnin' my stomach. It might ha' been a trifle +thicker an' no harm, an' I allays putten a sprig o' mint in mysen; +but how's ye t' know that? The lads arena like to get folks as +'ll make their parridge as I'n made it for 'em; it's well if they +get onybody as 'll make parridge at all. But ye might do, wi' a +bit o' showin'; for ye're a stirrin' body in a mornin', an' ye've +a light heel, an' ye've cleaned th' house well enough for a +ma'shift." + +"Makeshift, mother?" said Adam. "Why, I think the house looks +beautiful. I don't know how it could look better." + +"Thee dostna know? Nay; how's thee to know? Th' men ne'er know +whether the floor's cleaned or cat-licked. But thee'lt know when +thee gets thy parridge burnt, as it's like enough to be when I'n +gi'en o'er makin' it. Thee'lt think thy mother war good for +summat then." + +"Dinah," said Seth, "do come and sit down now and have your +breakfast. We're all served now." + +"Aye, come an' sit ye down--do," said Lisbeth, "an' ate a morsel; +ye'd need, arter bein' upo' your legs this hour an' half a'ready. +Come, then," she added, in a tone of complaining affection, as +Dinah sat down by her side, "I'll be loath for ye t' go, but ye +canna stay much longer, I doubt. I could put up wi' ye i' th' +house better nor wi' most folks." + +"I'll stay till to-night if you're willing," said Dinah. "I'd +stay longer, only I'm going back to Snowfield on Saturday, and I +must be with my aunt to-morrow." + +"Eh, I'd ne'er go back to that country. My old man come from that +Stonyshire side, but he left it when he war a young un, an' i' the +right on't too; for he said as there war no wood there, an' it 'ud +ha' been a bad country for a carpenter." + +"Ah," said Adam, "I remember father telling me when I was a little +lad that he made up his mind if ever he moved it should be +south'ard. But I'm not so sure about it. Bartle Massey says--and +he knows the South--as the northern men are a finer breed than the +southern, harder-headed and stronger-bodied, and a deal taller. +And then he says in some o' those counties it's as flat as the +back o' your hand, and you can see nothing of a distance without +climbing up the highest trees. I couldn't abide that. I like to +go to work by a road that'll take me up a bit of a hill, and see +the fields for miles round me, and a bridge, or a town, or a bit +of a steeple here and there. It makes you feel the world's a big +place, and there's other men working in it with their heads and +hands besides yourself." + +"I like th' hills best," said Seth, "when the clouds are over your +head and you see the sun shining ever so far off, over the +Loamford way, as I've often done o' late, on the stormy days. It +seems to me as if that was heaven where there's always joy and +sunshine, though this life's dark and cloudy." + +"Oh, I love the Stonyshire side," said Dinah; "I shouldn't like to +set my face towards the countries where they're rich in corn and +cattle, and the ground so level and easy to tread; and to turn my +back on the hills where the poor people have to live such a hard +life and the men spend their days in the mines away from the +sunlight. It's very blessed on a bleak cold day, when the sky is +hanging dark over the hill, to feel the love of God in one's soul, +and carry it to the lonely, bare, stone houses, where there's +nothing else to give comfort." + +"Eh!" said Lisbeth, "that's very well for ye to talk, as looks +welly like the snowdrop-flowers as ha' lived for days an' days +when I'n gethered 'em, wi' nothin' but a drop o' water an' a peep +o' daylight; but th' hungry foulks had better leave th' hungry +country. It makes less mouths for the scant cake. But," she went +on, looking at Adam, "donna thee talk o' goin' south'ard or +north'ard, an' leavin' thy feyther and mother i' the churchyard, +an' goin' to a country as they know nothin' on. I'll ne'er rest +i' my grave if I donna see thee i' the churchyard of a Sunday." + +"Donna fear, mother," said Adam. "If I hadna made up my mind not +to go, I should ha' been gone before now." + +He had finished his breakfast now, and rose as he was speaking. + +"What art goin' to do?" asked Lisbeth. "Set about thy feyther's +coffin?" + +"No, mother," said Adam; "we're going to take the wood to the +village and have it made there." + +"Nay, my lad, nay," Lisbeth burst out in an eager, wailing tone; +"thee wotna let nobody make thy feyther's coffin but thysen? +Who'd make it so well? An' him as know'd what good work war, an's +got a son as is the head o' the village an' all Treddles'on too, +for cleverness." + +"Very well, mother, if that's thy wish, I'll make the coffin at +home; but I thought thee wouldstna like to hear the work going +on." + +"An' why shouldna I like 't? It's the right thing to be done. +An' what's liking got to do wi't? It's choice o' mislikings is +all I'n got i' this world. One morsel's as good as another when +your mouth's out o' taste. Thee mun set about it now this mornin' +fust thing. I wonna ha' nobody to touch the coffin but thee." + +Adam's eyes met Seth's, which looked from Dinah to him rather +wistfully. + +"No, Mother," he said, "I'll not consent but Seth shall have a +hand in it too, if it's to be done at home. I'll go to the +village this forenoon, because Mr. Burge 'ull want to see me, and +Seth shall stay at home and begin the coffin. I can come back at +noon, and then he can go." + +"Nay, nay," persisted Lisbeth, beginning to cry, "I'n set my heart +on't as thee shalt ma' thy feyther's coffin. Thee't so stiff an' +masterful, thee't ne'er do as thy mother wants thee. Thee wast +often angered wi' thy feyther when he war alive; thee must be the +better to him now he's gone. He'd ha' thought nothin' on't for +Seth to ma's coffin." + +"Say no more, Adam, say no more," said Seth, gently, though his +voice told that he spoke with some effort; "Mother's in the right. +I'll go to work, and do thee stay at home." + +He passed into the workshop immediately, followed by Adam; while +Lisbeth, automatically obeying her old habits, began to put away +the breakfast things, as if she did not mean Dinah to take her +place any longer. Dinah said nothing, but presently used the +opportunity of quietly joining the brothers in the workshop. + +They had already got on their aprons and paper caps, and Adam was +standing with his left hand on Seth's shoulder, while he pointed +with the hammer in his right to some boards which they were +looking at. Their backs were turned towards the door by which +Dinah entered, and she came in so gently that they were not aware +of her presence till they heard her voice saying, "Seth Bede!" +Seth started, and they both turned round. Dinah looked as if she +did not see Adam, and fixed her eyes on Seth's face, saying with +calm kindness, "I won't say farewell. I shall see you again when +you come from work. So as I'm at the farm before dark, it will be +quite soon enough." + +"Thank you, Dinah; I should like to walk home with you once more. +It'll perhaps be the last time." + +There was a little tremor in Seth's voice. Dinah put out her hand +and said, "You'll have sweet peace in your mind to-day, Seth, for +your tenderness and long-suffering towards your aged mother." + +She turned round and left the workshop as quickly and quietly as +she had entered it. Adam had been observing her closely all the +while, but she had not looked at him. As soon as she was gone, he +said, "I don't wonder at thee for loving her, Seth. She's got a +face like a lily." + +Seth's soul rushed to his eyes and lips: he had never yet +confessed his secret to Adam, but now he felt a delicious sense of +disburdenment, as he answered, "Aye, Addy, I do love her--too +much, I doubt. But she doesna love me, lad, only as one child o' +God loves another. She'll never love any man as a husband--that's +my belief." + +"Nay, lad, there's no telling; thee mustna lose heart. She's made +out o' stuff with a finer grain than most o' the women; I can see +that clear enough. But if she's better than they are in other +things, I canna think she'll fall short of 'em in loving." + +No more was said. Seth set out to the village, and Adam began his +work on the coffin. + +"God help the lad, and me too," he thought, as he lifted the +board. "We're like enough to find life a tough job--hard work +inside and out. It's a strange thing to think of a man as can +lift a chair with his teeth and walk fifty mile on end, trembling +and turning hot and cold at only a look from one woman out of all +the rest i' the world. It's a mystery we can give no account of; +but no more we can of the sprouting o' the seed, for that matter." + + + +Chapter XII + +In the Wood + + +THAT same Thursday morning, as Arthur Donnithorne was moving about +in his dressing-room seeing his well-looking British person +reflected in the old-fashioned mirrors, and stared at, from a +dingy olive-green piece of tapestry, by Pharaoh's daughter and her +maidens, who ought to have been minding the infant Moses, he was +holding a discussion with himself, which, by the time his valet +was tying the black silk sling over his shoulder, had issued in a +distinct practical resolution. + +"I mean to go to Eagledale and fish for a week or so," he said +aloud. "I shall take you with me, Pym, and set off this morning; +so be ready by half-past eleven." + +The low whistle, which had assisted him in arriving at this +resolution, here broke out into his loudest ringing tenor, and the +corridor, as he hurried along it, echoed to his favourite song +from the Beggar's Opera, "When the heart of a man is oppressed +with care." Not an heroic strain; nevertheless Arthur felt +himself very heroic as he strode towards the stables to give his +orders about the horses. His own approbation was necessary to +him, and it was not an approbation to be enjoyed quite +gratuitously; it must be won by a fair amount of merit. He had +never yet forfeited that approbation, and he had considerable +reliance on his own virtues. No young man could confess his +faults more candidly; candour was one of his favourite virtues; +and how can a man's candour be seen in all its lustre unless he +has a few failings to talk of? But he had an agreeable confidence +that his faults were all of a generous kind--impetuous, warm- +blooded, leonine; never crawling, crafty, reptilian. It was not +possible for Arthur Donnithorne to do anything mean, dastardly, or +cruel. "No! I'm a devil of a fellow for getting myself into a +hobble, but I always take care the load shall fall on my own +shoulders." Unhappily, there is no inherent poetical justice in +hobbles, and they will sometimes obstinately refuse to inflict +their worst consequences on the prime offender, in spite of his +loudly expressed wish. It was entirely owing to this deficiency +in the scheme of things that Arthur had ever brought any one into +trouble besides himself. He was nothing if not good-natured; and +all his pictures of the future, when he should come into the +estate, were made up of a prosperous, contented tenantry, adoring +their landlord, who would be the model of an English gentleman-- +mansion in first-rate order, all elegance and high taste--jolly +housekeeping, finest stud in Loamshire--purse open to all public +objects--in short, everything as different as possible from what +was now associated with the name of Donnithorne. And one of the +first good actions he would perform in that future should be to +increase Irwine's income for the vicarage of Hayslope, so that he +might keep a carriage for his mother and sisters. His hearty +affection for the rector dated from the age of frocks and +trousers. It was an affection partly filial, partly fraternal-- +fraternal enough to make him like Irwine's company better than +that of most younger men, and filial enough to make him shrink +strongly from incurring Irwine's disapprobation. + +You perceive that Arthur Donnithorne was "a good fellow"--all his +college friends thought him such. He couldn't bear to see any one +uncomfortable; he would have been sorry even in his angriest moods +for any harm to happen to his grandfather; and his Aunt Lydia +herself had the benefit of that soft-heartedness which he bore +towards the whole sex. Whether he would have self-mastery enough +to be always as harmless and purely beneficent as his good-nature +led him to desire, was a question that no one had yet decided +against him; he was but twenty-one, you remember, and we don't +inquire too closely into character in the case of a handsome +generous young fellow, who will have property enough to support +numerous peccadilloes--who, if he should unfortunately break a +man's legs in his rash driving, will be able to pension him +handsomely; or if he should happen to spoil a woman's existence +for her, will make it up to her with expensive bon-bons, packed up +and directed by his own hand. It would be ridiculous to be prying +and analytic in such cases, as if one were inquiring into the +character of a confidential clerk. We use round, general, +gentlemanly epithets about a young man of birth and fortune; and +ladies, with that fine intuition which is the distinguishing +attribute of their sex, see at once that he is "nice." The +chances are that he will go through life without scandalizing any +one; a seaworthy vessel that no one would refuse to insure. +Ships, certainly, are liable to casualties, which sometimes make +terribly evident some flaw in their construction that would never +have been discoverable in smooth water; and many a "good fellow," +through a disastrous combination of circumstances, has undergone a +like betrayal. + +But we have no fair ground for entertaining unfavourable auguries +concerning Arthur Donnithorne, who this morning proves himself +capable of a prudent resolution founded on conscience. One thing +is clear: Nature has taken care that he shall never go far astray +with perfect comfort and satisfaction to himself; he will never +get beyond that border-land of sin, where he will be perpetually +harassed by assaults from the other side of the boundary. He will +never be a courtier of Vice, and wear her orders in his button- +hole. + +It was about ten o'clock, and the sun was shining brilliantly; +everything was looking lovelier for the yesterday's rain. It is a +pleasant thing on such a morning to walk along the well-rolled +gravel on one's way to the stables, meditating an excursion. But +the scent of the stables, which, in a natural state of things, +ought to be among the soothing influences of a man's life, always +brought with it some irritation to Arthur. There was no having +his own way in the stables; everything was managed in the +stingiest fashion. His grandfather persisted in retaining as head +groom an old dolt whom no sort of lever could move out of his old +habits, and who was allowed to hire a succession of raw Loamshire +lads as his subordinates, one of whom had lately tested a new pair +of shears by clipping an oblong patch on Arthur's bay mare. This +state of things is naturally embittering; one can put up with +annoyances in the house, but to have the stable made a scene of +vexation and disgust is a point beyond what human flesh and blood +can be expected to endure long together without danger of +misanthropy. + +Old John's wooden, deep-wrinkled face was the first object that +met Arthur's eyes as he entered the stable-yard, and it quite +poisoned for him the bark of the two bloodhounds that kept watch +there. He could never speak quite patiently to the old blockhead. + +"You must have Meg saddled for me and brought to the door at half- +past eleven, and I shall want Rattler saddled for Pym at the same +time. Do you hear?" + +"Yes, I hear, I hear, Cap'n," said old John very deliberately, +following the young master into the stable. John considered a +young master as the natural enemy of an old servant, and young +people in general as a poor contrivance for carrying on the world. + +Arthur went in for the sake of patting Meg, declining as far as +possible to see anything in the stables, lest he should lose his +temper before breakfast. The pretty creature was in one of the +inner stables, and turned her mild head as her master came beside +her. Little Trot, a tiny spaniel, her inseparable companion in +the stable, was comfortably curled up on her back. + +"Well, Meg, my pretty girl," said Arthur, patting her neck, "we'll +have a glorious canter this morning." + +"Nay, your honour, I donna see as that can be," said John. + +"Not be? Why not?" + +"Why, she's got lamed." + +"Lamed, confound you! What do you mean?" + +"Why, th' lad took her too close to Dalton's hosses, an' one on +'em flung out at her, an' she's got her shank bruised o' the near +foreleg." + +The judicious historian abstains from narrating precisely what +ensued. You understand that there was a great deal of strong +language, mingled with soothing "who-ho's" while the leg was +examined; that John stood by with quite as much emotion as if he +had been a cunningly carved crab-tree walking-stick, and that +Arthur Donnithorne presently repassed the iron gates of the +pleasure-ground without singing as he went. + +He considered himself thoroughly disappointed and annoyed. There +was not another mount in the stable for himself and his servant +besides Meg and Rattler. It was vexatious; just when he wanted to +get out of the way for a week or two. It seemed culpable in +Providence to allow such a combination of circumstances. To be +shut up at the Chase with a broken arm when every other fellow in +his regiment was enjoying himself at Windsor--shut up with his +grandfather, who had the same sort of affection for him as for his +parchment deeds! And to be disgusted at every turn with the +management of the house and the estate! In such circumstances a +man necessarily gets in an ill humour, and works off the +irritation by some excess or other. "Salkeld would have drunk a +bottle of port every day," he muttered to himself, "but I'm not +well seasoned enough for that. Well, since I can't go to +Eagledale, I'll have a gallop on Rattler to Norburne this morning, +and lunch with Gawaine." + +Behind this explicit resolution there lay an implicit one. If he +lunched with Gawaine and lingered chatting, he should not reach +the Chase again till nearly five, when Hetty would be safe out of +his sight in the housekeeper's room; and when she set out to go +home, it would be his lazy time after dinner, so he should keep +out of her way altogether. There really would have been no harm +in being kind to the little thing, and it was worth dancing with a +dozen ballroom belles only to look at Hetty for half an hour. But +perhaps he had better not take any more notice of her; it might +put notions into her head, as Irwine had hinted; though Arthur, +for his part, thought girls were not by any means so soft and +easily bruised; indeed, he had generally found them twice as cool +and cunning as he was himself. As for any real harm in Hetty's +case, it was out of the question: Arthur Donnithorne accepted his +own bond for himself with perfect confidence. + +So the twelve o'clock sun saw him galloping towards Norburne; and +by good fortune Halsell Common lay in his road and gave him some +fine leaps for Rattler. Nothing like "taking" a few bushes and +ditches for exorcising a demon; and it is really astonishing that +the Centaurs, with their immense advantages in this way, have left +so bad a reputation in history. + +After this, you will perhaps be surprised to hear that although +Gawaine was at home, the hand of the dial in the courtyard had +scarcely cleared the last stroke of three when Arthur returned +through the entrance-gates, got down from the panting Rattler, and +went into the house to take a hasty luncheon. But I believe there +have been men since his day who have ridden a long way to avoid a +rencontre, and then galloped hastily back lest they should miss +it. It is the favourite stratagem of our passions to sham a +retreat, and to turn sharp round upon us at the moment we have +made up our minds that the day is our own. + +"The cap'n's been ridin' the devil's own pace," said Dalton the +coachman, whose person stood out in high relief as he smoked his +pipe against the stable wall, when John brought up Rattler. + +"An' I wish he'd get the devil to do's grooming for'n," growled +John. + +"Aye; he'd hev a deal haimabler groom nor what he has now," +observed Dalton--and the joke appeared to him so good that, being +left alone upon the scene, he continued at intervals to take his +pipe from his mouth in order to wink at an imaginary audience and +shake luxuriously with a silent, ventral laughter, mentally +rehearsing the dialogue from the beginning, that he might recite +it with effect in the servants' hall. + +When Arthur went up to his dressing-room again after luncheon, it +was inevitable that the debate he had had with himself there +earlier in the day should flash across his mind; but it was +impossible for him now to dwell on the remembrance--impossible to +recall the feelings and reflections which had been decisive with +him then, any more than to recall the peculiar scent of the air +that had freshened him when he first opened his window. The +desire to see Hetty had rushed back like an ill-stemmed current; +he was amazed himself at the force with which this trivial fancy +seemed to grasp him: he was even rather tremulous as he brushed +his hair--pooh! it was riding in that break-neck way. It was +because he had made a serious affair of an idle matter, by +thinking of it as if it were of any consequence. He would amuse +himself by seeing Hetty to-day, and get rid of the whole thing +from his mind. It was all Irwine's fault. "If Irwine had said +nothing, I shouldn't have thought half so much of Hetty as of +Meg's lameness." However, it was just the sort of day for lolling +in the Hermitage, and he would go and finish Dr. Moore's Zeluco +there before dinner. The Hermitage stood in Fir-tree Grove--the +way Hetty was sure to come in walking from the Hall Farm. So +nothing could be simpler and more natural: meeting Hetty was a +mere circumstance of his walk, not its object. + +Arthur's shadow flitted rather faster among the sturdy oaks of the +Chase than might have been expected from the shadow of a tired man +on a warm afternoon, and it was still scarcely four o'clock when +he stood before the tall narrow gate leading into the delicious +labyrinthine wood which skirted one side of the Chase, and which +was called Fir-tree Grove, not because the firs were many, but +because they were few. It was a wood of beeches and limes, with +here and there a light silver-stemmed birch--just the sort of wood +most haunted by the nymphs: you see their white sunlit limbs +gleaming athwart the boughs, or peeping from behind the smooth- +sweeping outline of a tall lime; you hear their soft liquid +laughter--but if you look with a too curious sacrilegious eye, +they vanish behind the silvery beeches, they make you believe that +their voice was only a running brooklet, perhaps they metamorphose +themselves into a tawny squirrel that scampers away and mocks you +from the topmost bough. It was not a grove with measured grass or +rolled gravel for you to tread upon, but with narrow, hollow- +shaped, earthy paths, edged with faint dashes of delicate moss-- +paths which look as if they were made by the free will of the +trees and underwood, moving reverently aside to look at the tall +queen of the white-footed nymphs. + +It was along the broadest of these paths that Arthur Donnithorne +passed, under an avenue of limes and beeches. It was a still +afternoon--the golden light was lingering languidly among the +upper boughs, only glancing down here and there on the purple +pathway and its edge of faintly sprinkled moss: an afternoon in +which destiny disguises her cold awful face behind a hazy radiant +veil, encloses us in warm downy wings, and poisons us with violet- +scented breath. Arthur strolled along carelessly, with a book +under his arm, but not looking on the ground as meditative men are +apt to do; his eyes WOULD fix themselves on the distant bend in +the road round which a little figure must surely appear before +long. Ah! There she comes. First a bright patch of colour, like +a tropic bird among the boughs; then a tripping figure, with a +round hat on, and a small basket under her arm; then a deep- +blushing, almost frightened, but bright-smiling girl, making her +curtsy with a fluttered yet happy glance, as Arthur came up to +her. If Arthur had had time to think at all, he would have +thought it strange that he should feel fluttered too, be conscious +of blushing too--in fact, look and feel as foolish as if he had +been taken by surprise instead of meeting just what he expected. +Poor things! It was a pity they were not in that golden age of +childhood when they would have stood face to face, eyeing each +other with timid liking, then given each other a little butterfly +kiss, and toddled off to play together. Arthur would have gone +home to his silk-curtained cot, and Hetty to her home-spun pillow, +and both would have slept without dreams, and to-morrow would have +been a life hardly conscious of a yesterday. + +Arthur turned round and walked by Hetty's side without giving a +reason. They were alone together for the first time. What an +overpowering presence that first privacy is! He actually dared +not look at this little butter-maker for the first minute or two. +As for Hetty, her feet rested on a cloud, and she was borne along +by warm zephyrs; she had forgotten her rose-coloured ribbons; she +was no more conscious of her limbs than if her childish soul had +passed into a water-lily, resting on a liquid bed and warmed by +the midsummer sun-beams. It may seem a contradiction, but Arthur +gathered a certain carelessness and confidence from his timidity: +it was an entirely different state of mind from what he had +expected in such a meeting with Hetty; and full as he was of vague +feeling, there was room, in those moments of silence, for the +thought that his previous debates and scruples were needless. + +"You are quite right to choose this way of coming to the Chase," +he said at last, looking down at Hetty; "it is so much prettier as +well as shorter than coming by either of the lodges." + +"Yes, sir," Hetty answered, with a tremulous, almost whispering +voice. She didn't know one bit how to speak to a gentleman like +Mr. Arthur, and her very vanity made her more coy of speech. + +"Do you come every week to see Mrs. Pomfret?" + +"Yes, sir, every Thursday, only when she's got to go out with Miss +Donnithorne." + +"And she's teaching you something, is she?" + +"Yes, sir, the lace-mending as she learnt abroad, and the +stocking-mending--it looks just like the stocking, you can't tell +it's been mended; and she teaches me cutting-out too." + +"What! are YOU going to be a lady's maid?" + +"I should like to be one very much indeed." Hetty spoke more +audibly now, but still rather tremulously; she thought, perhaps +she seemed as stupid to Captain Donnithorne as Luke Britton did to +her. + +"I suppose Mrs. Pomfret always expects you at this time?" + +"She expects me at four o'clock. I'm rather late to-day, because +my aunt couldn't spare me; but the regular time is four, because +that gives us time before Miss Donnithorne's bell rings." + +"Ah, then, I must not keep you now, else I should like to show you +the Hermitage. Did you ever see it?" + +"No, sir." + +"This is the walk where we turn up to it. But we must not go now. +I'll show it you some other time, if you'd like to see it." + +"Yes, please, sir." + +"Do you always come back this way in the evening, or are you +afraid to come so lonely a road?" + +"Oh no, sir, it's never late; I always set out by eight o'clock, +and it's so light now in the evening. My aunt would be angry with +me if I didn't get home before nine." + +"Perhaps Craig, the gardener, comes to take care of you?" + +A deep blush overspread Hetty's face and neck. "I'm sure he +doesn't; I'm sure he never did; I wouldn't let him; I don't like +him," she said hastily, and the tears of vexation had come so fast +that before she had done speaking a bright drop rolled down her +hot cheek. Then she felt ashamed to death that she was crying, +and for one long instant her happiness was all gone. But in the +next she felt an arm steal round her, and a gentle voice said, +"Why, Hetty, what makes you cry? I didn't mean to vex you. I +wouldn't vex you for the world, you little blossom. Come, don't +cry; look at me, else I shall think you won't forgive me." + +Arthur had laid his hand on the soft arm that was nearest to him, +and was stooping towards Hetty with a look of coaxing entreaty. +Hetty lifted her long dewy lashes, and met the eyes that were bent +towards her with a sweet, timid, beseeching look. What a space of +time those three moments were while their eyes met and his arms +touched her! Love is such a simple thing when we have only one- +and-twenty summers and a sweet girl of seventeen trembles under +our glance, as if she were a bud first opening her heart with +wondering rapture to the morning. Such young unfurrowed souls +roll to meet each other like two velvet peaches that touch softly +and are at rest; they mingle as easily as two brooklets that ask +for nothing but to entwine themselves and ripple with ever- +interlacing curves in the leafiest hiding-places. While Arthur +gazed into Hetty's dark beseeching eyes, it made no difference to +him what sort of English she spoke; and even if hoops and powder +had been in fashion, he would very likely not have been sensible +just then that Hetty wanted those signs of high breeding. + +But they started asunder with beating hearts: something had fallen +on the ground with a rattling noise; it was Hetty's basket; all +her little workwoman's matters were scattered on the path, some of +them showing a capability of rolling to great lengths. There was +much to be done in picking up, and not a word was spoken; but when +Arthur hung the basket over her arm again, the poor child felt a +strange difference in his look and manner. He just pressed her +hand, and said, with a look and tone that were almost chilling to +her, "I have been hindering you; I must not keep you any longer +now. You will be expected at the house. Good-bye." + +Without waiting for her to speak, he turned away from her and +hurried back towards the road that led to the Hermitage, leaving +Hetty to pursue her way in a strange dream that seemed to have +begun in bewildering delight and was now passing into +contrarieties and sadness. Would he meet her again as she came +home? Why had he spoken almost as if he were displeased with her? +And then run away so suddenly? She cried, hardly knowing why. + +Arthur too was very uneasy, but his feelings were lit up for him +by a more distinct consciousness. He hurried to the Hermitage, +which stood in the heart of the wood, unlocked the door with a +hasty wrench, slammed it after him, pitched Zeluco into the most +distant corner, and thrusting his right hand into his pocket, +first walked four or five times up and down the scanty length of +the little room, and then seated himself on the ottoman in an +uncomfortable stiff way, as we often do when we wish not to +abandon ourselves to feeling. + +He was getting in love with Hetty--that was quite plain. He was +ready to pitch everything else--no matter where--for the sake of +surrendering himself to this delicious feeling which had just +disclosed itself. It was no use blinking the fact now--they would +get too fond of each other, if he went on taking notice of her-- +and what would come of it? He should have to go away in a few +weeks, and the poor little thing would be miserable. He MUST NOT +see her alone again; he must keep out of her way. What a fool he +was for coming back from Gawaine's! + +He got up and threw open the windows, to let in the soft breath of +the afternoon, and the healthy scent of the firs that made a belt +round the Hermitage. The soft air did not help his resolution, as +he leaned out and looked into the leafy distance. But he +considered his resolution sufficiently fixed: there was no need to +debate with himself any longer. He had made up his mind not to +meet Hetty again; and now he might give himself up to thinking how +immensely agreeable it would be if circumstances were different-- +how pleasant it would have been to meet her this evening as she +came back, and put his arm round her again and look into her sweet +face. He wondered if the dear little thing were thinking of him +too--twenty to one she was. How beautiful her eyes were with the +tear on their lashes! He would like to satisfy his soul for a day +with looking at them, and he MUST see her again--he must see her, +simply to remove any false impression from her mind about his +manner to her just now. He would behave in a quiet, kind way to +her--just to prevent her from going home with her head full of +wrong fancies. Yes, that would be the best thing to do after all. + +It was a long while--more than an hour before Arthur had brought +his meditations to this point; but once arrived there, he could +stay no longer at the Hermitage. The time must be filled up with +movement until he should see Hetty again. And it was already late +enough to go and dress for dinner, for his grandfather's dinner- +hour was six. + + + +Chapter XIII + +Evening in the Wood + + +IT happened that Mrs. Pomfret had had a slight quarrel with Mrs. +Best, the housekeeper, on this Thursday morning--a fact which had +two consequences highly convenient to Hetty. It caused Mrs. +Pomfret to have tea sent up to her own room, and it inspired that +exemplary lady's maid with so lively a recollection of former +passages in Mrs. Best's conduct, and of dialogues in which Mrs. +Best had decidedly the inferiority as an interlocutor with Mrs. +Pomfret, that Hetty required no more presence of mind than was +demanded for using her needle, and throwing in an occasional "yes" +or "no." She would have wanted to put on her hat earlier than +usual; only she had told Captain Donnithorne that she usually set +out about eight o'clock, and if he SHOULD go to the Grove again +expecting to see her, and she should be gone! Would he come? Her +little butterfly soul fluttered incessantly between memory and +dubious expectation. At last the minute-hand of the old-fashioned +brazen-faced timepiece was on the last quarter to eight, and there +was every reason for its being time to get ready for departure. +Even Mrs. Pomfret's preoccupied mind did not prevent her from +noticing what looked like a new flush of beauty in the little +thing as she tied on her hat before the looking-glass. + +"That child gets prettier and prettier every day, I do believe," +was her inward comment. "The more's the pity. She'll get neither +a place nor a husband any the sooner for it. Sober well-to-do men +don't like such pretty wives. When I was a girl, I was more +admired than if I had been so very pretty. However, she's reason +to be grateful to me for teaching her something to get her bread +with, better than farm-house work. They always told me I was +good-natured--and that's the truth, and to my hurt too, else +there's them in this house that wouldn't be here now to lord it +over me in the housekeeper's room." + +Hetty walked hastily across the short space of pleasure-ground +which she had to traverse, dreading to meet Mr. Craig, to whom she +could hardly have spoken civilly. How relieved she was when she +had got safely under the oaks and among the fern of the Chase! +Even then she was as ready to be startled as the deer that leaped +away at her approach. She thought nothing of the evening light +that lay gently in the grassy alleys between the fern, and made +the beauty of their living green more visible than it had been in +the overpowering flood of noon: she thought of nothing that was +present. She only saw something that was possible: Mr. Arthur +Donnithorne coming to meet her again along the Fir-tree Grove. +That was the foreground of Hetty's picture; behind it lay a bright +hazy something--days that were not to be as the other days of her +life had been. It was as if she had been wooed by a river-god, +who might any time take her to his wondrous halls below a watery +heaven. There was no knowing what would come, since this strange +entrancing delight had come. If a chest full of lace and satin +and jewels had been sent her from some unknown source, how could +she but have thought that her whole lot was going to change, and +that to-morrow some still more bewildering joy would befall her? +Hetty had never read a novel; if she had ever seen one, I think +the words would have been too hard for her; how then could she +find a shape for her expectations? They were as formless as the +sweet languid odours of the garden at the Chase, which had floated +past her as she walked by the gate. + +She is at another gate now--that leading into Fir-tree Grove. She +enters the wood, where it is already twilight, and at every step +she takes, the fear at her heart becomes colder. If he should not +come! Oh, how dreary it was--the thought of going out at the +other end of the wood, into the unsheltered road, without having +seen him. She reaches the first turning towards the Hermitage, +walking slowly--he is not there. She hates the leveret that runs +across the path; she hates everything that is not what she longs +for. She walks on, happy whenever she is coming to a bend in the +road, for perhaps he is behind it. No. She is beginning to cry: +her heart has swelled so, the tears stand in her eyes; she gives +one great sob, while the corners of her mouth quiver, and the +tears roll down. + +She doesn't know that there is another turning to the Hermitage, +that she is close against it, and that Arthur Donnithorne is only +a few yards from her, full of one thought, and a thought of which +she only is the object. He is going to see Hetty again: that is +the longing which has been growing through the last three hours to +a feverish thirst. Not, of course, to speak in the caressing way +into which he had unguardedly fallen before dinner, but to set +things right with her by a kindness which would have the air of +friendly civility, and prevent her from running away with wrong +notions about their mutual relation. + +If Hetty had known he was there, she would not have cried; and it +would have been better, for then Arthur would perhaps have behaved +as wisely as he had intended. As it was, she started when he +appeared at the end of the side-alley, and looked up at him with +two great drops rolling down her cheeks. What else could he do +but speak to her in a soft, soothing tone, as if she were a +bright-eyed spaniel with a thorn in her foot? + +"Has something frightened you, Hetty? Have you seen anything in +the wood? Don't be frightened--I'll take care of you now." + +Hetty was blushing so, she didn't know whether she was happy or +miserable. To be crying again--what did gentlemen think of girls +who cried in that way? She felt unable even to say "no," but +could only look away from him and wipe the tears from her cheek. +Not before a great drop had fallen on her rose-coloured strings-- +she knew that quite well. + +"Come, be cheerful again. Smile at me, and tell me what's the +matter. Come, tell me." + +Hetty turned her head towards him, whispered, "I thought you +wouldn't come," and slowly got courage to lift her eyes to him. +That look was too much: he must have had eyes of Egyptian granite +not to look too lovingly in return. + +"You little frightened bird! Little tearful rose! Silly pet! +You won't cry again, now I'm with you, will you?" + +Ah, he doesn't know in the least what he is saying. This is not +what he meant to say. His arm is stealing round the waist again; +it is tightening its clasp; he is bending his face nearer and +nearer to the round cheek; his lips are meeting those pouting +child-lips, and for a long moment time has vanished. He may be a +shepherd in Arcadia for aught he knows, he may be the first youth +kissing the first maiden, he may be Eros himself, sipping the lips +of Psyche--it is all one. + +There was no speaking for minutes after. They walked along with +beating hearts till they came within sight of the gate at the end +of the wood. Then they looked at each other, not quite as they +had looked before, for in their eyes there was the memory of a +kiss. + +But already something bitter had begun to mingle itself with the +fountain of sweets: already Arthur was uncomfortable. He took his +arm from Hetty's waist, and said, "Here we are, almost at the end +of the Grove. I wonder how late it is," he added, pulling out his +watch. "Twenty minutes past eight--but my watch is too fast. +However, I'd better not go any further now. Trot along quickly +with your little feet, and get home safely. Good-bye." + +He took her hand, and looked at her half-sadly, half with a +constrained smile. Hetty's eyes seemed to beseech him not to go +away yet; but he patted her cheek and said "Good-bye" again. She +was obliged to turn away from him and go on. + +As for Arthur, he rushed back through the wood, as if he wanted to +put a wide space between himself and Hetty. He would not go to +the Hermitage again; he remembered how he had debated with himself +there before dinner, and it had all come to nothing--worse than +nothing. He walked right on into the Chase, glad to get out of +the Grove, which surely was haunted by his evil genius. Those +beeches and smooth limes--there was something enervating in the +very sight of them; but the strong knotted old oaks had no bending +languor in them--the sight of them would give a man some energy. +Arthur lost himself among the narrow openings in the fern, winding +about without seeking any issue, till the twilight deepened almost +to night under the great boughs, and the hare looked black as it +darted across his path. + +He was feeling much more strongly than he had done in the morning: +it was as if his horse had wheeled round from a leap and dared to +dispute his mastery. He was dissatisfied with himself, irritated, +mortified. He no sooner fixed his mind on the probable +consequences of giving way to the emotions which had stolen over +him to-day--of continuing to notice Hetty, of allowing himself any +opportunity for such slight caresses as he had been betrayed into +already--than he refused to believe such a future possible for +himself. To flirt with Hetty was a very different affair from +flirting with a pretty girl of his own station: that was +understood to be an amusement on both sides, or, if it became +serious, there was no obstacle to marriage. But this little thing +would be spoken ill of directly, if she happened to be seen +walking with him; and then those excellent people, the Poysers, to +whom a good name was as precious as if they had the best blood in +the land in their veins--he should hate himself if he made a +scandal of that sort, on the estate that was to be his own some +day, and among tenants by whom he liked, above all, to be +respected. He could no more believe that he should so fall in his +own esteem than that he should break both his legs and go on +crutches all the rest of his life. He couldn't imagine himself in +that position; it was too odious, too unlike him. + +And even if no one knew anything about it, they might get too fond +of each other, and then there could be nothing but the misery of +parting, after all. No gentleman, out of a ballad, could marry a +farmer's niece. There must be an end to the whole thing at once. +It was too foolish. + +And yet he had been so determined this morning, before he went to +Gawaine's; and while he was there something had taken hold of him +and made him gallop back. It seemed he couldn't quite depend on +his own resolution, as he had thought he could; he almost wished +his arm would get painful again, and then he should think of +nothing but the comfort it would be to get rid of the pain. There +was no knowing what impulse might seize him to-morrow, in this +confounded place, where there was nothing to occupy him +imperiously through the livelong day. What could he do to secure +himself from any more of this folly? + +There was but one resource. He would go and tell Irwine--tell him +everything. The mere act of telling it would make it seem +trivial; the temptation would vanish, as the charm of fond words +vanishes when one repeats them to the indifferent. In every way +it would help him to tell Irwine. He would ride to Broxton +Rectory the first thing after breakfast to-morrow. + +Arthur had no sooner come to this determination than he began to +think which of the paths would lead him home, and made as short a +walk thither as he could. He felt sure he should sleep now: he +had had enough to tire him, and there was no more need for him to +think. + + + +Chapter XIV + +The Return Home + + +WHILE that parting in the wood was happening, there was a parting +in the cottage too, and Lisbeth had stood with Adam at the door, +straining her aged eyes to get the last glimpse of Seth and Dinah, +as they mounted the opposite slope. + +"Eh, I'm loath to see the last on her," she said to Adam, as they +turned into the house again. "I'd ha' been willin' t' ha' her +about me till I died and went to lie by my old man. She'd make it +easier dyin'--she spakes so gentle an' moves about so still. I +could be fast sure that pictur' was drawed for her i' thy new +Bible--th' angel a-sittin' on the big stone by the grave. Eh, I +wouldna mind ha'in a daughter like that; but nobody ne'er marries +them as is good for aught." + +"Well, Mother, I hope thee WILT have her for a daughter; for +Seth's got a liking for her, and I hope she'll get a liking for +Seth in time." + +"Where's th' use o' talkin' a-that'n? She caresna for Seth. +She's goin' away twenty mile aff. How's she to get a likin' for +him, I'd like to know? No more nor the cake 'ull come wi'out the +leaven. Thy figurin' books might ha' tould thee better nor that, +I should think, else thee mightst as well read the commin print, +as Seth allays does." + +"Nay, Mother," said Adam, laughing, "the figures tell us a fine +deal, and we couldn't go far without 'em, but they don't tell us +about folks's feelings. It's a nicer job to calculate THEM. But +Seth's as good-hearted a lad as ever handled a tool, and plenty o' +sense, and good-looking too; and he's got the same way o' thinking +as Dinah. He deserves to win her, though there's no denying she's +a rare bit o' workmanship. You don't see such women turned off +the wheel every day." + +"Eh, thee't allays stick up for thy brother. Thee'st been just +the same, e'er sin' ye war little uns together. Thee wart allays +for halving iverything wi' him. But what's Seth got to do with +marryin', as is on'y three-an'-twenty? He'd more need to learn +an' lay by sixpence. An' as for his desarving her--she's two 'ear +older nor Seth: she's pretty near as old as thee. But that's the +way; folks mun allays choose by contrairies, as if they must be +sorted like the pork--a bit o' good meat wi' a bit o' offal." + +To the feminine mind in some of its moods, all things that might +be receive a temporary charm from comparison with what is; and +since Adam did not want to marry Dinah himself, Lisbeth felt +rather peevish on that score--as peevish as she would have been if +he HAD wanted to marry her, and so shut himself out from Mary +Burge and the partnership as effectually as by marrying Hetty. + +It was more than half-past eight when Adam and his mother were +talking in this way, so that when, about ten minutes later, Hetty +reached the turning of the lane that led to the farmyard gate, she +saw Dinah and Seth approaching it from the opposite direction, and +waited for them to come up to her. They, too, like Hetty, had +lingered a little in their walk, for Dinah was trying to speak +words of comfort and strength to Seth in these parting moments. +But when they saw Hetty, they paused and shook hands; Seth turned +homewards, and Dinah came on alone. + +"Seth Bede would have come and spoken to you, my dear," she said, +as she reached Hetty, "but he's very full of trouble to-night." + +Hetty answered with a dimpled smile, as if she did not quite know +what had been said; and it made a strange contrast to see that +sparkling self-engrossed loveliness looked at by Dinah's calm +pitying face, with its open glance which told that her heart lived +in no cherished secrets of its own, but in feelings which it +longed to share with all the world. Hetty liked Dinah as well as +she had ever liked any woman; how was it possible to feel +otherwise towards one who always put in a kind word for her when +her aunt was finding fault, and who was always ready to take Totty +off her hands--little tiresome Totty, that was made such a pet of +by every one, and that Hetty could see no interest in at all? +Dinah had never said anything disapproving or reproachful to Hetty +during her whole visit to the Hall Farm; she had talked to her a +great deal in a serious way, but Hetty didn't mind that much, for +she never listened: whatever Dinah might say, she almost always +stroked Hetty's cheek after it, and wanted to do some mending for +her. Dinah was a riddle to her; Hetty looked at her much in the +same way as one might imagine a little perching bird that could +only flutter from bough to bough, to look at the swoop of the +swallow or the mounting of the lark; but she did not care to solve +such riddles, any more than she cared to know what was meant by +the pictures in the Pilgrim's Progress, or in the old folio Bible +that Marty and Tommy always plagued her about on a Sunday. + +Dinah took her hand now and drew it under her own arm. + +"You look very happy to-night, dear child," she said. "I shall +think ot you often when I'm at Snowfield, and see your face before +me as it is now. It's a strange thing--sometimes when I'm quite +alone, sitting in my room with my eyes closed, or walking over the +hills, the people I've seen and known, if it's only been for a few +days, are brought before me, and I hear their voices and see them +look and move almost plainer than I ever did when they were really +with me so as I could touch them. And then my heart is drawn out +towards them, and I feel their lot as if it was my own, and I take +comfort in spreading it before the Lord and resting in His love, +on their behalf as well as my own. And so I feel sure you will +come before me." + +She paused a moment, but Hetty said nothing. + +"It has been a very precious time to me," Dinah went on, "last +night and to-day--seeing two such good sons as Adam and Seth Bede. +They are so tender and thoughtful for their aged mother. And she +has been telling me what Adam has done, for these many years, to +help his father and his brother; it's wonderful what a spirit of +wisdom and knowledge he has, and how he's ready to use it all in +behalf of them that are feeble. And I'm sure he has a loving +spirit too. I've noticed it often among my own people round +Snowfield, that the strong, skilful men are often the gentlest to +the women and children; and it's pretty to see 'em carrying the +little babies as if they were no heavier than little birds. And +the babies always seem to like the strong arm best. I feel sure +it would be so with Adam Bede. Don't you think so, Hetty?" + +"Yes," said Hetty abstractedly, for her mind had been all the +while in the wood, and she would have found it difficult to say +what she was assenting to. Dinah saw she was not inclined to +talk, but there would not have been time to say much more, for +they were now at the yard-gate. + +The still twilight, with its dying western red and its few faint +struggling stars, rested on the farm-yard, where there was not a +sound to be heard but the stamping of the cart-horses in the +stable. It was about twenty minutes after sunset. The fowls were +all gone to roost, and the bull-dog lay stretched on the straw +outside his kennel, with the black-and-tan terrier by his side, +when the falling-to of the gate disturbed them and set them +barking, like good officials, before they had any distinct +knowledge of the reason. + +The barking had its effect in the house, for, as Dinah and Hetty +approached, the doorway was filled by a portly figure, with a +ruddy black-eyed face which bore in it the possibility of looking +extremely acute, and occasionally contemptuous, on market-days, +but had now a predominant after-supper expression of hearty good- +nature. It is well known that great scholars who have shown the +most pitiless acerbity in their criticism of other men's +scholarship have yet been of a relenting and indulgent temper in +private life; and I have heard of a learned man meekly rocking the +twins in the cradle with his left hand, while with his right he +inflicted the most lacerating sarcasms on an opponent who had +betrayed a brutal ignorance of Hebrew. Weaknesses and errors must +be forgiven--alas! they are not alien to us--but the man who takes +the wrong side on the momentous subject of the Hebrew points must +be treated as the enemy of his race. There was the same sort of +antithetic mixture in Martin Poyser: he was of so excellent a +disposition that he had been kinder and more respectful than ever +to his old father since he had made a deed of gift of all his +property, and no man judged his neighbours more charitably on all +personal matters; but for a farmer, like Luke Britton, for +example, whose fallows were not well cleaned, who didn't know the +rudiments of hedging and ditching, and showed but a small share of +judgment in the purchase of winter stock, Martin Poyser was as +hard and implacable as the north-east wind. Luke Britton could +not make a remark, even on the weather, but Martin Poyser detected +in it a taint of that unsoundness and general ignorance which was +palpable in all his farming operations. He hated to see the +fellow lift the pewter pint to his mouth in the bar of the Royal +George on market-day, and the mere sight of him on the other side +of the road brought a severe and critical expression into his +black eyes, as different as possible from the fatherly glance he +bent on his two nieces as they approached the door. Mr. Poyser +had smoked his evening pipe, and now held his hands in his +pockets, as the only resource of a man who continues to sit up +after the day's business is done. + +"Why, lasses, ye're rather late to-night," he said, when they +reached the little gate leading into the causeway. "The mother's +begun to fidget about you, an' she's got the little un ill. An' +how did you leave the old woman Bede, Dinah? Is she much down +about the old man? He'd been but a poor bargain to her this five +year." + +"She's been greatly distressed for the loss of him," said Dinah, +"but she's seemed more comforted to-day. Her son Adam's been at +home all day, working at his father's coffin, and she loves to +have him at home. She's been talking about him to me almost all +the day. She has a loving heart, though she's sorely given to +fret and be fearful. I wish she had a surer trust to comfort her +in her old age." + +"Adam's sure enough," said Mr. Poyser, misunderstanding Dinah's +wish. "There's no fear but he'll yield well i' the threshing. +He's not one o' them as is all straw and no grain. I'll be bond +for him any day, as he'll be a good son to the last. Did he say +he'd be coming to see us soon? But come in, come in," he added, +making way for them; "I hadn't need keep y' out any longer." + +The tall buildings round the yard shut out a good deal of the sky, +but the large window let in abundant light to show every corner of +the house-place. + +Mrs. Poyser, seated in the rocking-chair, which had been brought +out of the "right-hand parlour," was trying to soothe Totty to +sleep. But Totty was not disposed to sleep; and when her cousins +entered, she raised herself up and showed a pair of flushed +cheeks, which looked fatter than ever now they were defined by the +edge of her linen night-cap. + +In the large wicker-bottomed arm-chair in the left-hand chimney- +nook sat old Martin Poyser, a hale but shrunken and bleached image +of his portly black-haired son--his head hanging forward a little, +and his elbows pushed backwards so as to allow the whole of his +forearm to rest on the arm of the chair. His blue handkerchief +was spread over his knees, as was usual indoors, when it was not +hanging over his head; and he sat watching what went forward with +the quiet OUTWARD glance of healthy old age, which, disengaged +from any interest in an inward drama, spies out pins upon the +floor, follows one's minutest motions with an unexpectant +purposeless tenacity, watches the flickering of the flame or the +sun-gleams on the wall, counts the quarries on the floor, watches +even the hand of the clock, and pleases itself with detecting a +rhythm in the tick. + +"What a time o' night this is to come home, Hetty!" said Mrs. +Poyser. "Look at the clock, do; why, it's going on for half-past +nine, and I've sent the gells to bed this half-hour, and late +enough too; when they've got to get up at half after four, and the +mowers' bottles to fill, and the baking; and here's this blessed +child wi' the fever for what I know, and as wakeful as if it was +dinner-time, and nobody to help me to give her the physic but your +uncle, and fine work there's been, and half of it spilt on her +night-gown--it's well if she's swallowed more nor 'ull make her +worse i'stead o' better. But folks as have no mind to be o' use +have allays the luck to be out o' the road when there's anything +to be done." + +"I did set out before eight, aunt," said Hetty, in a pettish tone, +with a slight toss of her head. But this clock's so much before +the clock at the Chase, there's no telling what time it'll be when +I get here." + +"What! You'd be wanting the clock set by gentlefolks's time, +would you? An' sit up burnin' candle, an' lie a-bed wi' the sun +a-bakin' you like a cowcumber i' the frame? The clock hasn't been +put forrard for the first time to-day, I reckon." + +The fact was, Hetty had really forgotten the difference of the +clocks when she told Captain Donnithorne that she set out at +eight, and this, with her lingering pace, had made her nearly half +an hour later than usual. But here her aunt's attention was +diverted from this tender subject by Totty, who, perceiving at +length that the arrival of her cousins was not likely to bring +anything satisfactory to her in particular, began to cry, "Munny, +munny," in an explosive manner. + +"Well, then, my pet, Mother's got her, Mother won't leave her; +Totty be a good dilling, and go to sleep now," said Mrs. Poyser, +leaning back and rocking the chair, while she tried to make Totty +nestle against her. But Totty only cried louder, and said, "Don't +yock!" So the mother, with that wondrous patience which love gives +to the quickest temperament, sat up again, and pressed her cheek +against the linen night-cap and kissed it, and forgot to scold +Hetty any longer. + +"Come, Hetty," said Martin Poyser, in a conciliatory tone, "go and +get your supper i' the pantry, as the things are all put away; an' +then you can come and take the little un while your aunt undresses +herself, for she won't lie down in bed without her mother. An' I +reckon YOU could eat a bit, Dinah, for they don't keep much of a +house down there." + +"No, thank you, Uncle," said Dinah; "I ate a good meal before I +came away, for Mrs. Bede would make a kettle-cake for me." + +"I don't want any supper," said Hetty, taking off her hat. "I can +hold Totty now, if Aunt wants me." + +"Why, what nonsense that is to talk!" said Mrs. Poyser. "Do you +think you can live wi'out eatin', an' nourish your inside wi' +stickin' red ribbons on your head? Go an' get your supper this +minute, child; there's a nice bit o' cold pudding i' the safe-- +just what you're fond of." + +Hetty complied silently by going towards the pantry, and Mrs. +Poyser went on speaking to Dinah. + +"Sit down, my dear, an' look as if you knowed what it was to make +yourself a bit comfortable i' the world. I warrant the old woman +was glad to see you, since you stayed so long." + +"She seemed to like having me there at last; but her sons say she +doesn't like young women about her commonly; and I thought just at +first she was almost angry with me for going." + +"Eh, it's a poor look-out when th' ould folks doesna like the +young uns," said old Martin, bending his head down lower, and +seeming to trace the pattern of the quarries with his eye. + +"Aye, it's ill livin' in a hen-roost for them as doesn't like +fleas," said Mrs. Poyser. "We've all had our turn at bein' young, +I reckon, be't good luck or ill." + +"But she must learn to 'commodate herself to young women," said +Mr. Poyser, "for it isn't to be counted on as Adam and Seth 'ull +keep bachelors for the next ten year to please their mother. That +'ud be unreasonable. It isn't right for old nor young nayther to +make a bargain all o' their own side. What's good for one's good +all round i' the long run. I'm no friend to young fellows a- +marrying afore they know the difference atween a crab an' a apple; +but they may wait o'er long." + +"To be sure," said Mrs. Poyser; "if you go past your dinner-time, +there'll be little relish o' your meat. You turn it o'er an' o'er +wi' your fork, an' don't eat it after all. You find faut wi' your +meat, an' the faut's all i' your own stomach." + +Hetty now came back from the pantry and said, "I can take Totty +now, Aunt, if you like." + +"Come, Rachel," said Mr. Poyser, as his wife seemed to hesitate, +seeing that Totty was at last nestling quietly, "thee'dst better +let Hetty carry her upstairs, while thee tak'st thy things off. +Thee't tired. It's time thee wast in bed. Thee't bring on the +pain in thy side again." + +"Well, she may hold her if the child 'ull go to her," said Mrs. +Poyser. + +Hetty went close to the rocking-chair, and stood without her usual +smile, and without any attempt to entice Totty, simply waiting for +her aunt to give the child into her hands. + +"Wilt go to Cousin Hetty, my dilling, while mother gets ready to +go to bed? Then Totty shall go into Mother's bed, and sleep there +all night." + +Before her mother had done speaking, Totty had given her answer in +an unmistakable manner, by knitting her brow, setting her tiny +teeth against her underlip, and leaning forward to slap Hetty on +the arm with her utmost force. Then, without speaking, she +nestled to her mother again. + +"Hey, hey," said Mr. Poyser, while Hetty stood without moving, +"not go to Cousin Hetty? That's like a babby. Totty's a little +woman, an' not a babby." + +"It's no use trying to persuade her," said Mrs. Poyser. "She +allays takes against Hetty when she isn't well. Happen she'll go +to Dinah." + +Dinah, having taken off her bonnet and shawl, had hitherto kept +quietly seated in the background, not liking to thrust herself +between Hetty and what was considered Hetty's proper work. But +now she came forward, and, putting out her arms, said, "Come +Totty, come and let Dinah carry her upstairs along with Mother: +poor, poor Mother! she's so tired--she wants to go to bed." + +Totty turned her face towards Dinah, and looked at her an instant, +then lifted herself up, put out her little arms, and let Dinah +lift her from her mother's lap. Hetty turned away without any +sign of ill humour, and, taking her hat from the table, stood +waiting with an air of indifference, to see if she should be told +to do anything else. + +"You may make the door fast now, Poyser; Alick's been come in this +long while," said Mrs. Poyser, rising with an appearance of relief +from her low chair. "Get me the matches down, Hetty, for I must +have the rushlight burning i' my room. Come, Father." + +The heavy wooden bolts began to roll in the house doors, and old +Martin prepared to move, by gathering up his blue handkerchief, +and reaching his bright knobbed walnut-tree stick from the corner. +Mrs. Poyser then led the way out of the kitchen, followed by the +gandfather, and Dinah with Totty in her arms--all going to bed by +twilight, like the birds. Mrs. Poyser, on her way, peeped into +the room where her two boys lay; just to see their ruddy round +cheeks on the pillow, and to hear for a moment their light regular +breathing. + +"Come, Hetty, get to bed," said Mr. Poyser, in a soothing tone, as +he himself turned to go upstairs. "You didna mean to be late, +I'll be bound, but your aunt's been worrited to-day. Good-night, +my wench, good-night." + + + +Chapter XV + +The Two Bed-Chambers + + +HETTY and Dinah both slept in the second story, in rooms adjoining +each other, meagrely furnished rooms, with no blinds to shut out +the light, which was now beginning to gather new strength from the +rising of the moon--more than enough strength to enable Hetty to +move about and undress with perfect comfort. She could see quite +well the pegs in the old painted linen-press on which she hung her +hat and gown; she could see the head of every pin on her red cloth +pin-cushion; she could see a reflection of herself in the old- +fashioned looking-glass, quite as distinct as was needful, +considering that she had only to brush her hair and put on her +night-cap. A queer old looking-glass! Hetty got into an ill +temper with it almost every time she dressed. It had been +considered a handsome glass in its day, and had probably been +bought into the Poyser family a quarter of a century before, at a +sale of genteel household furniture. Even now an auctioneer could +say something for it: it had a great deal of tarnished gilding +about it; it had a firm mahogany base, well supplied with drawers, +which opened with a decided jerk and sent the contents leaping out +from the farthest corners, without giving you the trouble of +reaching them; above all, it had a brass candle-socket on each +side, which would give it an aristocratic air to the very last. +But Hetty objected to it because it had numerous dim blotches +sprinkled over the mirror, which no rubbing would remove, and +because, instead of swinging backwards and forwards, it was fixed +in an upright position, so that she could only get one good view +of her head and neck, and that was to be had only by sitting down +on a low chair before her dressing-table. And the dressing-table +was no dressing-table at all, but a small old chest of drawers, +the most awkward thing in the world to sit down before, for the +big brass handles quite hurt her knees, and she couldn't get near +the glass at all comfortably. But devout worshippers never allow +inconveniences to prevent them from performing their religious +rites, and Hetty this evening was more bent on her peculiar form +of worship than usual. + +Having taken off her gown and white kerchief, she drew a key from +the large pocket that hung outside her petticoat, and, unlocking +one of the lower drawers in the chest, reached from it two short +bits of wax candle--secretly bought at Treddleston--and stuck them +in the two brass sockets. Then she drew forth a bundle of matches +and lighted the candles; and last of all, a small red-framed +shilling looking-glass, without blotches. It was into this small +glass that she chose to look first after seating herself. She +looked into it, smiling and turning her head on one side, for a +minute, then laid it down and took out her brush and comb from an +upper drawer. She was going to let down her hair, and make +herself look like that picture of a lady in Miss Lydia +Donnithorne's dressing-room. It was soon done, and the dark +hyacinthine curves fell on her neck. It was not heavy, massive, +merely rippling hair, but soft and silken, running at every +opportunity into delicate rings. But she pushed it all backward +to look like the picture, and form a dark curtain, throwing into +relief her round white neck. Then she put down her brush and comb +and looked at herself, folding her arms before her, still like the +picture. Even the old mottled glass couldn't help sending back a +lovely image, none the less lovely because Hetty's stays were not +of white satin--such as I feel sure heroines must generally wear-- +but of a dark greenish cotton texture. + +Oh yes! She was very pretty. Captain Donnithorne thought so. +Prettier than anybody about Hayslope--prettier than any of the +ladies she had ever seen visiting at the Chase--indeed it seemed +fine ladies were rather old and ugly--and prettier than Miss +Bacon, the miller's daughter, who was called the beauty of +Treddleston. And Hetty looked at herself to-night with quite a +different sensation from what she had ever felt before; there was +an invisible spectator whose eye rested on her like morning on the +flowers. His soft voice was saying over and over again those +pretty things she had heard in the wood; his arm was round her, +and the delicate rose-scent of his hair was with her still. The +vainest woman is never thoroughly conscious of her own beauty till +she is loved by the man who sets her own passion vibrating in +return. + +But Hetty seemed to have made up her mind that something was +wanting, for she got up and reached an old black lace scarf out of +the linen-press, and a pair of large ear-rings out of the sacred +drawer from which she had taken her candles. It was an old old +scarf, full of rents, but it would make a becoming border round +her shoulders, and set off the whiteness of her upper arm. And +she would take out the little ear-rings she had in her ears--oh, +how her aunt had scolded her for having her ears bored!--and put +in those large ones. They were but coloured glass and gilding, +but if you didn't know what they were made of, they looked just as +well as what the ladies wore. And so she sat down again, with the +large ear-rings in her ears, and the black lace scarf adjusted +round her shoulders. She looked down at her arms: no arms could +be prettier down to a little way below the elbow--they were white +and plump, and dimpled to match her cheeks; but towards the wrist, +she thought with vexation that they were coarsened by butter- +making and other work that ladies never did. + +Captain Donnithorne couldn't like her to go on doing work: he +would like to see her in nice clothes, and thin shoes, and white +stockings, perhaps with silk clocks to them; for he must love her +very much--no one else had ever put his arm round her and kissed +her in that way. He would want to marry her and make a lady of +her; she could hardly dare to shape the thought--yet how else +could it be? Marry her quite secretly, as Mr. James, the doctor's +assistant, married the doctor's niece, and nobody ever found it +out for a long while after, and then it was of no use to be angry. +The doctor had told her aunt all about it in Hetty's hearing. She +didn't know how it would be, but it was quite plain the old Squire +could never be told anything about it, for Hetty was ready to +faint with awe and fright if she came across him at the Chase. He +might have been earth-born, for what she knew. It had never +entered her mind that he had been young like other men; he had +always been the old Squire at whom everybody was frightened. Oh, +it was impossible to think how it would be! But Captain +Donnithorne would know; he was a great gentleman, and could have +his way in everything, and could buy everything he liked. And +nothing could be as it had been again: perhaps some day she should +be a grand lady, and ride in her coach, and dress for dinner in a +brocaded silk, with feathers in her hair, and her dress sweeping +the ground, like Miss Lydia and Lady Dacey, when she saw them +going into the dining-room one evening as she peeped through the +little round window in the lobby; only she should not be old and +ugly like Miss Lydia, or all the same thickness like Lady Dacey, +but very pretty, with her hair done in a great many different +ways, and sometimes in a pink dress, and sometimes in a white one-- +she didn't know which she liked best; and Mary Burge and +everybody would perhaps see her going out in her carriage--or +rather, they would HEAR of it: it was impossible to imagine these +things happening at Hayslope in sight of her aunt. At the thought +of all this splendour, Hetty got up from her chair, and in doing +so caught the little red-framed glass with the edge of her scarf, +so that it fell with a bang on the floor; but she was too eagerly +occupied with her vision to care about picking it up; and after a +momentary start, began to pace with a pigeon-like stateliness +backwards and forwards along her room, in her coloured stays and +coloured skirt, and the old black lace scarf round her shoulders, +and the great glass ear-rings in her ears. + +How pretty the little puss looks in that odd dress! It would be +the easiest folly in the world to fall in love with her: there is +such a sweet babylike roundness about her face and figure; the +delicate dark rings of hair lie so charmingly about her ears and +neck; her great dark eyes with their long eye-lashes touch one so +strangely, as if an imprisoned frisky sprite looked out of them. + +Ah, what a prize the man gets who wins a sweet bride like Hetty! +How the men envy him who come to the wedding breakfast, and see +her hanging on his arm in her white lace and orange blossoms. The +dear, young, round, soft, flexible thing! Her heart must be just +as soft, her temper just as free from angles, her character just +as pliant. If anything ever goes wrong, it must be the husband's +fault there: he can make her what he likes--that is plain. And +the lover himself thinks so too: the little darling is so fond of +him, her little vanities are so bewitching, he wouldn't consent to +her being a bit wiser; those kittenlike glances and movements are +just what one wants to make one's hearth a paradise. Every man +under such circumstances is conscious of being a great +physiognomist. Nature, he knows, has a language of her own, which +she uses with strict veracity, and he considers himself an adept +in the language. Nature has written out his bride's character for +him in those exquisite lines of cheek and lip and chin, in those +eyelids delicate as petals, in those long lashes curled like the +stamen of a flower, in the dark liquid depths of those wonderful +eyes. How she will dote on her children! She is almost a child +herself, and the little pink round things will hang about her like +florets round the central flower; and the husband will look on, +smiling benignly, able, whenever he chooses, to withdraw into the +sanctuary of his wisdom, towards which his sweet wife will look +reverently, and never lift the curtain. It is a marriage such as +they made in the golden age, when the men were all wise and +majestic and the women all lovely and loving. + +It was very much in this way that our friend Adam Bede thought +about Hetty; only he put his thoughts into different words. If +ever she behaved with cold vanity towards him, he said to himself +it is only because she doesn't love me well enough; and he was +sure that her love, whenever she gave it, would be the most +precious thing a man could possess on earth. Before you despise +Adam as deficient in penetration, pray ask yourself if you were +ever predisposed to believe evil of any pretty woman--if you ever +COULD, without hard head-breaking demonstration, believe evil of +the ONE supremely pretty woman who has bewitched you. No: people +who love downy peaches are apt not to think of the stone, and +sometimes jar their teeth terribly against it. + +Arthur Donnithorne, too, had the same sort of notion about Hetty, +so far as he had thought of her nature of all. He felt sure she +was a dear, affectionate, good little thing. The man who awakes +the wondering tremulous passion of a young girl always thinks her +affectionate; and if he chances to look forward to future years, +probably imagines himself being virtuously tender to her, because +the poor thing is so clingingly fond of him. God made these dear +women so--and it is a convenient arrangement in case of sickness. + +After all, I believe the wisest of us must be beguiled in this way +sometimes, and must think both better and worse of people than +they deserve. Nature has her language, and she is not +unveracious; but we don't know all the intricacies of her syntax +just yet, and in a hasty reading we may happen to extract the very +opposite of her real meaning. Long dark eyelashes, now--what can +be more exquisite? I find it impossible not to expect some depth +of soul behind a deep grey eye with a long dark eyelash, in spite +of an experience which has shown me that they may go along with +deceit, peculation, and stupidity. But if, in the reaction of +disgust, I have betaken myself to a fishy eye, there has been a +surprising similarity of result. One begins to suspect at length +that there is no direct correlation between eyelashes and morals; +or else, that the eyelashes express the disposition of the fair +one's grandmother, which is on the whole less important to us. + +No eyelashes could be more beautiful than Hetty's; and now, while +she walks with her pigeonlike stateliness along the room and looks +down on her shoulders bordered by the old black lace, the dark +fringe shows to perfection on her pink cheek. They are but dim +ill-defined pictures that her narrow bit of an imagination can +make of the future; but of every picture she is the central figure +in fine clothes; Captain Donnithorne is very close to her, putting +his arm round her, perhaps kissing her, and everybody else is +admiring and envying her--especially Mary Burge, whose new print +dress looks very contemptible by the side of Hetty's resplendent +toilette. Does any sweet or sad memory mingle with this dream of +the future--any loving thought of her second parents--of the +children she had helped to tend--of any youthful companion, any +pet animal, any relic of her own childhood even? Not one. There +are some plants that have hardly any roots: you may tear them from +their native nook of rock or wall, and just lay them over your +ornamental flower-pot, and they blossom none the worse. Hetty +could have cast all her past life behind her and never cared to be +reminded of it again. I think she had no feeling at all towards +the old house, and did not like the Jacob's Ladder and the long +row of hollyhocks in the garden better than other flowers--perhaps +not so well. It was wonderful how little she seemed to care about +waiting on her uncle, who had been a good father to her--she +hardly ever remembered to reach him his pipe at the right time +without being told, unless a visitor happened to be there, who +would have a better opportunity of seeing her as she walked across +the hearth. Hetty did not understand how anybody could be very +fond of middle-aged people. And as for those tiresome children, +Marty and Tommy and Totty, they had been the very nuisance of her +life--as bad as buzzing insects that will come teasing you on a +hot day when you want to be quiet. Marty, the eldest, was a baby +when she first came to the farm, for the children born before him +had died, and so Hetty had had them all three, one after the +other, toddling by her side in the meadow, or playing about her on +wet days in the half-empty rooms of the large old house. The boys +were out of hand now, but Totty was still a day-long plague, worse +than either of the others had been, because there was more fuss +made about her. And there was no end to the making and mending of +clothes. Hetty would have been glad to hear that she should never +see a child again; they were worse than the nasty little lambs +that the shepherd was always bringing in to be taken special care +of in lambing time; for the lambs WERE got rid of sooner or later. +As for the young chickens and turkeys, Hetty would have hated the +very word "hatching," if her aunt had not bribed her to attend to +the young poultry by promising her the proceeds of one out of +every brood. The round downy chicks peeping out from under their +mother's wing never touched Hetty with any pleasure; that was not +the sort of prettiness she cared about, but she did care about the +prettiness of the new things she would buy for herself at +Treddleston Fair with the money they fetched. And yet she looked +so dimpled, so charming, as she stooped down to put the soaked +bread under the hen-coop, that you must have been a very acute +personage indeed to suspect her of that hardness. Molly, the +housemaid, with a turn-up nose and a protuberant jaw, was really a +tender-hearted girl, and, as Mrs. Poyser said, a jewel to look +after the poultry; but her stolid face showed nothing of this +maternal delight, any more than a brown earthenware pitcher will +show the light of the lamp within it. + +It is generally a feminine eye that first detects the moral +deficiencies hidden under the "dear deceit" of beauty, so it is +not surprising that Mrs. Poyser, with her keenness and abundant +opportunity for observation, should have formed a tolerably fair +estimate of what might be expected from Hetty in the way of +feeling, and in moments of indignation she had sometimes spoken +with great openness on the subject to her husband. + +"She's no better than a peacock, as 'ud strut about on the wall +and spread its tail when the sun shone if all the folks i' the +parish was dying: there's nothing seems to give her a turn i' th' +inside, not even when we thought Totty had tumbled into the pit. +To think o' that dear cherub! And we found her wi' her little +shoes stuck i' the mud an' crying fit to break her heart by the +far horse-pit. But Hetty never minded it, I could see, though +she's been at the nussin' o' the child ever since it was a babby. +It's my belief her heart's as hard as a pebble." + +"Nay, nay," said Mr. Poyser, "thee mustn't judge Hetty too hard. +Them young gells are like the unripe grain; they'll make good meal +by and by, but they're squashy as yet. Thee't see Hetty 'll be +all right when she's got a good husband and children of her own." + +"I don't want to be hard upo' the gell. She's got cliver fingers +of her own, and can be useful enough when she likes and I should +miss her wi' the butter, for she's got a cool hand. An' let be +what may, I'd strive to do my part by a niece o' yours--an' THAT +I've done, for I've taught her everything as belongs to a house, +an' I've told her her duty often enough, though, God knows, I've +no breath to spare, an' that catchin' pain comes on dreadful by +times. Wi' them three gells in the house I'd need have twice the +strength to keep 'em up to their work. It's like having roast +meat at three fires; as soon as you've basted one, another's +burnin'." + +Hetty stood sufficiently in awe of her aunt to be anxious to +conceal from her so much of her vanity as could be hidden without +too great a sacrifice. She could not resist spending her money in +bits of finery which Mrs. Poyser disapproved; but she would have +been ready to die with shame, vexation, and fright if her aunt had +this moment opened the door, and seen her with her bits of candle +lighted, and strutting about decked in her scarf and ear-rings. +To prevent such a surprise, she always bolted her door, and she +had not forgotten to do so to-night. It was well: for there now +came a light tap, and Hetty, with a leaping heart, rushed to blow +out the candles and throw them into the drawer. She dared not +stay to take out her ear-rings, but she threw off her scarf, and +let it fall on the floor, before the light tap came again. We +shall know how it was that the light tap came, if we leave Hetty +for a short time and return to Dinah, at the moment when she had +delivered Totty to her mother's arms, and was come upstairs to her +bedroom, adjoining Hetty's. + +Dinah delighted in her bedroom window. Being on the second story +of that tall house, it gave her a wide view over the fields. The +thickness of the wall formed a broad step about a yard below the +window, where she could place her chair. And now the first thing +she did on entering her room was to seat herself in this chair and +look out on the peaceful fields beyond which the large moon was +rising, just above the hedgerow elms. She liked the pasture best +where the milch cows were lying, and next to that the meadow where +the grass was half-mown, and lay in silvered sweeping lines. Her +heart was very full, for there was to be only one more night on +which she would look out on those fields for a long time to come; +but she thought little of leaving the mere scene, for, to her, +bleak Snowfield had just as many charms. She thought of all the +dear people whom she had learned to care for among these peaceful +fields, and who would now have a place in her loving remembrance +for ever. She thought of the struggles and the weariness that +might lie before them in the rest of their life's journey, when +she would be away from them, and know nothing of what was +befalling them; and the pressure of this thought soon became too +strong for her to enjoy the unresponding stillness of the moonlit +fields. She closed her eyes, that she might feel more intensely +the presence of a Love and Sympathy deeper and more tender than +was breathed from the earth and sky. That was often Dinah's mode +of praying in solitude. Simply to close her eyes and to feel +herself enclosed by the Divine Presence; then gradually her fears, +her yearning anxieties for others, melted away like ice-crystals +in a warm ocean. She had sat in this way perfectly still, with +her hands crossed on her lap and the pale light resting on her +calm face, for at least ten minutes when she was startled by a +loud sound, apparently of something falling in Hetty's room. But +like all sounds that fall on our ears in a state of abstraction, +it had no distinct character, but was simply loud and startling, +so that she felt uncertain whether she had interpreted it rightly. +She rose and listened, but all was quiet afterwards, and she +reflected that Hetty might merely have knocked something down in +getting into bed. She began slowly to undress; but now, owing to +the suggestions of this sound, her thoughts became concentrated on +Hetty--that sweet young thing, with life and all its trials before +her--the solemn daily duties of the wife and mother--and her mind +so unprepared for them all, bent merely on little foolish, selfish +pleasures, like a child hugging its toys in the beginning of a +long toilsome journey in which it will have to bear hunger and +cold and unsheltered darkness. Dinah felt a double care for +Hetty, because she shared Seth's anxious interest in his brother's +lot, and she had not come to the conclusion that Hetty did not +love Adam well enough to marry him. She saw too clearly the +absence of any warm, self-devoting love in Hetty's nature to +regard the coldness of her behaviour towards Adam as any +indication that he was not the man she would like to have for a +husband. And this blank in Hetty's nature, instead of exciting +Dinah's dislike, only touched her with a deeper pity: the lovely +face and form affected her as beauty always affects a pure and +tender mind, free from selfish jealousies. It was an excellent +divine gift, that gave a deeper pathos to the need, the sin, the +sorrow with which it was mingled, as the canker in a lily-white +bud is more grievous to behold than in a common pot-herb. + +By the time Dinah had undressed and put on her night-gown, this +feeling about Hetty had gathered a painful intensity; her +imagination had created a thorny thicket of sin and sorrow, in +which she saw the poor thing struggling torn and bleeding, looking +with tears for rescue and finding none. It was in this way that +Dinah's imagination and sympathy acted and reacted habitually, +each heightening the other. She felt a deep longing to go now and +pour into Hetty's ear all the words of tender warning and appeal +that rushed into her mind. But perhaps Hetty was already asleep. +Dinah put her ear to the partition and heard still some slight +noises, which convinced her that Hetty was not yet in bed. Still +she hesitated; she was not quite certain of a divine direction; +the voice that told her to go to Hetty seemed no stronger that the +other voice which said that Hetty was weary, and that going to her +now in an unseasonable moment would only tend to close her heart +more obstinately. Dinah was not satisfied without a more +unmistakable guidance than those inward voices. There was light +enough for her, if she opened her Bible, to discern the text +sufficiently to know what it would say to her. She knew the +physiognomy of every page, and could tell on what book she opened, +sometimes on what chapter, without seeing title or number. It was +a small thick Bible, worn quite round at the edges. Dinah laid it +sideways on the window ledge, where the light was strongest, and +then opened it with her forefinger. The first words she looked at +were those at the top of the left-hand page: "And they all wept +sore, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him." That was enough +for Dinah; she had opened on that memorable parting at Ephesus, +when Paul had felt bound to open his heart in a last exhortation +and warning. She hesitated no longer, but, opening her own door +gently, went and tapped on Hetty's. We know she had to tap twice, +because Hetty had to put out her candles and throw off her black +lace scarf; but after the second tap the door was opened +immediately. Dinah said, "Will you let me come in, Hetty?" and +Hetty, without speaking, for she was confused and vexed, opened +the door wider and let her in. + +What a strange contrast the two figures made, visible enough in +that mingled twilight and moonlight! Hetty, her cheeks flushed +and her eyes glistening from her imaginary drama, her beautiful +neck and arms bare, her hair hanging in a curly tangle down her +back, and the baubles in her ears. Dinah, covered with her long +white dress, her pale face full of subdued emotion, almost like a +lovely corpse into which the soul has returned charged with +sublimer secrets and a sublimer love. They were nearly of the +same height; Dinah evidently a little the taller as she put her +arm round Hetty's waist and kissed her forehead. + +"I knew you were not in bed, my dear," she said, in her sweet +clear voice, which was irritating to Hetty, mingling with her own +peevish vexation like music with jangling chains, "for I heard you +moving; and I longed to speak to you again to-night, for it is the +last but one that I shall be here, and we don't know what may +happen to-morrow to keep us apart. Shall I sit down with you +while you do up your hair?" + +"Oh yes," said Hetty, hastily turning round and reaching the +second chair in the room, glad that Dinah looked as if she did not +notice her ear-rings. + +Dinah sat down, and Hetty began to brush together her hair before +twisting it up, doing it with that air of excessive indifference +which belongs to confused self-consciousness. But the expression +of Dinah's eyes gradually relieved her; they seemed unobservant of +all details. + +"Dear Hetty," she said, "It has been borne in upon my mind to- +night that you may some day be in trouble--trouble is appointed +for us all here below, and there comes a time when we need more +comfort and help than the things of this life can give. I want to +tell you that if ever you are in trouble, and need a friend that +will always feel for you and love you, you have got that friend in +Dinah Morris at Snowfield, and if you come to her, or send for +her, she'll never forget this night and the words she is speaking +to you now. Will you remember it, Hetty?" + +"Yes," said Hetty, rather frightened. "But why should you think I +shall be in trouble? Do you know of anything?" + +Hetty had seated herself as she tied on her cap, and now Dinah +leaned forwards and took her hands as she answered, "Because, +dear, trouble comes to us all in this life: we set our hearts on +things which it isn't God's will for us to have, and then we go +sorrowing; the people we love are taken from us, and we can joy in +nothing because they are not with us; sickness comes, and we faint +under the burden of our feeble bodies; we go astray and do wrong, +and bring ourselves into trouble with our fellow-men. There is no +man or woman born into this world to whom some of these trials do +not fall, and so I feel that some of them must happen to you; and +I desire for you, that while you are young you should seek for +strength from your Heavenly Father, that you may have a support +which will not fail you in the evil day." + +Dinah paused and released Hetty's hands that she might not hinder +her. Hetty sat quite still; she felt no response within herself +to Dinah's anxious affection; but Dinah's words uttered with +solemn pathetic distinctness, affected her with a chill fear. Her +flush had died away almost to paleness; she had the timidity of a +luxurious pleasure-seeking nature, which shrinks from the hint of +pain. Dinah saw the effect, and her tender anxious pleading +became the more earnest, till Hetty, full of a vague fear that +something evil was some time to befall her, began to cry. + +It is our habit to say that while the lower nature can never +understand the higher, the higher nature commands a complete view +of the lower. But I think the higher nature has to learn this +comprehension, as we learn the art of vision, by a good deal of +hard experience, often with bruises and gashes incurred in taking +things up by the wrong end, and fancying our space wider than it +is. Dinah had never seen Hetty affected in this way before, and, +with her usual benignant hopefulness, she trusted it was the +stirring of a divine impulse. She kissed the sobbing thing, and +began to cry with her for grateful joy. But Hetty was simply in +that excitable state of mind in which there is no calculating what +turn the feelings may take from one moment to another, and for the +first time she became irritated under Dinah's caress. She pushed +her away impatiently, and said, with a childish sobbing voice, +"Don't talk to me so, Dinah. Why do you come to frighten me? +I've never done anything to you. Why can't you let me be?" + +Poor Dinah felt a pang. She was too wise to persist, and only +said mildly, "Yes, my dear, you're tired; I won't hinder you any +longer. Make haste and get into bed. Good-night." + +She went out of the room almost as quietly and quickly as if she +had been a ghost; but once by the side of her own bed, she threw +herself on her knees and poured out in deep silence all the +passionate pity that filled her heart. + +As for Hetty, she was soon in the wood again--her waking dreams +being merged in a sleeping life scarcely more fragmentary and +confused. + + + +Chapter XVI + +Links + + +ARTHUR DONNITHORNE, you remember, is under an engagement with +himself to go and see Mr. Irwine this Friday morning, and he is +awake and dressing so early that he determines to go before +breakfast, instead of after. The rector, he knows, breakfasts +alone at half-past nine, the ladies of the family having a +different breakfast-hour; Arthur will have an early ride over the +hill and breakfast with him. One can say everything best over a +meal. + +The progress of civilization has made a breakfast or a dinner an +easy and cheerful substitute for more troublesome and disagreeable +ceremonies. We take a less gloomy view of our errors now our +father confessor listens to us over his egg and coffee. We are +more distinctly conscious that rude penances are out of the +question for gentlemen in an enlightened age, and that mortal sin +is not incompatible with an appetite for muffins. An assault on +our pockets, which in more barbarous times would have been made in +the brusque form of a pistol-shot, is quite a well-bred and +smiling procedure now it has become a request for a loan thrown in +as an easy parenthesis between the second and third glasses of +claret. + +Still, there was this advantage in the old rigid forms, that they +committed you to the fulfilment of a resolution by some outward +deed: when you have put your mouth to one end of a hole in a stone +wall and are aware that there is an expectant ear at the other +end, you are more likely to say what you came out with the +intention of saying than if you were seated with your legs in an +easy attitude under the mahogany with a companion who will have no +reason to be surprised if you have nothing particular to say. + +However, Arthur Donnithorne, as he winds among the pleasant lanes +on horseback in the morning sunshine, has a sincere determination +to open his heart to the rector, and the swirling sound of the +scythe as he passes by the meadow is all the pleasanter to him +because of this honest purpose. He is glad to see the promise of +settled weather now, for getting in the hay, about which the +farmers have been fearful; and there is something so healthful in +the sharing of a joy that is general and not merely personal, that +this thought about the hay-harvest reacts on his state of mind and +makes his resolution seem an easier matter. A man about town +might perhaps consider that these influences were not to be felt +out of a child's story-book; but when you are among the fields and +hedgerows, it is impossible to maintain a consistent superiority +to simple natural pleasures. + +Arthur had passed the village of Hayslope and was approaching the +Broxton side of the hill, when, at a turning in the road, he saw a +figure about a hundred yards before him which it was impossible to +mistake for any one else than Adam Bede, even if there had been no +grey, tailless shepherd-dog at his heels. He was striding along +at his usual rapid pace, and Arthur pushed on his horse to +overtake him, for he retained too much of his boyish feeling for +Adam to miss an opportunity of chatting with him. I will not say +that his love for that good fellow did not owe some of its force +to the love of patronage: our friend Arthur liked to do everything +that was handsome, and to have his handsome deeds recognized. + +Adam looked round as he heard the quickening clatter of the +horse's heels, and waited for the horseman, lifting his paper cap +from his head with a bright smile of recognition. Next to his own +brother Seth, Adam would have done more for Arthur Donnithorne +than for any other young man in the world. There was hardly +anything he would not rather have lost than the two-feet ruler +which he always carried in his pocket; it was Arthur's present, +bought with his pocket-money when he was a fair-haired lad of +eleven, and when he had profited so well by Adam's lessons in +carpentering and turning as to embarrass every female in the house +with gifts of superfluous thread-reels and round boxes. Adam had +quite a pride in the little squire in those early days, and the +feeling had only become slightly modified as the fair-haired lad +had grown into the whiskered young man. Adam, I confess, was very +susceptible to the influence of rank, and quite ready to give an +extra amount of respect to every one who had more advantages than +himself, not being a philosopher or a proletaire with democratic +ideas, but simply a stout-limbed clever carpenter wlth a large +fund of reverence in his nature, which inclined him to admit all +established claims unless he saw very clear grounds for +questioning them. He had no theories about setting the world to +rights, but he saw there was a great deal of damage done by +building with ill-seasoned timber--by ignorant men in fine clothes +making plans for outhouses and workshops and the like without +knowing the bearings of things--by slovenly joiners' work, and by +hasty contracts that could never be fulfilled without ruining +somebody; and he resolved, for his part, to set his face against +such doings. On these points he would have maintained his opinion +against the largest landed proprietor in Loamshire or Stonyshire +either; but he felt that beyond these it would be better for him +to defer to people who were more knowing than himself. He saw as +plainly as possible how ill the woods on the estate were managed, +and the shameful state of the farm-buildings; and if old Squire +Donnithorne had asked him the effect of this mismanagement, he +would have spoken his opinion without flinching, but the impulse +to a respectful demeanour towards a "gentleman" would have been +strong within him all the while. The word "gentleman" had a spell +for Adam, and, as he often said, he "couldn't abide a fellow who +thought he made himself fine by being coxy to's betters." I must +remind you again that Adam had the blood of the peasant in his +veins, and that since he was in his prime half a century ago, you +must expect some of his characteristics to be obsolete. + +Towards the young squire this instinctive reverence of Adam's was +assisted by boyish memories and personal regard so you may imagine +that he thought far more of Arthur's good qualities, and attached +far more value to very slight actions of his, than if they had +been the qualities and actions of a common workman like himself. +He felt sure it would be a fine day for everybody about Hayslope +when the young squire came into the estate--such a generous open- +hearted disposition as he had, and an "uncommon" notion about +improvements and repairs, considering he was only just coming of +age. Thus there was both respect and affection in the smile with +which he raised his paper cap as Arthur Donnithorne rode up. + +"Well, Adam, how are you?" said Arthur, holding out his hand. He +never shook hands with any of the farmers, and Adam felt the +honour keenly. "I could swear to your back a long way off. It's +just the same back, only broader, as when you used to carry me on +it. Do you remember?" + +"Aye, sir, I remember. It 'ud be a poor look-out if folks didn't +remember what they did and said when they were lads. We should +think no more about old friends than we do about new uns, then." + +"You're going to Broxton, I suppose?" said Arthur, putting his +horse on at a slow pace while Adam walked by his side. "Are you +going to the rectory?" + +"No, sir, I'm going to see about Bradwell's barn. They're afraid +of the roof pushing the walls out, and I'm going to see what can +be done with it before we send the stuff and the workmen." + +"Why, Burge trusts almost everything to you now, Adam, doesn't he? +I should think he will make you his partner soon. He will, if +he's wise." + +"Nay, sir, I don't see as he'd be much the better off for that. A +foreman, if he's got a conscience and delights in his work, will +do his business as well as if he was a partner. I wouldn't give a +penny for a man as 'ud drive a nail in slack because he didn't get +extra pay for it." + +"I know that, Adam; I know you work for him as well as if you were +working for yourself. But you would have more power than you have +now, and could turn the business to better account perhaps. The +old man must give up his business sometime, and he has no son; I +suppose he'll want a son-in-law who can take to it. But he has +rather grasping fingers of his own, I fancy. I daresay he wants a +man who can put some money into the business. If I were not as +poor as a rat, I would gladly invest some money in that way, for +the sake of having you settled on the estate. I'm sure I should +profit by it in the end. And perhaps I shall be better off in a +year or two. I shall have a larger allowance now I'm of age; and +when I've paid off a debt or two, I shall be able to look about +me." + +"You're very good to say so, sir, and I'm not unthankful. But"-- +Adam continued, in a decided tone--"I shouldn't like to make any +offers to Mr. Burge, or t' have any made for me. I see no clear +road to a partnership. If he should ever want to dispose of the +business, that 'ud be a different matter. I should be glad of +some money at a fair interest then, for I feel sure I could pay it +off in time." + +"Very well, Adam," said Arthur, remembering what Mr. Irwine had +said about a probable hitch in the love-making between Adam and +Mary Burge, "we'll say no more about it at present. When is your +father to be buried?" + +"On Sunday, sir; Mr. Irwine's coming earlier on purpose. I shall +be glad when it's over, for I think my mother 'ull perhaps get +easier then. It cuts one sadly to see the grief of old people; +they've no way o' working it off, and the new spring brings no new +shoots out on the withered tree." + +"Ah, you've had a good deal of trouble and vexation in your life, +Adam. I don't think you've ever been hare-brained and light- +hearted, like other youngsters. You've always had some care on +your mind." + +"Why, yes, sir; but that's nothing to make a fuss about. If we're +men and have men's feelings, I reckon we must have men's troubles. +We can't be like the birds, as fly from their nest as soon as +they've got their wings, and never know their kin when they see +'em, and get a fresh lot every year. I've had enough to be +thankful for: I've allays had health and strength and brains to +give me a delight in my work; and I count it a great thing as I've +had Bartle Massey's night-school to go to. He's helped me to +knowledge I could never ha' got by myself." + +"What a rare fellow you are, Adam!" said Arthur, after a pause, in +which he had looked musingly at the big fellow walking by his +side. "I could hit out better than most men at Oxford, and yet I +believe you would knock me into next week if I were to have a +baltle with you." + +"God forbid I should ever do that, sir," said Adam, looking round +at Arthur and smiling. "I used to fight for fun, but I've never +done that since I was the cause o' poor Gil Tranter being laid up +for a fortnight. I'll never fight any man again, only when he +behaves like a scoundrel. If you get hold of a chap that's got no +shame nor conscience to stop him, you must try what you can do by +bunging his eyes up." + +Arthur did not laugh, for he was preoccupied with some thought +that made him say presently, "I should think now, Adam, you never +have any struggles within yourself. I fancy you would master a +wish that you had made up your mind it was not quite right to +indulge, as easily as you would knock down a drunken fellow who +was quarrelsome with you. I mean, you are never shilly-shally, +first making up your mind that you won't do a thing, and then +doing it after all?" + +"Well," said Adam, slowly, after a moment's hesitation, "no. I +don't remember ever being see-saw in that way, when I'd made my +mind up, as you say, that a thing was wrong. It takes the taste +out o' my mouth for things, when I know I should have a heavy +conscience after 'em. I've seen pretty clear, ever since I could +cast up a sum, as you can never do what's wrong without breeding +sin and trouble more than you can ever see. It's like a bit o' +bad workmanship--you never see th' end o' the mischief it'll do. +And it's a poor look-out to come into the world to make your +fellow-creatures worse off instead o' better. But there's a +difference between the things folks call wrong. I'm not for +making a sin of every little fool's trick, or bit o' nonsense +anybody may be let into, like some o' them dissenters. And a man +may have two minds whether it isn't worthwhile to get a bruise or +two for the sake of a bit o' fun. But it isn't my way to be see- +saw about anything: I think my fault lies th' other way. When +I've said a thing, if it's only to myself, it's hard for me to go +back." + +"Yes, that's just what I expected of you," said Arthur. "You've +got an iron will, as well as an iron arm. But however strong a +man's resolution may be, it costs him something to carry it out, +now and then. We may determine not to gather any cherries and +keep our hands sturdily in our pockets, but we can't prevent our +mouths from watering." + +"That's true, sir, but there's nothing like settling with +ourselves as there's a deal we must do without i' this life. It's +no use looking on life as if it was Treddles'on Fair, where folks +only go to see shows and get fairings. If we do, we shall find it +different. But where's the use o' me talking to you, sir? You +know better than I do." + +"I'm not so sure of that, Adam. You've had four or five years of +experience more than I've had, and I think your life has been a +better school to you than college has been to me." + +"Why, sir, you seem to think o' college something like what Bartle +Massey does. He says college mostly makes people like bladders-- +just good for nothing but t' hold the stuff as is poured into 'em. +But he's got a tongue like a sharp blade, Bartle has--it never +touches anything but it cuts. Here's the turning, sir. I must +bid you good-morning, as you're going to the rectory." + +"Good-bye, Adam, good-bye." + +Arthur gave his horse to the groom at the rectory gate, and walked +along the gravel towards the door which opened on the garden. He +knew that the rector always breakfasted in his study, and the +study lay on the left hand of this door, opposite the dining-room. +It was a small low room, belonging to the old part of the house-- +dark with the sombre covers of the books that lined the walls; yet +it looked very cheery this morning as Arthur reached the open +window. For the morning sun fell aslant on the great glass globe +with gold fish in it, which stood on a scagliola pillar in front +of the ready-spread bachelor breakfast-table, and by the side of +this breakfast-table was a group which would have made any room +enticing. In the crimson damask easy-chair sat Mr. Irwine, with +that radiant freshness which he always had when he came from his +morning toilet; his finely formed plump white hand was playing +along Juno's brown curly back; and close to Juno's tail, which was +wagging with calm matronly pleasure, the two brown pups were +rolling over each other in an ecstatic duet of worrying noises. +On a cushion a little removed sat Pug, with the air of a maiden +lady, who looked on these familiarities as animal weaknesses, +which she made as little show as possible of observing. On the +table, at Mr. Irwine~s elbow, lay the first volume of the Foulis +AEschylus, which Arthur knew well by sight; and the silver coffee- +pot, which Carroll was bringing in, sent forth a fragrant steam +which completed the delights of a bachelor breakfast. + +"Hallo, Arthur, that's a good fellow! You're just in time," said +Mr. Irwine, as Arthur paused and stepped in over the low window- +sill. "Carroll, we shall want more coffee and eggs, and haven't +you got some cold fowl for us to eat with that ham? Why, this is +like old days, Arthur; you haven't been to breakfast with me these +five years." + +"It was a tempting morning for a ride before breakfast," said +Arthur; "and I used to like breakfasting with you so when I was +reading with you. My grandfather is always a few degrees colder +at breakfast than at any other hour in the day. I think his +morning bath doesn't agree with him." + +Arthur was anxious not to imply that he came with any special +purpose. He had no sooner found himself in Mr. Irwine's presence +than the confidence which he had thought quite easy before, +suddenly appeared the most difficult thing in the world to him, +and at the very moment of shaking hands he saw his purpose in +quite a new light. How could he make Irwine understand his +position unless he told him those little scenes in the wood; and +how could he tell them without looking like a fool? And then his +weakness in coming back from Gawaine's, and doing the very +opposite of what he intended! Irwine would think him a shilly- +shally fellow ever after. However, it must come out in an +unpremeditated way; the conversation might lead up to it. + +"I like breakfast-time better than any other moment in the day," +said Mr. Irwine. "No dust has settled on one's mind then, and it +presents a clear mirror to the rays of things. I always have a +favourite book by me at breakfast, and I enjoy the bits I pick up +then so much, that regularly every morning it seems to me as if I +should certainly become studious again. But presently Dent brings +up a poor fellow who has killed a hare, and when I've got through +my 'justicing,' as Carroll calls it, I'm inclined for a ride round +the glebe, and on my way back I meet with the master of the +workhouse, who has got a long story of a mutinous pauper to tell +me; and so the day goes on, and I'm always the same lazy fellow +before evening sets in. Besides, one wants the stimulus of +sympathy, and I have never had that since poor D'Oyley left +Treddleston. If you had stuck to your books well, you rascal, I +should have had a pleasanter prospect before me. But scholarship +doesn't run in your family blood." + +"No indeed. It's well if I can remember a little inapplicable +Latin to adorn my maiden speech in Parliament six or seven years +hence. 'Cras ingens iterabimus aequor,' and a few shreds of that +sort, will perhaps stick to me, and I shall arrange my opinions so +as to introduce them. But I don't think a knowledge of the +classics is a pressing want to a country gentleman; as far as I +can see, he'd much better have a knowledge of manures. I've been +reading your friend Arthur Young's books lately, and there's +nothing I should like better than to carry out some of his ideas +in putting the farmers on a better management of their land; and, +as he says, making what was a wild country, all of the same dark +hue, bright and variegated with corn and cattle. My grandfather +will never let me have any power while he lives, but there's +nothing I should like better than to undertake the Stonyshire side +of the estate--it's in a dismal condition--and set improvements on +foot, and gallop about from one place to another and overlook +them. I should like to know all the labourers, and see them +touching their hats to me with a look of goodwill." + +"Bravo, Arthur! A man who has no feeling for the classics +couldn't make a better apology for coming into the world than by +increasing the quantity of food to maintain scholars--and rectors +who appreciate scholars. And whenever you enter on your career of +model landlord may I be there to see. You'll want a portly rector +to complete the picture, and take his tithe of all the respect and +honour you get by your hard work. Only don't set your heart too +strongly on the goodwill you are to get in consequence. I'm not +sure that men are the fondest of those who try to be useful to +them. You know Gawaine has got the curses of the whole +neighbourhood upon him about that enclosure. You must make it +quite clear to your mind which you are most bent upon, old boy-- +popularity or usefulness--else you may happen to miss both." + +"Oh! Gawaine is harsh in his manners; he doesn't make himself +personally agreeable to his tenants. I don't believe there's +anything you can't prevail on people to do with kindness. For my +part, I couldn't live in a neighbourhood where I was not respected +and beloved. And it's very pleasant to go among the tenants here-- +they seem all so well inclined to me I suppose it seems only the +other day to them since I was a little lad, riding on a pony about +as big as a sheep. And if fair allowances were made to them, and +their buildings attended to, one could persuade them to farm on a +better plan, stupid as they are." + +"Then mind you fall in love in the right place, and don't get a +wife who will drain your purse and make you niggardly in spite of +yourself. My mother and I have a little discussion about you +sometimes: she says, 'I ll never risk a single prophecy on Arthur +until I see the woman he falls in love with.' She thinks your +lady-love will rule you as the moon rules the tides. But I feel +bound to stand up for you, as my pupil you know, and I maintain +that you're not of that watery quality. So mind you don't +disgrace my judgment." + +Arthur winced under this speech, for keen old Mrs. Irwine's +opinion about him had the disagreeable effect of a sinister omen. +This, to be sure, was only another reason for persevering in his +intention, and getting an additional security against himself. +Nevertheless, at this point in the conversation, he was conscious +of increased disinclination to tell his story about Hetty. He was +of an impressible nature, and lived a great deal in other people's +opinions and feelings concerning himself; and the mere fact that +he was in the presence of an intimate friend, who had not the +slightest notion that he had had any such serious internal +struggle as he came to confide, rather shook his own belief in the +seriousness of the struggle. It was not, after all, a thing to +make a fuss about; and what could Irwine do for him that he could +not do for himself? He would go to Eagledale in spite of Meg's +lameness--go on Rattler, and let Pym follow as well as he could on +the old hack. That was his thought as he sugared his coffee; but +the next minute, as he was lifting the cup to his lips, he +remembered how thoroughly he had made up his mind last night to +tell Irwine. No! He would not be vacillating again--he WOULD do +what he had meant to do, this time. So it would be well not to +let the personal tone of the conversation altogether drop. If +they went to quite indifferent topics, his difficulty would be +heightened. It had required no noticeable pause for this rush and +rebound of feeling, before he answered, "But I think it is hardly +an argument against a man's general strength of character that he +should be apt to be mastered by love. A fine constitution doesn't +insure one against smallpox or any other of those inevitable +diseases. A man may be very firm in other matters and yet be +under a sort of witchery from a woman." + +"Yes; but there's this difference between love and smallpox, or +bewitchment either--that if you detect the disease at an early +stage and try change of air, there is every chance of complete +escape without any further development of symptoms. And there are +certain alternative doses which a man may administer to himself by +keeping unpleasant consequences before his mind: this gives you a +sort of smoked glass through which you may look at the resplendent +fair one and discern her true outline; though I'm afraid, by the +by, the smoked glass is apt to be missing just at the moment it is +most wanted. I daresay, now, even a man fortified with a +knowledge of the classics might be lured into an imprudent +marriage, in spite of the warning given him by the chorus in the +Prometheus." + +The smile that flitted across Arthur's face was a faint one, and +instead of following Mr. Irwine's playful lead, he said, quite +seriously--"Yes, that's the worst of it. It's a desperately +vexatious thing, that after all one's reflections and quiet +determinations, we should be ruled by moods that one can't +calculate on beforehand. I don't think a man ought to be blamed +so much if he is betrayed into doing things in that way, in spite +of his resolutions." + +"Ah, but the moods lie in his nature, my boy, just as much as his +reflections did, and more. A man can never do anything at +variance with his own nature. He carries within him the germ of +his most exceptional action; and if we wise people make eminent +fools of ourselves on any particular occasion, we must endure the +legitimate conclusion that we carry a few grains of folly to our +ounce of wisdom." + +"Well, but one may be betrayed into doing things by a combination +of circumstances, which one might never have done otherwise." + +"Why, yes, a man can't very well steal a bank-note unless the +bank-note lies within convenient reach; but he won't make us think +him an honest man because he begins to howl at the bank-note for +falling in his way." + +"But surely you don't think a man who struggles against a +temptation into which he falls at last as bad as the man who never +struggles at all?" + +"No, certainly; I pity him in proportion to his struggles, for +they foreshadow the inward suffering which is the worst form of +Nemesis. Consequences are unpitying. Our deeds carry their +terrible consequences, quite apart from any fluctuations that went +before--consequences that are hardly ever confined to ourselves. +And it is best to fix our minds on that certainty, instead of +considering what may be the elements of excuse for us. But I +never knew you so inclined for moral discussion, Arthur? Is it +some danger of your own that you are considering in this +philosophical, general way?" + +In asking this question, Mr. Irwine pushed his plate away, threw +himself back in his chair, and looked straight at Arthur. He +really suspected that Arthur wanted to tell him something, and +thought of smoothing the way for him by this direct question. But +he was mistaken. Brought suddenly and involuntarily to the brink +of confession, Arthur shrank back and felt less disposed towards +it than ever. The conversation had taken a more serious tone than +he had intended--it would quite mislead Irwine--he would imagine +there was a deep passion for Hetty, while there was no such thing. +He was conscious of colouring, and was annoyed at his boyishness. + +"Oh no, no danger," he said as indifferently as he could. "I +don't know that I am more liable to irresolution than other +people; only there are little incidents now and then that set one +speculating on what might happen in the future." + +Was there a motive at work under this strange reluctance of +Arthur's which had a sort of backstairs influence, not admitted to +himself? Our mental business is carried on much in the same way +as the business of the State: a great deal of hard work is done by +agents who are not acknowledged. In a piece of machinery, too, I +believe there is often a small unnoticeable wheel which has a +great deal to do with the motion of the large obvious ones. +Possibly there was some such unrecognized agent secretly busy in +Arthur's mind at this moment--possibly it was the fear lest he +might hereafter find the fact of having made a confession to the +rector a serious annoyance, in case he should NOT be able quite to +carry out his good resolutions? I dare not assert that it was not +so. The human soul is a very complex thing. + +The idea of Hetty had just crossed Mr. Irwine's mind as he looked +inquiringly at Arthur, but his disclaiming indifferent answer +confirmed the thought which had quickly followed--that there could +be nothing serious in that direction. There was no probability +that Arthur ever saw her except at church, and at her own home +under the eye of Mrs. Poyser; and the hint he had given Arthur +about her the other day had no more serious meaning than to +prevent him from noticing her so as to rouse the little chit's +vanity, and in this way perturb the rustic drama of her life. +Arthur would soon join his regiment, and be far away: no, there +could be no danger in that quarter, even if Arthur's character had +not been a strong security against it. His honest, patronizing +pride in the good-will and respect of everybody about him was a +safeguard even against foolish romance, still more against a lower +kind of folly. If there had been anything special on Arthur's +mind in the previous conversation, it was clear he was not +inclined to enter into details, and Mr. Irwine was too delicate to +imply even a friendly curiosity. He perceived a change of subject +would be welcome, and said, "By the way, Arthur, at your colonel's +birthday fete there were some transparencies that made a great +effect in honour of Britannia, and Pitt, and the Loamshire +Militia, and, above all, the 'generous youth,' the hero of the +day. Don't you think you should get up something of the same sort +to astonish our weak minds?" + +The opportunity was gone. While Arthur was hesitating, the rope +to which he might have clung had drifted away--he must trust now +to his own swimming. + +In ten minutes from that time, Mr. Irwine was called for on +business, and Arthur, bidding him good-bye, mounted his horse +again with a sense of dissatisfaction, which he tried to quell by +determining to set off for Eagledale without an hour's delay. + + + + +Book Two + + + +Chapter XVII + +In Which the Story Pauses a Little + + +"THIS Rector of Broxton is little better than a pagan!" I hear one +of my readers exclaim. "How much more edifying it would have been +if you had made him give Arthur some truly spiritual advice! You +might have put into his mouth the most beautiful things--quite as +good as reading a sermon." + +Certainly I could, if I held it the highest vocation of the +novelist to represent things as they never have been and never +will be. Then, of course, I might refashion life and character +entirely after my own liking; I might select the most +unexceptionable type of clergyman and put my own admirable +opinions into his mouth on all occasions. But it happens, on the +contrary, that my strongest effort is to avoid any such arbitrary +picture, and to give a faithful account of men and things as they +have mirrored themselves in my mind. The mirror is doubtless +defective, the outlines will sometimes be disturbed, the +reflection faint or confused; but I feel as much bound to tell you +as precisely as I can what that reflection is, as if I were in the +witness-box, narrating my experience on oath. + +Sixty years ago--it is a long time, so no wonder things have +changed--all clergymen were not zealous; indeed, there is reason +to believe that the number of zealous clergymen was small, and it +is probable that if one among the small minority had owned the +livings of Broxton and Hayslope in the year 1799, you would have +liked him no better than you like Mr. Irwine. Ten to one, you +would have thought him a tasteless, indiscreet, methodistical man. +It is so very rarely that facts hit that nice medium required by +our own enlightened opinions and refined taste! Perhaps you will +say, "Do improve the facts a little, then; make them more +accordant with those correct views which it is our privilege to +possess. The world is not just what we like; do touch it up with +a tasteful pencil, and make believe it is not quite such a mixed +entangled affair. Let all people who hold unexceptionable +opinions act unexceptionably. Let your most faulty characters +always be on the wrong side, and your virtuous ones on the right. +Then we shall see at a glance whom we are to condemn and whom we +are to approve. Then we shall be able to admire, without the +slightest disturbance of our prepossessions: we shall hate and +despise with that true ruminant relish which belongs to undoubting +confidence." + +But, my good friend, what will you do then with your fellow- +parishioner who opposes your husband in the vestry? With your +newly appointed vicar, whose style of preaching you find painfully +below that of his regretted predecessor? With the honest servant +who worries your soul with her one failing? With your neighbour, +Mrs. Green, who was really kind to you in your last illness, but +has said several ill-natured things about you since your +convalescence? Nay, with your excellent husband himself, who has +other irritating habits besides that of not wiping his shoes? +These fellow-mortals, every one, must be accepted as they are: you +can neither straighten their noses, nor brighten their wit, nor +rectify their dispositions; and it is these people--amongst whom +your life is passed--that it is needful you should tolerate, pity, +and love: it is these more or less ugly, stupid, inconsistent +people whose movements of goodness you should be able to admire-- +for whom you should cherish all possible hopes, all possible +patience. And I would not, even if I had the choice, be the +clever novelist who could create a world so much better than this, +in which we get up in the morning to do our daily work, that you +would be likely to turn a harder, colder eye on the dusty streets +and the common green fields--on the real breathing men and women, +who can be chilled by your indifference or injured by your +prejudice; who can be cheered and helped onward by your fellow- +feeling, your forbearance, your outspoken, brave justice. + +So I am content to tell my simple story, without trying to make +things seem better than they were; dreading nothing, indeed, but +falsity, which, in spite of one's best efforts, there is reason to +dread. Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult. The pencil is +conscious of a delightful facility in drawing a griffin--the +longer the claws, and the larger the wings, the better; but that +marvellous facility which we mistook for genius is apt to forsake +us when we want to draw a real unexaggerated lion. Examine your +words well, and you will find that even when you have no motive to +be false, it is a very hard thing to say the exact truth, even +about your own immediate feelings--much harder than to say +something fine about them which is NOT the exact truth. + +It is for this rare, precious quality of truthfulness that I +delight in many Dutch paintings, which lofty-minded people +despise. I find a source of delicious sympathy in these faithful +pictures of a monotonous homely existence, which has been the fate +of so many more among my fellow-mortals than a life of pomp or of +absolute indigence, of tragic suffering or of world-stirring +actions. I turn, without shrinking, from cloud-borne angels, from +prophets, sibyls, and heroic warriors, to an old woman bending +over her flower-pot, or eating her solitary dinner, while the +noonday light, softened perhaps by a screen of leaves, falls on +her mob-cap, and just touches the rim of her spinning-wheel, and +her stone jug, and all those cheap common things which are the +precious necessaries of life to her--or I turn to that village +wedding, kept between four brown walls, where an awkward +bridegroom opens the dance with a high-shouldered, broad-faced +bride, while elderly and middle-aged friends look on, with very +irregular noses and lips, and probably with quart-pots in their +hands, but with an expression of unmistakable contentment and +goodwill. "Foh!" says my idealistic friend, "what vulgar details! +What good is there in taking all these pains to give an exact +likeness of old women and clowns? What a low phase of life! What +clumsy, ugly people!" + +But bless us, things may be lovable that are not altogether +handsome, I hope? I am not at all sure that the majority of the +human race have not been ugly, and even among those "lords of +their kind," the British, squat figures, ill-shapen nostrils, and +dingy complexions are not startling exceptions. Yet there is a +great deal of family love amongst us. I have a friend or two +whose class of features is such that the Apollo curl on the summit +of their brows would be decidedly trying; yet to my certain +knowledge tender hearts have beaten for them, and their +miniatures--flattering, but still not lovely--are kissed in secret +by motherly lips. I have seen many an excellent matron, who could +have never in her best days have been handsome, and yet she had a +packet of yellow love-letters in a private drawer, and sweet +children showered kisses on her sallow cheeks. And I believe +there have been plenty of young heroes, of middle stature and +feeble beards, who have felt quite sure they could never love +anything more insignificant than a Diana, and yet have found +themselves in middle life happily settled with a wife who waddles. +Yes! Thank God; human feeling is like the mighty rivers that +bless the earth: it does not wait for beauty--it flows with +resistless force and brings beauty with it. + +All honour and reverence to the divine beauty of form! Let us +cultivate it to the utmost in men, women, and children--in our +gardens and in our houses. But let us love that other beauty too, +which lies in no secret of proportion, but in the secret of deep +human sympathy. Paint us an angel, if you can, with a floating +violet robe, and a face paled by the celestial light; paint us yet +oftener a Madonna, turning her mild face upward and opening her +arms to welcome the divine glory; but do not impose on us any +aesthetic rules which shall banish from the region of Art those +old women scraping carrots with their work-worn hands, those heavy +clowns taking holiday in a dingy pot-house, those rounded backs +and stupid weather-beaten faces that have bent over the spade and +done the rough work of the world--those homes with their tin pans, +their brown pitchers, their rough curs, and their clusters of +onions. In this world there are so many of these common coarse +people, who have no picturesque sentimental wretchedness! It is +so needful we should remember their existence, else we may happen +to leave them quite out of our religion and philosophy and frame +lofty theories which only fit a world of extremes. Therefore, let +Art always remind us of them; therefore let us always have men +ready to give the loving pains of a life to the faithful +representing of commonplace things--men who see beauty in these +commonplace things, and delight in showing how kindly the light of +heaven falls on them. There are few prophets in the world; few +sublimely beautiful women; few heroes. I can't afford to give all +my love and reverence to such rarities: I want a great deal of +those feelings for my every-day fellow-men, especially for the few +in the foreground of the great multitude, whose faces I know, +whose hands I touch for whom I have to make way with kindly +courtesy. Neither are picturesque lazzaroni or romantic criminals +half so frequent as your common labourer, who gets his own bread +and eats it vulgarly but creditably with his own pocket-knife. It +is more needful that I should have a fibre of sympathy connecting +me with that vulgar citizen who weighs out my sugar in a vilely +assorted cravat and waistcoat, than with the handsomest rascal in +red scarf and green feathers--more needful that my heart should +swell with loving admiration at some trait of gentle goodness in +the faulty people who sit at the same hearth with me, or in the +clergyman of my own parish, who is perhaps rather too corpulent +and in other respects is not an Oberlin or a Tillotson, than at +the deeds of heroes whom I shall never know except by hearsay, or +at the sublimest abstract of all clerical graces that was ever +conceived by an able novelist. + +And so I come back to Mr. Irwine, with whom I desire you to be in +perfect charity, far as he may be from satisfying your demands on +the clerical character. Perhaps you think he was not--as he ought +to have been--a living demonstration of the benefits attached to a +national church? But I am not sure of that; at least I know that +the people in Broxton and Hayslope would have been very sorry to +part with their clergyman, and that most faces brightened at his +approach; and until it can be proved that hatred is a better thing +for the soul than love, I must believe that Mr. Irwine's influence +in his parish was a more wholesome one than that of the zealous +Mr. Ryde, who came there twenty years afterwards, when Mr. Irwine +had been gathered to his fathers. It is true, Mr. Ryde insisted +strongly on the doctrines of the Reformation, visited his flock a +great deal in their own homes, and was severe in rebuking the +aberrations of the flesh--put a stop, indeed, to the Christmas +rounds of the church singers, as promoting drunkenness and too +light a handling of sacred things. But I gathered from Adam Bede, +to whom I talked of these matters in his old age, that few +clergymen could be less successful in winning the hearts of their +parishioners than Mr. Ryde. They learned a great many notions +about doctrine from him, so that almost every church-goer under +fifty began to distinguish as well between the genuine gospel and +what did not come precisely up to that standard, as if he had been +born and bred a Dissenter; and for some time after his arrival +there seemed to be quite a religious movement in that quiet rural +district. "But," said Adam, "I've seen pretty clear, ever since I +was a young un, as religion's something else besides notions. It +isn't notions sets people doing the right thing--it's feelings. +It's the same with the notions in religion as it is with +math'matics--a man may be able to work problems straight off in's +head as he sits by the fire and smokes his pipe, but if he has to +make a machine or a building, he must have a will and a resolution +and love something else better than his own ease. Somehow, the +congregation began to fall off, and people began to speak light o' +Mr. Ryde. I believe he meant right at bottom; but, you see, he +was sourish-tempered, and was for beating down prices with the +people as worked for him; and his preaching wouldn't go down well +with that sauce. And he wanted to be like my lord judge i' the +parish, punishing folks for doing wrong; and he scolded 'em from +the pulpit as if he'd been a Ranter, and yet he couldn't abide the +Dissenters, and was a deal more set against 'em than Mr. Irwine +was. And then he didn't keep within his income, for he seemed to +think at first go-off that six hundred a-year was to make him as +big a man as Mr. Donnithorne. That's a sore mischief I've often +seen with the poor curates jumping into a bit of a living all of a +sudden. Mr. Ryde was a deal thought on at a distance, I believe, +and he wrote books, but as for math'matics and the natur o' +things, he was as ignorant as a woman. He was very knowing about +doctrines, and used to call 'em the bulwarks of the Reformation; +but I've always mistrusted that sort o' learning as leaves folks +foolish and unreasonable about business. Now Mester Irwine was as +different as could be: as quick!--he understood what you meant in +a minute, and he knew all about building, and could see when you'd +made a good job. And he behaved as much like a gentleman to the +farmers, and th' old women, and the labourers, as he did to the +gentry. You never saw HIM interfering and scolding, and trying to +play th' emperor. Ah, he was a fine man as ever you set eyes on; +and so kind to's mother and sisters. That poor sickly Miss Anne-- +he seemed to think more of her than of anybody else in the world. +There wasn't a soul in the parish had a word to say against him; +and his servants stayed with him till they were so old and +pottering, he had to hire other folks to do their work." + +"Well," I said, "that was an excellent way of preaching in the +weekdays; but I daresay, if your old friend Mr. Irwine were to +come to life again, and get into the pulpit next Sunday, you would +be rather ashamed that he didn't preach better after all your +praise of him." + +"Nay, nay," said Adam, broadening his chest and throwing himself +back in his chair, as if he were ready to meet all inferences, +"nobody has ever heard me say Mr. Irwine was much of a preacher. +He didn't go into deep speritial experience; and I know there s a +deal in a man's inward life as you can't measure by the square, +and say, 'Do this and that 'll follow,' and, 'Do that and this 'll +follow.' There's things go on in the soul, and times when +feelings come into you like a rushing mighty wind, as the +Scripture says, and part your life in two a'most, so you look back +on yourself as if you was somebody else. Those are things as you +can't bottle up in a 'do this' and 'do that'; and I'll go so far +with the strongest Methodist ever you'll find. That shows me +there's deep speritial things in religion. You can't make much +out wi' talking about it, but you feel it. Mr. Irwine didn't go +into those things--he preached short moral sermons, and that was +all. But then he acted pretty much up to what he said; he didn't +set up for being so different from other folks one day, and then +be as like 'em as two peas the next. And he made folks love him +and respect him, and that was better nor stirring up their gall +wi' being overbusy. Mrs. Poyser used to say--you know she would +have her word about everything--she said, Mr. Irwine was like a +good meal o' victual, you were the better for him without thinking +on it, and Mr. Ryde was like a dose o' physic, he gripped you and +worreted you, and after all he left you much the same." + +"But didn't Mr. Ryde preach a great deal more about that spiritual +part of religion that you talk of, Adam? Couldn't you get more +out of his sermons than out of Mr. Irwine's?" + +"Eh, I knowna. He preached a deal about doctrines. But I've seen +pretty clear, ever since I was a young un, as religion's something +else besides doctrines and notions. I look at it as if the +doctrines was like finding names for your feelings, so as you can +talk of 'em when you've never known 'em, just as a man may talk o' +tools when he knows their names, though he's never so much as seen +'em, still less handled 'em. I've heard a deal o' doctrine i' my +time, for I used to go after the Dissenting preachers along wi' +Seth, when I was a lad o' seventeen, and got puzzling myself a +deal about th' Arminians and the Calvinists. The Wesleyans, you +know, are strong Arminians; and Seth, who could never abide +anything harsh and was always for hoping the best, held fast by +the Wesleyans from the very first; but I thought I could pick a +hole or two in their notions, and I got disputing wi' one o' the +class leaders down at Treddles'on, and harassed him so, first o' +this side and then o' that, till at last he said, 'Young man, it's +the devil making use o' your pride and conceit as a weapon to war +against the simplicity o' the truth.' I couldn't help laughing +then, but as I was going home, I thought the man wasn't far wrong. +I began to see as all this weighing and sifting what this text +means and that text means, and whether folks are saved all by +God's grace, or whether there goes an ounce o' their own will +to't, was no part o' real religion at all. You may talk o' these +things for hours on end, and you'll only be all the more coxy and +conceited for't. So I took to going nowhere but to church, and +hearing nobody but Mr. Irwine, for he said notning but what was +good and what you'd be the wiser for remembering. And I found it +better for my soul to be humble before the mysteries o' God's +dealings, and not be making a clatter about what I could never +understand. And they're poor foolish questions after all; for +what have we got either inside or outside of us but what comes +from God? If we've got a resolution to do right, He gave it us, I +reckon, first or last; but I see plain enough we shall never do it +without a resolution, and that's enough for me." + +Adam, you perceive, was a warm admirer, perhaps a partial judge, +of Mr. Irwine, as, happily, some of us still are of the people we +have known familiarly. Doubtless it will be despised as a +weakness by that lofty order of minds who pant after the ideal, +and are oppressed by a general sense that their emotions are of +too exquisite a character to find fit objects among their everyday +fellowmen. I have often been favoured with the confidence of +these select natures, and find them to concur in the experience +that great men are overestimated and small men are insupportable; +that if you would love a woman without ever looking back on your +love as a folly, she must die while you are courting her; and if +you would maintain the slightest belief in human heroism, you must +never make a pilgrimage to see the hero. I confess I have often +meanly shrunk from confessing to these accomplished and acute +gentlemen what my own experience has been. I am afraid I have +often smiled with hypocritical assent, and gratified them with an +epigram on the fleeting nature of our illusions, which any one +moderately acquainted with French literature can command at a +moment's notice. Human converse, I think some wise man has +remarked, is not rigidly sincere. But I herewith discharge my +conscience, and declare that I have had quite enthusiastic +movements of admiration towards old gentlemen who spoke the worst +English, who were occasionally fretful in their temper, and who +had never moved in a higher sphere of influence than that of +parish overseer; and that the way in which I have come to the +conclusion that human nature is lovable--the way I have learnt +something of its deep pathos, its sublime mysteries--has been by +living a great deal among people more or less commonplace and +vulgar, of whom you would perhaps hear nothing very surprising if +you were to inquire about them in the neighbourhoods where they +dwelt. Ten to one most of the small shopkeepers in their vicinity +saw nothing at all in them. For I have observed this remarkable +coincidence, that the select natures who pant after the ideal, and +find nothing in pantaloons or petticoats great enough to command +their reverence and love, are curiously in unison with the +narrowest and pettiest. For example, I have often heard Mr. +Gedge, the landlord of the Royal Oak, who used to turn a bloodshot +eye on his neighbours in the village of Shepperton, sum up his +opinion of the people in his own parish--and they were all the +people he knew--in these emphatic words: "Aye, sir, I've said it +often, and I'll say it again, they're a poor lot i' this parish--a +poor lot, sir, big and little." I think he had a dim idea that if +he could migrate to a distant parish, he might find neighbours +worthy of him; and indeed he did subsequently transfer himself to +the Saracen's Head, which was doing a thriving business in the +back street of a neighbouring market-town. But, oddly enough, he +has found the people up that back street of precisely the same +stamp as the inhabitants of Shepperton--"a poor lot, sir, big and +little, and them as comes for a go o' gin are no better than them +as comes for a pint o' twopenny--a poor lot." + + + +Chapter XVIII + +Church + + +"HETTY, Hetty, don't you know church begins at two, and it's gone +half after one a'ready? Have you got nothing better to think on +this good Sunday as poor old Thias Bede's to be put into the +ground, and him drownded i' th' dead o' the night, as it's enough +to make one's back run cold, but you must be 'dizening yourself as +if there was a wedding i'stid of a funeral?" + +"Well, Aunt," said Hetty, "I can't be ready so soon as everybody +else, when I've got Totty's things to put on. And I'd ever such +work to make her stand still." + +Hetty was coming downstairs, and Mrs. Poyser, in her plain bonnet +and shawl, was standing below. If ever a girl looked as if she +had been made of roses, that girl was Hetty in her Sunday hat and +frock. For her hat was trimmed with pink, and her frock had pink +spots, sprinkled on a white ground. There was nothing but pink +and white about her, except in her dark hair and eyes and her +little buckled shoes. Mrs. Poyser was provoked at herself, for +she could hardly keep from smiling, as any mortal is inclined to +do at the sight of pretty round things. So she turned without +speaking, and joined the group outside the house door, followed by +Hetty, whose heart was fluttering so at the thought of some one +she expected to see at church that she hardly felt the ground she +trod on. + +And now the little procession set off. Mr. Poyser was in his +Sunday suit of drab, with a red-and-green waistcoat and a green +watch-ribbon having a large cornelian seal attached, pendant like +a plumb-line from that promontory where his watch-pocket was +situated; a silk handkerchief of a yellow tone round his neck; and +excellent grey ribbed stockings, knitted by Mrs. Poyser's own +hand, setting off the proportions of his leg. Mr. Poyser had no +reason to be ashamed of his leg, and suspected that the growing +abuse of top-boots and other fashions tending to disguise the +nether limbs had their origin in a pitiable degeneracy of the +human calf. Still less had he reason to be ashamed of his round +jolly face, which was good humour itself as he said, "Come, Hetty-- +come, little uns!" and giving his arm to his wife, led the way +through the causeway gate into the yard. + +The "little uns" addressed were Marty and Tommy, boys of nine and +seven, in little fustian tailed coats and knee-breeches, relieved +by rosy cheeks and black eyes, looking as much like their father +as a very small elephant is like a very large one. Hetty walked +between them, and behind came patient Molly, whose task it was to +carry Totty through the yard and over all the wet places on the +road; for Totty, having speedily recovered from her threatened +fever, had insisted on going to church to-day, and especially on +wearing her red-and-black necklace outside her tippet. And there +were many wet places for her to be carried over this afternoon, +for there had been heavy showers in the morning, though now the +clouds had rolled off and lay in towering silvery masses on the +horizon. + +You might have known it was Sunday if you had only waked up in the +farmyard. The cocks and hens seemed to know it, and made only +crooning subdued noises; the very bull-dog looked less savage, as +if he would have been satisfied with a smaller bite than usual. +The sunshine seemed to call all things to rest and not to labour. +It was asleep itself on the moss-grown cow-shed; on the group of +white ducks nestling together with their bills tucked under their +wings; on the old black sow stretched languidly on the straw, +while her largest young one found an excellent spring-bed on his +mother's fat ribs; on Alick, the shepherd, in his new smock-frock, +taking an uneasy siesta, half-sitting, half-standing on the +granary steps. Alick was of opinion that church, like other +luxuries, was not to be indulged in often by a foreman who had the +weather and the ewes on his mind. "Church! Nay--I'n gotten +summat else to think on," was an answer which he often uttered in +a tone of bitter significance that silenced further question. I +feel sure Alick meant no irreverence; indeed, I know that his mind +was not of a speculative, negative cast, and he would on no +account have missed going to church on Christmas Day, Easter +Sunday, and "Whissuntide." But he had a general impression that +public worship and religious ceremonies, like other non-productive +employments, were intended for people who had leisure. + +"There's Father a-standing at the yard-gate," said Martin Poyser. +"I reckon he wants to watch us down the field. It's wonderful +what sight he has, and him turned seventy-five." + +"Ah, I often think it's wi' th' old folks as it is wi' the +babbies," said Mrs. Poyser; "they're satisfied wi' looking, no +matter what they're looking at. It's God A'mighty's way o' +quietening 'em, I reckon, afore they go to sleep." + +Old Martin opened the gate as he saw the family procession +approaching, and held it wide open, leaning on his stick--pleased +to do this bit of work; for, like all old men whose life has been +spent in labour, he liked to feel that he was still useful--that +there was a better crop of onions in the garden because he was by +at the sowing--and that the cows would be milked the better if he +stayed at home on a Sunday afternoon to look on. He always went +to church on Sacrament Sundays, but not very regularly at other +times; on wet Sundays, or whenever he had a touch of rheumatism, +he used to read the three first chapters of Genesis instead. + +"They'll ha' putten Thias Bede i' the ground afore ye get to the +churchyard," he said, as his son came up. "It 'ud ha' been better +luck if they'd ha' buried him i' the forenoon when the rain was +fallin'; there's no likelihoods of a drop now; an' the moon lies +like a boat there, dost see? That's a sure sign o' fair weather-- +there's a many as is false but that's sure." + +"Aye, aye," said the son, "I'm in hopes it'll hold up now." + +"Mind what the parson says, mind what the parson says, my lads," +said Grandfather to the black-eyed youngsters in knee-breeches, +conscious of a marble or two in their pockets which they looked +forward to handling, a little, secretly, during the sermon. + +"Dood-bye, Dandad," said Totty. "Me doin' to church. Me dot my +netlace on. Dive me a peppermint." + +Grandad, shaking with laughter at this "deep little wench," slowly +transferred his stick to his left hand, which held the gate open, +and slowly thrust his finger into the waistcoat pocket on which +Totty had fixed her eyes with a confident look of expectation. + +And when they were all gone, the old man leaned on the gate again, +watching them across the lane along the Home Close, and through +the far gate, till they disappeared behind a bend in the hedge. +For the hedgerows in those days shut out one's view, even on the +better-managed farms; and this afternoon, the dog-roses were +tossing out their pink wreaths, the nightshade was in its yellow +and purple glory, the pale honeysuckle grew out of reach, peeping +high up out of a holly bush, and over all an ash or a sycamore +every now and then threw its shadow across the path. + +There were acquaintances at other gates who had to move aside and +let them pass: at the gate of the Home Close there was half the +dairy of cows standing one behind the other, extremely slow to +understand that their large bodies might be in the way; at the far +gate there was the mare holding her head over the bars, and beside +her the liver-coloured foal with its head towards its mother's +flank, apparently still much embarrassed by its own straddling +existence. The way lay entirely through Mr. Poyser's own fields +till they reached the main road leading to the village, and he +turned a keen eye on the stock and the crops as they went along, +while Mrs. Poyser was ready to supply a running commentary on them +all. The woman who manages a dairy has a large share in making +the rent, so she may well be allowed to have her opinion on stock +and their "keep"--an exercise which strengthens her understanding +so much that she finds herself able to give her husband advice on +most other subjects. + +"There's that shorthorned Sally," she said, as they entered the +Home Close, and she caught sight of the meek beast that lay +chewing the cud and looking at her with a sleepy eye. "I begin to +hate the sight o' the cow; and I say now what I said three weeks +ago, the sooner we get rid of her the better, for there's that +little yallow cow as doesn't give half the milk, and yet I've +twice as much butter from her." + +"Why, thee't not like the women in general," said Mr. Poyser; +"they like the shorthorns, as give such a lot o' milk. There's +Chowne's wife wants him to buy no other sort." + +"What's it sinnify what Chowne's wife likes? A poor soft thing, +wi' no more head-piece nor a sparrow. She'd take a big cullender +to strain her lard wi', and then wonder as the scratchin's run +through. I've seen enough of her to know as I'll niver take a +servant from her house again--all hugger-mugger--and you'd niver +know, when you went in, whether it was Monday or Friday, the wash +draggin' on to th' end o' the week; and as for her cheese, I know +well enough it rose like a loaf in a tin last year. And then she +talks o' the weather bein' i' fault, as there's folks 'ud stand on +their heads and then say the fault was i' their boots." + +"Well, Chowne's been wanting to buy Sally, so we can get rid of +her if thee lik'st," said Mr. Poyser, secretly proud of his wife's +superior power of putting two and two together; indeed, on recent +market-days he had more than once boasted of her discernment in +this very matter of shorthorns. "Aye, them as choose a soft for a +wife may's well buy up the shorthorns, for if you get your head +stuck in a bog, your legs may's well go after it. Eh! Talk o' +legs, there's legs for you," Mrs. Poyser continued, as Totty, who +had been set down now the road was dry, toddled on in front of her +father and mother. "There's shapes! An' she's got such a long +foot, she'll be her father's own child." + +"Aye, she'll be welly such a one as Hetty i' ten years' time, on'y +she's got THY coloured eyes. I niver remember a blue eye i' my +family; my mother had eyes as black as sloes, just like Hetty's." + +"The child 'ull be none the worse for having summat as isn't like +Hetty. An' I'm none for having her so overpretty. Though for the +matter o' that, there's people wi' light hair an' blue eyes as +pretty as them wi' black. If Dinah had got a bit o' colour in her +cheeks, an' didn't stick that Methodist cap on her head, enough to +frighten the cows, folks 'ud think her as pretty as Hetty." + +"Nay, nay," said Mr. Poyser, with rather a contemptuous emphasis, +"thee dostna know the pints of a woman. The men 'ud niver run +after Dinah as they would after Hetty." + +"What care I what the men 'ud run after? It's well seen what +choice the most of 'em know how to make, by the poor draggle-tails +o' wives you see, like bits o' gauze ribbin, good for nothing when +the colour's gone." + +"Well, well, thee canstna say but what I knowed how to make a +choice when I married thee," said Mr. Poyser, who usually settled +little conjugal disputes by a compliment of this sort; "and thee +wast twice as buxom as Dinah ten year ago." + +"I niver said as a woman had need to be ugly to make a good missis +of a house. There's Chowne's wife ugly enough to turn the milk +an' save the rennet, but she'll niver save nothing any other way. +But as for Dinah, poor child, she's niver likely to be buxom as +long as she'll make her dinner o' cake and water, for the sake o' +giving to them as want. She provoked me past bearing sometimes; +and, as I told her, she went clean again' the Scriptur', for that +says, 'Love your neighbour as yourself'; 'but,' I said, 'if you +loved your neighbour no better nor you do yourself, Dinah, it's +little enough you'd do for him. You'd be thinking he might do +well enough on a half-empty stomach.' Eh, I wonder where she is +this blessed Sunday! Sitting by that sick woman, I daresay, as +she'd set her heart on going to all of a sudden." + +"Ah, it was a pity she should take such megrims into her head, +when she might ha' stayed wi' us all summer, and eaten twice as +much as she wanted, and it 'ud niver ha' been missed. She made no +odds in th' house at all, for she sat as still at her sewing as a +bird on the nest, and was uncommon nimble at running to fetch +anything. If Hetty gets married, theed'st like to ha' Dinah wi' +thee constant." + +"It's no use thinking o' that," said Mrs. Poyser. "You might as +well beckon to the flying swallow as ask Dinah to come an' live +here comfortable, like other folks. If anything could turn her, I +should ha' turned her, for I've talked to her for a hour on end, +and scolded her too; for she's my own sister's child, and it +behoves me to do what I can for her. But eh, poor thing, as soon +as she'd said us 'good-bye' an' got into the cart, an' looked back +at me with her pale face, as is welly like her Aunt Judith come +back from heaven, I begun to be frightened to think o' the set- +downs I'd given her; for it comes over you sometimes as if she'd a +way o' knowing the rights o' things more nor other folks have. +But I'll niver give in as that's 'cause she's a Methodist, no more +nor a white calf's white 'cause it eats out o' the same bucket wi' +a black un." + +"Nay," said Mr. Poyser, with as near an approach to a snarl as his +good-nature would allow; "I'm no opinion o' the Methodists. It's +on'y tradesfolks as turn Methodists; you nuver knew a farmer +bitten wi' them maggots. There's maybe a workman now an' then, as +isn't overclever at's work, takes to preachin' an' that, like Seth +Bede. But you see Adam, as has got one o' the best head-pieces +hereabout, knows better; he's a good Churchman, else I'd never +encourage him for a sweetheart for Hetty." + +"Why, goodness me," said Mrs. Poyser, who had looked back while +her husband was speaking, "look where Molly is with them lads! +They're the field's length behind us. How COULD you let 'em do +so, Hetty? Anybody might as well set a pictur' to watch the +children as you. Run back and tell 'em to come on." + +Mr. and Mrs. Poyser were now at the end of the second field, so +they set Totty on the top of one of the large stones forming the +true Loamshire stile, and awaited the loiterers Totty observing +with complacency, "Dey naughty, naughty boys--me dood." + +The fact was that this Sunday walk through the fields was fraught +with great excitement to Marty and Tommy, who saw a perpetual +drama going on in the hedgerows, and could no more refrain from +stopping and peeping than if they had been a couple of spaniels or +terriers. Marty was quite sure he saw a yellow-hammer on the +boughs of the great ash, and while he was peeping, he missed the +sight of a white-throated stoat, which had run across the path and +was described with much fervour by the junior Tommy. Then there +was a little greenfinch, just fledged, fluttering along the +ground, and it seemed quite possible to catch it, till it managed +to flutter under the blackberry bush. Hetty could not be got to +give any heed to these things, so Molly was called on for her +ready sympathy, and peeped with open mouth wherever she was told, +and said "Lawks!" whenever she was expected to wonder. + +Molly hastened on with some alarm when Hetty had come back and +called to them that her aunt was angry; but Marty ran on first, +shouting, "We've found the speckled turkey's nest, Mother!" with +the instinctive confidence that people who bring good news are +never in fault. + +"Ah," said Mrs. Poyser, really forgetting all discipline in this +pleasant surprise, "that's a good lad; why, where is it?" + +"Down in ever such a hole, under the hedge. I saw it first, +looking after the greenfinch, and she sat on th' nest." + +"You didn't frighten her, I hope," said the mother, "else she'll +forsake it." + +"No, I went away as still as still, and whispered to Molly--didn't +I, Molly?" + +"Well, well, now come on," said Mrs. Poyser, "and walk before +Father and Mother, and take your little sister by the hand. We +must go straight on now. Good boys don't look after the birds of +a Sunday." + +"But, Mother," said Marty, "you said you'd give half-a-crown to +find the speckled turkey's nest. Mayn't I have the half-crown put +into my money-box?" + +"We'll see about that, my lad, if you walk along now, like a good +boy." + +The father and mother exchanged a significant glance of amusement +at their eldest-born's acuteness; but on Tommy's round face there +was a cloud. + +"Mother," he said, half-crying, "Marty's got ever so much more +money in his box nor I've got in mine." + +"Munny, me want half-a-toun in my bots," said Totty. + +"Hush, hush, hush," said Mrs. Poyser, "did ever anybody hear such +naughty children? Nobody shall ever see their money-boxes any +more, if they don't make haste and go on to church." + +This dreadful threat had the desired effect, and through the two +remaining fields the three pair of small legs trotted on without +any serious interruption, notwithstanding a small pond full of +tadpoles, alias "bullheads," which the lads looked at wistfully. + +The damp hay that must be scattered and turned afresh to-morrow +was not a cheering sight to Mr. Poyser, who during hay and corn +harvest had often some mental struggles as to the benefits of a +day of rest; but no temptation would have induced him to carry on +any field-work, however early in the morning, on a Sunday; for had +not Michael Holdsworth had a pair of oxen "sweltered" while he was +ploughing on Good Friday? That was a demonstration that work on +sacred days was a wicked thing; and with wickedness of any sort +Martin Poyser was quite clear that he would have nothing to do, +since money got by such means would never prosper. + +"It a'most makes your fingers itch to be at the hay now the sun +shines so," he observed, as they passed through the "Big Meadow." +"But it's poor foolishness to think o' saving by going against +your conscience. There's that Jim Wakefield, as they used to call +'Gentleman Wakefield,' used to do the same of a Sunday as o' +weekdays, and took no heed to right or wrong, as if there was +nayther God nor devil. An' what's he come to? Why, I saw him +myself last market-day a-carrying a basket wi' oranges in't." + +"Ah, to be sure," said Mrs. Poyser, emphatically, "you make but a +poor trap to catch luck if you go and bait it wi' wickedness. The +money as is got so's like to burn holes i' your pocket. I'd niver +wish us to leave our lads a sixpence but what was got i' the +rightful way. And as for the weather, there's One above makes it, +and we must put up wi't: it's nothing of a plague to what the +wenches are." + +Notwithstanding the interruption in their walk, the excellent +habit which Mrs. Poyser's clock had of taking time by the forelock +had secured their arrival at the village while it was still a +quarter to two, though almost every one who meant to go to church +was already within the churchyard gates. Those who stayed at home +were chiefly mothers, like Timothy's Bess, who stood at her own +door nursing her baby and feeling as women feel in that position-- +that nothing else can be expected of them. + +It was not entirely to see Thias Bede's funeral that the people +were standing about the churchyard so long before service began; +that was their common practice. The women, indeed, usually +entered the church at once, and the farmers' wives talked in an +undertone to each other, over the tall pews, about their illnesses +and the total failure of doctor's stuff, recommending dandelion- +tea, and other home-made specifics, as far preferable--about the +servants, and their growing exorbitance as to wages, whereas the +quality of their services declined from year to year, and there +was no girl nowadays to be trusted any further than you could see +her--about the bad price Mr. Dingall, the Treddleston grocer, was +giving for butter, and the reasonable doubts that might be held as +to his solvency, notwithstanding that Mrs. Dingall was a sensible +woman, and they were all sorry for HER, for she had very good kin. +Meantime the men lingered outside, and hardly any of them except +the singers, who had a humming and fragmentary rehearsal to go +through, entered the church until Mr. Irwine was in the desk. +They saw no reason for that premature entrance--what could they do +in church if they were there before service began?--and they did +not conceive that any power in the universe could take it ill of +them if they stayed out and talked a little about "bus'ness." + +Chad Cranage looks like quite a new acquaintance to-day, for he +has got his clean Sunday face, which always makes his little +granddaughter cry at him as a stranger. But an experienced eye +would have fixed on him at once as the village blacksmith, after +seeing the humble deference with which the big saucy fellow took +off his hat and stroked his hair to the farmers; for Chad was +accustomed to say that a working-man must hold a candle to a +personage understood to be as black as he was himself on weekdays; +by which evil-sounding rule of conduct he meant what was, after +all, rather virtuous than otherwise, namely, that men who had +horses to be shod must be treated with respect. Chad and the +rougher sort of workmen kept aloof from the grave under the white +thorn, where the burial was going forward; but Sandy Jim, and +several of the farm-labourers, made a group round it, and stood +with their hats off, as fellow-mourners with the mother and sons. +Others held a midway position, sometimes watching the group at the +grave, sometimes listening to the conversation of the farmers, who +stood in a knot near the church door, and were now joined by +Martin Poyser, while his family passed into the church. On the +outside of this knot stood Mr. Casson, the landlord of the +Donnithorne Arms, in his most striking attitude--that is to say, +with the forefinger of his right hand thrust between the buttons +of his waistcoat, his left hand in his breeches pocket, and his +head very much on one side; looking, on the whole, like an actor +who has only a mono-syllabic part entrusted to him, but feels sure +that the audience discern his fitness for the leading business; +curiously in contrast with old Jonathan Burge, who held his hands +behind him and leaned forward, coughing asthmatically, with an +inward scorn of all knowingness that could not be turned into +cash. The talk was in rather a lower tone than usual to-day, +hushed a little by the sound of Mr. Irwine's voice reading the +final prayers of the burial-service. They had all had their word +of pity for poor Thias, but now they had got upon the nearer +subject of their own grievances against Satchell, the Squire's +bailiff, who played the part of steward so far as it was not +performed by old Mr. Donnithorne himself, for that gentleman had +the meanness to receive his own rents and make bargains about his +own timber. This subject of conversation was an additional reason +for not being loud, since Satchell himself might presently be +walking up the paved road to the church door. And soon they +became suddenly silent; for Mr. Irwine's voice had ceased, and the +group round the white thorn was dispersing itself towards the +church. + +They all moved aside, and stood with their hats off, while Mr. +Irwine passed. Adam and Seth were coming next, with their mother +between them; for Joshua Rann officiated as head sexton as well as +clerk, and was not yet ready to follow the rector into the vestry. +But there was a pause before the three mourners came on: Lisbeth +had turned round to look again towards the grave! Ah! There was +nothing now but the brown earth under the white thorn. Yet she +cried less to-day than she had done any day since her husband's +death. Along with all her grief there was mixed an unusual sense +of her own importance in having a "burial," and in Mr. Irwine's +reading a special service for her husband; and besides, she knew +the funeral psalm was going to be sung for him. She felt this +counter-excitement to her sorrow still more strongly as she walked +with her sons towards the church door, and saw the friendly +sympathetic nods of their fellow-parishioners. + +The mother and sons passed into the church, and one by one the +loiterers followed, though some still lingered without; the sight +of Mr. Donnithorne's carriage, which was winding slowly up the +hill, perhaps helping to make them feel that there was no need for +haste. + +But presently the sound of the bassoon and the key-bugles burst +forth; the evening hymn, which always opened the service, had +begun, and every one must now enter and take his place. + +I cannot say that the interior of Hayslope Church was remarkable +for anything except for the grey age of its oaken pews--great +square pews mostly, ranged on each side of a narrow aisle. It was +free, indeed, from the modern blemish of galleries. The choir had +two narrow pews to themselves in the middle of the right-hand row, +so that it was a short process for Joshua Rann to take his place +among them as principal bass, and return to his desk after the +singing was over. The pulpit and desk, grey and old as the pews, +stood on one side of the arch leading into the chancel, which also +had its grey square pews for Mr. Donnithorne's family and +servants. Yet I assure you these grey pews, with the buff-washed +walls, gave a very pleasing tone to this shabby interior, and +agreed extremely well with the ruddy faces and bright waistcoats. +And there were liberal touches of crimson toward the chancel, for +the pulpit and Mr. Donnithorne's own pew had handsome crimson +cloth cushions; and, to close the vista, there was a crimson +altar-cloth, embroidered with golden rays by Miss Lydia's own +hand. + +But even without the crimson cloth, the effect must have been warm +and cheering when Mr. Irwine was in the desk, looking benignly +round on that simple congregation--on the hardy old men, with bent +knees and shoulders, perhaps, but with vigour left for much hedge- +clipping and thatching; on the tall stalwart frames and roughly +cut bronzed faces of the stone-cutters and carpenters; on the +half-dozen well-to-do farmers, with their apple-cheeked families; +and on the clean old women, mostly farm-labourers' wives, with +their bit of snow-white cap-border under their black bonnets, and +with their withered arms, bare from the elbow, folded passively +over their chests. For none of the old people held books--why +should they? Not one of them could read. But they knew a few +"good words" by heart, and their withered lips now and then moved +silently, following the service without any very clear +comprehension indeed, but with a simple faith in its efflcacy to +ward off harm and bring blessing. And now all faces were visible, +for all were standing up--the little children on the seats peeping +over the edge of the grey pews, while good Bishop Ken's evening +hymn was being sung to one of those lively psalm-tunes which died +out with the last generation of rectors and choral parish clerks. +Melodies die out, like the pipe of Pan, with the ears that love +them and listen for them. Adam was not in his usual place among +the singers to-day, for he sat with his mother and Seth, and he +noticed with surprise that Bartle Massey was absent too--all the +more agreeable for Mr. Joshua Rann, who gave out his bass notes +with unusual complacency and threw an extra ray of severity into +the glances he sent over his spectacles at the recusant Will +Maskery. + +I beseech you to imagine Mr. Irwine looking round on this scene, +in his ample white surplice that became him so well, with his +powdered hair thrown back, his rich brown complexion, and his +finely cut nostril and upper lip; for there was a certain virtue +in that benignant yet keen countenance as there is in all human +faces from which a generous soul beams out. And over all streamed +the delicious June sunshine through the old windows, with their +desultory patches of yellow, red, and blue, that threw pleasant +touches of colour on the opposite wall. + +I think, as Mr. Irwine looked round to-day, his eyes rested an +instant longer than usual on the square pew occupied by Martin +Poyser and his family. And there was another pair of dark eyes +that found it impossible not to wander thither, and rest on that +round pink-and-white figure. But Hetty was at that moment quite +careless of any glances--she was absorbed in the thought that +Arthur Donnithorne would soon be coming into church, for the +carriage must surely be at the church-gate by this time. She had +never seen him since she parted with him in the wood on Thursday +evening, and oh, how long the time had seemed! Things had gone on +just the same as ever since that evening; the wonders that had +happened then had brought no changes after them; they were already +like a dream. When she heard the church door swinging, her heart +beat so, she dared not look up. She felt that her aunt was +curtsying; she curtsied herself. That must be old Mr. +Donnithorne--he always came first, the wrinkled small old man, +peering round with short-sighted glances at the bowing and +curtsying congregation; then she knew Miss Lydia was passing, and +though Hetty liked so much to look at her fashionable little coal- +scuttle bonnet, with the wreath of small roses round it, she +didn't mind it to-day. But there were no more curtsies--no, he +was not come; she felt sure there was nothing else passing the pew +door but the house-keeper's black bonnet and the lady's maid's +beautiful straw hat that had once been Miss Lydia's, and then the +powdered heads of the butler and footman. No, he was not there; +yet she would look now--she might be mistaken--for, after all, she +had not looked. So she lifted up her eyelids and glanced timidly +at the cushioned pew in the chancel--there was no one but old Mr. +Donnithorne rubbing his spectacles with his white handkerchief, +and Miss Lydia opening the large gilt-edged prayer-book. The +chill disappointment was too hard to bear. She felt herself +turning pale, her lips trembling; she was ready to cry. Oh, what +SHOULD she do? Everybody would know the reason; they would know +she was crying because Arthur was not there. And Mr. Craig, with +the wonderful hothouse plant in his button-hole, was staring at +her, she knew. It was dreadfully long before the General +Confession began, so that she could kneel down. Two great drops +WOULD fall then, but no one saw them except good-natured Molly, +for her aunt and uncle knelt with their backs towards her. Molly, +unable to imagine any cause for tears in church except faintness, +of which she had a vague traditional knowledge, drew out of her +pocket a queer little flat blue smelling-bottle, and after much +labour in pulling the cork out, thrust the narrow neck against +Hetty's nostrils. "It donna smell," she whispered, thinking this +was a great advantage which old salts had over fresh ones: they +did you good without biting your nose. Hetty pushed it away +peevishly; but this little flash of temper did what the salts +could not have done--it roused her to wipe away the traces of her +tears, and try with all her might not to shed any more. Hetty had +a certain strength in her vain little nature: she would have borne +anything rather than be laughed at, or pointed at with any other +feeling than admiration; she would have pressed her own nails into +her tender flesh rather than people should know a secret she did +not want them to know. + +What fluctuations there were in her busy thoughts and feelings, +while Mr. Irwine was pronouncing the solemn "Absolution" in her +deaf ears, and through all the tones of petition that followed! +Anger lay very close to disappointment, and soon won the victory +over the conjectures her small ingenuity could devise to account +for Arthur's absence on the supposition that he really wanted to +come, really wanted to see her again. And by the time she rose +from her knees mechanically, because all the rest were rising, the +colour had returned to her cheeks even with a heightened glow, for +she was framing little indignant speeches to herself, saying she +hated Arthur for giving her this pain--she would like him to +suffer too. Yet while this selfish tumult was going on in her +soul, her eyes were bent down on her prayer-book, and the eyelids +with their dark fringe looked as lovely as ever. Adam Bede +thought so, as he glanced at her for a moment on rising from his +knees. + +But Adam's thoughts of Hetty did not deafen him to the service; +they rather blended with all the other deep feelings for which the +church service was a channel to him this afternoon, as a certain +consciousness of our entire past and our imagined future blends +itself with all our moments of keen sensibility. And to Adam the +church service was the best channel he could have found for his +mingled regret, yearning, and resignation; its interchange of +beseeching cries for help with outbursts of faith and praise, its +recurrent responses and the familiar rhythm of its collects, +seemed to speak for him as no other form of worship could have +done; as, to those early Christians who had worshipped from their +childhood upwards in catacombs, the torch-light and shadows must +have seemed nearer the Divine presence than the heathenish +daylight of the streets. The secret of our emotions never lies in +the bare object, but in its subtle relations to our own past: no +wonder the secret escapes the unsympathizing oberver, who might as +well put on his spectacles to discern odours. + +But there was one reason why even a chance comer would have found +the service in Hayslope Church more impressive than in most other +village nooks in the kingdom--a reason of which I am sure you have +not the slightest suspicion. It was the reading of our friend +Joshua Rann. Where that good shoemaker got his notion of reading +from remained a mystery even to his most intimate acquaintances. +I believe, after all, he got it chiefly from Nature, who had +poured some of her music into this honest conceited soul, as she +had been known to do into other narrow souls before his. She had +given him, at least, a fine bass voice and a musical ear; but I +cannot positively say whether these alone had sufficed to inspire +him with the rich chant in which he delivered the responses. The +way he rolled from a rich deep forte into a melancholy cadence, +subsiding, at the end of the last word, into a sort of faint +resonance, like the lingering vibrations of a fine violoncello, I +can compare to nothing for its strong calm melancholy but the rush +and cadence of the wind among the autumn boughs. This may seem a +strange mode of speaking about the reading of a parish clerk--a +man in rusty spectacles, with stubbly hair, a large occiput, and a +prominent crown. But that is Nature's way: she will allow a +gentleman of splendid physiognomy and poetic aspirations to sing +woefully out of tune, and not give him the slightest hint of it; +and takes care that some narrow-browed fellow, trolling a ballad +in the corner of a pot-house, shall be as true to his intervals as +a bird. + +Joshua himself was less proud of his reading than of his singing, +and it was always with a sense of heightened importance that he +passed from the desk to the choir. Still more to-day: it was a +special occasion, for an old man, familiar to all the parish, had +died a sad death--not in his bed, a circumstance the most painful +to the mind of the peasant--and now the funeral psalm was to be +sung in memory of his sudden departure. Moreover, Bartle Massey +was not at church, and Joshua's importance in the choir suffered +no eclipse. It was a solemn minor strain they sang. The old +psalm-tunes have many a wail among them, and the words-- + + +Thou sweep'st us off as with a flood; + We vanish hence like dreams-- + + +seemed to have a closer application than usual in the death of +poor Thias. The mother and sons listened, each with peculiar +feelings. Lisbeth had a vague belief that the psalm was doing her +husband good; it was part of that decent burial which she would +have thought it a greater wrong to withhold from him than to have +caused him many unhappy days while he was living. The more there +was said about her husband, the more there was done for him, +surely the safer he would be. It was poor Lisbeth's blind way of +feeling that human love and pity are a ground of faith in some +other love. Seth, who was easily touched, shed tears, and tried +to recall, as he had done continually since his father's death, +all that he had heard of the possibility that a single moment of +consciousness at the last might be a moment of pardon and +reconcilement; for was it not written in the very psalm they were +singing that the Divine dealings were not measured and +circumscribed by time? Adam had never been unable to join in a +psalm before. He had known plenty of trouble and vexation since +he had been a lad, but this was the first sorrow that had hemmed +in his voice, and strangely enough it was sorrow because the chief +source of his past trouble and vexation was for ever gone out of +his reach. He had not been able to press his father's hand before +their parting, and say, "Father, you know it was all right between +us; I never forgot what I owed you when I was a lad; you forgive +me if I have been too hot and hasty now and then!" Adam thought +but little to-day of the hard work and the earnings he had spent +on his father: his thoughts ran constantly on what the old man's +feelings had been in moments of humiliation, when he had held down +his head before the rebukes of his son. When our indignation is +borne in submissive silence, we are apt to feel twinges of doubt +afterwards as to our own generosity, if not justice; how much more +when the object of our anger has gone into everlasting silence, +and we have seen his face for the last time in the meekness of +death! + +"Ah! I was always too hard," Adam said to himself. "It's a sore +fault in me as I'm so hot and out o' patience with people when +they do wrong, and my heart gets shut up against 'em, so as I +can't bring myself to forgive 'em. I see clear enough there's +more pride nor love in my soul, for I could sooner make a thousand +strokes with th' hammer for my father than bring myself to say a +kind word to him. And there went plenty o' pride and temper to +the strokes, as the devil WILL be having his finger in what we +call our duties as well as our sins. Mayhap the best thing I ever +did in my life was only doing what was easiest for myself. It's +allays been easier for me to work nor to sit still, but the real +tough job for me 'ud be to master my own will and temper and go +right against my own pride. It seems to me now, if I was to find +Father at home to-night, I should behave different; but there's no +knowing--perhaps nothing 'ud be a lesson to us if it didn't come +too late. It's well we should feel as life's a reckoning we can't +make twice over; there's no real making amends in this world, any +more nor you can mend a wrong subtraction by doing your addition +right." + +This was the key-note to which Adam's thoughts had perpetually +returned since his father's death, and the solemn wail of the +funeral psalm was only an influence that brought back the old +thoughts with stronger emphasis. So was the sermon, which Mr. +Irwine had chosen with reference to Thias's funeral. It spoke +briefly and simply of the words, "In the midst of life we are in +death"--how the present moment is all we can call our own for +works of mercy, of righteous dealing, and of family tenderness. +All very old truths--but what we thought the oldest truth becomes +the most startling to us in the week when we have looked on the +dead face of one who has made a part of our own lives. For when +men want to impress us with the effect of a new and wonderfully +vivid light, do they not let it fall on the most familiar objects, +that we may measure its intensity by remembering the former +dimness? + +Then came the moment of the final blessing, when the forever +sublime words, "The peace of God, which passeth all +understanding," seemed to blend with the calm afternoon sunshine +that fell on the bowed heads of the congregation; and then the +quiet rising, the mothers tying on the bonnets of the little +maidens who had slept through the sermon, the fathers collecting +the prayer-books, until all streamed out through the old archway +into the green churchyard and began their neighbourly talk, their +simple civilities, and their invitations to tea; for on a Sunday +every one was ready to receive a guest--it was the day when all +must be in their best clothes and their best humour. + +Mr. and Mrs. Poyser paused a minute at the church gate: they were +waiting for Adam to Come up, not being contented to go away +without saying a kind word to the widow and her sons. + +"Well, Mrs. Bede," said Mrs. Poyser, as they walked on together, +"you must keep up your heart; husbands and wives must be content +when they've lived to rear their children and see one another's +hair grey." + +"Aye, aye," said Mr. Poyser; "they wonna have long to wait for one +another then, anyhow. And ye've got two o' the strapping'st sons +i' th' country; and well you may, for I remember poor Thias as +fine a broad-shouldered fellow as need to be; and as for you, Mrs. +Bede, why you're straighter i' the back nor half the young women +now." + +"Eh," said Lisbeth, "it's poor luck for the platter to wear well +when it's broke i' two. The sooner I'm laid under the thorn the +better. I'm no good to nobody now." + +Adam never took notice of his mother's little unjust plaints; but +Seth said, "Nay, Mother, thee mustna say so. Thy sons 'ull never +get another mother." + +"That's true, lad, that's true," said Mr. Poyser; "and it's wrong +on us to give way to grief, Mrs. Bede; for it's like the children +cryin' when the fathers and mothers take things from 'em. There's +One above knows better nor us." + +"Ah," said Mrs. Poyser, "an' it's poor work allays settin' the +dead above the livin'. We shall all on us be dead some time, I +reckon--it 'ud be better if folks 'ud make much on us beforehand, +i'stid o' beginnin' when we're gone. It's but little good you'll +do a-watering the last year's crop." + +"Well, Adam," said Mr. Poyser, feeling that his wife's words were, +as usual, rather incisive than soothing, and that it would be well +to change the subject, "you'll come and see us again now, I hope. +I hanna had a talk with you this long while, and the missis here +wants you to see what can be done with her best spinning-wheel, +for it's got broke, and it'll be a nice job to mend it--there'll +want a bit o' turning. You'll come as soon as you can now, will +you?" + +Mr. Poyser paused and looked round while he was speaking, as if to +see where Hetty was; for the children were running on before. +Hetty was not without a companion, and she had, besides, more pink +and white about her than ever, for she held in her hand the +wonderful pink-and-white hot-house plant, with a very long name--a +Scotch name, she supposed, since people said Mr. Craig the +gardener was Scotch. Adam took the opportunity of looking round +too; and I am sure you will not require of him that he should feel +any vexation in observing a pouting expression on Hetty's face as +she listened to the gardener's small talk. Yet in her secret +heart she was glad to have him by her side, for she would perhaps +learn from him how it was Arthur had not come to church. Not that +she cared to ask him the question, but she hoped the information +would be given spontaneously; for Mr. Craig, like a superior man, +was very fond of giving information. + +Mr. Craig was never aware that his conversation and advances were +received coldly, for to shift one's point of view beyond certain +limits is impossible to the most liberal and expansive mind; we +are none of us aware of the impression we produce on Brazilian +monkeys of feeble understanding--it is possible they see hardly +anything in us. Moreover, Mr. Craig was a man of sober passions, +and was already in his tenth year of hesitation as to the relative +advantages of matrimony and bachelorhood. It is true that, now +and then, when he had been a little heated by an extra glass of +grog, he had been heard to say of Hetty that the "lass was well +enough," and that "a man might do worse"; but on convivial +occasions men are apt to express themselves strongly. + +Martin Poyser held Mr. Craig in honour, as a man who "knew his +business" and who had great lights concerning soils and compost; +but he was less of a favourite with Mrs. Poyser, who had more than +once said in confidence to her husband, "You're mighty fond o' +Craig, but for my part, I think he's welly like a cock as thinks +the sun's rose o' purpose to hear him crow." For the rest, Mr. +Craig was an estimable gardener, and was not without reasons for +having a high opinion of himself. He had also high shoulders and +high cheek-bones and hung his head forward a little, as he walked +along with his hands in his breeches pockets. I think it was his +pedigree only that had the advantage of being Scotch, and not his +"bringing up"; for except that he had a stronger burr in his +accent, his speech differed little from that of the Loamshire +people about him. But a gardener is Scotch, as a French teacher +is Parisian. + +"Well, Mr. Poyser," he said, before the good slow farmer had time +to speak, "ye'll not be carrying your hay to-morrow, I'm thinking. +The glass sticks at 'change,' and ye may rely upo' my word as +we'll ha' more downfall afore twenty-four hours is past. Ye see +that darkish-blue cloud there upo' the 'rizon--ye know what I mean +by the 'rizon, where the land and sky seems to meet?" + +"Aye, aye, I see the cloud," said Mr. Poyser, "'rizon or no +'rizon. It's right o'er Mike Holdsworth's fallow, and a foul +fallow it is." + +"Well, you mark my words, as that cloud 'ull spread o'er the sky +pretty nigh as quick as you'd spread a tarpaulin over one o' your +hay-ricks. It's a great thing to ha' studied the look o' the +clouds. Lord bless you! Th' met'orological almanecks can learn +me nothing, but there's a pretty sight o' things I could let THEM +up to, if they'd just come to me. And how are you, Mrs. Poyser?-- +thinking o' getherin' the red currants soon, I reckon. You'd a +deal better gether 'em afore they're o'erripe, wi' such weather as +we've got to look forward to. How do ye do, Mistress Bede?" Mr. +Craig continued, without a pause, nodding by the way to Adam and +Seth. "I hope y' enjoyed them spinach and gooseberries as I sent +Chester with th' other day. If ye want vegetables while ye're in +trouble, ye know where to come to. It's well known I'm not giving +other folks' things away, for when I've supplied the house, the +garden s my own spekilation, and it isna every man th' old squire +could get as 'ud be equil to the undertaking, let alone asking +whether he'd be willing I've got to run my calkilation fine, I can +tell you, to make sure o' getting back the money as I pay the +squire. I should like to see some o' them fellows as make the +almanecks looking as far before their noses as I've got to do +every year as comes." + +"They look pretty fur, though," said Mr. Poyser, turning his head +on one side and speaking in rather a subdued reverential tone. +"Why, what could come truer nor that pictur o' the cock wi' the +big spurs, as has got its head knocked down wi' th' anchor, an' +th' firin', an' the ships behind? Why, that pictur was made afore +Christmas, and yit it's come as true as th' Bible. Why, th' +cock's France, an' th' anchor's Nelson--an' they told us that +beforehand." + +"Pee--ee-eh!" said Mr. Craig. "A man doesna want to see fur to +know as th' English 'ull beat the French. Why, I know upo' good +authority as it's a big Frenchman as reaches five foot high, an' +they live upo' spoon-meat mostly. I knew a man as his father had +a particular knowledge o' the French. I should like to know what +them grasshoppers are to do against such fine fellows as our young +Captain Arthur. Why, it 'ud astonish a Frenchman only to look at +him; his arm's thicker nor a Frenchman's body, I'll be bound, for +they pinch theirsells in wi' stays; and it's easy enough, for +they've got nothing i' their insides." + +"Where IS the captain, as he wasna at church to-day?" said Adam. +"I was talking to him o' Friday, and he said nothing about his +going away." + +"Oh, he's only gone to Eagledale for a bit o' fishing; I reckon +he'll be back again afore many days are o'er, for he's to be at +all th' arranging and preparing o' things for the comin' o' age o' +the 30th o' July. But he's fond o' getting away for a bit, now +and then. Him and th' old squire fit one another like frost and +flowers." + +Mr. Craig smiled and winked slowly as he made this last +observation, but the subject was not developed farther, for now +they had reached the turning in the road where Adam and his +companions must say "good-bye." The gardener, too, would have had +to turn off in the same direction if he had not accepted Mr. +Poyser's invitation to tea. Mrs. Poyser duly seconded the +invitation, for she would have held it a deep disgrace not to make +her neighbours welcome to her house: personal likes and dislikes +must not interfere with that sacred custom. Moreover, Mr. Craig +had always been full of civilities to the family at the Hall Farm, +and Mrs. Poyser was scrupulous in declaring that she had "nothing +to say again' him, on'y it was a pity he couldna be hatched o'er +again, an' hatched different." + +So Adam and Seth, with their mother between them, wound their way +down to the valley and up again to the old house, where a saddened +memory had taken the place of a long, long anxiety--where Adam +would never have to ask again as he entered, "Where's Father?" + +And the other family party, with Mr. Craig for company, went back +to the pleasant bright house-place at the Hall Farm--all with +quiet minds, except Hetty, who knew now where Arthur was gone, but +was only the more puzzled and uneasy. For it appeared that his +absence was quite voluntary; he need not have gone--he would not +have gone if he had wanted to see her. She had a sickening sense +that no lot could ever be pleasant to her again if her Thursday +night's vision was not to be fulfilled; and in this moment of +chill, bare, wintry disappointment and doubt, she looked towards +the possibility of being with Arthur again, of meeting his loving +glance, and hearing his soft words with that eager yearning which +one may call the "growing pain" of passion. + + + +Chapter XIX + +Adam on a Working Day + + +NOTWITHSTANDING Mr. Craig's prophecy, the dark-blue cloud +dispersed itself without having produced the threatened +consequences. "The weather"--as he observed the next morning-- +"the weather, you see, 's a ticklish thing, an' a fool 'ull hit +on't sometimes when a wise man misses; that's why the almanecks +get so much credit. It's one o' them chancy things as fools +thrive on." + +This unreasonable behaviour of the weather, however, could +displease no one else in Hayslope besides Mr. Craig. All hands +were to be out in the meadows this morning as soon as the dew had +risen; the wives and daughters did double work in every farmhouse, +that the maids might give their help in tossing the hay; and when +Adam was marching along the lanes, with his basket of tools over +his shoulder, he caught the sound of jocose talk and ringing +laughter from behind the hedges. The jocose talk of hay-makers is +best at a distance; like those clumsy bells round the cows' necks, +it has rather a coarse sound when it comes close, and may even +grate on your ears painfully; but heard from far off, it mingles +very prettily with the other joyous sounds of nature. Men's +muscles move better when their souls are making merry music, +though their merriment is of a poor blundering sort, not at all +like the merriment of birds. + +And perhaps there is no time in a summer's day more cheering than +when the warmth of the sun is just beginning to triumph over the +freshness of the morning--when there is just a lingering hint of +early coolness to keep off languor under the delicious influence +of warmth. The reason Adam was walking along the lanes at this +time was because his work for the rest of the day lay at a +country-house about three miles off, which was being put in repair +for the son of a neighbouring squire; and he had been busy since +early morning with the packing of panels, doors, and chimney- +pieces, in a waggon which was now gone on before him, while +Jonathan Burge himself had ridden to the spot on horseback, to +await its arrival and direct the workmen. + +This little walk was a rest to Adam, and he was unconsciously +under the charm of the moment. It was summer morning in his +heart, and he saw Hetty in the sunshine--a sunshine without glare, +with slanting rays that tremble between the delicate shadows of +the leaves. He thought, yesterday when he put out his hand to her +as they came out of church, that there was a touch of melancholy +kindness in her face, such as he had not seen before, and he took +it as a sign that she had some sympathy with his family trouble. +Poor fellow! That touch of melancholy came from quite another +source, but how was he to know? We look at the one little woman's +face we love as we look at the face of our mother earth, and see +all sorts of answers to our own yearnings. It was impossible for +Adam not to feel that what had happened in the last week had +brought the prospect of marriage nearer to him. Hitherto he had +felt keenly the danger that some other man might step in and get +possession of Hetty's heart and hand, while he himself was still +in a position that made him shrink from asking her to accept him. +Even if he had had a strong hope that she was fond of him--and his +hope was far from being strong--he had been too heavily burdened +with other claims to provide a home for himself and Hetty--a home +such as he could expect her to be content with after the comfort +and plenty of the Farm. Like all strong natures, Adam had +confidence in his ability to achieve something in the future; he +felt sure he should some day, if he lived, be able to maintain a +family and make a good broad path for himself; but he had too cool +a head not to estimate to the full the obstacles that were to be +overcome. And the time would be so long! And there was Hetty, +like a bright-cheeked apple hanging over the orchard wall, within +sight of everybody, and everybody must long for her! To be sure, +if she loved him very much, she would be content to wait for him: +but DID she love him? His hopes had never risen so high that he +had dared to ask her. He was clear-sighted enough to be aware +that her uncle and aunt would have looked kindly on his suit, and +indeed, without this encouragement he would never have persevered +in going to the Farm; but it was impossible to come to any but +fluctuating conclusions about Hetty's feelings. She was like a +kitten, and had the same distractingly pretty looks, that meant +nothing, for everybody that came near her. + +But now he could not help saying to himself that the heaviest part +of his burden was removed, and that even before the end of another +year his circumstances might be brought into a shape that would +allow him to think of marrying. It would always be a hard +struggle with his mother, he knew: she would be jealous of any +wife he might choose, and she had set her mind especially against +Hetty--perhaps for no other reason than that she suspected Hetty +to be the woman he HAD chosen. It would never do, he feared, for +his mother to live in the same house with him when he was married; +and yet how hard she would think it if he asked her to leave him! +Yes, there was a great deal of pain to be gone through with his +mother, but it was a case in which he must make her feel that his +will was strong--it would be better for her in the end. For +himself, he would have liked that they should all live together +till Seth was married, and they might have built a bit themselves +to the old house, and made more room. He did not like "to part +wi' th' lad": they had hardly every been separated for more than a +day since they were born. + +But Adam had no sooner caught his imagination leaping forward in +this way--making arrangements for an uncertain future--than he +checked himself. "A pretty building I'm making, without either +bricks or timber. I'm up i' the garret a'ready, and haven't so +much as dug the foundation." Whenever Adam was strongly convinced +of any proposition, it took the form of a principle in his mind: +it was knowledge to be acted on, as much as the knowledge that +damp will cause rust. Perhaps here lay the secret of the hardness +he had accused himself of: he had too little fellow-feeling with +the weakness that errs in spite of foreseen consequences. Without +this fellow-feeling, how are we to get enough patience and charity +towards our stumbling, falling companions in the long and +changeful journey? And there is but one way in which a strong +determined soul can learn it--by getting his heart-strings bound +round the weak and erring, so that he must share not only the +outward consequence of their error, but their inward suffering. +That is a long and hard lesson, and Adam had at present only +learned the alphabet of it in his father's sudden death, which, by +annihilating in an instant all that had stimulated his +indignation, had sent a sudden rush of thought and memory over +what had claimed his pity and tenderness. + +But it was Adam's strength, not its correlative hardness, that +influenced his meditations this morning. He had long made up his +mind that it would be wrong as well as foolish for him to marry a +blooming young girl, so long as he had no other prospect than that +of growing poverty with a growing family. And his savings had +been so constantly drawn upon (besides the terrible sweep of +paying for Seth's substitute in the militia) that he had not +enough money beforehand to furnish even a small cottage, and keep +something in reserve against a rainy day. He had good hope that +he should be "firmer on his legs" by and by; but he could not be +satisfied with a vague confidence in his arm and brain; he must +have definite plans, and set about them at once. The partnership +with Jonathan Burge was not to be thought of at present--there +were things implicitly tacked to it that he could not accept; but +Adam thought that he and Seth might carry on a little business for +themselves in addition to their journeyman's work, by buying a +small stock of superior wood and making articles of household +furniture, for which Adam had no end of contrivances. Seth might +gain more by working at separate jobs under Adam's direction than +by his journeyman's work, and Adam, in his overhours, could do all +the "nice" work that required peculiar skill. The money gained in +this way, with the good wages he received as foreman, would soon +enable them to get beforehand with the world, so sparingly as they +would all live now. No sooner had this little plan shaped itself +in his mind than he began to be busy with exact calculations about +the wood to be bought and the particular article of furniture that +should be undertaken first--a kitchen cupboard of his own +contrivance, with such an ingenious arrangement of sliding-doors +and bolts, such convenient nooks for stowing household provender, +and such a symmetrical result to the eye, that every good +housewife would be in raptures with it, and fall through all the +gradations of melancholy longing till her husband promised to buy +it for her. Adam pictured to himself Mrs. Poyser examining it +with her keen eye and trying in vain to find out a deficiency; +and, of course, close to Mrs. Poyser stood Hetty, and Adam was +again beguiled from calculations and contrivances into dreams and +hopes. Yes, he would go and see her this evening--it was so long +since he had been at the Hall Farm. He would have liked to go to +the night-school, to see why Bartle Massey had not been at church +yesterday, for he feared his old friend was ill; but, unless he +could manage both visits, this last must be put off till to- +morrow--the desire to be near Hetty and to speak to her again was +too strong. + +As he made up his mind to this, he was coming very near to the end +of his walk, within the sound of the hammers at work on the +refitting of the old house. The sound of tools to a clever +workman who loves his work is like the tentative sounds of the +orchestra to the violinist who has to bear his part in the +overture: the strong fibres begin their accustomed thrill, and +what was a moment before joy, vexation, or ambition, begins its +change into energy. All passion becomes strength when it has an +outlet from the narrow limits of our personal lot in the labour of +our right arm, the cunning of our right hand, or the still, +creative activity of our thought. Look at Adam through the rest +of the day, as he stands on the scaffolding with the two-feet +ruler in his hand, whistling low while he considers how a +difficulty about a floor-joist or a window-frame is to be +overcome; or as he pushes one of the younger workmen aside and +takes his place in upheaving a weight of timber, saying, "Let +alone, lad! Thee'st got too much gristle i' thy bones yet"; or as +he fixes his keen black eyes on the motions of a workman on the +other side of the room and warns him that his distances are not +right. Look at this broad-shouldered man with the bare muscular +arms, and the thick, firm, black hair tossed about like trodden +meadow-grass whenever he takes off his paper cap, and with the +strong barytone voice bursting every now and then into loud and +solemn psalm-tunes, as if seeking an outlet for superfluous +strength, yet presently checking himself, apparently crossed by +some thought which jars with the singing. Perhaps, if you had not +been already in the secret, you might not have guessed what sad +memories what warm affection, what tender fluttering hopes, had +their home in this athletic body with the broken finger-nails--in +this rough man, who knew no better lyrics than he could find in +the Old and New Version and an occasional hymn; who knew the +smallest possible amount of profane history; and for whom the +motion and shape of the earth, the course of the sun, and the +changes of the seasons lay in the region of mystery just made +visible by fragmentary knowledge. It had cost Adam a great deal +of trouble and work in overhours to know what he knew over and +above the secrets of his handicraft, and that acquaintance with +mechanics and figures, and the nature of the materials he worked +with, which was made easy to him by inborn inherited faculty--to +get the mastery of his pen, and write a plain hand, to spell +without any other mistakes than must in fairness be attributed to +the unreasonable character of orthography rather than to any +deficiency in the speller, and, moreover, to learn his musical +notes and part-singing. Besides all this, he had read his Bible, +including the apocryphal books; Poor Richard's Almanac, Taylor's +Holy Living and Dying, The Pilgrim's Progress, with Bunyan's Life +and Holy War, a great deal of Bailey's Dictionary, Valentine and +Orson, and part of a History of Babylon, which Bartle Massey had +lent him. He might have had many more books from Bartle Massey, +but he had no time for reading "the commin print," as Lisbeth +called it, so busy as he was with figures in all the leisure +moments which he did not fill up with extra carpentry. + +Adam, you perceive, was by no means a marvellous man, nor, +properly speaking, a genius, yet I will not pretend that his was +an ordinary character among workmen; and it would not be at all a +safe conclusion that the next best man you may happen to see with +a basket of tools over his shoulder and a paper cap on his head +has the strong conscience and the strong sense, the blended +susceptibility and self-command, of our friend Adam. He was not +an average man. Yet such men as he are reared here and there in +every generation of our peasant artisans--with an inheritance of +affections nurtured by a simple family life of common need and +common industry, and an inheritance of faculties trained in +skilful courageous labour: they make their way upwards, rarely as +geniuses, most commonly as painstaking honest men, with the skill +and conscience to do well the tasks that lie before them. Their +lives have no discernible echo beyond the neighbourhood where they +dwelt, but you are almost sure to find there some good piece of +road, some building, some application of mineral produce, some +improvement in farming practice, some reform of parish abuses, +with which their names are associated by one or two generations +after them. Their employers were the richer for them, the work of +their hands has worn well, and the work of their brains has guided +well the hands of other men. They went about in their youth in +flannel or paper caps, in coats black with coal-dust or streaked +with lime and red paint; in old age their white hairs are seen in +a place of honour at church and at market, and they tell their +well-dressed sons and daughters, seated round the bright hearth on +winter evenings, how pleased they were when they first earned +their twopence a-day. Others there are who die poor and never put +off the workman's coal on weekdays. They have not had the art of +getting rich, but they are men of trust, and when they die before +the work is all out of them, it is as if some main screw had got +loose in a machine; the master who employed them says, "Where +shall I find their like?" + + + +Chapter XX + +Adam Visits the Hall Farm + + +ADAM came back from his work in the empty waggon--that was why he +had changed his clothes--and was ready to set out to the Hall Farm +when it still wanted a quarter to seven. + +"What's thee got thy Sunday cloose on for?" said Lisbeth +complainingly, as he came downstairs. "Thee artna goin' to th' +school i' thy best coat?" + +"No, Mother," said Adam, quietly. "I'm going to the Hall Farm, +but mayhap I may go to the school after, so thee mustna wonder if +I'm a bit late. Seth 'ull be at home in half an hour--he's only +gone to the village; so thee wutna mind." + +"Eh, an' what's thee got thy best cloose on for to go to th' Hall +Farm? The Poyser folks see'd thee in 'em yesterday, I warrand. +What dost mean by turnin' worki'day into Sunday a-that'n? It's +poor keepin' company wi' folks as donna like to see thee i' thy +workin' jacket." + +"Good-bye, mother, I can't stay," said Adam, putting on his hat +and going out. + +But he had no sooner gone a few paces beyond the door than Lisbeth +became uneasy at the thought that she had vexed him. Of course, +the secret of her objection to the best clothes was her suspicion +that they were put on for Hetty's sake; but deeper than all her +peevishness lay the need that her son should love her. She +hurried after him, and laid hold of his arm before he had got +half-way down to the brook, and said, "Nay, my lad, thee wutna go +away angered wi' thy mother, an' her got nought to do but to sit +by hersen an' think on thee?" + +"Nay, nay, Mother," said Adam, gravely, and standing still while +he put his arm on her shoulder, "I'm not angered. But I wish, for +thy own sake, thee'dst be more contented to let me do what I've +made up my mind to do. I'll never be no other than a good son to +thee as long as we live. But a man has other feelings besides +what he owes to's father and mother, and thee oughtna to want to +rule over me body and soul. And thee must make up thy mind as +I'll not give way to thee where I've a right to do what I like. +So let us have no more words about it." + +"Eh," said Lisbeth, not willing to show that she felt the real +bearing of Adam's words, "and' who likes to see thee i' thy best +cloose better nor thy mother? An' when thee'st got thy face +washed as clean as the smooth white pibble, an' thy hair combed so +nice, and thy eyes a-sparklin'--what else is there as thy old +mother should like to look at half so well? An' thee sha't put on +thy Sunday cloose when thee lik'st for me--I'll ne'er plague thee +no moor about'n." + +"Well, well; good-bye, mother," said Adam, kissing her and +hurrying away. He saw there was no other means of putting an end +to the dialogue. Lisbeth stood still on the spot, shading her +eyes and looking after him till he was quite out of sight. She +felt to the full all the meaning that had lain in Adam's words, +and, as she lost sight of him and turned back slowly into the +house, she said aloud to herself--for it was her way to speak her +thoughts aloud in the long days when her husband and sons were at +their work--"Eh, he'll be tellin' me as he's goin' to bring her +home one o' these days; an' she'll be missis o'er me, and I mun +look on, belike, while she uses the blue-edged platters, and +breaks 'em, mayhap, though there's ne'er been one broke sin' my +old man an' me bought 'em at the fair twenty 'ear come next Whis- +suntide. Eh!" she went on, still louder, as she caught up her +knitting from the table, "but she'll ne'er knit the lad's +stockin's, nor foot 'em nayther, while I live; an' when I'm gone, +he'll bethink him as nobody 'ull ne'er fit's leg an' foot as his +old mother did. She'll know nothin' o' narrowin' an' heelin', I +warrand, an' she'll make a long toe as he canna get's boot on. +That's what comes o' marr'in' young wenches. I war gone thirty, +an' th' feyther too, afore we war married; an' young enough too. +She'll be a poor dratchell by then SHE'S thirty, a-marr'in' a- +that'n, afore her teeth's all come." + +Adam walked so fast that he was at the yard-gate before seven. +Martin Poyser and the grandfather were not yet come in from the +meadow: every one was in the meadow, even to the black-and-tan +terrier--no one kept watch in the yard but the bull-dog; and when +Adam reached the house-door, which stood wide open, he saw there +was no one in the bright clean house-place. But he guessed where +Mrs. Poyser and some one else would be, quite within hearing; so +he knocked on the door and said in his strong voice, "Mrs. Poyser +within?" + +"Come in, Mr. Bede, come in," Mrs. Poyser called out from the +dairy. She always gave Adam this title when she received him in +her own house. "You may come into the dairy if you will, for I +canna justly leave the cheese." + +Adam walked into the dairy, where Mrs. Poyser and Nancy were +crushing the first evening cheese. + +"Why, you might think you war come to a dead-house," said Mrs. +Poyser, as he stood in the open doorway; "they're all i' the +meadow; but Martin's sure to be in afore long, for they're leaving +the hay cocked to-night, ready for carrying first thing to-morrow. +I've been forced t' have Nancy in, upo' 'count as Hetty must +gether the red currants to-night; the fruit allays ripens so +contrairy, just when every hand's wanted. An' there's no trustin' +the children to gether it, for they put more into their own mouths +nor into the basket; you might as well set the wasps to gether the +fruit." + +Adam longed to say he would go into the garden till Mr. Poyser +came in, but he was not quite courageous enough, so he said, "I +could be looking at your spinning-wheel, then, and see what wants +doing to it. Perhaps it stands in the house, where I can find +it?" + +"No, I've put it away in the right-hand parlour; but let it be +till I can fetch it and show it you. I'd be glad now if you'd go +into the garden and tell Hetty to send Totty in. The child 'ull +run in if she's told, an' I know Hetty's lettin' her eat too many +currants. I'll be much obliged to you, Mr. Bede, if you'll go and +send her in; an' there's the York and Lankester roses beautiful in +the garden now--you'll like to see 'em. But you'd like a drink o' +whey first, p'r'aps; I know you're fond o' whey, as most folks is +when they hanna got to crush it out." + +"Thank you, Mrs. Poyser," said Adam; "a drink o' whey's allays a +treat to me. I'd rather have it than beer any day." + +"Aye, aye," said Mrs. Poyser, reaching a small white basin that +stood on the shelf, and dipping it into the whey-tub, "the smell +o' bread's sweet t' everybody but the baker. The Miss Irwines +allays say, 'Oh, Mrs. Poyser, I envy you your dairy; and I envy +you your chickens; and what a beautiful thing a farm-house is, to +be sure!' An' I say, 'Yes; a farm-house is a fine thing for them +as look on, an' don't know the liftin', an' the stannin', an' the +worritin' o' th' inside as belongs to't.'" + +"Why, Mrs. Poyser, you wouldn't like to live anywhere else but in +a farm-house, so well as you manage it," said Adam, taking the +basin; "and there can be nothing to look at pleasanter nor a fine +milch cow, standing up to'ts knees in pasture, and the new milk +frothing in the pail, and the fresh butter ready for market, and +the calves, and the poultry. Here's to your health, and may you +allays have strength to look after your own dairy, and set a +pattern t' all the farmers' wives in the country." + +Mrs. Poyser was not to be caught in the weakness of smiling at a +compliment, but a quiet complacency over-spread her face like a +stealing sunbeam, and gave a milder glance than usual to her blue- +grey eyes, as she looked at Adam drinking the whey. Ah! I think +I taste that whey now--with a flavour so delicate that one can +hardly distinguish it from an odour, and with that soft gliding +warmth that fills one's imagination with a still, happy +dreaminess. And the light music of the dropping whey is in my +ears, mingling with the twittering of a bird outside the wire +network window--the window overlooking the garden, and shaded by +tall Guelder roses. + +"Have a little more, Mr. Bede?" said Mrs. Poyser, as Adam set down +the basin. + +"No, thank you; I'll go into the garden now, and send in the +little lass." + +"Aye, do; and tell her to come to her mother in the dairy." + +Adam walked round by the rick-yard, at present empty of ricks, to +the little wooden gate leading into the garden--once the well- +tended kitchen-garden of a manor-house; now, but for the handsome +brick wall with stone coping that ran along one side of it, a true +farmhouse garden, with hardy perennial flowers, unpruned fruit- +trees, and kitchen vegetables growing together in careless, half- +neglected abundance. In that leafy, flowery, bushy time, to look +for any one in this garden was like playing at "hide-and-seek." +There were the tall hollyhocks beginning to flower and dazzle the +eye with their pink, white, and yellow; there were the syringas +and Guelder roses, all large and disorderly for want of trimming; +there were leafy walls of scarlet beans and late peas; there was a +row of bushy filberts in one direction, and in another a huge +apple-tree making a barren circle under its low-spreading boughs. +But what signified a barren patch or two? The garden was so +large. There was always a superfluity of broad beans--it took +nine or ten of Adam's strides to get to the end of the uncut grass +walk that ran by the side of them; and as for other vegetables, +there was so much more room than was necessary for them that in +the rotation of crops a large flourishing bed of groundsel was of +yearly occurrence on one spot or other. The very rose-trees at +which Adam stopped to pluck one looked as if they grew wild; they +were all huddled together in bushy masses, now flaunting with +wide-open petals, almost all of them of the streaked pink-and- +white kind, which doubtless dated from the union of the houses of +York and Lancaster. Adam was wise enough to choose a compact +Provence rose that peeped out half-smothered by its flaunting +scentless neighbours, and held it in his hand--he thought he +should be more at ease holding something in his hand--as he walked +on to the far end of the garden, where he remembered there was the +largest row of currant-trees, not far off from the great yew-tree +arbour. + +But he had not gone many steps beyond the roses, when he heard the +shaking of a bough, and a boy's voice saying, "Now, then, Totty, +hold out your pinny--there's a duck." + +The voice came from the boughs of a tall cherry-tree, where Adam +had no difficulty in discerning a small blue-pinafored figure +perched in a commodious position where the fruit was thickest. +Doubtless Totty was below, behind the screen of peas. Yes--with +her bonnet hanging down her back, and her fat face, dreadfully +smeared with red juice, turned up towards the cherry-tree, while +she held her little round hole of a mouth and her red-stained +pinafore to receive the promised downfall. I am sorry to say, +more than half the cherries that fell were hard and yellow instead +of juicy and red; but Totty spent no time in useless regrets, and +she was already sucking the third juiciest when Adam said, "There +now, Totty, you've got your cherries. Run into the house with 'em +to Mother--she wants you--she's in the dairy. Run in this minute-- +there's a good little girl." + +He lifted her up in his strong arms and kissed her as he spoke, a +ceremony which Totty regarded as a tiresome interruption to +cherry-eating; and when he set her down she trotted off quite +silently towards the house, sucking her cherries as she went +along. + +"Tommy, my lad, take care you're not shot for a little thieving +bird," said Adam, as he walked on towards the currant-trees. + +He could see there was a large basket at the end of the row: Hetty +would not be far off, and Adam already felt as if she were looking +at him. Yet when he turned the corner she was standing with her +back towards him, and stooping to gather the low-hanging fruit. +Strange that she had not heard him coming! Perhaps it was because +she was making the leaves rustle. She started when she became +conscious that some one was near--started so violently that she +dropped the basin with the currants in it, and then, when she saw +it was Adam, she turned from pale to deep red. That blush made +his heart beat with a new happiness. Hetty had never blushed at +seeing him before. + +"I frightened you," he said, with a delicious sense that it didn't +signify what he said, since Hetty seemed to feel as much as he +did; "let ME pick the currants up." + +That was soon done, for they had only fallen in a tangled mass on +the grass-plot, and Adam, as he rose and gave her the basin again, +looked straight into her eyes with the subdued tenderness that +belongs to the first moments of hopeful love. + +Hetty did not turn away her eyes; her blush had subsided, and she +met his glance with a quiet sadness, which contented Adam because +it was so unlike anything he had seen in her before. + +"There's not many more currants to get," she said; "I shall soon +ha' done now." + +"I'll help you," said Adam; and he fetched the large basket, which +was nearly full of currants, and set it close to them. + +Not a word more was spoken as they gathered the currants. Adam's +heart was too full to speak, and he thought Hetty knew all that +was in it. She was not indifferent to his presence after all; she +had blushed when she saw him, and then there was that touch of +sadness about her which must surely mean love, since it was the +opposite of her usual manner, which had often impressed him as +indifference. And he could glance at her continually as she bent +over the fruit, while the level evening sunbeams stole through the +thick apple-tree boughs, and rested on her round cheek and neck as +if they too were in love with her. It was to Adam the time that a +man can least forget in after-life, the time when he believes that +the first woman he has ever loved betrays by a slight something--a +word, a tone, a glance, the quivering of a lip or an eyelid--that +she is at least beginning to love him in return. The sign is so +slight, it is scarcely perceptible to the ear or eye--he could +describe it to no one--it is a mere feather-touch, yet it seems to +have changed his whole being, to have merged an uneasy yearning +into a delicious unconsciousness of everything but the present +moment. So much of our early gladness vanishes utterly from our +memory: we can never recall the joy with which we laid our heads +on our mother's bosom or rode on our father's back in childhood. +Doubtless that joy is wrought up into our nature, as the sunlight +of long-past mornings is wrought up in the soft mellowness of the +apricot, but it is gone for ever from our imagination, and we can +only BELIEVE in the joy of childhood. But the first glad moment +in our first love is a vision which returns to us to the last, and +brings with it a thrill of feeling intense and special as the +recurrent sensation of a sweet odour breathed in a far-off hour of +happiness. It is a memory that gives a more exquisite touch to +tenderness, that feeds the madness of jealousy and adds the last +keenness to the agony of despair. + +Hetty bending over the red bunches, the level rays piercing the +screen of apple-tree boughs, the length of bushy garden beyond, +his own emotion as he looked at her and believed that she was +thinking of him, and that there was no need for them to talk--Adam +remembered it all to the last moment of his life. + +And Hetty? You know quite well that Adam was mistaken about her. +Like many other men, he thought the signs of love for another were +signs of love towards himself. When Adam was approaching unseen +by her, she was absorbed as usual in thinking and wondering about +Arthur's possible return. The sound of any man's footstep would +have affected her just in the same way--she would have FELT it +might be Arthur before she had time to see, and the blood that +forsook her cheek in the agitation of that momentary feeling would +have rushed back again at the sight of any one else just as much +as at the sight of Adam. He was not wrong in thinking that a +change had come over Hetty: the anxieties and fears of a first +passion, with which she was trembling, had become stronger than +vanity, had given her for the first time that sense of helpless +dependence on another's feeling which awakens the clinging +deprecating womanhood even in the shallowest girl that can ever +experience it, and creates in her a sensibility to kindness which +found her quite hard before. For the first time Hetty felt that +there was something soothing to her in Adam's timid yet manly +tenderness. She wanted to be treated lovingly--oh, it was very +hard to bear this blank of absence, silence, apparent +indifference, after those moments of glowing love! She was not +afraid that Adam would tease her with love-making and flattering +speeches like her other admirers; he had always been so reserved +to her; she could enjoy without any fear the sense that this +strong brave man loved her and was near her. It never entered +into her mind that Adam was pitiable too--that Adam too must +suffer one day. + +Hetty, we know, was not the first woman that had behaved more +gently to the man who loved her in vain because she had herself +begun to love another. It was a very old story, but Adam knew +nothing about it, so he drank in the sweet delusion. + +"That'll do," said Hetty, after a little while. "Aunt wants me to +leave some on the trees. I'll take 'em in now." + +"It's very well I came to carry the basket," said Adam "for it 'ud +ha' been too heavy for your little arms." + +"No; I could ha' carried it with both hands." + +"Oh, I daresay," said Adam, smiling, "and been as long getting +into the house as a little ant carrying a caterpillar. Have you +ever seen those tiny fellows carrying things four times as big as +themselves?" + +"No," said Hetty, indifferently, not caring to know the +difficulties of ant life. + +"Oh, I used to watch 'em often when I was a lad. But now, you +see, I can carry the basket with one arm, as if it was an empty +nutshell, and give you th' other arm to lean on. Won't you? Such +big arms as mine were made for little arms like yours to lean on." + +Hetty smiled faintly and put her arm within his. Adam looked down +at her, but her eyes were turned dreamily towards another corner +of the garden. + +"Have you ever been to Eagledale?" she said, as they walked slowly +along. + +"Yes," said Adam, pleased to have her ask a question about +himself. "Ten years ago, when I was a lad, I went with father to +see about some work there. It's a wonderful sight--rocks and +caves such as you never saw in your life. I never had a right +notion o' rocks till I went there." + +"How long did it take to get there?" + +"Why, it took us the best part o' two days' walking. But it's +nothing of a day's journey for anybody as has got a first-rate +nag. The captain 'ud get there in nine or ten hours, I'll be +bound, he's such a rider. And I shouldn't wonder if he's back +again to-morrow; he's too active to rest long in that lonely +place, all by himself, for there's nothing but a bit of a inn i' +that part where he's gone to fish. I wish he'd got th' estate in +his hands; that 'ud be the right thing for him, for it 'ud give +him plenty to do, and he'd do't well too, for all he's so young; +he's got better notions o' things than many a man twice his age. +He spoke very handsome to me th' other day about lending me money +to set up i' business; and if things came round that way, I'd +rather be beholding to him nor to any man i' the world." + +Poor Adam was led on to speak about Arthur because he thought +Hetty would be pleased to know that the young squire was so ready +to befriend him; the fact entered into his future prospects, which +he would like to seem promising in her eyes. And it was true that +Hetty listened with an interest which brought a new light into her +eyes and a half-smile upon her lips. + +"How pretty the roses are now!" Adam continued, pausing to look at +them. "See! I stole the prettiest, but I didna mean to keep it +myself. I think these as are all pink, and have got a finer sort +o' green leaves, are prettier than the striped uns, don't you?" + +He set down the basket and took the rose from his button-hole. + +"It smells very sweet," he said; "those striped uns have no smell. +Stick it in your frock, and then you can put it in water after. +It 'ud be a pity to let it fade." + +Hetty took the rose, smiling as she did so at the pleasant thought +that Arthur could so soon get back if he liked. There was a flash +of hope and happiness in her mind, and with a sudden impulse of +gaiety she did what she had very often done before--stuck the rose +in her hair a little above the left ear. The tender admiration in +Adam's face was slightly shadowed by reluctant disapproval. +Hetty's love of finery was just the thing that would most provoke +his mother, and he himself disliked it as much as it was possible +for him to dislike anything that belonged to her. + +"Ah," he said, "that's like the ladies in the pictures at the +Chase; they've mostly got flowers or feathers or gold things i' +their hair, but somehow I don't like to see 'em they allays put me +i' mind o' the painted women outside the shows at Treddles'on +Fair. What can a woman have to set her off better than her own +hair, when it curls so, like yours? If a woman's young and +pretty, I think you can see her good looks all the better for her +being plain dressed. Why, Dinah Morris looks very nice, for all +she wears such a plain cap and gown. It seems to me as a woman's +face doesna want flowers; it's almost like a flower itself. I'm +sure yours is." + +"Oh, very well," said Hetty, with a little playful pout, taking +the rose out of her hair. "I'll put one o' Dinah's caps on when +we go in, and you'll see if I look better in it. She left one +behind, so I can take the pattern." + +"Nay, nay, I don't want you to wear a Methodist cap like Dinah's. +I daresay it's a very ugly cap, and I used to think when I saw her +here as it was nonsense for her to dress different t' other +people; but I never rightly noticed her till she came to see +mother last week, and then I thought the cap seemed to fit her +face somehow as th 'acorn-cup fits th' acorn, and I shouldn't like +to see her so well without it. But you've got another sort o' +face; I'd have you just as you are now, without anything t' +interfere with your own looks. It's like when a man's singing a +good tune--you don't want t' hear bells tinkling and interfering +wi' the sound." + +He took her arm and put it within his again, looking down on her +fondly. He was afraid she should think he had lectured her, +imagining, as we are apt to do, that she had perceived all the +thoughts he had only half-expressed. And the thing he dreaded +most was lest any cloud should come over this evening's happiness. +For the world he would not have spoken of his love to Hetty yet, +till this commencing kindness towards him should have grown into +unmistakable love. In his imagination he saw long years of his +future life stretching before him, blest with the right to call +Hetty his own: he could be content with very little at present. +So he took up the basket of currants once more, and they went on +towards the house. + +The scene had quite changed in the half-hour that Adam had been in +the garden. The yard was full of life now: Marty was letting the +screaming geese through the gate, and wickedly provoking the +gander by hissing at him; the granary-door was groaning on its +hinges as Alick shut it, after dealing out the corn; the horses +were being led out to watering, amidst much barking of all the +three dogs and many "whups" from Tim the ploughman, as if the +heavy animals who held down their meek, intelligent heads, and +lifted their shaggy feet so deliberately, were likely to rush +wildly in every direction but the right. Everybody was come back +from the meadow; and when Hetty and Adam entered the house-place, +Mr. Poyser was seated in the three-cornered chair, and the +grandfather in the large arm-chair opposite, looking on with +pleasant expectation while the supper was being laid on the oak +table. Mrs. Poyser had laid the cloth herself--a cloth made of +homespun linen, with a shining checkered pattern on it, and of an +agreeable whitey-brown hue, such as all sensible housewives like +to see--none of your bleached "shop-rag" that would wear into +holes in no time, but good homespun that would last for two +generations. The cold veal, the fresh lettuces, and the stuffed +chine might well look tempting to hungry men who had dined at +half-past twelve o'clock. On the large deal table against the +wall there were bright pewter plates and spoons and cans, ready +for Alick and his companions; for the master and servants ate +their supper not far off each other; which was all the pleasanter, +because if a remark about to-morrow morning's work occurred to Mr. +Poyser, Alick was at hand to hear it. + +"Well, Adam, I'm glad to see ye," said Mr. Poyser. "What! ye've +been helping Hetty to gether the curran's, eh? Come, sit ye down, +sit ye down. Why, it's pretty near a three-week since y' had your +supper with us; and the missis has got one of her rare stuffed +chines. I'm glad ye're come." + +"Hetty," said Mrs. Poyser, as she looked into the basket of +currants to see if the fruit was fine, "run upstairs and send +Molly down. She's putting Totty to bed, and I want her to draw +th' ale, for Nancy's busy yet i' the dairy. You can see to the +child. But whativer did you let her run away from you along wi' +Tommy for, and stuff herself wi' fruit as she can't eat a bit o' +good victual?" + +This was said in a lower tone than usual, while her husband was +talking to Adam; for Mrs. Poyser was strict in adherence to her +own rules of propriety, and she considered that a young girl was +not to be treated sharply in the presence of a respectable man who +was courting her. That would not be fair-play: every woman was +young in her turn, and had her chances of matrimony, which it was +a point of honour for other women not to spoil--just as one +market-woman who has sold her own eggs must not try to balk +another of a customer. + +Hetty made haste to run away upstairs, not easily finding an +answer to her aunt's question, and Mrs. Poyser went out to see +after Marty and Tommy and bring them in to supper. + +Soon they were all seated--the two rosy lads, one on each side, by +the pale mother, a place being left for Hetty between Adam and her +uncle. Alick too was come in, and was seated in his far corner, +eating cold broad beans out of a large dish with his pocket-knife, +and finding a flavour in them which he would not have exchanged +for the finest pineapple. + +"What a time that gell is drawing th' ale, to be sure!" said Mrs. +Poyser, when she was dispensing her slices of stuffed chine. "I +think she sets the jug under and forgets to turn the tap, as +there's nothing you can't believe o' them wenches: they'll set the +empty kettle o' the fire, and then come an hour after to see if +the water boils." + +"She's drawin' for the men too," said Mr. Poyser. "Thee shouldst +ha' told her to bring our jug up first." + +"Told her?" said Mrs. Poyser. "Yes, I might spend all the wind i' +my body, an' take the bellows too, if I was to tell them gells +everything as their own sharpness wonna tell 'em. Mr. Bede, will +you take some vinegar with your lettuce? Aye you're i' the right +not. It spoils the flavour o' the chine, to my thinking. It's +poor eating where the flavour o' the meat lies i' the cruets. +There's folks as make bad butter and trusten to the salt t' hide +it." + +Mrs. Poyser's attention was here diverted by the appearance of +Molly, carrying a large jug, two small mugs, and four drinking- +cans, all full of ale or small beer--an interesting example of the +prehensile power possessed by the human hand. Poor Molly's mouth +was rather wider open than usual, as she walked along with her +eyes fixed on the double cluster of vessels in her hands, quite +innocent of the expression in her mistress's eye. + +"Molly, I niver knew your equils--to think o' your poor mother as +is a widow, an' I took you wi' as good as no character, an' the +times an' times I've told you...." + +Molly had not seen the lightning, and the thunder shook her nerves +the more for the want of that preparation. With a vague alarmed +sense that she must somehow comport herself differently, she +hastened her step a little towards the far deal table, where she +might set down her cans--caught her foot in her apron, which had +become untied, and fell with a crash and a splash into a pool of +beer; whereupon a tittering explosion from Marty and Tommy, and a +serious "Ello!" from Mr. Poyser, who saw his draught of ale +unpleasantly deferred. + +"There you go!" resumed Mrs. Poyser, in a cutting tone, as she +rose and went towards the cupboard while Molly began dolefully to +pick up the fragments of pottery. "It's what I told you 'ud come, +over and over again; and there's your month's wage gone, and more, +to pay for that jug as I've had i' the house this ten year, and +nothing ever happened to't before; but the crockery you've broke +sin' here in th' house you've been 'ud make a parson swear--God +forgi' me for saying so--an' if it had been boiling wort out o' +the copper, it 'ud ha' been the same, and you'd ha' been scalded +and very like lamed for life, as there's no knowing but what you +will be some day if you go on; for anybody 'ud think you'd got the +St. Vitus's Dance, to see the things you've throwed down. It's a +pity but what the bits was stacked up for you to see, though it's +neither seeing nor hearing as 'ull make much odds to you--anybody +'ud think you war case-hardened." + +Poor Molly's tears were dropping fast by this time, and in her +desperation at the lively movement of the beer-stream towards +Alick's legs, she was converting her apron into a mop, while Mrs. +Poyser, opening the cupboard, turned a blighting eye upon her. + +"Ah," she went on, "you'll do no good wi' crying an' making more +wet to wipe up. It's all your own wilfulness, as I tell you, for +there's nobody no call to break anything if they'll only go the +right way to work. But wooden folks had need ha' wooden things t' +handle. And here must I take the brown-and-white jug, as it's +niver been used three times this year, and go down i' the cellar +myself, and belike catch my death, and be laid up wi' +inflammation...." + +Mrs. Poyser had turned round from the cupboard with the brown-and- +white jug in her hand, when she caught sight of something at the +other end of the kitchen; perhaps it was because she was already +trembling and nervous that the apparition had so strong an effect +on her; perhaps jug-breaking, like other crimes, has a contagious +influence. However it was, she stared and started like a ghost- +seer, and the precious brown-and-white jug fell to the ground, +parting for ever with its spout and handle. + +"Did ever anybody see the like?" she said, with a suddenly lowered +tone, after a moment's bewildered glance round the room. "The +jugs are bewitched, I think. It's them nasty glazed handles--they +slip o'er the finger like a snail." + +"Why, thee'st let thy own whip fly i' thy face," said her husband, +who had now joined in the laugh of the young ones. + +"It's all very fine to look on and grin," rejoined Mrs. Poyser; +"but there's times when the crockery seems alive an' flies out o' +your hand like a bird. It's like the glass, sometimes, 'ull crack +as it stands. What is to be broke WILL be broke, for I never +dropped a thing i' my life for want o' holding it, else I should +never ha' kept the crockery all these 'ears as I bought at my own +wedding. And Hetty, are you mad? Whativer do you mean by coming +down i' that way, and making one think as there's a ghost a- +walking i' th' house?" + +A new outbreak of laughter, while Mrs. Poyser was speaking, was +caused, less by her sudden conversion to a fatalistic view of jug- +breaking than by that strange appearance of Hetty, which had +startled her aunt. The little minx had found a black gown of her +aunt's, and pinned it close round her neck to look like Dinah's, +had made her hair as flat as she could, and had tied on one of +Dinah's high-crowned borderless net caps. The thought of Dinah's +pale grave face and mild grey eyes, which the sight of the gown +and cap brought with it, made it a laughable surprise enough to +see them replaced by Hetty's round rosy cheeks and coquettish dark +eyes. The boys got off their chairs and jumped round her, +clapping their hands, and even Alick gave a low ventral laugh as +he looked up from his beans. Under cover of the noise, Mrs. +Poyser went into the back kitchen to send Nancy into the cellar +with the great pewter measure, which had some chance of being free +from bewitchment. + +"Why, Hetty, lass, are ye turned Methodist?" said Mr. Poyser, with +that comfortable slow enjoyment of a laugh which one only sees in +stout people. "You must pull your face a deal longer before +you'll do for one; mustna she, Adam? How come you put them things +on, eh?" + +"Adam said he liked Dinah's cap and gown better nor my clothes," +said Hetty, sitting down demurely. "He says folks looks better in +ugly clothes." + +"Nay, nay," said Adam, looking at her admiringly; "I only said +they seemed to suit Dinah. But if I'd said you'd look pretty in +'em, I should ha' said nothing but what was true." + +"Why, thee thought'st Hetty war a ghost, didstna?" said Mr. Poyser +to his wife, who now came back and took her seat again. "Thee +look'dst as scared as scared." + +"It little sinnifies how I looked," said Mrs. Poyser; "looks 'ull +mend no jugs, nor laughing neither, as I see. Mr. Bede, I'm sorry +you've to wait so long for your ale, but it's coming in a minute. +Make yourself at home wi' th' cold potatoes: I know you like 'em. +Tommy, I'll send you to bed this minute, if you don't give over +laughing. What is there to laugh at, I should like to know? I'd +sooner cry nor laugh at the sight o' that poor thing's cap; and +there's them as 'ud be better if they could make theirselves like +her i' more ways nor putting on her cap. It little becomes +anybody i' this house to make fun o' my sister's child, an' her +just gone away from us, as it went to my heart to part wi' her. +An' I know one thing, as if trouble was to come, an' I was to be +laid up i' my bed, an' the children was to die--as there's no +knowing but what they will--an' the murrain was to come among the +cattle again, an' everything went to rack an' ruin, I say we might +be glad to get sight o' Dinah's cap again, wi' her own face under +it, border or no border. For she's one o' them things as looks +the brightest on a rainy day, and loves you the best when you're +most i' need on't." + +Mrs. Poyser, you perceive, was aware that nothing would be so +likely to expel the comic as the terrible. Tommy, who was of a +susceptible disposition, and very fond of his mother, and who had, +besides, eaten so many cherries as to have his feelings less under +command than usual, was so affected by the dreadful picture she +had made of the possible future that he began to cry; and the +good-natured father, indulgent to all weaknesses but those of +negligent farmers, said to Hetty, "You'd better take the things +off again, my lass; it hurts your aunt to see 'em." + +Hetty went upstairs again, and the arrival of the ale made an +agreeable diversion; for Adam had to give his opinion of the new +tap, which could not be otherwise than complimentary to Mrs. +Poyser; and then followed a discussion on the secrets of good +brewing, the folly of stinginess in "hopping," and the doubtful +economy of a farmer's making his own malt. Mrs. Poyser had so +many opportunities of expressing herself with weight on these +subjects that by the time supper was ended, the ale-jug refilled, +and Mr. Poyser's pipe alight she was once more in high good +humour, and ready, at Adam's request, to fetch the broken +spinning-wheel for his inspection. + +"Ah," said Adam, looking at it carefully, "here's a nice bit o' +turning wanted. It's a pretty wheel. I must have it up at the +turning-shop in the village and do it there, for I've no +convenence for turning at home. If you'll send it to Mr. Burge's +shop i' the morning, I'll get it done for you by Wednesday. I've +been turning it over in my mind," he continued, looking at Mr. +Poyser, "to make a bit more convenence at home for nice jobs o' +cabinet-making. I've always done a deal at such little things in +odd hours, and they're profitable, for there's more workmanship +nor material in 'em. I look for me and Seth to get a little +business for ourselves i' that way, for I know a man at Rosseter +as 'ull take as many things as we should make, besides what we +could get orders for round about." + +Mr. Poyser entered with interest into a project which seemed a +step towards Adam's becoming a "master-man," and Mrs. Poyser gave +her approbation to the scheme of the movable kitchen cupboard, +which was to be capable of containing grocery, pickles, crockery, +and house-linen in the utmost compactness without confusion. +Hetty, once more in her own dress, with her neckerchief pushed a +little backwards on this warm evening, was seated picking currants +near the window, where Adam could see her quite well. And so the +time passed pleasantly till Adam got up to go. He was pressed to +come again soon, but not to stay longer, for at this busy time +sensible people would not run the risk of being sleepy at five +o'clock in the morning. + +"I shall take a step farther," said Adam, "and go on to see Mester +Massey, for he wasn't at church yesterday, and I've not seen him +for a week past. I've never hardly known him to miss church +before." + +"Aye," said Mr. Poyser, "we've heared nothing about him, for it's +the boys' hollodays now, so we can give you no account." + +"But you'll niver think o' going there at this hour o' the night?" +said Mrs. Poyser, folding up her knitting. + +"Oh, Mester Massey sits up late," said Adam. "An' the night- +school's not over yet. Some o' the men don't come till late-- +they've got so far to walk. And Bartle himself's never in bed +till it's gone eleven." + +"I wouldna have him to live wi' me, then," said Mrs. Poyser, "a- +dropping candle-grease about, as you're like to tumble down o' the +floor the first thing i' the morning." + +"Aye, eleven o'clock's late--it's late," said old Martin. "I +ne'er sot up so i' MY life, not to say as it warna a marr'in', or +a christenin', or a wake, or th' harvest supper. Eleven o'clock's +late." + +"Why, I sit up till after twelve often," said Adam, laughing, "but +it isn't t' eat and drink extry, it's to work extry. Good-night, +Mrs. Poyser; good-night, Hetty." + +Hetty could only smile and not shake hands, for hers were dyed and +damp with currant-juice; but all the rest gave a hearty shake to +the large palm that was held out to them, and said, "Come again, +come again!" + +"Aye, think o' that now," said Mr. Poyser, when Adam was out of on +the causeway. "Sitting up till past twelve to do extry work! +Ye'll not find many men o' six-an' twenty as 'ull do to put i' the +shafts wi' him. If you can catch Adam for a husband, Hetty, +you'll ride i' your own spring-cart some day, I'll be your +warrant." + +Hetty was moving across the kitchen with the currants, so her +uncle did not see the little toss of the head with which she +answered him. To ride in a spring-cart seemed a very miserable +lot indeed to her now. + + + +Chapter XXI + +The Night-School and the Schoolmaster + + +Bartle Massey's was one of a few scattered houses on the edge of a +common, which was divided by the road to Treddleston. Adam +reached it in a quarter of an hour after leaving the Hall Farm; +and when he had his hand on the door-latch, he could see, through +the curtainless window, that there were eight or nine heads +bending over the desks, lighted by thin dips. + +When he entered, a reading lesson was going forward and Bartle +Massey merely nodded, leaving him to take his place where he +pleased. He had not come for the sake of a lesson to-night, and +his mind was too full of personal matters, too full of the last +two hours he had passed in Hetty's presence, for him to amuse +himself with a book till school was over; so he sat down in a +corner and looked on with an absent mind. It was a sort of scene +which Adam had beheld almost weekly for years; he knew by heart +every arabesque flourish in the framed specimen of Bartle Massey's +handwriting which hung over the schoolmaster's head, by way of +keeping a lofty ideal before the minds of his pupils; he knew the +backs of all the books on the shelf running along the whitewashed +wall above the pegs for the slates; he knew exactly how many +grains were gone out of the ear of Indian corn that hung from one +of the rafters; he had long ago exhausted the resources of his +imagination in trying to think how the bunch of leathery seaweed +had looked and grown in its native element; and from the place +where he sat, he could make nothing of the old map of England that +hung against the opposite wall, for age had turned it of a fine +yellow brown, something like that of a well-seasoned meerschaum. +The drama that was going on was almost as familiar as the scene, +nevertheless habit had not made him indifferent to it, and even in +his present self-absorbed mood, Adam felt a momentary stirring of +the old fellow-feeling, as he looked at the rough men painfully +holding pen or pencil with their cramped hands, or humbly +labouring through their reading lesson. + +The reading class now seated on the form in front of the +schoolmaster's desk consisted of the three most backward pupils. +Adam would have known it only by seeing Bartle Massey's face as he +looked over his spectacles, which he had shifted to the ridge of +his nose, not requiring them for present purposes. The face wore +its mildest expression: the grizzled bushy eyebrows had taken +their more acute angle of compassionate kindness, and the mouth, +habitually compressed with a pout of the lower lip, was relaxed so +as to be ready to speak a helpful word or syllable in a moment. +This gentle expression was the more interesting because the +schoolmaster's nose, an irregular aquiline twisted a little on one +side, had rather a formidable character; and his brow, moreover, +had that peculiar tension which always impresses one as a sign of +a keen impatient temperament: the blue veins stood out like cords +under the transparent yellow skin, and this intimidating brow was +softened by no tendency to baldness, for the grey bristly hair, +cut down to about an inch in length, stood round it in as close +ranks as ever. + +"Nay, Bill, nay," Bartle was saying in a kind tone, as he nodded +to Adam, "begin that again, and then perhaps, it'll come to you +what d-r-y spells. It's the same lesson you read last week, you +know." + +"Bill" was a sturdy fellow, aged four-and-twenty, an excellent +stone-sawyer, who could get as good wages as any man in the trade +of his years; but he found a reading lesson in words of one +syllable a harder matter to deal with than the hardest stone he +had ever had to saw. The letters, he complained, were so +"uncommon alike, there was no tellin' 'em one from another," the +sawyer's business not being concerned with minute differences such +as exist between a letter with its tail turned up and a letter +with its tail turned down. But Bill had a firm determination that +he would learn to read, founded chiefly on two reasons: first, +that Tom Hazelow, his cousin, could read anything "right off," +whether it was print or writing, and Tom had sent him a letter +from twenty miles off, saying how he was prospering in the world +and had got an overlooker's place; secondly, that Sam Phillips, +who sawed with him, had learned to read when he was turned twenty, +and what could be done by a little fellow like Sam Phillips, Bill +considered, could be done by himself, seeing that he could pound +Sam into wet clay if circumstances required it. So here he was, +pointing his big finger towards three words at once, and turning +his head on one side that he might keep better hold with his eye +of the one word which was to be discriminated out of the group. +The amount of knowledge Bartle Massey must possess was something +so dim and vast that Bill's imagination recoiled before it: he +would hardly have ventured to deny that the schoolmaster might +have something to do in bringing about the regular return of +daylight and the changes in the weather. + +The man seated next to Bill was of a very different type: he was a +Methodist brickmaker who, after spending thirty years of his life +in perfect satisfaction with his ignorance, had lately "got +religion," and along with it the desire to read the Bible. But +with him, too, learning was a heavy business, and on his way out +to-night he had offered as usual a special prayer for help, seeing +that he had undertaken this hard task with a single eye to the +nourishment of his soul--that he might have a greater abundance of +texts and hymns wherewith to banish evil memories and the +temptations of old habit--or, in brief language, the devil. For +the brickmaker had been a notorious poacher, and was suspected, +though there was no good evidence against him, of being the man +who had shot a neighbouring gamekeeper in the leg. However that +might be, it is certain that shortly after the accident referred +to, which was coincident with the arrival of an awakening +Methodist preacher at Treddleston, a great change had been +observed in the brickmaker; and though he was still known in the +neighbourhood by his old sobriquet of "Brimstone," there was +nothing he held in so much horror as any further transactions with +that evil-smelling element. He was a broad-chested fellow. with +a fervid temperament, which helped him better in imbibing +religious ideas than in the dry process of acquiring the mere +human knowledge of the alphabet. Indeed, he had been already a +little shaken in his resolution by a brother Methodist, who +assured him that the letter was a mere obstruction to the Spirit, +and expressed a fear that Brimstone was too eager for the +knowledge that puffeth up. + +The third beginner was a much more promising pupil. He was a tall +but thin and wiry man, nearly as old as Brimstone, with a very +pale face and hands stained a deep blue. He was a dyer, who in +the course of dipping homespun wool and old women's petticoats had +got fired with the ambition to learn a great deal more about the +strange secrets of colour. He had already a high reputation in +the district for his dyes, and he was bent on discovering some +method by which he could reduce the expense of crimsons and +scarlets. The druggist at Treddleston had given him a notion that +he might save himself a great deal of labour and expense if he +could learn to read, and so he had begun to give his spare hours +to the night-school, resolving that his "little chap" should lose +no time in coming to Mr. Massey's day-school as soon as he was old +enough. + +It was touching to see these three big men, with the marks of +their hard labour about them, anxiously bending over the worn +books and painfully making out, "The grass is green," "The sticks +are dry," "The corn is ripe"--a very hard lesson to pass to after +columns of single words all alike except in the first letter. It +was almost as if three rough animals were making humble efforts to +learn how they might become human. And it touched the tenderest +fibre in Bartle Massey's nature, for such full-grown children as +these were the only pupils for whom he had no severe epithets and +no impatient tones. He was not gifted with an imperturbable +temper, and on music-nights it was apparent that patience could +never be an easy virtue to him; but this evening, as he glances +over his spectacles at Bill Downes, the sawyer, who is turning his +head on one side with a desperate sense of blankness before the +letters d-r-y, his eyes shed their mildest and most encouraging +light. + +After the reading class, two youths between sixteen and nineteen +came up with the imaginary bills of parcels, which they had been +writing out on their slates and were now required to calculate +"off-hand"--a test which they stood with such imperfect success +that Bartle Massey, whose eyes had been glaring at them ominously +through his spectacles for some minutes, at length burst out in a +bitter, high-pitched tone, pausing between every sentence to rap +the floor with a knobbed stick which rested between his legs. + +"Now, you see, you don't do this thing a bit better than you did a +fortnight ago, and I'll tell you what's the reason. You want to +learn accounts--that's well and good. But you think all you need +do to learn accounts is to come to me and do sums for an hour or +so, two or three times a-week; and no sooner do you get your caps +on and turn out of doors again than you sweep the whole thing +clean out of your mind. You go whistling about, and take no more +care what you're thinking of than if your heads were gutters for +any rubbish to swill through that happened to be in the way; and +if you get a good notion in 'em, it's pretty soon washed out +again. You think knowledge is to be got cheap--you'll come and +pay Bartle Massey sixpence a-week, and he'll make you clever at +figures without your taking any trouble. But knowledge isn't to +be got with paying sixpence, let me tell you. If you're to know +figures, you must turn 'em over in your heads and keep your +thoughts fixed on 'em. There's nothing you can't turn into a sum, +for there's nothing but what's got number in it--even a fool. You +may say to yourselves, 'I'm one fool, and Jack's another; if my +fool's head weighed four pound, and Jack's three pound three +ounces and three quarters, how many pennyweights heavier would my +head be than Jack's?' A man that had got his heart in learning +figures would make sums for himself and work 'em in his head. +When he sat at his shoemaking, he'd count his stitches by fives, +and then put a price on his stitches, say half a farthing, and +then see how much money he could get in an hour; and then ask +himself how much money he'd get in a day at that rate; and then +how much ten workmen would get working three, or twenty, or a +hundred years at that rate--and all the while his needle would be +going just as fast as if he left his head empty for the devil to +dance in. But the long and the short of it is--I'll have nobody +in my night-school that doesn't strive to learn what he comes to +learn, as hard as if he was striving to get out of a dark hole +into broad daylight. I'll send no man away because he's stupid: +if Billy Taft, the idiot, wanted to learn anything, I'd not refuse +to teach him. But I'll not throw away good knowledge on people +who think they can get it by the sixpenn'orth, and carry it away +with 'em as they would an ounce of snuff. So never come to me +again, if you can't show that you've been working with your own +heads, instead of thinking that you can pay for mine to work for +you. That's the last word I've got to say to you." + +With this final sentence, Bartle Massey gave a sharper rap than +ever with his knobbed stick, and the discomfited lads got up to go +with a sulky look. The other pupils had happily only their +writing-books to show, in various stages of progress from pot- +hooks to round text; and mere pen-strokes, however perverse, were +less exasperating to Bartle than false arithmetic. He was a +little more severe than usual on Jacob Storey's Z's, of which poor +Jacob had written a pageful, all with their tops turned the wrong +way, with a puzzled sense that they were not right "somehow." But +he observed in apology, that it was a letter you never wanted +hardly, and he thought it had only been there "to finish off th' +alphabet, like, though ampusand (&) would ha' done as well, for +what he could see." + +At last the pupils had all taken their hats and said their "Good- +nights," and Adam, knowing his old master's habits, rose and said, +"Shall I put the candles out, Mr. Massey?" + +"Yes, my boy, yes, all but this, which I'll carry into the house; +and just lock the outer door, now you're near it," said Bartle, +getting his stick in the fitting angle to help him in descending +from his stool. He was no sooner on the ground than it became +obvious why the stick was necessary--the left leg was much shorter +than the right. But the school-master was so active with his +lameness that it was hardly thought of as a misfortune; and if you +had seen him make his way along the schoolroom floor, and up the +step into his kitchen, you would perhaps have understood why the +naughty boys sometimes felt that his pace might be indefinitely +quickened and that he and his stick might overtake them even in +their swiftest run. + +The moment he appeared at the kitchen door with the candle in his +hand, a faint whimpering began in the chimney-corner, and a brown- +and-tan-coloured bitch, of that wise-looking breed with short legs +and long body, known to an unmechanical generation as turnspits, +came creeping along the floor, wagging her tail, and hesitating at +every other step, as if her affections were painfully divided +between the hamper in the chimney-corner and the master, whom she +could not leave without a greeting. + +"Well, Vixen, well then, how are the babbies?" said the +schoolmaster, making haste towards the chimney-corner and holding +the candle over the low hamper, where two extremely blind puppies +lifted up their heads towards the light from a nest of flannel and +wool. Vixen could not even see her master look at them without +painful excitement: she got into the hamper and got out again the +next moment, and behaved with true feminine folly, though looking +all the while as wise as a dwarf with a large old-fashioned head +and body on the most abbreviated legs. + +"Why, you've got a family, I see, Mr. Massey?" said Adam, smiling, +as he came into the kitchen. "How's that? I thought it was +against the law here." + +"Law? What's the use o' law when a man's once such a fool as to +let a woman into his house?" said Bartle, turning away from the +hamper with some bitterness. He always called Vixen a woman, and +seemed to have lost all consciousness that he was using a figure +of speech. "If I'd known Vixen was a woman, I'd never have held +the boys from drowning her; but when I'd got her into my hand, I +was forced to take to her. And now you see what she's brought me +to--the sly, hypocritical wench"--Bartle spoke these last words in +a rasping tone of reproach, and looked at Vixen, who poked down +her head and turned up her eyes towards him with a keen sense of +opprobrium--"and contrived to be brought to bed on a Sunday at +church-time. I've wished again and again I'd been a bloody minded +man, that I could have strangled the mother and the brats with one +cord." + +"I'm glad it was no worse a cause kept you from church," said +Adam. "I was afraid you must be ill for the first time i' your +life. And I was particularly sorry not to have you at church +yesterday." + +"Ah, my boy, I know why, I know why," said Bartle kindly, going up +to Adam and raising his hand up to the shoulder that was almost on +a level with his own head. "You've had a rough bit o' road to get +over since I saw you--a rough bit o' road. But I'm in hopes there +are better times coming for you. I've got some news to tell you. +But I must get my supper first, for I'm hungry, I'm hungry. Sit +down, sit down." + +Bartel went into his little pantry, and brought out an excellent +home-baked loaf; for it was his one extravagance in these dear +times to eat bread once a-day instead of oat-cake; and he +justified it by observing, that what a schoolmaster wanted was +brains, and oat-cake ran too much to bone instead of brains. Then +came a piece of cheese and a quart jug with a crown of foam upon +it. He placed them all on the round deal table which stood +against his large arm-chair in the chimney-corner, with Vixen's +hamper on one side of it and a window-shelf with a few books piled +up in it on the other. The table was as clean as if Vixen had +been an excellent housewife in a checkered apron; so was the +quarry floor; and the old carved oaken press, table, and chairs, +which in these days would be bought at a high price in +aristocratic houses, though, in that period of spider-legs and +inlaid cupids, Bartle had got them for an old song, where as free +from dust as things could be at the end of a summer's day. + +"Now, then, my boy, draw up, draw up. We'll not talk about +business till we've had our supper. No man can be wise on an +empty stomach. But," said Bartle, rising from his chair again, "I +must give Vixen her supper too, confound her! Though she'll do +nothing with it but nourish those unnecessary babbies. That's the +way with these women--they've got no head-pieces to nourish, and +so their food all runs either to fat or to brats." + +He brought out of the pantry a dish of scraps, which Vixen at once +fixed her eyes on, and jumped out of her hamper to lick up with +the utmost dispatch. + +"I've had my supper, Mr. Massey," said Adam, "so I'll look on +while you eat yours. I've been at the Hall Farm, and they always +have their supper betimes, you know: they don't keep your late +hours." + +"I know little about their hours," said Bartle dryly, cutting his +bread and not shrinking from the crust. "It's a house I seldom go +into, though I'm fond of the boys, and Martin Poyser's a good +fellow. There's too many women in the house for me: I hate the +sound of women's voices; they're always either a-buzz or a-squeak-- +always either a-buzz or a-squeak. Mrs. Poyser keeps at the top +o' the talk like a fife; and as for the young lasses, I'd as soon +look at water-grubs. I know what they'll turn to--stinging gnats, +stinging gnats. Here, take some ale, my boy: it's been drawn for +you--it's been drawn for you." + +"Nay, Mr. Massey," said Adam, who took his old friend's whim more +seriously than usual to-night, "don't be so hard on the creaturs +God has made to be companions for us. A working-man 'ud be badly +off without a wife to see to th' house and the victual, and make +things clean and comfortable." + +"Nonsense! It's the silliest lie a sensible man like you ever +believed, to say a woman makes a house comfortable. It's a story +got up because the women are there and something must be found for +'em to do. I tell you there isn't a thing under the sun that +needs to be done at all, but what a man can do better than a +woman, unless it's bearing children, and they do that in a poor +make-shift way; it had better ha' been left to the men--it had +better ha' been left to the men. I tell you, a woman 'ull bake +you a pie every week of her life and never come to see that the +hotter th' oven the shorter the time. I tell you, a woman 'ull +make your porridge every day for twenty years and never think of +measuring the proportion between the meal and the milk--a little +more or less, she'll think, doesn't signify. The porridge WILL be +awk'ard now and then: if it's wrong, it's summat in the meal, or +it's summat in the milk, or it's summat in the water. Look at me! +I make my own bread, and there's no difference between one batch +and another from year's end to year's end; but if I'd got any +other woman besides Vixen in the house, I must pray to the Lord +every baking to give me patience if the bread turned out heavy. +And as for cleanliness, my house is cleaner than any other house +on the Common, though the half of 'em swarm with women. Will +Baker's lad comes to help me in a morning, and we get as much +cleaning done in one hour, without any fuss, as a woman 'ud get +done in three, and all the while be sending buckets o' water after +your ankles, and let the fender and the fire-irons stand in the +middle o' the floor half the day for you to break your shins +against 'em. Don't tell me about God having made such creatures +to be companions for us! I don't say but He might make Eve to be +a companion to Adam in Paradise--there was no cooking to be spoilt +there, and no other woman to cackle with and make mischief, though +you see what mischief she did as soon as she'd an opportunity. +But it's an impious, unscriptural opinion to say a woman's a +blessing to a man now; you might as well say adders and wasps, and +foxes and wild beasts are a blessing, when they're only the evils +that belong to this state o' probation, which it's lawful for a +man to keep as clear of as he can in this life, hoping to get quit +of 'em for ever in another--hoping to get quit of 'em for ever in +another." + +Bartle had become so excited and angry in the course of his +invective that he had forgotten his supper, and only used the +knife for the purpose of rapping the table with the haft. But +towards the close, the raps became so sharp and frequent, and his +voice so quarrelsome, that Vixen felt it incumbent on her to jump +out of the hamper and bark vaguely. + +"Quiet, Vixen!" snarled Bartle, turning round upon her. "You're +like the rest o' the women--always putting in your word before you +know why." + +Vixen returned to her hamper again in humiliation, and her master +continued his supper in a silence which Adam did not choose to +interrupt; he knew the old man would be in a better humour when he +had had his supper and lighted his pipe. Adam was used to hear +him talk in this way, but had never learned so much of Bartle's +past life as to know whether his view of married comfort was +founded on experience. On that point Bartle was mute, and it was +even a secret where he had lived previous to the twenty years in +which happily for the peasants and artisans of this neighbourhood +he had been settled among them as their only schoolmaster. If +anything like a question was ventured on this subject, Bartle +always replied, "Oh, I've seen many places--I've been a deal in +the south," and the Loamshire men would as soon have thought of +asking for a particular town or village in Africa as in "the +south." + +"Now then, my boy," said Bartle, at last, when he had poured out +his second mug of ale and lighted his pipe, "now then, we'll have +a little talk. But tell me first, have you heard any particular +news to-day?" + +"No," said Adam, "not as I remember." + +"Ah, they'll keep it close, they'll keep it close, I daresay. But +I found it out by chance; and it's news that may concern you, +Adam, else I'm a man that don't know a superficial square foot +from a solid." + +Here Bartle gave a series of fierce and rapid puffs, looking +earnestly the while at Adam. Your impatient loquacious man has +never any notion of keeping his pipe alight by gentle measured +puffs; he is always letting it go nearly out, and then punishing +it for that negligence. At last he said, "Satchell's got a +paralytic stroke. I found it out from the lad they sent to +Treddleston for the doctor, before seven o'clock this morning. +He's a good way beyond sixty, you know; it's much if he gets over +it." + +"Well," said Adam, "I daresay there'd be more rejoicing than +sorrow in the parish at his being laid up. He's been a selfish, +tale-bearing, mischievous fellow; but, after all, there's nobody +he's done so much harm to as to th' old squire. Though it's the +squire himself as is to blame--making a stupid fellow like that a +sort o' man-of-all-work, just to save th' expense of having a +proper steward to look after th' estate. And he's lost more by +ill management o' the woods, I'll be bound, than 'ud pay for two +stewards. If he's laid on the shelf, it's to be hoped he'll make +way for a better man, but I don't see how it's like to make any +difference to me." + +"But I see it, but I see it," said Bartle, "and others besides me. +The captain's coming of age now--you know that as well as I do-- +and it's to be expected he'll have a little more voice in things. +And I know, and you know too, what 'ud be the captain's wish about +the woods, if there was a fair opportunity for making a change. +He's said in plenty of people's hearing that he'd make you manager +of the woods to-morrow, if he'd the power. Why, Carroll, Mr. +Irwine's butler, heard him say so to the parson not many days ago. +Carroll looked in when we were smoking our pipes o' Saturday night +at Casson's, and he told us about it; and whenever anybody says a +good word for you, the parson's ready to back it, that I'll answer +for. It was pretty well talked over, I can tell you, at Casson's, +and one and another had their fling at you; for if donkeys set to +work to sing, you're pretty sure what the tune'll be." + +"Why, did they talk it over before Mr. Burge?" said Adam; "or +wasn't he there o' Saturday?" + +"Oh, he went away before Carroll came; and Casson--he's always for +setting other folks right, you know--would have it Burge was the +man to have the management of the woods. 'A substantial man,' +says he, 'with pretty near sixty years' experience o' timber: it +'ud be all very well for Adam Bede to act under him, but it isn't +to be supposed the squire 'ud appoint a young fellow like Adam, +when there's his elders and betters at hand!' But I said, 'That's +a pretty notion o' yours, Casson. Why, Burge is the man to buy +timber; would you put the woods into his hands and let him make +his own bargains? I think you don't leave your customers to score +their own drink, do you? And as for age, what that's worth +depends on the quality o' the liquor. It's pretty well known +who's the backbone of Jonathan Burge's business.'" + +"I thank you for your good word, Mr. Massey," said Adam. "But, +for all that, Casson was partly i' the right for once. There's +not much likelihood that th' old squire 'ud ever consent t' employ +me. I offended him about two years ago, and he's never forgiven +me." + +"Why, how was that? You never told me about it," said Bartle. + +"Oh, it was a bit o' nonsense. I'd made a frame for a screen for +Miss Lyddy--she's allays making something with her worsted-work, +you know--and she'd given me particular orders about this screen, +and there was as much talking and measuring as if we'd been +planning a house. However, it was a nice bit o' work, and I liked +doing it for her. But, you know, those little friggling things +take a deal o' time. I only worked at it in overhours--often late +at night--and I had to go to Treddleston over an' over again about +little bits o' brass nails and such gear; and I turned the little +knobs and the legs, and carved th' open work, after a pattern, as +nice as could be. And I was uncommon pleased with it when it was +done. And when I took it home, Miss Lyddy sent for me to bring it +into her drawing-room, so as she might give me directions about +fastening on the work--very fine needlework, Jacob and Rachel a- +kissing one another among the sheep, like a picture--and th' old +squire was sitting there, for he mostly sits with her. Well, she +was mighty pleased with the screen, and then she wanted to know +what pay she was to give me. I didn't speak at random--you know +it's not my way; I'd calculated pretty close, though I hadn't made +out a bill, and I said, 'One pound thirty.' That was paying for +the mater'als and paying me, but none too much, for my work. Th' +old squire looked up at this, and peered in his way at the screen, +and said, 'One pound thirteen for a gimcrack like that! Lydia, my +dear, if you must spend money on these things, why don't you get +them at Rosseter, instead of paying double price for clumsy work +here? Such things are not work for a carpenter like Adam. Give +him a guinea, and no more.' Well, Miss Lyddy, I reckon, believed +what he told her, and she's not overfond o' parting with the money +herself--she's not a bad woman at bottom, but she's been brought +up under his thumb; so she began fidgeting with her purse, and +turned as red as her ribbon. But I made a bow, and said, 'No, +thank you, madam; I'll make you a present o' the screen, if you +please. I've charged the regular price for my work, and I know +it's done well; and I know, begging His Honour's pardon, that you +couldn't get such a screen at Rosseter under two guineas. I'm +willing to give you my work--it's been done in my own time, and +nobody's got anything to do with it but me; but if I'm paid, I +can't take a smaller price than I asked, because that 'ud be like +saying I'd asked more than was just. With your leave, madam, I'll +bid you good-morning.' I made my bow and went out before she'd +time to say any more, for she stood with the purse in her hand, +looking almost foolish. I didn't mean to be disrespectful, and I +spoke as polite as I could; but I can give in to no man, if he +wants to make it out as I'm trying to overreach him. And in the +evening the footman brought me the one pound thirteen wrapped in +paper. But since then I've seen pretty clear as th' old squire +can't abide me." + +"That's likely enough, that's likely enough," said Bartle +meditatively. "The only way to bring him round would be to show +him what was for his own interest, and that the captain may do-- +that the captain may do." + +"Nay, I don't know," said Adam; "the squire's 'cute enough but it +takes something else besides 'cuteness to make folks see what'll +be their interest in the long run. It takes some conscience and +belief in right and wrong, I see that pretty clear. You'd hardly +ever bring round th' old squire to believe he'd gain as much in a +straightfor'ard way as by tricks and turns. And, besides, I've +not much mind to work under him: I don't want to quarrel with any +gentleman, more particular an old gentleman turned eighty, and I +know we couldn't agree long. If the captain was master o' th' +estate, it 'ud be different: he's got a conscience and a will to +do right, and I'd sooner work for him nor for any man living." + +"Well, well, my boy, if good luck knocks at your door, don't you +put your head out at window and tell it to be gone about its +business, that's all. You must learn to deal with odd and even in +life, as well as in figures. I tell you now, as I told you ten +years ago, when you pommelled young Mike Holdsworth for wanting to +pass a bad shilling before you knew whether he was in jest or +earnest--you're overhasty and proud, and apt to set your teeth +against folks that don't square to your notions. It's no harm for +me to be a bit fiery and stiff-backed--I'm an old schoolmaster, +and shall never want to get on to a higher perch. But where's the +use of all the time I've spent in teaching you writing and mapping +and mensuration, if you're not to get for'ard in the world and +show folks there's some advantage in having a head on your +shoulders, instead of a turnip? Do you mean to go on turning up +your nose at every opportunity because it's got a bit of a smell +about it that nobody finds out but yourself? It's as foolish as +that notion o' yours that a wife is to make a working-man +comfortable. Stuff and nonsense! Stuff and nonsense! Leave that +to fools that never got beyond a sum in simple addition. Simple +addition enough! Add one fool to another fool, and in six years' +time six fools more--they're all of the same denomination, big and +little's nothing to do with the sum!" + +During this rather heated exhortation to coolness and discretion +the pipe had gone out, and Bartle gave the climax to his speech by +striking a light furiously, after which he puffed with fierce +resolution, fixing his eye still on Adam, who was trying not to +laugh. + +"There's a good deal o' sense in what you say, Mr. Massey," Adam +began, as soon as he felt quite serious, "as there always is. But +you'll give in that it's no business o' mine to be building on +chances that may never happen. What I've got to do is to work as +well as I can with the tools and mater'als I've got in my hands. +If a good chance comes to me, I'll think o' what you've been +saying; but till then, I've got nothing to do but to trust to my +own hands and my own head-piece. I'm turning over a little plan +for Seth and me to go into the cabinet-making a bit by ourselves, +and win a extra pound or two in that way. But it's getting late +now--it'll be pretty near eleven before I'm at home, and Mother +may happen to lie awake; she's more fidgety nor usual now. So +I'll bid you good-night." + +"Well, well, we'll go to the gate with you--it's a fine night," +said Bartle, taking up his stick. Vixen was at once on her legs, +and without further words the three walked out into the starlight, +by the side of Bartle's potato-beds, to the little gate. + +"Come to the music o' Friday night, if you can, my boy," said the +old man, as he closed the gate after Adam and leaned against it. + +"Aye, aye," said Adam, striding along towards the streak of pale +road. He was the only object moving on the wide common. The two +grey donkeys, just visible in front of the gorse bushes, stood as +still as limestone images--as still as the grey-thatched roof of +the mud cottage a little farther on. Bartle kept his eye on the +moving figure till it passed into the darkness, while Vixen, in a +state of divided affection, had twice run back to the house to +bestow a parenthetic lick on her puppies. + +"Aye, aye," muttered the schoolmaster, as Adam disappeared, "there +you go, stalking along--stalking along; but you wouldn't have been +what you are if you hadn't had a bit of old lame Bartle inside +you. The strongest calf must have something to suck at. There's +plenty of these big, lumbering fellows 'ud never have known their +A B C if it hadn't been for Bartle Massey. Well, well, Vixen, you +foolish wench, what is it, what is it? I must go in, must I? +Aye, aye, I'm never to have a will o' my own any more. And those +pups--what do you think I'm to do with 'em, when they're twice as +big as you? For I'm pretty sure the father was that hulking bull- +terrier of Will Baker's--wasn't he now, eh, you sly hussy?" + +(Here Vixen tucked her tail between her legs and ran forward into +the house. Subjects are sometimes broached which a well-bred +female will ignore.) + +"But where's the use of talking to a woman with babbies?" +continued Bartle. "She's got no conscience--no conscience; it's +all run to milk." + + + +Book Three + + + +Chapter XXII + +Going to the Birthday Feast + + +THE thirtieth of July was come, and it was one of those half-dozen +warm days which sometimes occur in the middle of a rainy English +summer. No rain had fallen for the last three or four days, and +the weather was perfect for that time of the year: there was less +dust than usual on the dark-green hedge-rows and on the wild +camomile that starred the roadside, yet the grass was dry enough +for the little children to roll on it, and there was no cloud but +a long dash of light, downy ripple, high, high up in the far-off +blue sky. Perfect weather for an outdoor July merry-making, yet +surely not the best time of year to be born in. Nature seems to +make a hot pause just then: all the loveliest flowers are gone; +the sweet time of early growth and vague hopes is past; and yet +the time of harvest and ingathering is not come, and we tremble at +the possible storms that may ruin the precious fruit in the moment +of its ripeness. The woods are all one dark monotonous green; the +waggon-loads of hay no longer creep along the lanes, scattering +their sweet-smelling fragments on the blackberry branches; the +pastures are often a little tanned, yet the corn has not got its +last splendour of red and gold; the lambs and calves have lost all +traces of their innocent frisky prettiness, and have become stupid +young sheep and cows. But it is a time of leisure on the farm-- +that pause between hay- and corn-harvest, and so the farmers and +labourers in Hayslope and Broxton thought the captain did well to +come of age just then, when they could give their undivided minds +to the flavour of the great cask of ale which had been brewed the +autumn after "the heir" was born, and was to be tapped on his +twenty-first birthday. The air had been merry with the ringing of +church-bells very early this morning, and every one had made haste +to get through the needful work before twelve, when it would be +time to think of getting ready to go to the Chase. + +The midday sun was streaming into Hetty's bedchamber, and there +was no blind to temper the heat with which it fell on her head as +she looked at herself in the old specked glass. Still, that was +the only glass she had in which she could see her neck and arms, +for the small hanging glass she had fetched out of the next room-- +the room that had been Dinah's--would show her nothing below her +little chin; and that beautiful bit of neck where the roundness of +her cheek melted into another roundness shadowed by dark delicate +curls. And to-day she thought more than usual about her neck and +arms; for at the dance this evening she was not to wear any +neckerchief, and she had been busy yesterday with her spotted +pink-and-white frock, that she might make the sleeves either long +or short at will. She was dressed now just as she was to be in +the evening, with a tucker made of "real" lace, which her aunt had +lent her for this unparalleled occasion, but with no ornaments +besides; she had even taken out her small round ear-rings which +she wore every day. But there was something more to be done, +apparently, before she put on her neckerchief and long sleeves, +which she was to wear in the day-time, for now she unlocked the +drawer that held her private treasures. It is more than a month +since we saw her unlock that drawer before, and now it holds new +treasures, so much more precious than the old ones that these are +thrust into the corner. Hetty would not care to put the large +coloured glass ear-rings into her ears now; for see! she has got a +beautiful pair of gold and pearls and garnet, lying snugly in a +pretty little box lined with white satin. Oh, the delight of +taking out that little box and looking at the ear-rings! Do not +reason about it, my philosphical reader, and say that Hetty, being +very pretty, must have known that it did not signify whether she +had on any ornaments or not; and that, moreover, to look at ear- +rings which she could not possibly wear out of her bedroom could +hardly be a satisfaction, the essence of vanity being a reference +to the impressions produced on others; you will never understand +women's natures if you are so excessively rational. Try rather to +divest yourself of all your rational prejudices, as much as if you +were studying the psychology of a canary bird, and only watch the +movements of this pretty round creature as she turns her head on +one side with an unconscious smile at the ear-rings nestled in the +little box. Ah, you think, it is for the sake of the person who +has given them to her, and her thoughts are gone back now to the +moment when they were put into her hands. No; else why should she +have cared to have ear-rings rather than anything else? And I +know that she had longed for ear-rings from among all the +ornaments she could imagine. + +"Little, little ears!" Arthur had said, pretending to pinch them +one evening, as Hetty sat beside him on the grass without her hat. +"I wish I had some pretty ear-rings!" she said in a moment, almost +before she knew what she was saying--the wish lay so close to her +lips, it WOULD flutter past them at the slightest breath. And the +next day--it was only last week--Arthur had ridden over to +Rosseter on purpose to buy them. That little wish so naively +uttered seemed to him the prettiest bit of childishness; he had +never heard anything like it before; and he had wrapped the box up +in a great many covers, that he might see Hetty unwrapping it with +growing curiosity, till at last her eyes flashed back their new +delight into his. + +No, she was not thinking most of the giver when she smiled at the +ear-rings, for now she is taking them out of the box, not to press +them to her lips, but to fasten them in her ears--only for one +moment, to see how pretty they look, as she peeps at them in the +glass against the wall, with first one position of the head and +then another, like a listening bird. It is impossible to be wise +on the subject of ear-rings as one looks at her; what should those +delicate pearls and crystals be made for, if not for such ears? +One cannot even find fault with the tiny round hole which they +leave when they are taken out; perhaps water-nixies, and such +lovely things without souls, have these little round holes in +their ears by nature, ready to hang jewels in. And Hetty must be +one of them: it is too painful to think that she is a woman, with +a woman's destiny before her--a woman spinning in young ignorance +a light web of folly and vain hopes which may one day close round +her and press upon her, a rancorous poisoned garment, changing all +at once her fluttering, trivial butterfly sensations into a life +of deep human anguish. + +But she cannot keep in the ear-rings long, else she may make her +uncle and aunt wait. She puts them quickly into the box again and +shuts them up. Some day she will be able to wear any ear-rings +she likes, and already she lives in an invisible world of +brilliant costumes, shimmering gauze, soft satin, and velvet, such +as the lady's maid at the Chase has shown her in Miss Lydia's +wardrobe. She feels the bracelets on her arms, and treads on a +soft carpet in front of a tall mirror. But she has one thing in +the drawer which she can venture to wear to-day, because she can +hang it on the chain of dark-brown berries which she has been used +to wear on grand days, with a tiny flat scent-bottle at the end of +it tucked inside her frock; and she must put on her brown berries-- +her neck would look so unfinished without it. Hetty was not +quite as fond of the locket as of the ear-rings, though it was a +handsome large locket, with enamelled flowers at the back and a +beautiful gold border round the glass, which showed a light-brown +slightly waving lock, forming a background for two little dark +rings. She must keep it under her clothes, and no one would see +it. But Hetty had another passion, only a little less strong than +her love of finery, and that other passion made her like to wear +the locket even hidden in her bosom. She would always have worn +it, if she had dared to encounter her aunt's questions about a +ribbon round her neck. So now she slipped it on along her chain +of dark-brown berries, and snapped the chain round her neck. It +was not a very long chain, only allowing the locket to hang a +little way below the edge of her frock. And now she had nothing +to do but to put on her long sleeves, her new white gauze +neckerchief, and her straw hat trimmed with white to-day instead +of the pink, which had become rather faded under the July sun. +That hat made the drop of bitterness in Hetty's cup to-day, for it +was not quite new--everybody would see that it was a little tanned +against the white ribbon--and Mary Burge, she felt sure, would +have a new hat or bonnet on. She looked for consolation at her +fine white cotton stockings: they really were very nice indeed, +and she had given almost all her spare money for them. Hetty's +dream of the future could not make her insensible to triumph in +the present. To be sure, Captain Donnithorne loved her so that he +would never care about looking at other people, but then those +other people didn't know how he loved her, and she was not +satisfied to appear shabby and insignificant in their eyes even +for a short space. + +The whole party was assembled in the house-place when Hetty went +down, all of course in their Sunday clothes; and the bells had +been ringing so this morning in honour of the captain's twenty- +first birthday, and the work had all been got done so early, that +Marty and Tommy were not quite easy in their minds until their +mother had assured them that going to church was not part of the +day's festivities. Mr. Poyser had once suggested that the house +should be shut up and left to take care of itself; "for," said he, +"there's no danger of anybody's breaking in--everybody'll be at +the Chase, thieves an' all. If we lock th' house up, all the men +can go: it's a day they wonna see twice i' their lives." But +Mrs. Poyser answered with great decision: "I never left the house +to take care of itself since I was a missis, and I never will. +There's been ill-looking tramps enoo' about the place this last +week, to carry off every ham an' every spoon we'n got; and they +all collogue together, them tramps, as it's a mercy they hanna +come and poisoned the dogs and murdered us all in our beds afore +we knowed, some Friday night when we'n got the money in th' house +to pay the men. And it's like enough the tramps know where we're +going as well as we do oursens; for if Old Harry wants any work +done, you may be sure he'll find the means." + +"Nonsense about murdering us in our beds," said Mr. Poyser; "I've +got a gun i' our room, hanna I? and thee'st got ears as 'ud find +it out if a mouse was gnawing the bacon. Howiver, if thee +wouldstna be easy, Alick can stay at home i' the forepart o' the +day, and Tim can come back tow'rds five o'clock, and let Alick +have his turn. They may let Growler loose if anybody offers to do +mischief, and there's Alick's dog too, ready enough to set his +tooth in a tramp if Alick gives him a wink." + +Mrs. Poyser accepted this compromise, but thought it advisable to +bar and bolt to the utmost; and now, at the last moment before +starting, Nancy, the dairy-maid, was closing the shutters of the +house-place, although the window, lying under the immediate +observation of Alick and the dogs, might have been supposed the +least likely to be selected for a burglarious attempt. + +The covered cart, without springs, was standing ready to carry the +whole family except the men-servants. Mr. Poyser and the +grandfather sat on the seat in front, and within there was room +for all the women and children; the fuller the cart the better, +because then the jolting would not hurt so much, and Nancy's broad +person and thick arms were an excellent cushion to be pitched on. +But Mr. Poyser drove at no more than a walking pace, that there +might be as little risk of jolting as possible on this warm day, +and there was time to exchange greetings and remarks with the +foot-passengers who were going the same way, specking the paths +between the green meadows and the golden cornfields with bits of +movable bright colour--a scarlet waistcoat to match the poppies +that nodded a little too thickly among the corn, or a dark-blue +neckerchief with ends flaunting across a brand-new white smock- +frock. All Broxton and all Hayslope were to be at the Chase, and +make merry there in honour of "th' heir"; and the old men and +women, who had never been so far down this side of the hill for +the last twenty years, were being brought from Broxton and +Hayslope in one of the farmer's waggons, at Mr. Irwine's +suggestion. The church-bells had struck up again now--a last +tune, before the ringers came down the hill to have their share in +the festival; and before the bells had finished, other music was +heard approaching, so that even Old Brown, the sober horse that +was drawing Mr. Poyser's cart, began to prick up his ears. It was +the band of the Benefit Club, which had mustered in all its glory-- +that is to say, in bright-blue scarfs and blue favours, and +carrying its banner with the motto, "Let brotherly love continue," +encircling a picture of a stone-pit. + +The carts, of course, were not to enter the Chase. Every one must +get down at the lodges, and the vehicles must be sent back. + +"Why, the Chase is like a fair a'ready," said Mrs. Poyser, as she +got down from the cart, and saw the groups scattered under the +great oaks, and the boys running about in the hot sunshine to +survey the tall poles surmounted by the fluttering garments that +were to be the prize of the successful climbers. "I should ha' +thought there wasna so many people i' the two parishes. Mercy on +us! How hot it is out o' the shade! Come here, Totty, else your +little face 'ull be burnt to a scratchin'! They might ha' cooked +the dinners i' that open space an' saved the fires. I shall go to +Mrs. Best's room an' sit down." + +"Stop a bit, stop a bit," said Mr. Poyser. "There's th' waggin +coming wi' th' old folks in't; it'll be such a sight as wonna come +o'er again, to see 'em get down an' walk along all together. You +remember some on 'em i' their prime, eh, Father?" + +"Aye, aye," said old Martin, walking slowly under the shade of the +lodge porch, from which he could see the aged party descend. "I +remember Jacob Taft walking fifty mile after the Scotch raybels, +when they turned back from Stoniton." + +He felt himself quite a youngster, with a long life before him, as +he saw the Hayslope patriarch, old Feyther Taft, descend from the +waggon and walk towards him, in his brown nigbtcap, and leaning on +his two sticks. + +"Well, Mester Taft," shouted old Martin, at the utmost stretch of +his voice--for though he knew the old man was stone deaf, he could +not omit the propriety of a greeting--"you're hearty yet. You can +enjoy yoursen to-day, for-all you're ninety an' better." + +"Your sarvant, mesters, your sarvant," said Feyther Taft in a +treble tone, perceiving that he was in company. + +The aged group, under care of sons or daughters, themselves worn +and grey, passed on along the least-winding carriage-road towards +the house, where a special table was prepared for them; while the +Poyser party wisely struck across the grass under the shade of the +great trees, but not out of view of the house-front, with its +sloping lawn and flower-beds, or of the pretty striped marquee at +the edge of the lawn, standing at right angles with two larger +marquees on each side of the open green space where the games were +to be played. The house would have been nothing but a plain +square mansion of Queen Anne's time, but for the remnant of an old +abbey to which it was united at one end, in much the same way as +one may sometimes see a new farmhouse rising high and prim at the +end of older and lower farm-offices. The fine old remnant stood a +little backward and under the shadow of tall beeches, but the sun +was now on the taller and more advanced front, the blinds were all +down, and the house seemed asleep in the hot midday. It made +Hetty quite sad to look at it: Arthur must be somewhere in the +back rooms, with the grand company, where he could not possibly +know that she was come, and she should not see him for a long, +long while--not till after dinner, when they said he was to come +up and make a speech. + +But Hetty was wrong in part of her conjecture. No grand company +was come except the Irwines, for whom the carriage had been sent +early, and Arthur was at that moment not in a back room, but +walking with the rector into the broad stone cloisters of the old +abbey, where the long tables were laid for all the cottage tenants +and the farm-servants. A very handsome young Briton he looked to- +day, in high spirits and a bright-blue frock-coat, the highest +mode--his arm no longer in a sling. So open-looking and candid, +too; but candid people have their secrets, and secrets leave no +lines in young faces. + +"Upon my word," he said, as they entered the cool cloisters, "I +think the cottagers have the best of it: these cloisters make a +delightful dining-room on a hot day. That was capital advice of +yours, Irwine, about the dinners--to let them be as orderly and +comfortable as possible, and only for the tenants: especially as +I had only a limited sum after all; for though my grandfather +talked of a carte blanche, he couldn't make up his mind to trust +me, when it came to the point." + +"Never mind, you'll give more pleasure in this quiet way," said +Mr. Irwine. "In this sort of thing people are constantly +confounding liberality with riot and disorder. It sounds very +grand to say that so many sheep and oxen were roasted whole, and +everybody ate who liked to come; but in the end it generally +happens that no one has had an enjoyable meal. If the people get +a good dinner and a moderate quantity of ale in the middle of the +day, they'll be able to enjoy the games as the day cools. You +can't hinder some of them from getting too much towards evening, +but drunkenness and darkness go better together than drunkenness +and daylight." + +"Well, I hope there won't be much of it. I've kept the +Treddleston people away by having a feast for them in the town; +and I've got Casson and Adam Bede and some other good fellows to +look to the giving out of ale in the booths, and to take care +things don't go too far. Come, let us go up above now and see the +dinner-tables for the large tenants." + +They went up the stone staircase leading simply to the long +gallery above the cloisters, a gallery where all the dusty +worthless old pictures had been banished for the last three +generations--mouldy portraits of Queen Elizabeth and her ladies, +General Monk with his eye knocked out, Daniel very much in the +dark among the lions, and Julius Caesar on horseback, with a high +nose and laurel crown, holding his Commentaries in his hand. + +"What a capital thing it is that they saved this piece of the old +abbey!" said Arthur. "If I'm ever master here, I shall do up the +gallery in first-rate style. We've got no room in the house a +third as large as this. That second table is for the farmers' +wives and children: Mrs. Best said it would be more comfortable +for the mothers and children to be by themselves. I was +determined to have the children, and make a regular family thing +of it. I shall be 'the old squire' to those little lads and +lasses some day, and they'll tell their children what a much finer +young fellow I was than my own son. There's a table for the women +and children below as well. But you will see them all--you will +come up with me after dinner, I hope?" + +"Yes, to be sure," said Mr. Irwine. "I wouldn't miss your maiden +speech to the tenantry." + +"And there will be something else you'll like to hear," said +Arthur. "Let us go into the library and I'll tell you all about +it while my grandfather is in the drawing-room with the ladies. +Something that will surpsise you," he continued, as they sat down. +"My grandfather has come round after all." + +"What, about Adam?" + +"Yes; I should have ridden over to tell you about it, only I was +so busy. You know I told you I had quite given up arguing the +matter with him--I thought it was hopeless--but yesterday morning +he asked me to come in here to him before I went out, and +astonished me by saying that he had decided on all the new +arrangements he should make in consequence of old Satchell being +obliged to lay by work, and that he intended to employ Adam in +superintending the woods at a salary of a guinea a-week, and the +use of a pony to be kept here. I believe the secret of it is, he +saw from the first it would be a profitable plan, but he had some +particular dislike of Adam to get over--and besides, the fact that +I propose a thing is generally a reason with him for rejecting it. +There's the most curious contradiction in my grandfather: I know +he means to leave me all the money he has saved, and he is likely +enough to have cut off poor Aunt Lydia, who has been a slave to +him all her life, with only five hundred a-year, for the sake of +giving me all the more; and yet I sometimes think he positively +hates me because I'm his heir. I believe if I were to break my +neck, he would feel it the greatest misfortune that could befall +him, and yet it seems a pleasure to him to make my life a series +of petty annoyances." + +"Ah, my boy, it is not only woman's love that is [two greek words +omitted] as old AEschylus calls it. There's plenty of 'unloving +love' in the world of a masculine kind. But tell me about Adam. +Has he accepted the post? I don't see that it can be much more +profitable than his present work, though, to be sure, it will +leave him a good deal of time on his own hands. + +"Well, I felt some doubt about it when I spoke to him and he +seemed to hesitate at first. His objection was that he thought he +should not be able to satisfy my grandfather. But I begged him as +a personal favour to me not to let any reason prevent him from +accepting the place, if he really liked the employment and would +not be giving up anything that was more profitable to him. And he +assured me he should like it of all things--it would be a great +step forward for him in business, and it would enable him to do +what he had long wished to do, to give up working for Burge. He +says he shall have plenty of time to superintend a little business +of his own, which he and Seth will carry on, and will perhaps be +able to enlarge by degrees. So he has agreed at last, and I have +arranged that he shall dine with the large tenants to-day; and I +mean to announce the appointment to them, and ask them to drink +Adam's health. It's a little drama I've got up in honour of my +friend Adam. He's a fine fellow, and I like the opportunity of +letting people know that I think so." + +"A drama in which friend Arthur piques himself on having a pretty +part to play," said Mr. Irwine, smiling. But when he saw Arthur +colour, he went on relentingly, "My part, you know, is always that +of the old fogy who sees nothing to admire in the young folks. I +don't like to admit that I'm proud of my pupil when he does +graceful things. But I must play the amiable old gentleman for +once, and second your toast in honour of Adam. Has your +grandfather yielded on the other point too, and agreed to have a +respectable man as steward?" + +"Oh no," said Arthur, rising from his chair with an air of +impatience and walking along the room with his hands in his +pockets. "He's got some project or other about letting the Chase +Farm and bargaining for a supply of milk and butter for the house. +But I ask no questions about it--it makes me too angry. I believe +he means to do all the business himself, and have nothing in the +shape of a steward. It's amazing what energy he has, though." + +"Well, we'll go to the ladies now," said Mr. Irwine, rising too. +"I want to tell my mother what a splendid throne you've prepared +for her under the marquee." + +"Yes, and we must be going to luncheon too," said Arthur. "It +must be two o'clock, for there is the gong beginning to sound for +the tenants' dinners." + + + +Chapter XXIII + +Dinner-Time + +WHEN Adam heard that he was to dine upstairs with the large +tenants, he felt rather uncomfortable at the idea of being exalted +in this way above his mother and Seth, who were to dine in the +cloisters below. But Mr. Mills, the butler, assured him that +Captain Donnithorne had given particular orders about it, and +would be very angry if Adam was not there. + +Adam nodded and went up to Seth, who was standing a few yards off. +"Seth, lad," he said, "the captain has sent to say I'm to dine +upstairs--he wishes it particular, Mr. Mills says, so I suppose it +'ud be behaving ill for me not to go. But I don't like sitting up +above thee and mother, as if I was better than my own flesh and +blood. Thee't not take it unkind, I hope?" + +"Nay, nay, lad," said Seth, "thy honour's our honour; and if thee +get'st respect, thee'st won it by thy own deserts. The further I +see thee above me, the better, so long as thee feel'st like a +brother to me. It's because o' thy being appointed over the +woods, and it's nothing but what's right. That's a place o' +trust, and thee't above a common workman now." + +"Aye," said Adam, "but nobody knows a word about it yet. I +haven't given notice to Mr. Burge about leaving him, and I don't +like to tell anybody else about it before he knows, for he'll be a +good bit hurt, I doubt. People 'ull be wondering to see me there, +and they'll like enough be guessing the reason and asking +questions, for there's been so much talk up and down about my +having the place, this last three weeks." + +"Well, thee canst say thee wast ordered to come without being told +the reason. That's the truth. And mother 'ull be fine and joyful +about it. Let's go and tell her." + +Adam was not the only guest invited to come upstairs on other +grounds than the amount he contributed to the rent-roll. There +were other people in the two parishes who derived dignity from +their functions rather than from their pocket, and of these Bartle +Massey was one. His lame walk was rather slower than usual on +this warm day, so Adam lingered behind when the bell rang for +dinner, that he might walk up with his old friend; for he was a +little too shy to join the Poyser party on this public occasion. +Opportunities of getting to Hetty's side would be sure to turn up +in the course of the day, and Adam contented himself with that for +he disliked any risk of being "joked" about Hetty--the big, +outspoken, fearless man was very shy and diffident as to his love- +making. + +"Well, Mester Massey," said Adam, as Bartle came up "I'm going to +dine upstairs with you to-day: the captain's sent me orders." + +"Ah!" said Bartle, pausing, with one hand on his back. "Then +there's something in the wind--there's something in the wind. +Have you heard anything about what the old squire means to do?" + +"Why, yes," said Adam; "I'll tell you what I know, because I +believe you can keep a still tongue in your head if you like, and +I hope you'll not let drop a word till it's common talk, for I've +particular reasons against its being known." + +"Trust to me, my boy, trust to me. I've got no wife to worm it +out of me and then run out and cackle it in everybody's hearing. +If you trust a man, let him be a bachelor--let him be a bachelor." + +"Well, then, it was so far settled yesterday that I'm to take the +management o' the woods. The captain sent for me t' offer it me, +when I was seeing to the poles and things here and I've agreed +to't. But if anybody asks any questions upstairs, just you take +no notice, and turn the talk to something else, and I'll be +obliged to you. Now, let us go on, for we're pretty nigh the +last, I think." + +"I know what to do, never fear," said Bartle, moving on. "The +news will be good sauce to my dinner. Aye, aye, my boy, you'll +get on. I'll back you for an eye at measuring and a head-piece +for figures, against any man in this county and you've had good +teaching--you've had good teaching." + +When they got upstairs, the question which Arthur had left +unsettled, as to who was to be president, and who vice, was still +under discussion, so that Adam's entrance passed without remark. + +"It stands to sense," Mr. Casson was saying, "as old Mr. Poyser, +as is th' oldest man i' the room, should sit at top o' the table. +I wasn't butler fifteen year without learning the rights and the +wrongs about dinner." + +"Nay, nay," said old Martin, "I'n gi'en up to my son; I'm no +tenant now: let my son take my place. Th' ould foulks ha' had +their turn: they mun make way for the young uns." + +"I should ha' thought the biggest tenant had the best right, more +nor th' oldest," said Luke Britton, who was not fond of the +critical Mr. Poyser; "there's Mester Holdsworth has more land nor +anybody else on th' estate." + +"Well," said Mr. Poyser, "suppose we say the man wi' the foulest +land shall sit at top; then whoever gets th' honour, there'll be +no envying on him." + +"Eh, here's Mester Massey," said Mr. Craig, who, being a neutral +in the dispute, had no interest but in conciliation; "the +schoolmaster ought to be able to tell you what's right. Who's to +sit at top o' the table, Mr. Massey?" + +"Why, the broadest man," said Bartle; "and then he won't take up +other folks' room; and the next broadest must sit at bottom." + +This happy mode of settling the dispute produced much laughter--a +smaller joke would have sufficed for that Mr. Casson, however, did +not feel it compatible with his dignity and superior knowledge to +join in the laugh, until it turned out that he was fixed on as the +second broadest man. Martin Poyser the younger, as the broadest, +was to be president, and Mr. Casson, as next broadest, was to be +vice. + +Owing to this arrangement, Adam, being, of course, at the bottom +of the table, fell under the immediate observation of Mr. Casson, +who, too much occupied with the question of precedence, had not +hitherto noticed his entrance. Mr. Casson, we have seen, +considered Adam "rather lifted up and peppery-like": he thought +the gentry made more fuss about this young carpenter than was +necessary; they made no fuss about Mr. Casson, although he had +been an excellent butler for fifteen years. + +"Well, Mr. Bede, you're one o' them as mounts hup'ards apace," he +said, when Adam sat down. "You've niver dined here before, as I +remember." + +"No, Mr. Casson," said Adam, in his strong voice, that could be +heard along the table; "I've never dined here before, but I come +by Captain Donnithorne's wish, and I hope it's not disagreeable to +anybody here." + +"Nay, nay," said several voices at once, "we're glad ye're come. +Who's got anything to say again' it?" + +"And ye'll sing us 'Over the hills and far away,' after dinner, +wonna ye?" said Mr. Chowne. "That's a song I'm uncommon fond on." + +"Peeh!" said Mr. Craig; "it's not to be named by side o' the +Scotch tunes. I've never cared about singing myself; I've had +something better to do. A man that's got the names and the natur +o' plants in's head isna likely to keep a hollow place t' hold +tunes in. But a second cousin o' mine, a drovier, was a rare hand +at remembering the Scotch tunes. He'd got nothing else to think +on." + +"The Scotch tunes!" said Bartle Massey, contemptuously; "I've +heard enough o' the Scotch tunes to last me while I live. They're +fit for nothing but to frighten the birds with--that's to say, the +English birds, for the Scotch birds may sing Scotch for what I +know. Give the lads a bagpipe instead of a rattle, and I'll +answer for it the corn 'll be safe." + +"Yes, there's folks as find a pleasure in undervallying what they +know but little about," said Mr. Craig. + +"Why, the Scotch tunes are just like a scolding, nagging woman," +Bartle went on, without deigning to notice Mr. Craig's remark. +"They go on with the same thing over and over again, and never +come to a reasonable end. Anybody 'ud think the Scotch tunes had +always been asking a question of somebody as deaf as old Taft, and +had never got an answer yet." + +Adam minded the less about sitting by Mr. Casson, because this +position enabled him to see Hetty, who was not far off him at the +next table. Hetty, however, had not even noticed his presence +yet, for she was giving angry attention to Totty, who insisted on +drawing up her feet on to the bench in antique fashion, and +thereby threatened to make dusty marks on Hetty's pink-and-white +frock. No sooner were the little fat legs pushed down than up +they came again, for Totty's eyes were too busy in staring at the +large dishes to see where the plum pudding was for her to retain +any consciousness of her legs. Hetty got quite out of patience, +and at last, with a frown and pout, and gathering tears, she said, +"Oh dear, Aunt, I wish you'd speak to Totty; she keeps putting her +legs up so, and messing my frock." + +"What's the matter wi' the child? She can niver please you," said +the mother. "Let her come by the side o' me, then. I can put up +wi' her." + +Adam was looking at Hetty, and saw the frown, and pout, and the +dark eyes seeming to grow larger with pettish half-gathered tears. +Quiet Mary Burge, who sat near enough to see that Hetty was cross +and that Adam's eyes were fixed on her, thought that so sensible a +man as Adam must be reflecting on the small value of beauty in a +woman whose temper was bad. Mary was a good girl, not given to +indulge in evil feelings, but she said to herself, that, since +Hetty had a bad temper, it was better Adam should know it. And it +was quite true that if Hetty had been plain, she would have looked +very ugly and unamiable at that moment, and no one's moral +judgment upon her would have been in the least beguiled. But +really there was something quite charming in her pettishness: it +looked so much more like innocent distress than ill humour; and +the severe Adam felt no movement of disapprobation; he only felt a +sort of amused pity, as if he had seen a kitten setting up its +back, or a little bird with its feathers ruffled. He could not +gather what was vexing her, but it was impossible to him to feel +otherwise than that she was the prettiest thing in the world, and +that if he could have his way, nothing should ever vex her any +more. And presently, when Totty was gone, she caught his eye, and +her face broke into one of its brightest smiles, as she nodded to +him. It was a bit of flirtation--she knew Mary Burge was looking +at them. But the smile was like wine to Adam. + + + +Chapter XXIV + +The Health-Drinking + + +WHEN the dinner was over, and the first draughts from the great +cask of birthday ale were brought up, room was made for the broad +Mr. Poyser at the side of the table, and two chairs were placed at +the head. It had been settled very definitely what Mr. Poyser was +to do when the young squire should appear, and for the last five +minutes he had been in a state of abstraction, with his eyes fixed +on the dark picture opposite, and his hands busy with the loose +cash and other articles in his breeches pockets. + +When the young squire entered, with Mr. Irwine by his side, every +one stood up, and this moment of homage was very agreeable to +Arthur. He liked to feel his own importance, and besides that, he +cared a great deal for the good-will of these people: he was fond +of thinking that they had a hearty, special regard for him. The +pleasure he felt was in his face as he said, "My grandfather and I +hope all our friends here have enjoyed their dinner, and find my +birthday ale good. Mr. Irwine and I are come to taste it with +you, and I am sure we shall all like anything the better that the +rector shares with us." + +All eyes were now turned on Mr. Poyser, who, with his hands still +busy in his pockets, began with the deliberateness of a slow- +striking clock. "Captain, my neighbours have put it upo' me to +speak for 'em to-day, for where folks think pretty much alike, one +spokesman's as good as a score. And though we've mayhappen got +contrairy ways o' thinking about a many things--one man lays down +his land one way an' another another--an' I'll not take it upon me +to speak to no man's farming, but my own--this I'll say, as we're +all o' one mind about our young squire. We've pretty nigh all on +us known you when you war a little un, an' we've niver known +anything on you but what was good an' honorable. You speak fair +an' y' act fair, an' we're joyful when we look forrard to your +being our landlord, for we b'lieve you mean to do right by +everybody, an' 'ull make no man's bread bitter to him if you can +help it. That's what I mean, an' that's what we all mean; and +when a man's said what he means, he'd better stop, for th' ale +'ull be none the better for stannin'. An' I'll not say how we +like th' ale yet, for we couldna well taste it till we'd drunk +your health in it; but the dinner was good, an' if there's anybody +hasna enjoyed it, it must be the fault of his own inside. An' as +for the rector's company, it's well known as that's welcome t' all +the parish wherever he may be; an' I hope, an' we all hope, as +he'll live to see us old folks, an' our children grown to men an' +women an' Your Honour a family man. I've no more to say as +concerns the present time, an' so we'll drink our young squire's +health--three times three." + +Hereupon a glorious shouting, a rapping, a jingling, a clattering, +and a shouting, with plentiful da capo, pleasanter than a strain +of sublimest music in the ears that receive such a tribute for the +first time. Arthur had felt a twinge of conscience during Mr. +Poyser's speech, but it was too feeble to nullify the pleasure he +felt in being praised. Did he not deserve what was said of him on +the whole? If there was something in his conduct that Poyser +wouldn't have liked if he had known it, why, no man's conduct will +bear too close an inspection; and Poyser was not likely to know +it; and, after all, what had he done? Gone a little too far, +perhaps, in flirtation, but another man in his place would have +acted much worse; and no harm would come--no harm should come, for +the next time he was alone with Hetty, he would explain to her +that she must not think seriously of him or of what had passed. +It was necessary to Arthur, you perceive, to be satisfied with +himself. Uncomfortable thoughts must be got rid of by good +intentions for the future, which can be formed so rapidly that he +had time to be uncomfortable and to become easy again before Mr. +Poyser's slow speech was finished, and when it was time for him to +speak he was quite light-hearted. + +"I thank you all, my good friends and neighbours," Arthur said, +"for the good opinion of me, and the kind feelings towards me +which Mr. Poyser has been expressing on your behalf and on his +own, and it will always be my heartiest wish to deserve them. In +the course of things we may expect that, if I live, I shall one +day or other be your landlord; indeed, it is on the ground of that +expectation that my grandfather has wished me to celebrate this +day and to come among you now; and I look forward to this +position, not merely as one of power and pleasure for myself, but +as a means of benefiting my neighbours. It hardly becomes so +young a man as I am to talk much about farming to you, who are +most of you so much older, and are men of experience; still, I +have interested myself a good deal in such matters, and learned as +much about them as my opportunities have allowed; and when the +course of events shall place the estate in my hands, it will be my +first desire to afford my tenants all the encouragement a landlord +can give them, in improving their land and trying to bring about a +better practice of husbandry. It will be my wish to be looked on +by all my deserving tenants as their best friend, and nothing +would make me so happy as to be able to respect every man on the +estate, and to be respected by him in return. It is not my place +at present to enter into particulars; I only meet your good hopes +concerning me by telling you that my own hopes correspond to them-- +that what you expect from me I desire to fulfil; and I am quite +of Mr. Poyser's opinion, that when a man has said what he means, +he had better stop. But the pleasure I feel in having my own +health drunk by you would not be perfect if we did not drink the +health of my grandfather, who has filled the place of both parents +to me. I will say no more, until you have joined me in drinking +his health on a day when he has wished me to appear among you as +the future representative of his name and family." + +Perhaps there was no one present except Mr. Irwine who thoroughly +understood and approved Arthur's graceful mode of proposing his +grandfather's health. The farmers thought the young squire knew +well enough that they hated the old squire, and Mrs. Poyser said, +"he'd better not ha' stirred a kettle o' sour broth." The bucolic +mind does not readily apprehend the refinements of good taste. +But the toast could not be rejected and when it had been drunk, +Arthur said, "I thank you, both for my grandfather and myself; and +now there is one more thing I wish to tell you, that you may share +my pleasure about it, as I hope and believe you will. I think +there can be no man here who has not a respect, and some of you, I +am sure, have a very high regard, for my friend Adam Bede. It is +well known to every one in this neighbourhood that there is no man +whose word can be more depended on than his; that whatever he +undertakes to do, he does well, and is as careful for the +interests of those who employ him as for his own. I'm proud to +say that I was very fond of Adam when I was a little boy, and I +have never lost my old feeling for him--I think that shows that I +know a good fellow when I find him. It has long been my wish that +he should have the management of the woods on the estate, which +happen to be very valuable, not only because I think so highly of +his character, but because he has the knowledge and the skill +which fit him for the place. And I am happy to tell you that it +is my grandfather's wish too, and it is now settled that Adam +shall manage the woods--a change which I am sure will be very much +for the advantage of the estate; and I hope you will by and by +join me in drinking his health, and in wishing him all the +prosperity in life that he deserves. But there is a still older +friend of mine than Adam Bede present, and I need not tell you +that it is Mr. Irwine. I'm sure you will agree with me that we +must drink no other person's health until we have drunk his. I +know you have all reason to love him, but no one of his +parishioners has so much reason as I. Come, charge your glasses, +and let us drink to our excellent rector--three times three!" + +This toast was drunk with all the enthusiasm that was wanting to +the last, and it certainly was the most picturesque moment in the +scene when Mr. Irwine got up to speak, and all the faces in the +room were turned towards him. The superior refinement of his face +was much more striking than that of Arthur's when seen in +comparison with the people round them. Arthur's was a much +commoner British face, and the splendour of his new-fashioned +clothes was more akin to the young farmer's taste in costume than +Mr. Irwine's powder and the well-brushed but well-worn black, +which seemed to be his chosen suit for great occasions; for he had +the mysterious secret of never wearing a new-looking coat. + +"This is not the first time, by a great many," he said, "that I +have had to thank my parishioners for giving me tokens of their +goodwill, but neighbourly kindness is among those things that are +the more precious the older they get. Indeed, our pleasant +meeting to-day is a proof that when what is good comes of age and +is likely to live, there is reason for rejoicing, and the relation +between us as clergyman and parishioners came of age two years +ago, for it is three-and-twenty years since I first came among +you, and I see some tall fine-looking young men here, as well as +some blooming young women, that were far from looking as +pleasantly at me when I christened them as I am happy to see them +looking now. But I'm sure you will not wonder when I say that +among all those young men, the one in whom I have the strongest +interest is my friend Mr. Arthur Donnithorne, for whom you have +just expressed your regard. I had the pleasure of being his tutor +for several years, and have naturally had opportunities of knowing +him intimately which cannot have occurred to any one else who is +present; and I have some pride as well as pleasure in assuring you +that I share your high hopes concerning him, and your confidence +in his possession of those qualities which will make him an +excellent landlord when the time shall come for him to take that +important position among you. We feel alike on most matters on +which a man who is getting towards fifty can feel in common with a +young man of one-and-twenty, and he has just been expressing a +feeling which I share very heartily, and I would not willingly +omit the opportunity of saying so. That feeling is his value and +respect for Adam Bede. People in a high station are of course +more thought of and talked about and have their virtues more +praised, than those whose lives are passed in humble everyday +work; but every sensible man knows how necessary that humble +everyday work is, and how important it is to us that it should be +done well. And I agree with my friend Mr. Arthur Donnithorne in +feeling that when a man whose duty lies in that sort of work shows +a character which would make him an example in any station, his +merit should be acknowledged. He is one of those to whom honour +is due, and his friends should delight to honour him. I know Adam +Bede well--I know what he is as a workman, and what he has been as +a son and brother--and I am saying the simplest truth when I say +that I respect him as much as I respect any man living. But I am +not speaking to you about a stranger; some of you are his intimate +friends, and I believe there is not one here who does not know +enough of him to join heartily in drinking his health." + +As Mr. Irwine paused, Arthur jumped up and, filling his glass, +said, "A bumper to Adam Bede, and may he live to have sons as +faithful and clever as himself!" + +No hearer, not even Bartle Massey, was so delighted with this +toast as Mr. Poyser. "Tough work" as his first speech had been, +he would have started up to make another if he had not known the +extreme irregularity of such a course. As it was, he found an +outlet for his feeling in drinking his ale unusually fast, and +setting down his glass with a swing of his arm and a determined +rap. If Jonathan Burge and a few others felt less comfortable on +the occasion, they tried their best to look contented, and so the +toast was drunk with a goodwill apparently unanimous. + +Adam was rather paler than usual when he got up to thank his +friends. He was a good deal moved by this public tribute--very +naturally, for he was in the presence of all his little world, and +it was uniting to do him honour. But he felt no shyness about +speaking, not being troubled with small vanity or lack of words; +he looked neither awkward nor embarrassed, but stood in his usual +firm upright attitude, with his head thrown a little backward and +his hands perfectly still, in that rough dignity which is peculiar +to intelligent, honest, well-built workmen, who are never +wondering what is their business in the world. + +"I'm quite taken by surprise," he said. "I didn't expect anything +o' this sort, for it's a good deal more than my wages. But I've +the more reason to be grateful to you, Captain, and to you, Mr. +Irwine, and to all my friends here, who've drunk my health and +wished me well. It 'ud be nonsense for me to be saying, I don't +at all deserve th' opinion you have of me; that 'ud be poor thanks +to you, to say that you've known me all these years and yet +haven't sense enough to find out a great deal o' the truth about +me. You think, if I undertake to do a bit o' work, I'll do it +well, be my pay big or little--and that's true. I'd be ashamed to +stand before you here if it wasna true. But it seems to me that's +a man's plain duty, and nothing to be conceited about, and it's +pretty clear to me as I've never done more than my duty; for let +us do what we will, it's only making use o' the sperrit and the +powers that ha' been given to us. And so this kindness o' yours, +I'm sure, is no debt you owe me, but a free gift, and as such I +accept it and am thankful. And as to this new employment I've +taken in hand, I'll only say that I took it at Captain +Donnithorne's desire, and that I'll try to fulfil his +expectations. I'd wish for no better lot than to work under him, +and to know that while I was getting my own bread I was taking +care of his int'rests. For I believe he's one o those gentlemen +as wishes to do the right thing, and to leave the world a bit +better than he found it, which it's my belief every man may do, +whether he's gentle or simple, whether he sets a good bit o' work +going and finds the money, or whether he does the work with his +own hands. There's no occasion for me to say any more about what +I feel towards him: I hope to show it through the rest o' my life +in my actions." + +There were various opinions about Adam's speech: some of the +women whispered that he didn't show himself thankful enough, and +seemed to speak as proud as could be; but most of the men were of +opinion that nobody could speak more straightfor'ard, and that +Adam was as fine a chap as need to be. While such observations +were being buzzed about, mingled with wonderings as to what the +old squire meant to do for a bailiff, and whether he was going to +have a steward, the two gentlemen had risen, and were walking +round to the table where the wives and children sat. There was +none of the strong ale here, of course, but wine and dessert-- +sparkling gooseberry for the young ones, and some good sherry for +the mothers. Mrs. Poyser was at the head of this table, and Totty +was now seated in her lap, bending her small nose deep down into a +wine-glass in search of the nuts floating there. + +"How do you do, Mrs. Poyser?" said Arthur. "Weren't you pleased +to hear your husband make such a good speech to-day?" + +"Oh, sir, the men are mostly so tongue-tied--you're forced partly +to guess what they mean, as you do wi' the dumb creaturs." + +"What! you think you could have made it better for him?" said Mr. +Irwine, laughing. + +"Well, sir, when I want to say anything, I can mostly find words +to say it in, thank God. Not as I'm a-finding faut wi' my +husband, for if he's a man o' few words, what he says he'll stand +to." + +"I'm sure I never saw a prettier party than this," Arthur said, +looking round at the apple-cheeked children. "My aunt and the +Miss Irwines will come up and see you presently. They were afraid +of the noise of the toasts, but it would be a shame for them not +to see you at table." + +He walked on, speaking to the mothers and patting the children, +while Mr. Irwine satisfied himself with standing still and nodding +at a distance, that no one's attention might be disturbed from the +young squire, the hero of the day. Arthur did not venture to stop +near Hetty, but merely bowed to her as he passed along the +opposite side. The foolish child felt her heart swelling with +discontent; for what woman was ever satisfied with apparent +neglect, even when she knows it to be the mask of love? Hetty +thought this was going to be the most miserable day she had had +for a long while, a moment of chill daylight and reality came +across her dream: Arthur, who had seemed so near to her only a +few hours before, was separated from her, as the hero of a great +procession is separated from a small outsider in the crowd. + + + +Chapter XXV + +The Games + + +THE great dance was not to begin until eight o'clock, but for any +lads and lasses who liked to dance on the shady grass before then, +there was music always at hand--for was not the band of the +Benefit Club capable of playing excellent jigs, reels, and +hornpipes? And, besides this, there was a grand band hired from +Rosseter, who, with their wonderful wind-instruments and puffed- +out cheeks, were themselves a delightful show to the small boys +and girls. To say nothing of Joshua Rann's fiddle, which, by an +act of generous forethought, he had provided himself with, in case +any one should be of sufficiently pure taste to prefer dancing to +a solo on that instrument. + +Meantime, when the sun had moved off the great open space in front +of the house, the games began. There were, of course, well-soaped +poles to be climbed by the boys and youths, races to be run by the +old women, races to be run in sacks, heavy weights to be lifted by +the strong men, and a long list of challenges to such ambitious +attempts as that of walking as many yards possible on one leg-- +feats in which it was generally remarked that Wiry Ben, being "the +lissom'st, springest fellow i' the country," was sure to be pre- +eminent. To crown all, there was to be a donkey-race--that +sublimest of all races, conducted on the grand socialistic idea of +everybody encouraging everybody else's donkey, and the sorriest +donkey winning. + +And soon after four o ciock, splendid old Mrs. Irwine, in her +damask satin and jewels and black lace, was led out by Arthur, +followed by the whole family party, to her raised seat under the +striped marquee, where she was to give out the prizes to the +victors. Staid, formal Miss Lydia had requested to resign that +queenly office to the royal old lady, and Arthur was pleased with +this opportunity of gratifying his godmother's taste for +stateliness. Old Mr. Donnithorne, the delicately clean, finely +scented, withered old man, led out Miss Irwine, with his air of +punctilious, acid politeness; Mr. Gawaine brought Miss Lydia, +looking neutral and stiff in an elegant peach-blossom silk; and +Mr. Irwine came last with his pale sister Anne. No other friend +of the family, besides Mr. Gawaine, was invited to-day; there was +to be a grand dinner for the neighbouring gentry on the morrow, +but to-day all the forces were required for the entertainment of +the tenants. + +There was a sunk fence in front of the marquee, dividing the lawn +from the park, but a temporary bridge had been made for the +passage of the victors, and the groups of people standing, or +seated here and there on benches, stretched on each side of the +open space from the white marquees up to the sunk fence. + +"Upon my word it's a pretty sight," said the old lady, in her deep +voice, when she was seated, and looked round on the bright scene +with its dark-green background; "and it's the last fete-day I'm +likely to see, unless you make haste and get married, Arthur. But +take care you get a charming bride, else I would rather die +without seeing her." + +"You're so terribly fastidious, Godmother," said Arthur, "I'm +afraid I should never satisfy you with my choice." + +"Well, I won't forgive you if she's not handsome. I can't be put +off with amiability, which is always the excuse people are making +for the existence of plain people. And she must not be silly; +that will never do, because you'll want managing, and a silly +woman can't manage you. Who is that tall young man, Dauphin, with +the mild face? There, standing without his hat, and taking such +care of that tall old woman by the side of him--his mother, of +course. I like to see that." + +"What, don't you know him, Mother?" said Mr. Irwine. "That is +Seth Bede, Adam's brother--a Methodist, but a very good fellow. +Poor Seth has looked rather down-hearted of late; I thought it was +because of his father's dying in that sad way, but Joshua Rann +tells me he wanted to marry that sweet little Methodist preacher +who was here about a month ago, and I suppose she refused him." + +"Ah, I remember hearing about her. But there are no end of people +here that I don't know, for they're grown up and altered so since +I used to go about." + +"What excellent sight you have!" said old Mr. Donnithorne, who was +holding a double glass up to his eyes, "to see the expression of +that young man's face so far off. His face is nothing but a pale +blurred spot to me. But I fancy I have the advantage of you when +we come to look close. I can read small print without +spectacles." + +"Ah, my dear sir, you began with being very near-sighted, and +those near-sighted eyes always wear the best. I want very strong +spectacles to read with, but then I think my eyes get better and +better for things at a distance. I suppose if I could live +another fifty years, I should be blind to everything that wasn't +out of other people's sight, like a man who stands in a well and +sees nothing but the stars." + +"See," said Arthur, "the old women are ready to set out on their +race now. Which do you bet on, Gawaine?" + +"The long-legged one, unless they're going to have several heats, +and then the little wiry one may win." + +"There are the Poysers, Mother, not far off on the right hand," +said Miss Irwine. "Mrs. Poyser is looking at you. Do take notice +of her." + +"To be sure I will," said the old lady, giving a gracious bow to +Mrs. Poyser. "A woman who sends me such excellent cream-cheese is +not to be neglected. Bless me! What a fat child that is she is +holding on her knee! But who is that pretty girl with dark eyes?" + +"That is Hetty Sorrel," said Miss Lydia Donnithorne, "Martin +Poyser's niece--a very likely young person, and well-looking too. +My maid has taught her fine needlework, and she has mended some +lace of mine very respectably indeed--very respectably." + +"Why, she has lived with the Poysers six or seven years, Mother; +you must have seen her," said Miss Irwine. + +"No, I've never seen her, child--at least not as she is now," said +Mrs. Irwine, continuing to look at Hetty. "Well-looking, indeed! +She's a perfect beauty! I've never seen anything so pretty since +my young days. What a pity such beauty as that should be thrown +away among the farmers, when it's wanted so terribly among the +good families without fortune! I daresay, now, she'll marry a man +who would have thought her just as pretty if she had had round +eyes and red hair." + +Arthur dared not turn his eyes towards Hetty while Mrs. Irwine was +speaking of her. He feigned not to hear, and to be occupied with +something on the opposite side. But he saw her plainly enough +without looking; saw her in heightened beauty, because he heard +her beauty praised--for other men's opinion, you know, was like a +native climate to Arthur's feelings: it was the air on which they +thrived the best, and grew strong. Yes! She was enough to turn +any man's head: any man in his place would have done and felt the +same. And to give her up after all, as he was determined to do, +would be an act that he should always look back upon with pride. + +"No, Mother," and Mr. Irwine, replying to her last words; "I can't +agree with you there. The common people are not quite so stupid +as you imagine. The commonest man, who has his ounce of sense and +feeling, is conscious of the difference between a lovely, delicate +woman and a coarse one. Even a dog feels a difference in their +presence. The man may be no better able than the dog to explain +the influence the more refined beauty has on him, but he feels +it." + +"Bless me, Dauphin, what does an old bachelor like you know about +it?" + +"Oh, that is one of the matters in which old bachelors are wiser +than married men, because they have time for more general +contemplation. Your fine critic of woman must never shackle his +judgment by calling one woman his own. But, as an example of what +I was saying, that pretty Methodist preacher I mentioned just now +told me that she had preached to the roughest miners and had never +been treated with anything but the utmost respect and kindness by +them. The reason is--though she doesn't know it--that there's so +much tenderness, refinement, and purity about her. Such a woman +as that brings with her 'airs from heaven' that the coarsest +fellow is not insensible to." + +"Here's a delicate bit of womanhood, or girlhood, coming to +receive a prize, I suppose," said Mr. Gawaine. "She must be one +of the racers in the sacks, who had set off before we came." + +The "bit of womanhood" was our old acquaintance Bessy Cranage, +otherwise Chad's Bess, whose large red cheeks and blowsy person +had undergone an exaggeration of colour, which, if she had +happened to be a heavenly body, would have made her sublime. +Bessy, I am sorry to say, had taken to her ear-rings again since +Dinah's departure, and was otherwise decked out in such small +finery as she could muster. Any one who could have looked into +poor Bessy's heart would have seen a striking resemblance between +her little hopes and anxieties and Hetty's. The advantage, +perhaps, would have been on Bessy's side in the matter of feeling. +But then, you see, they were so very different outside! You would +have been inclined to box Bessy's ears, and you would have longed +to kiss Hetty. + +Bessy had been tempted to run the arduous race, partly from mere +hedonish gaiety, partly because of the prize. Some one had said +there were to be cloaks and other nice clothes for prizes, and she +approached the marquee, fanning herself with her handkerchief, but +with exultation sparkling in her round eyes. + +"Here is the prize for the first sack-race," said Miss Lydia, +taking a large parcel from the table where the prizes were laid +and giving it to Mrs. Irwine before Bessy came up, "an excellent +grogram gown and a piece of flannel." + +"You didn't think the winner was to be so young, I suppose, Aunt?" +said Arthur. "Couldn't you find something else for this girl, and +save that grim-looking gown for one of the older women?" + +"I have bought nothing but what is useful and substantial," said +Miss Lydia, adjusting her own lace; "I should not think of +encouraging a love of finery in young women of that class. I have +a scarlet cloak, but that is for the old woman who wins." + +This speech of Miss Lydia's produced rather a mocking expression +in Mrs. Irwine's face as she looked at Arthur, while Bessy came up +and dropped a series of curtsies. + +"This is Bessy Cranage, mother," said Mr. Irwine, kindly, "Chad +Cranage's daughter. You remember Chad Cranage, the blacksmith?" + +"Yes, to be sure," said Mrs. Irwine. "Well, Bessy, here is your +prize--excellent warm things for winter. I'm sure you have had +hard work to win them this warm day." + +Bessy's lip fell as she saw the ugly, heavy gown--which felt so +hot and disagreeable too, on this July day, and was such a great +ugly thing to carry. She dropped her curtsies again, without +looking up, and with a growing tremulousness about the corners of +her mouth, and then turned away. + +"Poor girl," said Arthur; "I think she's disappointed. I wish it +had been something more to her taste." + +"She's a bold-looking young person," observed Miss Lydia. "Not at +all one I should like to encourage." + +Arthur silently resolved that he would make Bessy a present of +money before the day was over, that she might buy something more +to her mind; but she, not aware of the consolation in store for +her, turned out of the open space, where she was visible from the +marquee, and throwing down the odious bundle under a tree, began +to cry--very much tittered at the while by the small boys. In +this situation she was descried by her discreet matronly cousin, +who lost no time in coming up, having just given the baby into her +husband's charge. + +"What's the matter wi' ye?" said Bess the matron, taking up the +bundle and examining it. "Ye'n sweltered yoursen, I reckon, +running that fool's race. An' here, they'n gi'en you lots o' good +grogram and flannel, as should ha' been gi'en by good rights to +them as had the sense to keep away from such foolery. Ye might +spare me a bit o' this grogram to make clothes for the lad--ye war +ne'er ill-natured, Bess; I ne'er said that on ye." + +"Ye may take it all, for what I care," said Bess the maiden, with +a pettish movement, beginning to wipe away her tears and recover +herself. + +"Well, I could do wi't, if so be ye want to get rid on't," said +the disinterested cousin, walking quickly away with the bundle, +lest Chad's Bess should change her mind. + +But that bonny-cheeked lass was blessed with an elasticity of +spirits that secured her from any rankling grief; and by the time +the grand climax of the donkey-race came on, her disappointment +was entirely lost in the delightful excitement of attempting to +stimulate the last donkey by hisses, while the boys applied the +argument of sticks. But the strength of the donkey mind lies in +adopting a course inversely as the arguments urged, which, well +considered, requires as great a mental force as the direct +sequence; and the present donkey proved the first-rate order of +his intelligence by coming to a dead standstill just when the +blows were thickest. Great was the shouting of the crowd, radiant +the grinning of Bill Downes the stone-sawyer and the fortunate +rider of this superior beast, which stood calm and stiff-legged in +the midst of its triumph. + +Arthur himself had provided the prizes for the men, and Bill was +made happy with a splendid pocket-knife, supplied with blades and +gimlets enough to make a man at home on a desert island. He had +hardly returned from the marquee with the prize in his hand, when +it began to be understood that Wiry Ben proposed to amuse the +company, before the gentry went to dinner, with an impromptu and +gratuitous performance--namely, a hornpipe, the main idea of which +was doubtless borrowed; but this was to be developed by the dancer +in so peculiar and complex a manner that no one could deny him the +praise of originality. Wiry Ben's pride in his dancing--an +accomplishment productive of great effect at the yearly Wake--had +needed only slightly elevating by an extra quantity of good ale to +convince him that the gentry would be very much struck with his +performance of his hornpipe; and he had been decidedly encouraged +in this idea by Joshua Rann, who observed that it was nothing but +right to do something to please the young squire, in return for +what he had done for them. You will be the less surprised at this +opinion in so grave a personage when you learn that Ben had +requested Mr. Rann to accompany him on the fiddle, and Joshua felt +quite sure that though there might not be much in the dancing, the +music would make up for it. Adam Bede, who was present in one of +the large marquees, where the plan was being discussed, told Ben +he had better not make a fool of himself--a remark which at once +fixed Ben's determination: he was not going to let anything alone +because Adam Bede turned up his nose at it. + +"What's this, what's this?" said old Mr. Donnithorne. "Is it +something you've arranged, Arthur? Here's the clerk coming with +his fiddle, and a smart fellow with a nosegay in his button-hole." + +"No," said Arthur; "I know nothing about it. By Jove, he's going +to dance! It's one of the carpenters--I forget his name at this +moment." + +"It's Ben Cranage--Wiry Ben, they call him," said Mr. Irwine; +"rather a loose fish, I think. Anne, my dear, I see that fiddle- +scraping is too much for you: you're getting tired. Let me take +you in now, that you may rest till dinner." + +Miss Anne rose assentingly, and the good brother took her away, +while Joshua's preliminary scrapings burst into the "White +Cockade," from which he intended to pass to a variety of tunes, by +a series of transitions which his good ear really taught him to +execute with some skill. It would have been an exasperating fact +to him, if he had known it, that the general attention was too +thoroughly absorbed by Ben's dancing for any one to give much heed +to the music. + +Have you ever seen a real English rustic perform a solo dance? +Perhaps you have only seen a ballet rustic, smiling like a merry +countryman in crockery, with graceful turns of the haunch and +insinuating movements of the head. That is as much like the real +thing as the "Bird Waltz" is like the song of birds. Wiry Ben +never smiled: he looked as serious as a dancing monkey--as serious +as if he had been an experimental philosopher ascertaining in his +own person the amount of shaking and the varieties of angularity +that could be given to the human limbs. + +To make amends for the abundant laughter in the striped marquee, +Arthur clapped his hands continually and cried "Bravo!" But Ben +had one admirer whose eyes followed his movements with a fervid +gravity that equalled his own. It was Martin Poyser, who was +seated on a bench, with Tommy between his legs. + +"What dost think o' that?" he said to his wife. "He goes as pat +to the music as if he was made o' clockwork. I used to be a +pretty good un at dancing myself when I was lighter, but I could +niver ha' hit it just to th' hair like that." + +"It's little matter what his limbs are, to my thinking," re-turned +Mrs. Poyser. "He's empty enough i' the upper story, or he'd niver +come jigging an' stamping i' that way, like a mad grasshopper, for +the gentry to look at him. They're fit to die wi' laughing, I can +see." + +"Well, well, so much the better, it amuses 'em," said Mr. Poyser, +who did not easily take an irritable view of things. "But they're +going away now, t' have their dinner, I reckon. Well move about a +bit, shall we, and see what Adam Bede's doing. He's got to look +after the drinking and things: I doubt he hasna had much fun." + + + +Chapter XXVI + +The Dance + + +ARTHUR had chosen the entrance-hall for the ballroom: very wisely, +for no other room could have heen so airy, or would have had the +advantage of the wide doors opening into the garden, as well as a +ready entrance into the other rooms. To be sure, a stone floor +was not the pleasantest to dance on, but then, most of the dancers +had known what it was to enjoy a Christmas dance on kitchen +quarries. It was one of those entrance-halls which make the +surrounding rooms look like closets--with stucco angels, trumpets, +and flower-wreaths on the lofty ceiling, and great medallions of +miscellaneous heroes on the walls, alternating with statues in +niches. Just the sort of place to be ornamented well with green +boughs, and Mr. Craig had been proud to show his taste and his +hothouse plants on the occasion. The broad steps of the stone +staircase were covered with cushions to serve as seats for the +children, who were to stay till half-past nine with the servant- +maids to see the dancing, and as this dance was confined to the +chief tenants, there was abundant room for every one. The lights +were charmingly disposed in coloured-paper lamps, high up among +green boughs, and the farmers' wives and daughters, as they peeped +in, believed no scene could be more splendid; they knew now quite +well in what sort of rooms the king and queen lived, and their +thoughts glanced with some pity towards cousins and acquaintances +who had not this fine opportunity of knowing how things went on in +the great world. The lamps were already lit, though the sun had +not long set, and there was that calm light out of doors in which +we seem to see all objects more distinctly than in the broad day. + +It was a pretty scene outside the house: the farmers and their +families were moving about the lawn, among the flowers and shrubs, +or along the broad straight road leading from the east front, +where a carpet of mossy grass spread on each side, studded here +and there with a dark flat-boughed cedar, or a grand pyramidal fir +sweeping the ground with its branches, all tipped with a fringe of +paler green. The groups of cottagers in the park were gradually +diminishing, the young ones being attracted towards the lights +that were beginning to gleam from the windows of the gallery in +the abbey, which was to be their dancing-room, and some of the +sober elder ones thinking it time to go home quietly. One of +these was Lisbeth Bede, and Seth went with her--not from filial +attention only, for his conscience would not let him join in +dancing. It had been rather a melancholy day to Seth: Dinah had +never been more constantly present with him than in this scene, +where everything was so unlike her. He saw her all the more +vividly after looking at the thoughtless faces and gay-coloured +dresses of the young women--just as one feels the beauty and the +greatness of a pictured Madonna the more when it has been for a +moment screened from us by a vulgar head in a bonnet. But this +presence of Dinah in his mind only helped him to bear the better +with his mother's mood, which had been becoming more and more +querulous for the last hour. Poor Lisbeth was suffering from a +strange conflict of feelings. Her joy and pride in the honour +paid to her darling son Adam was beginning to be worsted in the +conflict with the jealousy and fretfulness which had revived when +Adam came to tell her that Captain Donnithorne desired him to join +the dancers in the hall. Adam was getting more and more out of +her reach; she wished all the old troubles back again, for then it +mattered more to Adam what his mother said and did. + +"Eh, it's fine talkin' o' dancin'," she said, "an' thy father not +a five week in's grave. An' I wish I war there too, i'stid o' +bein' left to take up merrier folks's room above ground." + +"Nay, don't look at it i' that way, Mother," said Adam, who was +determined to be gentle to her to-day. "I don't mean to dance--I +shall only look on. And since the captain wishes me to be there, +it 'ud look as if I thought I knew better than him to say as I'd +rather not stay. And thee know'st how he's behaved to me to-day." + +"Eh, thee't do as thee lik'st, for thy old mother's got no right +t' hinder thee. She's nought but th' old husk, and thee'st +slipped away from her, like the ripe nut." + +"Well, Mother," said Adam, "I'll go and tell the captain as it +hurts thy feelings for me to stay, and I'd rather go home upo' +that account: he won't take it ill then, I daresay, and I'm +willing." He said this with some effort, for he really longed to +be near Hetty this evening. + +"Nay, nay, I wonna ha' thee do that--the young squire 'ull be +angered. Go an' do what thee't ordered to do, an' me and Seth +'ull go whome. I know it's a grit honour for thee to be so looked +on--an' who's to be prouder on it nor thy mother? Hadna she the +cumber o' rearin' thee an' doin' for thee all these 'ears?" + +"Well, good-bye, then, Mother--good-bye, lad--remember Gyp when +you get home," said Adam, turning away towards the gate of the +pleasure-grounds, where he hoped he might be able to join the +Poysers, for he had been so occupied throughout the afternoon that +he had had no time to speak to Hetty. His eye soon detected a +distant group, which he knew to be the right one, returning to the +house along the broad gravel road, and he hastened on to meet +them. + +"Why, Adam, I'm glad to get sight on y' again," said Mr. Poyser, +who was carrying Totty on his arm. "You're going t' have a bit o' +fun, I hope, now your work's all done. And here's Hetty has +promised no end o' partners, an' I've just been askin' her if +she'd agreed to dance wi' you, an' she says no." + +"Well, I didn't think o' dancing to-night," said Adam, already +tempted to change his mind, as he looked at Hetty. + +"Nonsense!" said Mr. Poyser. "Why, everybody's goin' to dance to- +night, all but th' old squire and Mrs. Irwine. Mrs. Best's been +tellin' us as Miss Lyddy and Miss Irwine 'ull dance, an' the young +squire 'ull pick my wife for his first partner, t' open the ball: +so she'll be forced to dance, though she's laid by ever sin' the +Christmas afore the little un was born. You canna for shame stand +still, Adam, an' you a fine young fellow and can dance as well as +anybody." + +"Nay, nay," said Mrs. Poyser, "it 'ud be unbecomin'. I know the +dancin's nonsense, but if you stick at everything because it's +nonsense, you wonna go far i' this life. When your broth's ready- +made for you, you mun swallow the thickenin', or else let the +broth alone." + +"Then if Hetty 'ull d'ance with me," said Adam, yielding either to +Mrs. Poyser's argument or to something else, "I'll dance whichever +dance she's free." + +"I've got no partner for the fourth dance," said Hetty; "I'll +dance that with you, if you like." + +"Ah," said Mr. Poyser, "but you mun dance the first dance, Adam, +else it'll look partic'ler. There's plenty o' nice partners to +pick an' choose from, an' it's hard for the gells when the men +stan' by and don't ask 'em." + +Adam felt the justice of Mr. Poyser's observation: it would not do +for him to dance with no one besides Hetty; and remembering that +Jonathan Burge had some reason to feel hurt to-day, he resolved to +ask Miss Mary to dance with him the first dance, if she had no +other partner. + +"There's the big clock strikin' eight," said Mr. Poyser; "we must +make haste in now, else the squire and the ladies 'ull be in afore +us, an' that wouldna look well." + +When they had entered the hall, and the three children under +Molly's charge had been seated on the stairs, the folding-doors of +the drawing-room were thrown open, and Arthur entered in his +regimentals, leading Mrs. Irwine to a carpet-covered dais +ornamented with hot-house plants, where she and Miss Anne were to +be seated with old Mr. Donnithorne, that they might look on at the +dancing, like the kings and queens in the plays. Arthur had put +on his uniform to please the tenants, he said, who thought as much +of his militia dignity as if it had been an elevation to the +premiership. He had not the least objection to gratify them in +that way: his uniform was very advantageous to his figure. + +The old squire, before sitting down, walked round the hall to +greet the tenants and make polite speeches to the wives: he was +always polite; but the farmers had found out, after long puzzling, +that this polish was one of the signs of hardness. It was +observed that he gave his most elaborate civility to Mrs. Poyser +to-night, inquiring particularly about her health, recommending +her to strengthen herself with cold water as he did, and avoid all +drugs. Mrs. Poyser curtsied and thanked him with great self- +command, but when he had passed on, she whispered to her husband, +"I'll lay my life he's brewin' some nasty turn against us. Old +Harry doesna wag his tail so for nothin'." Mr. Poyser had no time +to answer, for now Arthur came up and said, "Mrs. Poyser, I'm come +to request the favour of your hand for the first dance; and, Mr. +Poyser, you must let me take you to my aunt, for she claims you as +her partner." + +The wife's pale cheek flushed with a nervous sense of unwonted +honour as Arthur led her to the top of the room; but Mr. Poyser, +to whom an extra glass had restored his youthful confidence in his +good looks and good dancing, walked along with them quite proudly, +secretly flattering himself that Miss Lydia had never had a +partner in HER life who could lift her off the ground as he would. +In order to balance the honours given to the two parishes, Miss +Irwine danced with Luke Britton, the largest Broxton farmer, and +Mr. Gawaine led out Mrs. Britton. Mr. Irwine, after seating his +sister Anne, had gone to the abbey gallery, as he had agreed with +Arthur beforehand, to see how the merriment of the cottagers was +prospering. Meanwhile, all the less distinguished couples had +taken their places: Hetty was led out by the inevitable Mr. Craig, +and Mary Burge by Adam; and now the music struck up, and the +glorious country-dance, best of all dances, began. + +Pity it was not a boarded floor! Then the rhythmic stamping of +the thick shoes would have been better than any drums. That merry +stamping, that gracious nodding of the head, that waving bestowal +of the hand--where can we see them now? That simple dancing of +well-covered matrons, laying aside for an hour the cares of house +and dairy, remembering but not affecting youth, not jealous but +proud of the young maidens by their side--that holiday +sprightliness of portly husbands paying little compliments to +their wives, as if their courting days were come again--those lads +and lasses a little confused and awkward with their partners, +having nothing to say--it would be a pleasant variety to see all +that sometimes, instead of low dresses and large skirts, and +scanning glances exploring costumes, and languid men in lacquered +boots smiling with double meaning. + +There was but one thing to mar Martin Poyser's pleasure in this +dance: it was that he was always in close contact with Luke +Britton, that slovenly farmer. He thought of throwing a little +glazed coldness into his eye in the crossing of hands; but then, +as Miss Irwine was opposite to him instead of the offensive Luke, +he might freeze the wrong person. So he gave his face up to +hilarity, unchilled by moral judgments. + +How Hetty's heart beat as Arthur approached her! He had hardly +looked at her to-day: now he must take her hand. Would he press +it? Would he look at her? She thought she would cry if he gave +her no sign of feeling. Now he was there--he had taken her hand-- +yes, he was pressing it. Hetty turned pale as she looked up at +him for an instant and met his eyes, before the dance carried him +away. That pale look came upon Arthur like the beginning of a +dull pain, which clung to him, though he must dance and smile and +joke all the same. Hetty would look so, when he told her what he +had to tell her; and he should never be able to bear it--he should +be a fool and give way again. Hetty's look did not really mean so +much as he thought: it was only the sign of a struggle between the +desire for him to notice her and the dread lest she should betray +the desire to others. But Hetty's face had a language that +transcended her feelings. There are faces which nature charges +with a meaning and pathos not belonging to the single human soul +that flutters beneath them, but speaking the joys and sorrows of +foregone generations--eyes that tell of deep love which doubtless +has been and is somewhere, but not paired with these eyes--perhaps +paired with pale eyes that can say nothing; just as a national +language may be instinct with poetry unfelt by the lips that use +it. That look of Hetty's oppressed Arthur with a dread which yet +had something of a terrible unconfessed delight in it, that she +loved him too well. There was a hard task before him, for at that +moment he felt he would have given up three years of his youth for +the happiness of abandoning himself without remorse to his passion +for Hetty. + +These were the incongruous thoughts in his mind as he led Mrs. +Poyser, who was panting with fatigue, and secretly resolving that +neither judge nor jury should force her to dance another dance, to +take a quiet rest in the dining-room, where supper was laid out +for the guests to come and take it as they chose. + +"I've desired Hetty to remember as she's got to dance wi' you, +sir," said the good innocent woman; "for she's so thoughtless, +she'd be like enough to go an' engage herself for ivery dance. So +I told her not to promise too many." + +"Thank you, Mrs. Poyser," said Arthur, not without a twinge. +"Now, sit down in this comfortable chair, and here is Mills ready +to give you what you would like best." + +He hurried away to seek another matronly partner, for due honour +must be paid to the married women before he asked any of the young +ones; and the country-dances, and the stamping, and the gracious +nodding, and the waving of the hands, went on joyously. + +At last the time had come for the fourth dance--longed for by the +strong, grave Adam, as if he had been a delicate-handed youth of +eighteen; for we are all very much alike when we are in our first +love; and Adam had hardly ever touched Hetty's hand for more than +a transient greeting--had never danced with her but once before. +His eyes had followed her eagerly to-night in spite of himself, +and had taken in deeper draughts of love. He thought she behaved +so prettily, so quietly; she did not seem to be flirting at all +she smiled less than usual; there was almost a sweet sadness about +her. "God bless her!" he said inwardly; "I'd make her life a +happy 'un, if a strong arm to work for her, and a heart to love +her, could do it." + +And then there stole over him delicious thoughts of coming home +from work, and drawing Hetty to his side, and feeling her cheek +softly pressed against his, till he forgot where he was, and the +music and the tread of feet might have been the falling of rain +and the roaring of the wind, for what he knew. + +But now the third dance was ended, and he might go up to her and +claim her hand. She was at the far end of the hall near the +staircase, whispering with Molly, who had just given the sleeping +Totty into her arms before running to fetch shawls and bonnets +from the landing. Mrs. Poyser had taken the two boys away into +the dining-room to give them some cake before they went home in +the cart with Grandfather and Molly was to follow as fast as +possible. + +"Let me hold her," said Adam, as Molly turned upstairs; "the +children are so heavy when they're asleep." + +Hetty was glad of the relief, for to hold Totty in her arms, +standing, was not at all a pleasant variety to her. But this +second transfer had the unfortunate effect of rousing Totty, who +was not behind any child of her age in peevishness at an +unseasonable awaking. While Hetty was in the act of placing her +in Adam's arms, and had not yet withdrawn her own, Totty opened +her eyes, and forthwith fought out with her left fist at Adam's +arm, and with her right caught at the string of brown beads round +Hetty's neck. The locket leaped out from her frock, and the next +moment the string was broken, and Hetty, helpless, saw beads and +locket scattered wide on the floor. + +"My locket, my locket!" she said, in a loud frightened whisper to +Adam; "never mind the beads." + +Adam had already seen where the locket fell, for it had attracted +his glance as it leaped out of her frock. It had fallen on the +raised wooden dais where the band sat, not on the stone floor; and +as Adam picked it up, he saw the glass with the dark and light +locks of hair under it. It had fallen that side upwards, so the +glass was not broken. He turned it over on his hand, and saw the +enamelled gold back. + +"It isn't hurt," he said, as he held it towards Hetty, who was +unable to take it because both her hands were occupied with Totty. + +"Oh, it doesn't matter, I don't mind about it," said Hetty, who +had been pale and was now red. + +"Not matter?" said Adam, gravely. "You seemed very frightened +about it. I'll hold it till you're ready to take it," he added, +quietly closing his hand over it, that she might not think he +wanted to look at it again. + +By this time Molly had come with bonnet and shawl, and as soon as +she had taken Totty, Adam placed the locket in Hetty's hand. She +took it with an air of indifference and put it in her pocket, in +her heart vexed and angry with Adam because he had seen it, but +determined now that she would show no more signs of agitation. + +"See," she said, "they're taking their places to dance; let us +go." + +Adam assented silently. A puzzled alarm had taken possession of +him. Had Hetty a lover he didn't know of? For none of her +relations, he was sure, would give her a locket like that; and +none of her admirers, with whom he was acquainted, was in the +position of an accepted lover, as the giver of that locket must +be. Adam was lost in the utter impossibility of finding any +person for his fears to alight on. He could only feel with a +terrible pang that there was something in Hetty's life unknown to +him; that while he had been rocking himself in the hope that she +would come to love him, she was already loving another. The +pleasure of the dance with Hetty was gone; his eyes, when they +rested on her, had an uneasy questioning expression in them; he +could think of nothing to say to her; and she too was out of +temper and disinclined to speak. They were both glad when the +dance was ended. + +Adam was determined to stay no longer; no one wanted him, and no +one would notice if he slipped away. As soon as he got out of +doors, he began to walk at his habitual rapid pace, hurrying along +without knowing why, busy with the painful thought that the memory +of this day, so full of honour and promise to him, was poisoned +for ever. Suddenly, when he was far on through the Chase, he +stopped, startled by a flash of reviving hope. After all, he +might be a fool, making a great misery out of a trifle. Hetty, +fond of finery as she was, might have bought the thing herself. +It looked too expensive for that--it looked like the things on +white satin in the great jeweller's shop at Rosseter. But Adam +had very imperfect notions of the value of such things, and he +thought it could certainly not cost more than a guinea. Perhaps +Hetty had had as much as that in Christmas boxes, and there was no +knowing but she might have been childish enough to spend it in +that way; she was such a young thing, and she couldn't help loving +finery! But then, why had she been so frightened about it at +first, and changed colour so, and afterwards pretended not to +care? Oh, that was because she was ashamed of his seeing that she +had such a smart thing--she was conscious that it was wrong for +her to spend her money on it, and she knew that Adam disapproved +of finery. It was a proof she cared about what he liked and +disliked. She must have thought from his silence and gravity +afterwards that he was very much displeased with her, that he was +inclined to be harsh and severe towards her foibles. And as he +walked on more quietly, chewing the cud of this new hope, his only +uneasiness was that he had behaved in a way which might chill +Hetty's feeling towards him. For this last view of the matter +must be the true one. How could Hetty have an accepted lover, +quite unknown to him? She was never away from her uncle's house +for more than a day; she could have no acquaintances that did not +come there, and no intimacies unknown to her uncle and aunt. It +would be folly to believe that the locket was given to her by a +lover. The little ring of dark hair he felt sure was her own; he +could form no guess about the light hair under it, for he had not +seen it very distinctly. It might be a bit of her father's or +mother's, who had died when she was a child, and she would +naturally put a bit of her own along with it. + +And so Adam went to bed comforted, having woven for himself an +ingenious web of probabilities--the surest screen a wise man can +place between himself and the truth. His last waking thoughts +melted into a dream that he was with Hetty again at the Hall Farm, +and that he was asking her to forgive him for being so cold and +silent. + +And while he was dreaming this, Arthur was leading Hetty to the +dance and saying to her in low hurried tones, "I shall be in the +wood the day after to-morrow at seven; come as early as you can." +And Hetty's foolish joys and hopes, which had flown away for a +little space, scared by a mere nothing, now all came fluttering +back, unconscious of the real peril. She was happy for the first +time this long day, and wished that dance would last for hours. +Arthur wished it too; it was the last weakness he meant to indulge +in; and a man never lies with more delicious languor under the +influence of a passion than when he has persuaded himself that he +shall subdue it to-morrow. + +But Mrs. Poyser's wishes were quite the reverse of this, for her +mind was filled with dreary forebodings as to the retardation of +to-morrow morning's cheese in consequence of these late hours. +Now that Hetty had done her duty and danced one dance with the +young squire, Mr. Poyser must go out and see if the cart was come +back to fetch them, for it was half-past ten o'clock, and +notwithstanding a mild suggestion on his part that it would be bad +manners for them to be the first to go, Mrs. Poyser was resolute +on the point, "manners or no manners." + +"What! Going already, Mrs. Poyser?" said old Mr. Donnithorne, as +she came to curtsy and take leave; "I thought we should not part +with any of our guests till eleven. Mrs. Irwine and I, who are +elderly people, think of sitting out the dance till then." + +"Oh, Your Honour, it's all right and proper for gentlefolks to +stay up by candlelight--they've got no cheese on their minds. +We're late enough as it is, an' there's no lettin' the cows know +as they mustn't want to be milked so early to-morrow mornin'. So, +if you'll please t' excuse us, we'll take our leave." + +"Eh!" she said to her husband, as they set off in the cart, "I'd +sooner ha' brewin' day and washin' day together than one o' these +pleasurin' days. There's no work so tirin' as danglin' about an' +starin' an' not rightly knowin' what you're goin' to do next; and +keepin' your face i' smilin' order like a grocer o' market-day for +fear people shouldna think you civil enough. An' you've nothing +to show for't when it's done, if it isn't a yallow face wi' eatin' +things as disagree." + +"Nay, nay," said Mr. Poyser, who was in his merriest mood, and +felt that he had had a great day, "a bit o' pleasuring's good for +thee sometimes. An' thee danc'st as well as any of 'em, for I'll +back thee against all the wives i' the parish for a light foot an' +ankle. An' it was a great honour for the young squire to ask thee +first--I reckon it was because I sat at th' head o' the table an' +made the speech. An' Hetty too--she never had such a partner +before--a fine young gentleman in reg'mentals. It'll serve you to +talk on, Hetty, when you're an old woman--how you danced wi' th' +young squire the day he come o' age." + + + +Book Four + + + +Chapter XXVII + +A crisis + + +IT was beyond the middle of August--nearly three weeks after the +birthday feast. The reaping of the wheat had begun in our north +midland county of Loamshire, but the harvest was likely still to +be retarded by the heavy rains, which were causing inundations and +much damage throughout the country. From this last trouble the +Broxton and Hayslope farmers, on their pleasant uplands and in +their brook-watered valleys, had not suffered, and as I cannot +pretend that they were such exceptional farmers as to love the +general good better than their own, you will infer that they were +not in very low spirits about the rapid rise in the price of +bread, so long as there was hope of gathering in their own corn +undamaged; and occasional days of sunshine and drying winds +flattered this hope. + +The eighteenth of August was one of these days when the sunshine +looked brighter in all eyes for the gloom that went before. Grand +masses of cloud were hurried across the blue, and the great round +hills behind the Chase seemed alive with their flying shadows; the +sun was hidden for a moment, and then shone out warm again like a +recovered joy; the leaves, still green, were tossed off the +hedgerow trees by the wind; around the farmhouses there was a +sound of clapping doors; the apples fell in the orchards; and the +stray horses on the green sides of the lanes and on the common had +their manes blown about their faces. And yet the wind seemed only +part of the general gladness because the sun was shining. A merry +day for the children, who ran and shouted to see if they could top +the wind with their voices; and the grown-up people too were in +good spirits, inclined to believe in yet finer days, when the wind +had fallen. If only the corn were not ripe enough to be blown out +of the husk and scattered as untimely seed! + +And yet a day on which a blighting sorrow may fall upon a man. +For if it be true that Nature at certain moments seems charged +with a presentiment of one individual lot must it not also be true +that she seems unmindful uncon-scious of another? For there is no +hour that has not its births of gladness and despair, no morning +brightness that does not bring new sickness to desolation as well +as new forces to genius and love. There are so many of us, and +our lots are so different, what wonder that Nature's mood is often +in harsh contrast with the great crisis of our lives? We are +children of a large family, and must learn, as such children do, +not to expect that our hurts will be made much of--to be content +with little nurture and caressing, and help each other the more. + +It was a busy day with Adam, who of late had done almost double +work, for he was continuing to act as foreman for Jonathan Burge, +until some satisfactory person could be found to supply his place, +and Jonathan was slow to find that person. But he had done the +extra work cheerfully, for his hopes were buoyant again about +Hetty. Every time she had seen him since the birthday, she had +seemed to make an effort to behave all the more kindly to him, +that she might make him understand she had forgiven his silence +and coldness during the dance. He had never mentioned the locket +to her again; too happy that she smiled at him--still happier +because he observed in her a more subdued air, something that he +interpreted as the growth of womanly tenderness and seriousness. +"Ah!" he thought, again and again, "she's only seventeen; she'll +be thoughtful enough after a while. And her aunt allays says how +clever she is at the work. She'll make a wife as Mother'll have +no occasion to grumble at, after all." To be sure, he had only +seen her at home twice since the birthday; for one Sunday, when he +was intending to go from church to the Hall Farm, Hetty had joined +the party of upper servants from the Chase and had gone home with +them--almost as if she were inclined to encourage Mr. Craig. +"She's takin' too much likin' to them folks i' the house keeper's +room," Mrs. Poyser remarked. "For my part, I was never overfond +o' gentlefolks's servants--they're mostly like the fine ladies' +fat dogs, nayther good for barking nor butcher's meat, but on'y +for show." And another evening she was gone to Treddleston to buy +some things; though, to his great surprise, as he was returning +home, he saw her at a distance getting over a stile quite out of +the Treddleston road. But, when he hastened to her, she was very +kind, and asked him to go in again when he had taken her to the +yard gate. She had gone a little farther into the fields after +coming from Treddleston because she didn't want to go in, she +said: it was so nice to be out of doors, and her aunt always made +such a fuss about it if she wanted to go out. "Oh, do come in +with me!" she said, as he was going to shake hands with her at the +gate, and he could not resist that. So he went in, and Mrs. +Poyser was contented with only a slight remark on Hetty's being +later than was expected; while Hetty, who had looked out of +spirits when he met her, smiled and talked and waited on them all +with unusual promptitude. + +That was the last time he had seen her; but he meant to make +leisure for going to the Farm to-morrow. To-day, he knew, was her +day for going to the Chase to sew with the lady's maid, so he +would get as much work done as possible this evening, that the +next might be clear. + +One piece of work that Adam was superintending was some slight +repairs at the Chase Farm, which had been hitherto occupied by +Satchell, as bailiff, but which it was now rumoured that the old +squire was going to let to a smart man in top-boots, who had been +seen to ride over it one day. Nothing but the desire to get a +tenant could account for the squire's undertaking repairs, though +the Saturday-evening party at Mr. Casson's agreed over their pipes +that no man in his senses would take the Chase Farm unless there +was a bit more ploughland laid to it. However that might be, the +repairs were ordered to be executed with all dispatch, and Adam, +acting for Mr. Burge, was carrying out the order with his usual +energy. But to-day, having been occupied elsewhere, he had not +been able to arrive at the Chase Farm till late in the afternoon, +and he then discovered that some old roofing, which he had +calculated on preserving, had given way. There was clearly no +good to be done with this part of the building without pulling it +all down, and Adam immediately saw in his mind a plan for building +it up again, so as to make the most convenient of cow-sheds and +calf-pens, with a hovel for implements; and all without any great +expense for materials. So, when the workmen were gone, he sat +down, took out his pocket-book, and busied himself with sketching +a plan, and making a specification of the expenses that he might +show it to Burge the next morning, and set him on persuading the +squire to consent. To "make a good job" of anything, however +small, was always a pleasure to Adam, and he sat on a block, with +his book resting on a planing-table, whistling low every now and +then and turning his head on one side with a just perceptible +smile of gratification--of pride, too, for if Adam loved a bit of +good work, he loved also to think, "I did it!" And I believe the +only people who are free from that weakness are those who have no +work to call their own. It was nearly seven before he had +finished and put on his jacket again; and on giving a last look +round, he observed that Seth, who had been working here to-day, +had left his basket of tools behind him. "Why, th' lad's forgot +his tools," thought Adam, "and he's got to work up at the shop to- +morrow. There never was such a chap for wool-gathering; he'd +leave his head behind him, if it was loose. However, it's lucky +I've seen 'em; I'll carry 'em home." + +The buildings of the Chase Farm lay at one extremity of the Chase, +at about ten minutes' walking distance from the Abbey. Adam had +come thither on his pony, intending to ride to the stables and put +up his nag on his way home. At the stables he encountered Mr. +Craig, who had come to look at the captain's new horse, on which +he was to ride away the day after to-morrow; and Mr. Craig +detained him to tell how all the servants were to collect at the +gate of the courtyard to wish the young squire luck as he rode +out; so that by the time Adam had got into the Chase, and was +striding along with the basket of tools over his shoulder, the sun +was on the point of setting, and was sending level crimson rays +among the great trunks of the old oaks, and touching every bare +patch of ground with a transient glory that made it look like a +jewel dropt upon the grass. The wind had fallen now, and there +was only enough breeze to stir the delicate-stemmed leaves. Any +one who had been sitting in the house all day would have been glad +to walk now; but Adam had been quite enough in the open air to +wish to shorten his way home, and he bethought himself that he +might do so by striking across the Chase and going through the +Grove, where he had never been for years. He hurried on across +the Chase, stalking along the narrow paths between the fern, with +Gyp at his heels, not lingering to watch the magnificent changes +of the light--hardly once thinking of it--yet feeling its presence +in a certain calm happy awe which mingled itself with his busy +working-day thoughts. How could he help feeling it? The very +deer felt it, and were more timid. + +Presently Adam's thoughts recurred to what Mr. Craig had said +about Arthur Donnithorne, and pictured his going away, and the +changes that might take place before he came back; then they +travelled back affectionately over the old scenes of boyish +companionship, and dwelt on Arthur's good qualities, which Adam +had a pride in, as we all have in the virtues of the superior who +honours us. A nature like Adam's, with a great need of love and +reverence in it, depends for so much of its happiness on what it +can believe and feel about others! And he had no ideal world of +dead heroes; he knew little of the life of men in the past; he +must find the beings to whom he could cling with loving admiration +among those who came within speech of him. These pleasant +thoughts about Arthur brought a milder expression than usual into +his keen rough face: perhaps they were the reason why, when he +opened the old green gate leading into the Grove, he paused to pat +Gyp and say a kind word to him. + +After that pause, he strode on again along the broad winding path +through the Grove. What grand beeches! Adam delighted in a fine +tree of all things; as the fisherman's sight is keenest on the +sea, so Adam's perceptions were more at home with trees than with +other objects. He kept them in his memory, as a painter does, +with all the flecks and knots in their bark, all the curves and +angles of their boughs, and had often calculated the height and +contents of a trunk to a nicety, as he stood looking at it. No +wonder that, not-withstanding his desire to get on, he could not +help pausing to look at a curious large beech which he had seen +standing before him at a turning in the road, and convince himself +that it was not two trees wedded together, but only one. For the +rest of his life he remembered that moment when he was calmly +examining the beech, as a man remembers his last glimpse of the +home where his youth was passed, before the road turned, and he +saw it no more. The beech stood at the last turning before the +Grove ended in an archway of boughs that let in the eastern light; +and as Adam stepped away from the tree to continue his walk, his +eyes fell on two figures about twenty yards before him. + +He remained as motionless as a statue, and turned almost as pale. +The two figures were standing opposite to each other, with clasped +hands about to part; and while they were bending to kiss, Gyp, who +had been running among the brushwood, came out, caught sight of +them, and gave a sharp bark. They separated with a start--one +hurried through the gate out of the Grove, and the other, turning +round, walked slowly, with a sort of saunter, towards Adam who +still stood transfixed and pale, clutching tighter the stick with +which he held the basket of tools over his shoulder, and looking +at the approaching figure with eyes in which amazement was fast +turning to fierceness. + +Arthur Donnithorne looked flushed and excited; he had tried to +make unpleasant feelings more bearable by drinking a little more +wine than usual at dinner to-day, and was still enough under its +flattering influence to think more lightly of this unwished-for +rencontre with Adam than he would otherwise have done. After all, +Adam was the best person who could have happened to see him and +Hetty together--he was a sensible fellow, and would not babble +about it to other people. Arthur felt confident that he could +laugh the thing off and explain it away. And so he sauntered +forward with elaborate carelessness--his flushed face, his evening +dress of fine cloth and fine linen, his hands half-thrust into his +waistcoat pockets, all shone upon by the strange evening light +which the light clouds had caught up even to the zenith, and were +now shedding down between the topmost branches above him. + +Adam was still motionless, looking at him as he came up. He +understood it all now--the locket and everything else that had +been doubtful to him: a terrible scorching light showed him the +hidden letters that changed the meaning of the past. If he had +moved a muscle, he must inevitably have sprung upon Arthur like a +tiger; and in the conflicting emotions that filled those long +moments, he had told himself that he would not give loose to +passion, he would only speak the right thing. He stood as if +petrified by an unseen force, but the force was his own strong +will. + +"Well, Adam," said Arthur, "you've been looking at the fine old +beeches, eh? They're not to be come near by the hatchet, though; +this is a sacred grove. I overtook pretty little Hetty Sorrel as +I was coming to my den--the Hermitage, there. She ought not to +come home this way so late. So I took care of her to the gate, +and asked for a kiss for my pains. But I must get back now, for +this road is confoundedly damp. Good-night, Adam. I shall see +you to-morrow--to say good-bye, you know." + +Arthur was too much preoccupied with the part he was playing +himself to be thoroughly aware of the expression in Adam's face. +He did not look directly at Adam, but glanced carelessly round at +the trees and then lifted up one foot to look at the sole of his +boot. He cared to say no more--he had thrown quite dust enough +into honest Adam's eyes--and as he spoke the last words, he walked +on. + +"Stop a bit, sir," said Adam, in a hard peremptory voice, without +turning round. "I've got a word to say to you." + +Arthur paused in surprise. Susceptible persons are more affected +by a change of tone than by unexpected words, and Arthur had the +susceptibility of a nature at once affectionate and vain. He was +still more surprised when he saw that Adam had not moved, but +stood with his back to him, as if summoning him to return. What +did he mean? He was going to make a serious business of this +affair. Arthur felt his temper rising. A patronising disposition +always has its meaner side, and in the confusion of his irritation +and alarm there entered the feeling that a man to whom he had +shown so much favour as to Adam was not in a position to criticize +his conduct. And yet he was dominated, as one who feels himself +in the wrong always is, by the man whose good opinion he cares +for. In spite of pride and temper, there was as much deprecation +as anger in his voice when he said, "What do you mean, Adam?" + +"I mean, sir"--answered Adam, in the same harsh voice, still +without turning round--"I mean, sir, that you don't deceive me by +your light words. This is not the first time you've met Hetty +Sorrel in this grove, and this is not the first time you've kissed +her." + +Arthur felt a startled uncertainty how far Adam was speaking from +knowledge, and how far from mere inference. And this uncertainty, +which prevented him from contriving a prudent answer, heightened +his irritation. He said, in a high sharp tone, "Well, sir, what +then?" + +"Why, then, instead of acting like th' upright, honourable man +we've all believed you to be, you've been acting the part of a +selfish light-minded scoundrel. You know as well as I do what +it's to lead to when a gentleman like you kisses and makes love to +a young woman like Hetty, and gives her presents as she's +frightened for other folks to see. And I say it again, you're +acting the part of a selfish light-minded scoundrel though it cuts +me to th' heart to say so, and I'd rather ha' lost my right hand." + +"Let me tell you, Adam," said Arthur, bridling his growing anger +and trying to recur to his careless tone, "you're not only +devilishly impertinent, but you're talking nonsense. Every pretty +girl is not such a fool as you, to suppose that when a gentleman +admires her beauty and pays her a little attention, he must mean +something particular. Every man likes to flirt with a pretty +girl, and every pretty girl likes to be flirted with. The wider +the distance between them, the less harm there is, for then she's +not likely to deceive herself." + +"I don't know what you mean by flirting," said Adam, "but if you +mean behaving to a woman as if you loved her, and yet not loving +her all the while, I say that's not th' action of an honest man, +and what isn't honest does come t' harm. I'm not a fool, and +you're not a fool, and you know better than what you're saying. +You know it couldn't be made public as you've behaved to Hetty as +y' have done without her losing her character and bringing shame +and trouble on her and her relations. What if you meant nothing +by your kissing and your presents? Other folks won't believe as +you've meant nothing; and don't tell me about her not deceiving +herself. I tell you as you've filled her mind so with the thought +of you as it'll mayhap poison her life, and she'll never love +another man as 'ud make her a good husband." + +Arthur had felt a sudden relief while Adam was speaking; he +perceived that Adam had no positive knowledge of the past, and +that there was no irrevocable damage done by this evening's +unfortunate rencontre. Adam could still be deceived. The candid +Arthur had brought himself into a position in which successful +lying was his only hope. The hope allayed his anger a little. + +"Well, Adam," he said, in a tone of friendly concession, "you're +perhaps right. Perhaps I've gone a little too far in taking +notice of the pretty little thing and stealing a kiss now and +then. You're such a grave, steady fellow, you don't understand +the temptation to such trifling. I'm sure I wouldn't bring any +trouble or annoyance on her and the good Poysers on any account if +I could help it. But I think you look a little too seriously at +it. You know I'm going away immediately, so I shan't make any +more mistakes of the kind. But let us say good-night"--Arthur +here turned round to walk on--"and talk no more about the matter. +The whole thing will soon be forgotten." + +"No, by God!" Adam burst out with rage that could be controlled no +longer, throwing down the basket of tools and striding forward +till he was right in front of Arthur. All his jealousy and sense +of personal injury, which he had been hitherto trying to keep +under, had leaped up and mastered him. What man of us, in the +first moments of a sharp agony, could ever feel that the fellow- +man who has been the medium of inflicting it did not mean to hurt +us? In our instinctive rebellion against pain, we are children +again, and demand an active will to wreak our vengeance on. Adam +at this moment could only feel that he had been robbed of Hetty-- +robbed treacherously by the man in whom he had trusted--and he +stood close in front of Arthur, with fierce eyes glaring at him, +with pale lips and clenched hands, the hard tones in which he had +hitherto been constraining himself to express no more than a just +indignation giving way to a deep agitated voice that seemed to +shake him as he spoke. + +"No, it'll not be soon forgot, as you've come in between her and +me, when she might ha' loved me--it'll not soon be forgot as +you've robbed me o' my happiness, while I thought you was my best +friend, and a noble-minded man, as I was proud to work for. And +you've been kissing her, and meaning nothing, have you? And I +never kissed her i' my life--but I'd ha' worked hard for years for +the right to kiss her. And you make light of it. You think +little o' doing what may damage other folks, so as you get your +bit o' trifling, as means nothing. I throw back your favours, for +you're not the man I took you for. I'll never count you my friend +any more. I'd rather you'd act as my enemy, and fight me where I +stand--it's all th' amends you can make me." + +Poor Adam, possessed by rage that could find no other vent, began +to throw off his coat and his cap, too blind with passion to +notice the change that had taken place in Arthur while he was +speaking. Arthur's lips were now as pale as Adam's; his heart was +beating violently. The discovery that Adam loved Hetty was a +shock which made him for the moment see himself in the light of +Adam's indignation, and regard Adam's suffering as not merely a +consequence, but an element of his error. The words of hatred and +contempt--the first he had ever heard in his life--seemed like +scorching missiles that were making ineffaceable scars on him. +All screening self-excuse, which rarely falls quite away while +others respect us, forsook him for an instant, and he stood face +to face with the first great irrevocable evil he had ever +committed. He was only twenty-one, and three months ago--nay, +much later--he had thought proudly that no man should ever be able +to reproach him justly. His first impulse, if there had been time +for it, would perhaps have been to utter words of propitiation; +but Adam had no sooner thrown off his coat and cap than he became +aware that Arthur was standing pale and motionless, with his hands +still thrust in his waistcoat pockets. + +"What!" he said, "won't you fight me like a man? You know I won't +strike you while you stand so." + +"Go away, Adam," said Arthur, "I don't want to fight you." + +"No," said Adam, bitterly; "you don't want to fight me--you think +I'm a common man, as you can injure without answering for it." + +"I never meant to injure you," said Arthur, with returning anger. +"I didn't know you loved her." + +"But you've made her love you," said Adam. "You're a double-faced +man--I'll never believe a word you say again." + +"Go away, I tell you," said Arthur, angrily, "or we shall both +repent." + +"No," said Adam, with a convulsed voice, "I swear I won't go away +without fighting you. Do you want provoking any more? I tell you +you're a coward and a scoundrel, and I despise you." + +The colour had all rushed back to Arthur's face; in a moment his +right hand was clenched, and dealt a blow like lightning, which +sent Adam staggering backward. His blood was as thoroughly up as +Adam's now, and the two men, forgetting the emotions that had gone +before, fought with the instinctive fierceness of panthers in the +deepening twilight darkened by the trees. The delicate-handed +gentleman was a match for the workman in everything but strength, +and Arthur's skill enabled him to protract the struggle for some +long moments. But between unarmed men the battle is to the +strong, where the strong is no blunderer, and Arthur must sink +under a well-planted blow of Adam's as a steel rod is broken by an +iron bar. The blow soon came, and Arthur fell, his head lying +concealed in a tuft of fern, so that Adam could only discern his +darkly clad body. + +He stood still in the dim light waiting for Arthur to rise. + +The blow had been given now, towards which he had been straining +all the force of nerve and muscle--and what was the good of it? +What had he done by fighting? Only satisfied his own passion, +only wreaked his own vengeance. He had not rescued Hetty, nor +changed the past--there it was, just as it had been, and he +sickened at the vanity of his own rage. + +But why did not Arthur rise? He was perfectly motionless, and the +time seemed long to Adam. Good God! had the blow been too much +for him? Adam shuddered at the thought of his own strength, as +with the oncoming of this dread he knelt down by Arthur's side and +lifted his head from among the fern. There was no sign of life: +the eyes and teeth were set. The horror that rushed over Adam +completely mastered him, and forced upon him its own belief. He +could feel nothing but that death was in Arthur's face, and that +he was helpless before it. He made not a single movement, but +knelt like an image of despair gazing at an image of death. + + + +Chapter XXVIII + +A Dilemma + + +IT was only a few minutes measured by the clock--though Adam +always thought it had been a long while--before he perceived a +gleam of consciousness in Arthur's face and a slight shiver +through his frame. The intense joy that flooded his soul brought +back some of the old affection with it. + +"Do you feel any pain, sir?" he said, tenderly, loosening Arthur's +cravat. + +Arthur turned his eyes on Adam with a vague stare which gave way +to a slightly startled motion as if from the shock of returning +memory. But he only shivered again and said nothing. + +"Do you feel any hurt, sir?" Adam said again, with a trembling in +his voice. + +Arthur put his hand up to his waistcoat buttons, and when Adam had +unbuttoned it, he took a longer breath. "Lay my head down," he +said, faintly, "and get me some water if you can." + +Adam laid the head down gently on the fern again, and emptying the +tools out of the flag-basket, hurried through the trees to the +edge of the Grove bordering on the Chase, where a brook ran below +the bank. + +When he returned with his basket leaking, but still half-full, +Arthur looked at him with a more thoroughly reawakened +consciousness. + +"Can you drink a drop out o' your hand, sir?" said Adam, kneeling +down again to lift up Arthur's head. + +"No," said Arthur, "dip my cravat in and souse it on my head." + +The water seemed to do him some good, for he presently raised +himself a little higher, resting on Adam's arm. + +"Do you feel any hurt inside sir?" Adam asked again + +"No--no hurt," said Arthur, still faintly, "but rather done up." + +After a while he said, "I suppose I fainted away when you knocked +me down." + +"Yes, sir, thank God," said Adam. "I thought it was worse." + +"What! You thought you'd done for me, eh? Come help me on my +legs." + +"I feel terribly shaky and dizzy," Arthur said, as he stood +leaning on Adam's arm; "that blow of yours must have come against +me like a battering-ram. I don't believe I can walk alone." + +"Lean on me, sir; I'll get you along," said Adam. "Or, will you +sit down a bit longer, on my coat here, and I'll prop y' up. +You'll perhaps be better in a minute or two." + +"No," said Arthur. "I'll go to the Hermitage--I think I've got +some brandy there. There's a short road to it a little farther +on, near the gate. If you'll just help me on." + +They walked slowly, with frequent pauses, but without speaking +again. In both of them, the concentration in the present which +had attended the first moments of Arthur's revival had now given +way to a vivid recollection of the previous scene. It was nearly +dark in the narrow path among the trees, but within the circle of +fir-trees round the Hermitage there was room for the growing +moonlight to enter in at the windows. Their steps were noiseless +on the thick carpet of fir-needles, and the outward stillness +seemed to heighten their inward consciousness, as Arthur took the +key out of his pocket and placed it in Adam's hand, for him to +open the door. Adam had not known before that Arthur had +furnished the old Hermitage and made it a retreat for himself, and +it was a surprise to him when he opened the door to see a snug +room with all the signs of frequent habitation. + +Arthur loosed Adam's arm and threw himself on the ottoman. +"You'll see my hunting-bottle somewhere," he said. "A leather +case with a bottle and glass in." + +Adam was not long in finding the case. "There's very little +brandy in it, sir," he said, turning it downwards over the glass, +as he held it before the window; "hardly this little glassful." + +"Well, give me that," said Arthur, with the peevishness of +physical depression. When he had taken some sips, Adam said, +"Hadn't I better run to th' house, sir, and get some more brandy? +I can be there and back pretty soon. It'll be a stiff walk home +for you, if you don't have something to revive you." + +"Yes--go. But don't say I'm ill. Ask for my man Pym, and tell +him to get it from Mills, and not to say I'm at the Hermitage. +Get some water too." + +Adam was relieved to have an active task--both of them were +relieved to be apart from each other for a short time. But Adam's +swift pace could not still the eager pain of thinking--of living +again with concentrated suffering through the last wretched hour, +and looking out from it over all the new sad future. + +Arthur lay still for some minutes after Adam was gone, but +presently he rose feebly from the ottoman and peered about slowly +in the broken moonlight, seeking something. It was a short bit of +wax candle that stood amongst a confusion of writing and drawing +materials. There was more searching for the means of lighting the +candle, and when that was done, he went cautiously round the room, +as if wishing to assure himself of the presence or absence of +something. At last he had found a slight thing, which he put +first in his pocket, and then, on a second thought, took out again +and thrust deep down into a waste-paper basket. It was a woman's +little, pink, silk neckerchief. He set the candle on the table, +and threw himself down on the ottoman again, exhausted with the +effort. + +When Adam came back with his supplies, his entrance awoke Arthur +from a doze. + +"That's right," Arthur said; "I'm tremendously in want of some +brandy-vigour." + +"I'm glad to see you've got a light, sir," said Adam. "I've been +thinking I'd better have asked for a lanthorn." + +"No, no; the candle will last long enough--I shall soon be up to +walking home now." + +"I can't go before I've seen you safe home, sir," said Adam, +hesitatingly. + +"No: it will be better for you to stay--sit down." + +Adam sat down, and they remained opposite to each other in uneasy +silence, while Arthur slowly drank brandy-and-water, with visibly +renovating effect. He began to lie in a more voluntary position, +and looked as if he were less overpowered by bodily sensations. +Adam was keenly alive to these indications, and as his anxiety +about Arthur's condition began to be allayed, he felt more of that +impatience which every one knows who has had his just indignation +suspended by the physical state of the culprit. Yet there was one +thing on his mind to be done before he could recur to +remonstrance: it was to confess what had been unjust in his own +words. Perhaps he longed all the more to make this confession, +that his indignation might be free again; and as he saw the signs +of returning ease in Arthur, the words again and again came to his +lips and went back, checked by the thought that it would be better +to leave everything till to-morrow. As long as they were silent +they did not look at each other, and a foreboding came across Adam +that if they began to speak as though they remembered the past--if +they looked at each other with full recognition--they must take +fire again. So they sat in silence till the bit of wax candle +flickered low in the socket, the silence all the while becoming +more irksome to Adam. Arthur had just poured out some more +brandy-and-water, and he threw one arm behind his head and drew up +one leg in an attitude of recovered ease, which was an +irresistible temptation to Adam to speak what was on his mind. + +"You begin to feel more yourself again, sir," he said, as the +candle went out and they were half-hidden from each other in the +faint moonlight. + +"Yes: I don't feel good for much--very lazy, and not inclined to +move; but I'll go home when I've taken this dose." + +There was a slight pause before Adam said, "My temper got the +better of me, and I said things as wasn't true. I'd no right to +speak as if you'd known you was doing me an injury: you'd no +grounds for knowing it; I've always kept what I felt for her as +secret as I could." + +He paused again before he went on. + +"And perhaps I judged you too harsh--I'm apt to be harsh--and you +may have acted out o' thoughtlessness more than I should ha' +believed was possible for a man with a heart and a conscience. +We're not all put together alike, and we may misjudge one another. +God knows, it's all the joy I could have now, to think the best of +you." + +Arthur wanted to go home without saying any more--he was too +painfully embarrassed in mind, as well as too weak in body, to +wish for any further explanation to-night. And yet it was a +relief to him that Adam reopened the subject in a way the least +difficult for him to answer. Arthur was in the wretched position +of an open, generous man who has committed an error which makes +deception seem a necessity. The native impulse to give truth in +return for truth, to meet trust with frank confession, must be +suppressed, and duty was becoming a question of tactics. His deed +was reacting upon him--was already governing him tyrannously and +forcing him into a course that jarred with his habitual feelings. +The only aim that seemed admissible to him now was to deceive Adam +to the utmost: to make Adam think better of him than he deserved. +And when he heard the words of honest retractation--when he heard +the sad appeal with which Adam ended--he was obliged to rejoice in +the remains of ignorant confidence it implied. He did not answer +immediately, for he had to be judicious and not truthful. + +"Say no more about our anger, Adam," he said, at last, very +languidly, for the labour of speech was unwelcome to him; "I +forgive your momentary injustice--it was quite natural, with the +exaggerated notions you had in your mind. We shall be none the +worse friends in future, I hope, because we've fought. You had +the best of it, and that was as it should be, for I believe I've +been most in the wrong of the two. Come, let us shake hands." + +Arthur held out his hand, but Adam sat still. + +"I don't like to say 'No' to that, sir," he said, "but I can't +shake hands till it's clear what we mean by't. I was wrong when I +spoke as if you'd done me an injury knowingly, but I wasn't wrong +in what I said before, about your behaviour t' Hetty, and I can't +shake hands with you as if I held you my friend the same as ever +till you've cleared that up better." + +Arthur swallowed his pride and resentment as he drew back his +hand. He was silent for some moments, and then said, as +indifferently as he could, "I don't know what you mean by clearing +up, Adam. I've told you already that you think too seriously of a +little flirtation. But if you are right in supposing there is any +danger in it--I'm going away on Saturday, and there will be an end +of it. As for the pain it has given you, I'm heartily sorry for +it. I can say no more." + +Adam said nothing, but rose from his chair and stood with his face +towards one of the windows, as if looking at the blackness of the +moonlit fir-trees; but he was in reality conscious of nothing but +the conflict within him. It was of no use now--his resolution not +to speak till to-morrow. He must speak there and then. But it +was several minutes before he turned round and stepped nearer to +Arthur, standing and looking down on him as he lay. + +"It'll be better for me to speak plain," he said, with evident +effort, "though it's hard work. You see, sir, this isn't a trifle +to me, whatever it may be to you. I'm none o' them men as can go +making love first to one woman and then t' another, and don't +think it much odds which of 'em I take. What I feel for Hetty's a +different sort o' love, such as I believe nobody can know much +about but them as feel it and God as has given it to 'em. She's +more nor everything else to me, all but my conscience and my good +name. And if it's true what you've been saying all along--and if +it's only been trifling and flirting as you call it, as 'll be put +an end to by your going away--why, then, I'd wait, and hope her +heart 'ud turn to me after all. I'm loath to think you'd speak +false to me, and I'll believe your word, however things may look." + +"You would be wronging Hetty more than me not to believe it," said +Arthur, almost violently, starting up from the ottoman and moving +away. But he threw himself into a chair again directly, saying, +more feebly, "You seem to forget that, in suspecting me, you are +casting imputations upon her." + +"Nay, sir," Adam said, in a calmer voice, as if he were half- +relieved--for he was too straightforward to make a distinction +between a direct falsehood and an indirect one--"Nay, sir, things +don't lie level between Hetty and you. You're acting with your +eyes open, whatever you may do; but how do you know what's been in +her mind? She's all but a child--as any man with a conscience in +him ought to feel bound to take care on. And whatever you may +think, I know you've disturbed her mind. I know she's been fixing +her heart on you, for there's a many things clear to me now as I +didn't understand before. But you seem to make light o' what she +may feel--you don't think o' that." + +"Good God, Adam, let me alone!" Arthur burst out impetuously; "I +feel it enough without your worrying me." + +He was aware of his indiscretion as soon as the words had escaped +him. + +"Well, then, if you feel it," Adam rejoined, eagerly; "if you feel +as you may ha' put false notions into her mind, and made her +believe as you loved her, when all the while you meant nothing, +I've this demand to make of you--I'm not speaking for myself, but +for her. I ask you t' undeceive her before you go away. Y'aren't +going away for ever, and if you leave her behind with a notion in +her head o' your feeling about her the same as she feels about +you, she'll be hankering after you, and the mischief may get +worse. It may be a smart to her now, but it'll save her pain i' +th' end. I ask you to write a letter--you may trust to my seeing +as she gets it. Tell her the truth, and take blame to yourself +for behaving as you'd no right to do to a young woman as isn't +your equal. I speak plain, sir, but I can't speak any other way. +There's nobody can take care o' Hetty in this thing but me." + +"I can do what I think needful in the matter," said Arthur, more +and more irritated by mingled distress and perplexity, "without +giving promises to you. I shall take what measures I think +proper." + +"No," said Adam, in an abrupt decided tone, "that won't do. I +must know what ground I'm treading on. I must be safe as you've +put an end to what ought never to ha' been begun. I don't forget +what's owing to you as a gentleman, but in this thing we're man +and man, and I can't give up." + +There was no answer for some moments. Then Arthur said, "I'll see +you to-morrow. I can bear no more now; I'm ill." He rose as he +spoke, and reached his cap, as if intending to go. + +"You won't see her again!" Adam exclaimed, with a flash of +recurring anger and suspicion, moving towards the door and placing +his back against it. "Either tell me she can never be my wife-- +tell me you've been lying--or else promise me what I've said." + +Adam, uttering this alternative, stood like a terrible fate before +Arthur, who had moved forward a step or two, and now stopped, +faint, shaken, sick in mind and body. It seemed long to both of +them--that inward struggle of Arthur's--before he said, feebly, "I +promise; let me go." + +Adam moved away from the door and opened it, but when Arthur +reached the step, he stopped again and leaned against the door- +post. + +"You're not well enough to walk alone, sir," said Adam. "Take my +arm again." + +Arthur made no answer, and presently walked on, Adam following. +But, after a few steps, he stood still again, and said, coldly, "I +believe I must trouble you. It's getting late now, and there may +be an alarm set up about me at home." + +Adam gave his arm, and they walked on without uttering a word, +till they came where the basket and the tools lay. + +"I must pick up the tools, sir," Adam said. "They're my +brother's. I doubt they'll be rusted. If you'll please to wait a +minute." + +Arthur stood still without speaking, and no other word passed +between them till they were at the side entrance, where he hoped +to get in without being seen by any one. He said then, "Thank +you; I needn't trouble you any further." + +"What time will it be conven'ent for me to see you to-morrow, +sir?" said Adam. + +"You may send me word that you're here at five o'clock," said +Arthur; "not before." + +"Good-night, sir," said Adam. But he heard no reply; Arthur had +turned into the house. + + + +Chapter XXIX + +The Next Morning + + +ARTHUR did not pass a sleepless night; he slept long and well. +For sleep comes to the perplexed--if the perplexed are only weary +enough. But at seven he rang his bell and astonished Pym by +declaring he was going to get up, and must have breakfast brought +to him at eight. + +"And see that my mare is saddled at half-past eight, and tell my +grandfather when he's down that I'm better this morning and am +gone for a ride." + +He had been awake an hour, and could rest in bed no longer. In +bed our yesterdays are too oppressive: if a man can only get up, +though it be but to whistle or to smoke, he has a present which +offers some resistance to the past--sensations which assert +themselves against tyrannous memories. And if there were such a +thing as taking averages of feeling, it would certainly be found +that in the hunting and shooting seasons regret, self-reproach, +and mortified pride weigh lighter on country gentlemen than in +late spring and summer. Arthur felt that he should be more of a +man on horseback. Even the presence of Pym, waiting on him with +the usual deference, was a reassurance to him after the scenes of +yesterday. For, with Arthur's sensitiveness to opinion, the loss +of Adam's respect was a shock to his self-contentment which +suffused his imagination with the sense that he had sunk in all +eyes--as a sudden shock of fear from some real peril makes a +nervous woman afraid even to step, because all her perceptions are +suffused with a sense of danger. + +Arthur's, as you know, was a loving nature. Deeds of kindness +were as easy to him as a bad habit: they were the common issue of +his weaknesses and good qualities, of his egoism and his sympathy. +He didn't like to witness pain, and he liked to have grateful eyes +beaming on him as the giver of pleasure. When he was a lad of +seven, he one day kicked down an old gardener's pitcher of broth, +from no motive but a kicking impulse, not reflecting that it was +the old man's dinner; but on learning that sad fact, he took his +favourite pencil-case and a silver-hafted knife out of his pocket +and offered them as compensation. He had been the same Arthur +ever since, trying to make all offences forgotten in benefits. If +there were any bitterness in his nature, it could only show itself +against the man who refused to be conciliated by him. And perhaps +the time was come for some of that bitterness to rise. At the +first moment, Arthur had felt pure distress and self-reproach at +discovering that Adam's happiness was involved in his relation to +Hetty. If there had been a possibility of making Adam tenfold +amends--if deeds of gift, or any other deeds, could have restored +Adam's contentment and regard for him as a benefactor, Arthur +would not only have executed them without hesitation, but would +have felt bound all the more closely to Adam, and would never have +been weary of making retribution. But Adam could receive no +amends; his suffering could not be cancelled; his respect and +affection could not be recovered by any prompt deeds of atonement. +He stood like an immovable obstacle against which no pressure +could avail; an embodiment of what Arthur most shrank from +believing in--the irrevocableness of his own wrongdoing. The +words of scorn, the refusal to shake hands, the mastery asserted +over him in their last conversation in the Hermitage--above all, +the sense of having been knocked down, to which a man does not +very well reconcile himself, even under the most heroic +circumstances--pressed on him with a galling pain which was +stronger than compunction. Arthur would so gladly have persuaded +himself that he had done no harm! And if no one had told him the +contrary, he could have persuaded himself so much better. Nemesis +can seldom forge a sword for herself out of our consciences--out +of the suffering we feel in the suffering we may have caused: +there is rarely metal enough there to make an effective weapon. +Our moral sense learns the manners of good society and smiles when +others smile, but when some rude person gives rough names to our +actions, she is apt to take part against us. And so it was with +Arthur: Adam's judgment of him, Adam's grating words, disturbed +his self-soothing arguments. + +Not that Arthur had been at ease before Adam's discovery. +Struggles and resolves had transformed themselves into compunction +and anxiety. He was distressed for Hetty's sake, and distressed +for his own, that he must leave her behind. He had always, both +in making and breaking resolutions, looked beyond his passion and +seen that it must speedily end in separation; but his nature was +too ardent and tender for him not to suffer at this parting; and +on Hetty's account he was filled with uneasiness. He had found +out the dream in which she was living--that she was to be a lady +in silks and satins--and when he had first talked to her about his +going away, she had asked him tremblingly to let her go with him +and be married. It was his painful knowledge of this which had +given the most exasperating sting to Adam's reproaches. He had +said no word with the purpose of deceiving her--her vision was all +spun by her own childish fancy--but he was obliged to confess to +himself that it was spun half out of his own actions. And to +increase the mischief, on this last evening he had not dared to +hint the truth to Hetty; he had been obliged to soothe her with +tender, hopeful words, lest he should throw her into violent +distress. He felt the situation acutely, felt the sorrow of the +dear thing in the present, and thought with a darker anxiety of +the tenacity which her feelings might have in the future. That +was the one sharp point which pressed against him; every other he +could evade by hopeful self-persuasion. The whole thing had been +secret; the Poysers had not the shadow of a suspicion. No one, +except Adam, knew anything of what had passed--no one else was +likely to know; for Arthur had impressed on Hetty that it would be +fatal to betray, by word or look, that there had been the least +intimacy between them; and Adam, who knew half their secret, would +rather help them to keep it than betray it. It was an unfortunate +business altogether, but there was no use in making it worse than +it was by imaginary exaggerations and forebodings of evil that +might never come. The temporary sadness for Hetty was the worst +consequence; he resolutely turned away his eyes from any bad +consequence that was not demonstrably inevitable. But--but Hetty +might have had the trouble in some other way if not in this. And +perhaps hereafter he might be able to do a great deal for her and +make up to her for all the tears she would shed about him. She +would owe the advantage of his care for her in future years to the +sorrow she had incurred now. So good comes out of evil. Such is +the beautiful arrangement of things! + +Are you inclined to ask whether this can be the same Arthur who, +two months ago, had that freshness of feeling, that delicate +honour which shrinks from wounding even a sentiment, and does not +contemplate any more positive offence as possible for it?--who +thought that his own self-respect was a higher tribunal than any +external opinion? The same, I assure you, only under different +conditions. Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our +deeds, and until we know what has been or will be the peculiar +combination of outward with inward facts, which constitutes a +man's critical actions, it will be better not to think ourselves +wise about his character. There is a terrible coercion in our +deeds, which may first turn the honest man into a deceiver and +then reconcile him to the change, for this reason--that the second +wrong presents itself to him in the guise of the only practicable +right. The action which before commission has been seen with that +blended common sense and fresh untarnished feeling which is the +healthy eye of the soul, is looked at afterwards with the lens of +apologetic ingenuity, through which all things that men call +beautiful and ugly are seen to be made up of textures very much +alike. Europe adjusts itself to a fait accompli, and so does an +individual character--until the placid adjustment is disturbed by +a convulsive retribution. + +No man can escape this vitiating effect of an offence against his +own sentiment of right, and the effect was the stronger in Arthur +because of that very need of self-respect which, while his +conscience was still at ease, was one of his best safeguards. +Self-accusation was too painful to him--he could not face it. He +must persuade himself that he had not been very much to blame; he +began even to pity himself for the necessity he was under of +deceiving Adam--it was a course so opposed to the honesty of his +own nature. But then, it was the only right thing to do. + +Well, whatever had been amiss in him, he was miserable enough in +consequence: miserable about Hetty; miserable about this letter +that he had promised to write, and that seemed at one moment to be +a gross barbarity, at another perhaps the greatest kindness he +could do to her. And across all this reflection would dart every +now and then a sudden impulse of passionate defiance towards all +consequences. He would carry Hetty away, and all other +considerations might go to.... + +In this state of mind the four walls of his room made an +intolerable prison to him; they seemed to hem in and press down +upon him all the crowd of contradictory thoughts and conflicting +feelings, some of which would fly away in the open air. He had +only an hour or two to make up his mind in, and he must get clear +and calm. Once on Meg's back, in the fresh air of that fine +morning, he should be more master of the situation. + +The pretty creature arched her bay neck in the sunshine, and pawed +the gravel, and trembled with pleasure when her master stroked her +nose, and patted her, and talked to her even in a more caressing +tone than usual. He loved her the better because she knew nothing +of his secrets. But Meg was quite as well acquainted with her +master's mental state as many others of her sex with the mental +condition of the nice young gentlemen towards whom their hearts +are in a state of fluttering expectation. + +Arthur cantered for five miles beyond the Chase, till he was at +the foot of a hill where there were no hedges or trees to hem in +the road. Then he threw the bridle on Meg's neck and prepared to +make up his mind. + +Hetty knew that their meeting yesterday must be the last before +Arthur went away--there was no possibility of their contriving +another without exciting suspicion--and she was like a frightened +child, unable to think of anything, only able to cry at the +mention of parting, and then put her face up to have the tears +kissed away. He could do nothing but comfort her, and lull her +into dreaming on. A letter would be a dreadfully abrupt way of +awakening her! Yet there was truth in what Adam said--that it +would save her from a lengthened delusion, which might be worse +than a sharp immediate pain. And it was the only way of +satisfying Adam, who must be satisfied, for more reasons than one. +If he could have seen her again! But that was impossible; there +was such a thorny hedge of hindrances between them, and an +imprudence would be fatal. And yet, if he COULD see her again, +what good would it do? Only cause him to suffer more from the +sight of her distress and the remembrance of it. Away from him +she was surrounded by all the motives to self-control. + +A sudden dread here fell like a shadow across his imagination--the +dread lest she should do something violent in her grief; and close +upon that dread came another, which deepened the shadow. But he +shook them off with the force of youth and hope. What was the +ground for painting the future in that dark way? It was just as +likely to be the reverse. Arthur told himself he did not deserve +that things should turn out badly. He had never meant beforehand +to do anything his conscience disapproved; he had been led on by +circumstances. There was a sort of implicit confidence in him +that he was really such a good fellow at bottom, Providence would +not treat him harshly. + +At all events, he couldn't help what would come now: all he could +do was to take what seemed the best course at the present moment. +And he persuaded himself that that course was to make the way open +between Adam and Hetty. Her heart might really turn to Adam, as +he said, after a while; and in that case there would have been no +great harm done, since it was still Adam's ardent wish to make her +his wife. To be sure, Adam was deceived--deceived in a way that +Arthur would have resented as a deep wrong if it had been +practised on himself. That was a reflection that marred the +consoling prospect. Arthur's cheeks even burned in mingled shame +and irritation at the thought. But what could a man do in such a +dilemma? He was bound in honour to say no word that could injure +Hetty: his first duty was to guard her. He would never have told +or acted a lie on his own account. Good God! What a miserable +fool he was to have brought himself into such a dilemma; and yet, +if ever a man had excuses, he had. (Pity that consequences are +determined not by excuses but by actions!) + +Well, the letter must be written; it was the only means that +promised a solution of the difficulty. The tears came into +Arthur's eyes as he thought of Hetty reading it; but it would be +almost as hard for him to write it; he was not doing anything easy +to himself; and this last thought helped him to arrive at a +conclusion. He could never deliberately have taken a step which +inflicted pain on another and left himself at ease. Even a +movement of jealousy at the thought of giving up Hetty to Adam +went to convince him that he was making a sacrifice. + +When once he had come to this conclusion, he turned Meg round and +set off home again in a canter. The letter should be written the +first thing, and the rest of the day would be filled up with other +business: he should have no time to look behind him. Happily, +Irwine and Gawaine were coming to dinner, and by twelve o'clock +the next day he should have left the Chase miles behind him. +There was some security in this constant occupation against an +uncontrollable impulse seizing him to rush to Hetty and thrust +into her hand some mad proposition that would undo everything. +Faster and faster went the sensitive Meg, at every slight sign +from her rider, till the canter had passed into a swift gallop. + +"I thought they said th' young mester war took ill last night," +said sour old John, the groom, at dinner-time in the servants' +hall. "He's been ridin' fit to split the mare i' two this +forenoon." + +"That's happen one o' the symptims, John," said the facetious +coachman. + +"Then I wish he war let blood for 't, that's all," said John, +grimly. + +Adam had been early at the Chase to know how Arthur was, and had +been relieved from all anxiety about the effects of his blow by +learning that he was gone out for a ride. At five o'clock he was +punctually there again, and sent up word of his arrival. In a few +minutes Pym came down with a letter in his hand and gave it to +Adam, saying that the captain was too busy to see him, and had +written everything he had to say. The letter was directed to +Adam, but he went out of doors again before opening it. It +contained a sealed enclosure directed to Hetty. On the inside of +the cover Adam read: + + +"In the enclosed letter I have written everything you wish. I +leave it to you to decide whether you will be doing best to +deliver it to Hetty or to return it to me. Ask yourself once more +whether you are not taking a measure which may pain her more than +mere silence. + +"There is no need for our seeing each other again now. We shall +meet with better feelings some months hence. + +A.D." + + +"Perhaps he's i' th' right on 't not to see me," thought Adam. +"It's no use meeting to say more hard words, and it's no use +meeting to shake hands and say we're friends again. We're not +friends, an' it's better not to pretend it. I know forgiveness is +a man's duty, but, to my thinking, that can only mean as you're to +give up all thoughts o' taking revenge: it can never mean as +you're t' have your old feelings back again, for that's not +possible. He's not the same man to me, and I can't feel the same +towards him. God help me! I don't know whether I feel the same +towards anybody: I seem as if I'd been measuring my work from a +false line, and had got it all to measure over again." + +But the question about delivering the letter to Hetty soon +absorbed Adam's thoughts. Arthur had procured some relief to +himself by throwing the decision on Adam with a warning; and Adam, +who was not given to hesitation, hesitated here. He determined to +feel his way--to ascertain as well as he could what was Hetty's +state of mind before he decided on delivering the letter. + + + +Chapter XXX + +The Delivery of the Letter + + +THE next Sunday Adam joined the Poysers on their way out of +church, hoping for an invitation to go home with them. He had the +letter in his pocket, and was anxious to have an opportunity of +talking to Hetty alone. He could not see her face at church, for +she had changed her seat, and when he came up to her to shake +hands, her manner was doubtful and constrained. He expected this, +for it was the first time she had met him since she had been aware +that he had seen her with Arthur in the Grove. + +"Come, you'll go on with us, Adam," Mr. Poyser said when they +reached the turning; and as soon as they were in the fields Adam +ventured to offer his arm to Hetty. The children soon gave them +an opportunity of lingering behind a little, and then Adam said: + +"Will you contrive for me to walk out in the garden a bit with you +this evening, if it keeps fine, Hetty? I've something partic'lar +to talk to you about." + +Hetty said, "Very well." She was really as anxious as Adam was +that she should have some private talk with him. She wondered +what he thought of her and Arthur. He must have seen them +kissing, she knew, but she had no conception of the scene that had +taken place between Arthur and Adam. Her first feeling had been +that Adam would be very angry with her, and perhaps would tell her +aunt and uncle, but it never entered her mind that he would dare +to say anything to Captain Donnithorne. It was a relief to her +that he behaved so kindly to her to-day, and wanted to speak to +her alone, for she had trembled when she found he was going home +with them lest he should mean "to tell." But, now he wanted to +talk to her by herself, she should learn what he thought and what +he meant to do. She felt a certain confidence that she could +persuade him not to do anything she did not want him to do; she +could perhaps even make him believe that she didn't care for +Arthur; and as long as Adam thought there was any hope of her +having him, he would do just what she liked, she knew. Besides, +she MUST go on seeming to encourage Adam, lest her uncle and aunt +should be angry and suspect her of having some secret lover. + +Hetty's little brain was busy with this combination as she hung on +Adam's arm and said "yes" or "no" to some slight observations of +his about the many hawthorn-berries there would be for the birds +this next winter, and the low-hanging clouds that would hardly +hold up till morning. And when they rejoined her aunt and uncle, +she could pursue her thoughts without interruption, for Mr. Poyser +held that though a young man might like to have the woman he was +courting on his arm, he would nevertheless be glad of a little +reasonable talk about business the while; and, for his own part, +he was curious to heal the most recent news about the Chase Farm. +So, through the rest of the walk, he claimed Adam's conversation +for himself, and Hetty laid her small plots and imagined her +little scenes of cunning blandishment, as she walked along by the +hedgerows on honest Adam's arm, quite as well as if she had been +an elegantly clad coquette alone in her boudoir. For if a country +beauty in clumsy shoes be only shallow-hearted enough, it is +astonishing how closely her mental processes may resemble those of +a lady in society and crinoline, who applies her refined intellect +to the problem of committing indiscretions without compromising +herself. Perhaps the resemblance was not much the less because +Hetty felt very unhappy all the while. The parting with Arthur +was a double pain to her--mingling with the tumult of passion and +vanity there was a dim undefined fear that the future might shape +itself in some way quite unlike her dream. She clung to the +comforting hopeful words Arthur had uttered in their last meeting-- +"I shall come again at Christmas, and then we will see what can +be done." She clung to the belief that he was so fond of her, he +would never be happy without her; and she still hugged her secret-- +that a great gentleman loved her--with gratified pride, as a +superiority over all the girls she knew. But the uncertainty of +the future, the possibilities to which she could give no shape, +began to press upon her like the invisible weight of air; she was +alone on her little island of dreams, and all around her was the +dark unknown water where Arthur was gone. She could gather no +elation of spirits now by looking forward, but only by looking +backward to build confidence on past words and caresses. But +occasionally, since Thursday evening, her dim anxieties had been +almost lost behind the more definite fear that Adam might betray +what he knew to her uncle and aunt, and his sudden proposition to +talk with her alone had set her thoughts to work in a new way. +She was eager not to lose this evening's opportunity; and after +tea, when the boys were going into the garden and Totty begged to +go with them, Hetty said, with an alacrity that surprised Mrs. +Poyser, "I'll go with her, Aunt." + +It did not seem at all surprising that Adam said he would go too, +and soon he and Hetty were left alone together on the walk by the +filbert-trees, while the boys were busy elsewhere gathering the +large unripe nuts to play at "cob-nut" with, and Totty was +watching them with a puppylike air of contemplation. It was but a +short time--hardly two months--since Adam had had his mind filled +with delicious hopes as he stood by Hetty's side un this garden. +The remembrance of that scene had often been with him since +Thursday evening: the sunlight through the apple-tree boughs, the +red bunches, Hetty's sweet blush. It came importunately now, on +this sad evening, with the low-hanging clouds, but he tried to +suppress it, lest some emotion should impel him to say more than +was needful for Hetty's sake. + +"After what I saw on Thursday night, Hetty," he began, "you won't +think me making too free in what I'm going to say. If you was +being courted by any man as 'ud make you his wife, and I'd known +you was fond of him and meant to have him, I should have no right +to speak a word to you about it; but when I see you're being made +love to by a gentleman as can never marry you, and doesna think o' +marrying you, I feel bound t' interfere for you. I can't speak +about it to them as are i' the place o' your parents, for that +might bring worse trouble than's needful." + +Adam's words relieved one of Hetty's fears, but they also carried +a meaning which sickened her with a strengthened foreboding. She +was pale and trembling, and yet she would have angrily +contradicted Adam, if she had dared to betray her feelings. But +she was silent. + +"You're so young, you know, Hetty," he went on, almost tenderly, +"and y' haven't seen much o' what goes on in the world. It's +right for me to do what I can to save you from getting into +trouble for want o' your knowing where you're being led to. If +anybody besides me knew what I know about your meeting a gentleman +and having fine presents from him, they'd speak light on you, and +you'd lose your character. And besides that, you'll have to +suffer in your feelings, wi' giving your love to a man as can +never marry you, so as he might take care of you all your life." + +Adam paused and looked at Hetty, who was plucking the leaves from +the filbert-trees and tearing them up in her hand. Her little +plans and preconcerted speeches had all forsaken her, like an ill- +learnt lesson, under the terrible agitation produced by Adam's +words. There was a cruel force in their calm certainty which +threatened to grapple and crush her flimsy hopes and fancies. She +wanted to resist them--she wanted to throw them off with angry +contradiction--but the determination to conceal what she felt +still governed her. It was nothing more than a blind prompting +now, for she was unable to calculate the effect of her words. + +"You've no right to say as I love him," she said, faintly, but +impetuously, plucking another rough leaf and tearing it up. She +was very beautiful in her paleness and agitation, with her dark +childish eyes dilated and her breath shorter than usual. Adam's +heart yearned over her as he looked at her. Ah, if he could but +comfort her, and soothe her, and save her from this pain; if he +had but some sort of strength that would enable him to rescue her +poor troubled mind, as he would have rescued her body in the face +of all danger! + +"I doubt it must be so, Hetty," he said, tenderly; "for I canna +believe you'd let any man kiss you by yourselves, and give you a +gold box with his hair, and go a-walking i' the Grove to meet him, +if you didna love him. I'm not blaming you, for I know it 'ud +begin by little and little, till at last you'd not be able to +throw it off. It's him I blame for stealing your love i' that +way, when he knew he could never make you the right amends. He's +been trifling with you, and making a plaything of you, and caring +nothing about you as a man ought to care." + +"Yes, he does care for me; I know better nor you," Hetty burst +out. Everything was forgotten but the pain and anger she felt at +Adam's words. + +"Nay, Hetty," said Adam, "if he'd cared for you rightly, he'd +never ha' behaved so. He told me himself he meant nothing by his +kissing and presents, and he wanted to make me believe as you +thought light of 'em too. But I know better nor that. I can't +help thinking as you've been trusting to his loving you well +enough to marry you, for all he's a gentleman. And that's why I +must speak to you about it, Hetty, for fear you should be +deceiving yourself. It's never entered his head the thought o' +marrying you." + +"How do you know? How durst you say so?" said Hetty, pausing in +her walk and trembling. The terrible decision of Adam's tone +shook her with fear. She had no presence of mind left for the +reflection that Arthur would have his reasons for not telling the +truth to Adam. Her words and look were enough to determine Adam: +he must give her the letter. + +"Perhaps you can't believe me, Hetty, because you think too well +of him--because you think he loves you better than he does. But +I've got a letter i' my pocket, as he wrote himself for me to give +you. I've not read the letter, but he says he's told you the +truth in it. But before I give you the letter, consider, Hetty, +and don't let it take too much hold on you. It wouldna ha' been +good for you if he'd wanted to do such a mad thing as marry you: +it 'ud ha' led to no happiness i' th' end." + +Hetty said nothing; she felt a revival of hope at the mention of a +letter which Adam had not read. There would be something quite +different in it from what he thought. + +Adam took out the letter, but he held it in his hand still, while +he said, in a tone of tender entreaty, "Don't you bear me ill +will, Hetty, because I'm the means o' bringing you this pain. God +knows I'd ha' borne a good deal worse for the sake o' sparing it +you. And think--there's nobody but me knows about this, and I'll +take care of you as if I was your brother. You're the same as +ever to me, for I don't believe you've done any wrong knowingly." + +Hetty had laid her hand on the letter, but Adam did not loose it +till he had done speaking. She took no notice of what he said-- +she had not listened; but when he loosed the letter, she put it +into her pocket, without opening it, and then began to walk more +quickly, as if she wanted to go in. + +"You're in the right not to read it just yet," said Adam. "Read +it when you're by yourself. But stay out a little bit longer, and +let us call the children: you look so white and ill, your aunt may +take notice of it." + +Hetty heard the warning. It recalled to her the necessity of +rallying her native powers of concealment, which had half given +way under the shock of Adam's words. And she had the letter in +her pocket: she was sure there was comfort in that letter in spite +of Adam. She ran to find Totty, and soon reappeared with +recovered colour, leading Totty, who was making a sour face +because she had been obliged to throw away an unripe apple that +she had set her small teeth in. + +"Hegh, Totty," said Adam, "come and ride on my shoulder--ever so +high--you'll touch the tops o' the trees." + +What little child ever refused to be comforted by that glorious +sense of being seized strongly and swung upward? I don't believe +Ganymede cried when the eagle carried him away, and perhaps +deposited him on Jove's shoulder at the end. Totty smiled down +complacently from her secure height, and pleasant was the sight to +the mother's eyes, as she stood at the house door and saw Adam +coming with his small burden. + +"Bless your sweet face, my pet," she said, the mother's strong +love filling her keen eyes with mildness, as Totty leaned forward +and put out her arms. She had no eyes for Hetty at that moment, +and only said, without looking at her, "You go and draw some ale, +Hetty; the gells are both at the cheese." + +After the ale had been drawn and her uncle's pipe lighted, there +was Totty to be taken to bed, and brought down again in her night- +gown because she would cry instead of going to sleep. Then there +was supper to be got ready, and Hetty must be continually in the +way to give help. Adam stayed till he knew Mrs. Poyser expected +him to go, engaging her and her husband in talk as constantly as +he could, for the sake of leaving Hetty more at ease. He +lingered, because he wanted to see her safely through that +evening, and he was delighted to find how much self-command she +showed. He knew she had not had time to read the letter, but he +did not know she was buoyed up by a secret hope that the letter +would contradict everything he had said. It was hard work for him +to leave her--hard to think that he should not know for days how +she was bearing her trouble. But he must go at last, and all he +could do was to press her hand gently as he said "Good-bye," and +hope she would take that as a sign that if his love could ever be +a refuge for her, it was there the same as ever. How busy his +thoughts were, as he walked home, in devising pitying excuses for +her folly, in referring all her weakness to the sweet lovingness +of her nature, in blaming Arthur, with less and less inclination +to admit that his conduct might be extenuated too! His +exasperation at Hetty's suffering--and also at the sense that she +was possibly thrust for ever out of his own reach--deafened him to +any plea for the miscalled friend who had wrought this misery. +Adam was a clear-sighted, fair-minded man--a fine fellow, indeed, +morally as well as physically. But if Aristides the Just was ever +in love and jealous, he was at that moment not perfectly +magnanimous. And I cannot pretend that Adam, in these painful +days, felt nothing but righteous indignation and loving pity. He +was bitterly jealous, and in proportion as his love made him +indulgent in his judgment of Hetty, the bitterness found a vent in +his feeling towards Arthur. + +"Her head was allays likely to be turned," he thought, "when a +gentleman, with his fine manners, and fine clothes, and his white +hands, and that way o' talking gentlefolks have, came about her, +making up to her in a bold way, as a man couldn't do that was only +her equal; and it's much if she'll ever like a common man now." +He could not help drawing his own hands out of his pocket and +looking at them--at the hard palms and the broken finger-nails. +"I'm a roughish fellow, altogether; I don't know, now I come to +think on't, what there is much for a woman to like about me; and +yet I might ha' got another wife easy enough, if I hadn't set my +heart on her. But it's little matter what other women think about +me, if she can't love me. She might ha' loved me, perhaps, as +likely as any other man--there's nobody hereabouts as I'm afraid +of, if he hadn't come between us; but now I shall belike be +hateful to her because I'm so different to him. And yet there's +no telling--she may turn round the other way, when she finds he's +made light of her all the while. She may come to feel the vally +of a man as 'ud be thankful to be bound to her all his life. But +I must put up with it whichever way it is--I've only to be +thankful it's been no worse. I am not th' only man that's got to +do without much happiness i' this life. There's many a good bit +o' work done with a bad heart. It's God's will, and that's enough +for us: we shouldn't know better how things ought to be than He +does, I reckon, if we was to spend our lives i' puzzling. But it +'ud ha' gone near to spoil my work for me, if I'd seen her brought +to sorrow and shame, and through the man as I've always been proud +to think on. Since I've been spared that, I've no right to +grumble. When a man's got his limbs whole, he can bear a smart +cut or two." + +As Adam was getting over a stile at this point in his reflections, +he perceived a man walking along the field before him. He knew it +was Seth, returning from an evening preaching, and made haste to +overtake him. + +"I thought thee'dst be at home before me," he said, as Seth turned +round to wait for him, "for I'm later than usual to-night." + +"Well, I'm later too, for I got into talk, after meeting, with +John Barnes, who has lately professed himself in a state of +perfection, and I'd a question to ask him about his experience. +It's one o' them subjects that lead you further than y' expect-- +they don't lie along the straight road." + +They walked along together in silence two or three minutes. Adam +was not inclined to enter into the subtleties of religious +experience, but he was inclined to interchange a word or two of +brotherly affection and confidence with Seth. That was a rare +impulse in him, much as the brothers loved each other. They +hardly ever spoke of personal matters, or uttered more than an +allusion to their family troubles. Adam was by nature reserved in +all matters of feeling, and Seth felt a certain timidity towards +his more practical brother. + +"Seth, lad," Adam said, putting his arm on his brother's shoulder, +"hast heard anything from Dinah Morris since she went away?" + +"Yes," said Seth. "She told me I might write her word after a +while, how we went on, and how mother bore up under her trouble. +So I wrote to her a fortnight ago, and told her about thee having +a new employment, and how Mother was more contented; and last +Wednesday, when I called at the post at Treddles'on, I found a +letter from her. I think thee'dst perhaps like to read it, but I +didna say anything about it because thee'st seemed so full of +other things. It's quite easy t' read--she writes wonderful for a +woman." + +Seth had drawn the letter from his pocket and held it out to Adam, +who said, as he took it, "Aye, lad, I've got a tough load to carry +just now--thee mustna take it ill if I'm a bit silenter and +crustier nor usual. Trouble doesna make me care the less for +thee. I know we shall stick together to the last." + +"I take nought ill o' thee, Adam. I know well enough what it +means if thee't a bit short wi' me now and then." + +"There's Mother opening the door to look out for us," said Adam, +as they mounted the slope. "She's been sitting i' the dark as +usual. Well, Gyp, well, art glad to see me?" + +Lisbeth went in again quickly and lighted a candle, for she had +heard the welcome rustling of footsteps on the grass, before Gyp's +joyful bark. + +"Eh, my lads! Th' hours war ne'er so long sin' I war born as +they'n been this blessed Sunday night. What can ye both ha' been +doin' till this time?" + +"Thee shouldstna sit i' the dark, Mother," said Adam; "that makes +the time seem longer." + +"Eh, what am I to do wi' burnin' candle of a Sunday, when there's +on'y me an' it's sin to do a bit o' knittin'? The daylight's long +enough for me to stare i' the booke as I canna read. It 'ud be a +fine way o' shortenin' the time, to make it waste the good candle. +But which on you's for ha'in' supper? Ye mun ayther be clemmed or +full, I should think, seein' what time o' night it is." + +"I'm hungry, Mother," said Seth, seating himself at the little +table, which had been spread ever since it was light. + +"I've had my supper," said Adam. "Here, Gyp," he added, taking +some cold potato from the table and rubbing the rough grey head +that looked up towards him. + +"Thee needstna be gi'in' th' dog," said Lisbeth; "I'n fed him well +a'ready. I'm not like to forget him, I reckon, when he's all o' +thee I can get sight on." + +"Come, then, Gyp," said Adam, "we'll go to bed. Good-night, +Mother; I'm very tired." + +"What ails him, dost know?" Lisbeth said to Seth, when Adam was +gone upstairs. "He's like as if he was struck for death this day +or two--he's so cast down. I found him i' the shop this forenoon, +arter thee wast gone, a-sittin' an' doin' nothin'--not so much as +a booke afore him." + +"He's a deal o' work upon him just now, Mother," said Seth, "and I +think he's a bit troubled in his mind. Don't you take notice of +it, because it hurts him when you do. Be as kind to him as you +can, Mother, and don't say anything to vex him." + +"Eh, what dost talk o' my vexin' him? An' what am I like to be +but kind? I'll ma' him a kettle-cake for breakfast i' the +mornin'." + +Adam, meanwhile, was reading Dinah's letter by the light of his +dip candle. + + + +DEAR BROTHER SETH--Your letter lay three days beyond my knowing of +it at the post, for I had not money enough by me to pay the +carriage, this being a time of great need and sickness here, with +the rains that have fallen, as if the windows of heaven were +opened again; and to lay by money, from day to day, in such a +time, when there are so many in present need of all things, would +be a want of trust like the laying up of the manna. I speak of +this, because I would not have you think me slow to answer, or +that I had small joy in your rejoicing at the worldly good that +has befallen your brother Adam. The honour and love you bear him +is nothing but meet, for God has given him great gifts, and he +uses them as the patriarch Joseph did, who, when he was exalted to +a place of power and trust, yet yearned with tenderness towards +his parent and his younger brother. + +"My heart is knit to your aged mother since it was granted me to +be near her in the day of trouble. Speak to her of me, and tell +her I often bear her in my thoughts at evening time, when I am +sitting in the dim light as I did with her, and we held one +another's hands, and I spoke the words of comfort that were given +to me. Ah, that is a blessed time, isn't it, Seth, when the +outward light is fading, and the body is a little wearied with its +work and its labour. Then the inward light shines the brighter, +and we have a deeper sense of resting on the Divine strength. I +sit on my chair in the dark room and close my eyes, and it is as +if I was out of the body and could feel no want for evermore. For +then, the very hardship, and the sorrow, and the blindness, and +the sin I have beheld and been ready to weep over--yea, all the +anguish of the children of men, which sometimes wraps me round +like sudden darkness--I can bear with a willing pain, as if I was +sharing the Redeemer's cross. For I feel it, I feel it--infinite +love is suffering too--yea, in the fulness of knowledge it +suffers, it yearns, it mourns; and that is a blind self-seeking +which wants to be freed from the sorrow wherewith the whole +creation groaneth and travaileth. Surely it is not true +blessedness to be free from sorrow, while there is sorrow and sin +in the world: sorrow is then a part of love, and love does not +seek to throw it off. It is not the spirit only that tells me +this--I see it in the whole work and word of the Gospel. Is there +not pleading in heaven? Is not the Man of Sorrows there in that +crucified body wherewith he ascended? And is He not one with the +Infinite Love itself--as our love is one with our sorrow? + +"These thoughts have been much borne in on me of late, and I have +seen with new clearness the meaning of those words, 'If any man +love me, let him take up my cross.' I have heard this enlarged on +as if it meant the troubles and persecutions we bring on ourselves +by confessing Jesus. But surely that is a narrow thought. The +true cross of the Redeemer was the sin and sorrow of this world-- +that was what lay heavy on his heart--and that is the cross we +shall share with him, that is the cup we must drink of with him, +if we would have any part in that Divine Love which is one with +his sorrow. + +"In my outward lot, which you ask about, I have all things and +abound. I have had constant work in the mill, though some of the +other hands have been turned off for a time, and my body is +greatly strengthened, so that I feel little weariness after long +walking and speaking. What you say about staying in your own +country with your mother and brother shows me that you have a true +guidance; your lot is appointed there by a clear showing, and to +seek a greater blessing elsewhere would be like laying a false +offering on the altar and expecting the fire from heaven to kindle +it. My work and my joy are here among the hills, and I sometimes +think I cling too much to my life among the people here, and +should be rebellious if I was called away. + +"I was thankful for your tidings about the dear friends at the +Hall Farm, for though I sent them a letter, by my aunt's desire, +after I came back from my sojourn among them, I have had no word +from them. My aunt has not the pen of a ready writer, and the +work of the house is sufficient for the day, for she is weak in +body. My heart cleaves to her and her children as the nearest of +all to me in the flesh--yea, and to all in that house. I am +carried away to them continually in my sleep, and often in the +midst of work, and even of speech, the thought of them is borne in +on me as if they were in need and trouble, which yet is dark to +me. There may be some leading here; but I wait to be taught. You +say they are all well. + +"We shall see each other again in the body, I trust, though, it +may be, not for a long while; for the brethren and sisters at +Leeds are desirous to have me for a short space among them, when I +have a door opened me again to leave Snowfield. + +"Farewell, dear brother--and yet not farewell. For those children +of God whom it has been granted to see each other face to face, +and to hold communion together, and to feel the same spirit +working in both can never more be sundered though the hills may +lie between. For their souls are enlarged for evermore by that +union, and they bear one another about in their thoughts +continually as it were a new strength.--Your faithful Sister and +fellow-worker in Christ, + +DINAH MORRIS." + + +"I have not skill to write the words so small as you do and my pen +moves slow. And so I am straitened, and say but little of what is +in my mind. Greet your mother for me with a kiss. She asked me +to kiss her twice when we parted." + + +Adam had refolded the letter, and was sitting meditatively with +his head resting on his arm at the head of the bed, when Seth came +upstairs. + +"Hast read the letter?" said Seth. + +"Yes," said Adam. "I don't know what I should ha' thought of her +and her letter if I'd never seen her: I daresay I should ha' +thought a preaching woman hateful. But she's one as makes +everything seem right she says and does, and I seemed to see her +and hear her speaking when I read the letter. It's wonderful how +I remember her looks and her voice. She'd make thee rare and +happy, Seth; she's just the woman for thee." + +"It's no use thinking o' that," said Seth, despondingly. "She +spoke so firm, and she's not the woman to say one thing and mean +another." + +"Nay, but her feelings may grow different. A woman may get to +love by degrees--the best fire dosna flare up the soonest. I'd +have thee go and see her by and by: I'd make it convenient for +thee to be away three or four days, and it 'ud be no walk for +thee--only between twenty and thirty mile." + +"I should like to see her again, whether or no, if she wouldna be +displeased with me for going," said Seth. + +"She'll be none displeased," said Adam emphatically, getting up +and throwing off his coat. "It might be a great happiness to us +all if she'd have thee, for mother took to her so wonderful and +seemed so contented to be with her." + +"Aye," said Seth, rather timidly, "and Dinah's fond o' Hetty too; +she thinks a deal about her." + +Adam made no reply to that, and no other word but "good-night" +passed between them. + + + +Chapter XXXI + +In Hetty's Bed-Chamber + + +IT was no longer light enough to go to bed without a candle, even +in Mrs. Poyser's early household, and Hetty carried one with her +as she went up at last to her bedroom soon after Adam was gone, +and bolted the door behind her. + +Now she would read her letter. It must--it must have comfort in +it. How was Adam to know the truth? It was always likely he +should say what he did say. + +She set down the candle and took out the letter. It had a faint +scent of roses, which made her feel as if Arthur were close to +her. She put it to her lips, and a rush of remembered sensations +for a moment or two swept away all fear. But her heart began to +flutter strangely, and her hands to tremble as she broke the seal. +She read slowly; it was not easy for her to read a gentleman's +handwriting, though Arthur had taken pains to write plainly. + + +"DEAREST HETTY--I have spoken truly when I have said that I loved +you, and I shall never forget our love. I shall be your true +friend as long as life lasts, and I hope to prove this to you in +many ways. If I say anything to pain you in this letter, do not +believe it is for want of love and tenderness towards you, for +there is nothing I would not do for you, if I knew it to be really +for your happiness. I cannot bear to think of my little Hetty +shedding tears when I am not there to kiss them away; and if I +followed only my own inclinations, I should be with her at this +moment instead of writing. It is very hard for me to part from +her--harder still for me to write words which may seem unkind, +though they spring from the truest kindness. + +"Dear, dear Hetty, sweet as our love has been to me, sweet as it +would be to me for you to love me always, I feel that it would +have been better for us both if we had never had that happiness, +and that it is my duty to ask you to love me and care for me as +little as you can. The fault has all been mine, for though I have +been unable to resist the longing to be near you, I have felt all +the while that your affection for me might cause you grief. I +ought to have resisted my feelings. I should have done so, if I +had been a better fellow than I am; but now, since the past cannot +be altered, I am bound to save you from any evil that I have power +to prevent. And I feel it would be a great evil for you if your +affections continued so fixed on me that you could think of no +other man who might be able to make you happier by his love than I +ever can, and if you continued to look towards something in the +future which cannot possibly happen. For, dear Hetty, if I were +to do what you one day spoke of, and make you my wife, I should do +what you yourself would come to feel was for your misery instead +of your welfare. I know you can never be happy except by marrying +a man in your own station; and if I were to marry you now, I +should only be adding to any wrong I have done, besides offending +against my duty in the other relations of life. You know nothing, +dear Hetty, of the world in which I must always live, and you +would soon begin to dislike me, because there would be so little +in which we should be alike. + +"And since I cannot marry you, we must part--we must try not to +feel like lovers any more. I am miserable while I say this, but +nothing else can be. Be angry with me, my sweet one, I deserve +it; but do not believe that I shall not always care for you-- +always be grateful to you--always remember my Hetty; and if any +trouble should come that we do not now foresee, trust in me to do +everything that lies in my power. + +"I have told you where you are to direct a letter to, if you want +to write, but I put it down below lest you should have forgotten. +Do not write unless there is something I can really do for you; +for, dear Hetty, we must try to think of each other as little as +we can. Forgive me, and try to forget everything about me, except +that I shall be, as long as I live, your affectionate friend, + +ARTHUR DONNITHORNE. + + +Slowly Hetty had read this letter; and when she looked up from it +there was the reflection of a blanched face in the old dim glass-- +a white marble face with rounded childish forms, but with +something sadder than a child's pain in it. Hetty did not see the +face--she saw nothing--she only felt that she was cold and sick +and trembling. The letter shook and rustled in her hand. She +laid it down. It was a horrible sensation--this cold and +trembling. It swept away the very ideas that produced it, and +Hetty got up to reach a warm cloak from her clothes-press, wrapped +it round her, and sat as if she were thinking of nothing but +getting warm. Presently she took up the letter with a firmer +hand, and began to read it through again. The tears came this +time--great rushing tears that blinded her and blotched the paper. +She felt nothing but that Arthur was cruel--cruel to write so, +cruel not to marry her. Reasons why he could not marry her had no +existence for her mind; how could she believe in any misery that +could come to her from the fulfilment of all she had been longing +for and dreaming of? She had not the ideas that could make up the +notion of that misery. + +As she threw down the letter again, she caught sight of her face +in the glass; it was reddened now, and wet with tears; it was +almost like a companion that she might complain to--that would +pity her. She leaned forward on her elbows, and looked into those +dark overflooding eyes and at the quivering mouth, and saw how the +tears came thicker and thicker, and how the mouth became convulsed +with sobs. + +The shattering of all her little dream-world, the crushing blow on +her new-born passion, afflicted her pleasure-craving nature with +an overpowering pain that annihilated all impulse to resistance, +and suspended her anger. She sat sobbing till the candle went +out, and then, wearied, aching, stupefied with crying, threw +herself on the bed without undressing and went to sleep. + +There was a feeble dawn in the room when Hetty awoke, a little +after four o'clock, with a sense of dull misery, the cause of +which broke upon her gradually as she began to discern the objects +round her in the dim light. And then came the frightening thought +that she had to conceal her misery as well as to bear it, in this +dreary daylight that was coming. She could lie no longer. She +got up and went towards the table: there lay the letter. She +opened her treasure-drawer: there lay the ear-rings and the +locket--the signs of all her short happiness--the signs of the +lifelong dreariness that was to follow it. Looking at the little +trinkets which she had once eyed and fingered so fondly as the +earnest of her future paradise of finery, she lived back in the +moments when they had been given to her with such tender caresses, +such strangely pretty words, such glowing looks, which filled her +with a bewildering delicious surprise--they were so much sweeter +than she had thought anything could be. And the Arthur who had +spoken to her and looked at her in this way, who was present with +her now--whose arm she felt round her, his cheek against hers, his +very breath upon her--was the cruel, cruel Arthur who had written +that letter, that letter which she snatched and crushed and then +opened again, that she might read it once more. The half-benumbed +mental condition which was the effect of the last night's violent +crying made it necessary to her to look again and see if her +wretched thoughts were actually true--if the letter was really so +cruel. She had to hold it close to the window, else she could not +have read it by the faint light. Yes! It was worse--it was more +cruel. She crushed it up again in anger. She hated the writer of +that letter--hated him for the very reason that she hung upon him +with all her love--all the girlish passion and vanity that made up +her love. + +She had no tears this morning. She had wept them all away last +night, and now she felt that dry-eyed morning misery, which is +worse than the first shock because it has the future in it as well +as the present. Every morning to come, as far as her imagination +could stretch, she would have to get up and feel that the day +would have no joy for her. For there is no despair so absolute as +that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, +when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be +healed, to have despaired and to have recovered hope. As Hetty +began languidly to take off the clothes she had worn all the +night, that she might wash herself and brush her hair, she had a +sickening sense that her life would go on in this way. She should +always be doing things she had no pleasure in, getting up to the +old tasks of work, seeing people she cared nothing about, going to +church, and to Treddleston, and to tea with Mrs. Best, and +carrying no happy thought with her. For her short poisonous +delights had spoiled for ever all the little joys that had once +made the sweetness of her life--the new frock ready for +Treddleston Fair, the party at Mr. Britton's at Broxton wake, the +beaux that she would say "No" to for a long while, and the +prospect of the wedding that was to come at last when she would +have a silk gown and a great many clothes all at once. These +things were all flat and dreary to her now; everything would be a +weariness, and she would carry about for ever a hopeless thirst +and longing. + +She paused in the midst of her languid undressing and leaned +against the dark old clothes-press. Her neck and arms were bare, +her hair hung down in delicate rings--and they were just as +beautiful as they were that night two months ago, when she walked +up and down this bed-chamber glowing with vanity and hope. She +was not thinking of her neck and arms now; even her own beauty was +indifferent to her. Her eyes wandered sadly over the dull old +chamber, and then looked out vacantly towards the growing dawn. +Did a remembrance of Dinah come across her mind? Of her +foreboding words, which had made her angry? Of Dinah's +affectionate entreaty to think of her as a friend in trouble? No, +the impression had been too slight to recur. Any affection or +comfort Dinah could have given her would have been as indifferent +to Hetty this morning as everything else was except her bruised +passion. She was only thinking she could never stay here and go +on with the old life--she could better bear something quite new +than sinking back into the old everyday round. She would like to +run away that very morning, and never see any of the old faces +again. But Hetty's was not a nature to face difficulties--to dare +to loose her hold on the familiar and rush blindly on some unknown +condition. Hers was a luxurious and vain nature--not a passionate +one--and if she were ever to take any violent measure, she must be +urged to it by the desperation of terror. There was not much room +for her thoughts to travel in the narrow circle of her +imagination, and she soon fixed on the one thing she would do to +get away from her old life: she would ask her uncle to let her go +to be a lady's maid. Miss Lydia's maid would help her to get a +situation, if she krew Hetty had her uncle's leave. + +When she had thought of this, she fastened up her hair and began +to wash: it seemed more possible to her to go downstairs and try +to behave as usual. She would ask her uncle this very day. On +Hetty's blooming health it would take a great deal of such mental +suffering as hers to leave any deep impress; and when she was +dressed as neatly as usual in her working-dress, with her hair +tucked up under her little cap, an indifferent observer would have +been more struck with the young roundness of her cheek and neck +and the darkness of her eyes and eyelashes than with any signs of +sadness about her. But when she took up the crushed letter and +put it in her drawer, that she might lock it out of sight, hard +smarting tears, having no relief in them as the great drops had +that fell last night, forced their way into her eyes. She wiped +them away quickly: she must not cry in the day-time. Nobody +should find out how miserable she was, nobody should know she was +disappointed about anything; and the thought that the eyes of her +aunt and uncle would be upon her gave her the self-command which +often accompanies a great dread. For Hetty looked out from her +secret misery towards the possibility of their ever knowing what +had happened, as the sick and weary prisoner might think of the +possible pillory. They would think her conduct shameful, and +shame was torture. That was poor little Hetty's conscience. + +So she locked up her drawer and went away to her early work. + +In the evening, when Mr. Poyser was smoking his pipe, and his +good-nature was therefore at its superlative moment, Hetty seized +the opportunity of her aunt's absence to say, "Uncle, I wish you'd +let me go for a lady's maid." + +Mr. Poyser took the pipe from his mouth and looked at Hetty in +mild surprise for some moments. She was sewing, and went on with +her work industriously. + +"Why, what's put that into your head, my wench?" he said at last, +after he had given one conservative puff. + +"I should like it--I should like it better than farm-work." + +"Nay, nay; you fancy so because you donna know it, my wench. It +wouldn't be half so good for your health, nor for your luck i' +life. I'd like you to stay wi' us till you've got a good husband: +you're my own niece, and I wouldn't have you go to service, though +it was a gentleman's house, as long as I've got a home for you." + +Mr. Poyser paused, and puffed away at his pipe. + +"I like the needlework," said Hetty, "and I should get good +wages." + +"Has your aunt been a bit sharp wi' you?" said Mr. Poyser, not +noticing Hetty's further argument. "You mustna mind that, my +wench--she does it for your good. She wishes you well; an' there +isn't many aunts as are no kin to you 'ud ha' done by you as she +has." + +"No, it isn't my aunt," said Hetty, "but I should like the work +better." + +"It was all very well for you to learn the work a bit--an' I gev +my consent to that fast enough, sin' Mrs. Pomfret was willing to +teach you. For if anything was t' happen, it's well to know how +to turn your hand to different sorts o' things. But I niver meant +you to go to service, my wench; my family's ate their own bread +and cheese as fur back as anybody knows, hanna they, Father? You +wouldna like your grand-child to take wage?" + +"Na-a-y," said old Martin, with an elongation of the word, meant +to make it bitter as well as negative, while he leaned forward and +looked down on the floor. "But the wench takes arter her mother. +I'd hard work t' hould HER in, an' she married i' spite o' me--a +feller wi' on'y two head o' stock when there should ha' been ten +on's farm--she might well die o' th' inflammation afore she war +thirty." + +It was seldom the old man made so long a speech, but his son's +question had fallen like a bit of dry fuel on the embers of a long +unextinguished resentment, which had always made the grandfather +more indifferent to Hetty than to his son's children. Her +mother's fortune had been spent by that good-for-nought Sorrel, +and Hetty had Sorrel's blood in her veins. + +"Poor thing, poor thing!" said Martin the younger, who was sorry +to have provoked this retrospective harshness. "She'd but bad +luck. But Hetty's got as good a chance o' getting a solid, sober +husband as any gell i' this country." + +After throwing out this pregnant hint, Mr. Poyser recurred to his +pipe and his silence, looking at Hetty to see if she did not give +some sign of having renounced her ill-advised wish. But instead +of that, Hetty, in spite of herself, began to cry, half out of ill +temper at the denial, half out of the day's repressed sadness. + +"Hegh, hegh!" said Mr. Poyser, meaning to check her playfully, +"don't let's have any crying. Crying's for them as ha' got no +home, not for them as want to get rid o' one. What dost think?" +he continued to his wife, who now came back into the house-place, +knitting with fierce rapidity, as if that movement were a +necessary function, like the twittering of a crab's antennae. + +"Think? Why, I think we shall have the fowl stole before we are +much older, wi' that gell forgetting to lock the pens up o' +nights. What's the matter now, Hetty? What are you crying at?" + +"Why, she's been wanting to go for a lady's maid," said Mr. +Poyser. "I tell her we can do better for her nor that." + +"I thought she'd got some maggot in her head, she's gone about wi' +her mouth buttoned up so all day. It's all wi' going so among +them servants at the Chase, as we war fools for letting her. She +thinks it 'ud be a finer life than being wi' them as are akin to +her and ha' brought her up sin' she war no bigger nor Marty. She +thinks there's nothing belongs to being a lady's maid but wearing +finer clothes nor she was born to, I'll be bound. It's what rag +she can get to stick on her as she's thinking on from morning till +night, as I often ask her if she wouldn't like to be the mawkin i' +the field, for then she'd be made o' rags inside and out. I'll +never gi' my consent to her going for a lady's maid, while she's +got good friends to take care on her till she's married to +somebody better nor one o' them valets, as is neither a common man +nor a gentleman, an' must live on the fat o' the land, an's like +enough to stick his hands under his coat-tails and expect his wife +to work for him." + +"Aye, aye," said Mr. Poyser, "we must have a better husband for +her nor that, and there's better at hand. Come, my wench, give +over crying and get to bed. I'll do better for you nor letting +you go for a lady's maid. Let's hear no more on't." + +When Hetty was gone upstairs he said, "I canna make it out as she +should want to go away, for I thought she'd got a mind t' Adam +Bede. She's looked like it o' late." + +"Eh, there's no knowing what she's got a liking to, for things +take no more hold on her than if she was a dried pea. I believe +that gell, Molly--as is aggravatin' enough, for the matter o' +that--but I believe she'd care more about leaving us and the +children, for all she's been here but a year come Michaelmas, nor +Hetty would. But she's got this notion o' being a lady's maid wi' +going among them servants--we might ha' known what it 'ud lead to +when we let her go to learn the fine work. But I'll put a stop to +it pretty quick." + +"Thee'dst be sorry to part wi' her, if it wasn't for her good," +said Mr. Poyser. "She's useful to thee i' the work." + +"Sorry? Yes, I'm fonder on her nor she deserves--a little hard- +hearted hussy, wanting to leave us i' that way. I can't ha' had +her about me these seven year, I reckon, and done for her, and +taught her everything wi'out caring about her. An' here I'm +having linen spun, an' thinking all the while it'll make sheeting +and table-clothing for her when she's married, an' she'll live i' +the parish wi' us, and never go out of our sights--like a fool as +I am for thinking aught about her, as is no better nor a cherry +wi' a hard stone inside it." + +"Nay, nay, thee mustna make much of a trifle," said Mr. Poyser, +soothingly. "She's fond on us, I'll be bound; but she's young, +an' gets things in her head as she can't rightly give account on. +Them young fillies 'ull run away often wi'-ou; knowing why." + +Her uncle's answers, however, had had another effect on Hetty +besides that of disappointing her and making her cry. She knew +quite well whom he had in his mind in his allusions to marriage, +and to a sober, solid husband; and when she was in her bedroom +again, the possibility of her marrying Adam presented itself to +her in a new light. In a mind where no strong sympathies are at +work, where there is no supreme sense of right to which the +agitated nature can cling and steady itself to quiet endurance, +one of the first results of sorrow is a desperate vague clutching +after any deed that will change the actual condition. Poor +Hetty's vision of consequences, at no time more than a narrow +fantastic calculation of her own probable pleasures and pains, was +now quite shut out by reckless irritation under present suffering, +and she was ready for one of those convulsive, motiveless actions +by which wretched men and women leap from a temporary sorrow into +a lifelong misery. + +Why should she not marry Adam? She did not care what she did, so +that it made some change in her life. She felt confident that he +would still want to marry her, and any further thought about +Adam's happiness in the matter had never yet visited her. + +"Strange!" perhaps you will say, "this rush of impulse to-wards a +course that might have seemed the most repugnant to her present +state of mind, and in only the second night of her sadness!" + +Yes, the actions of a little trivial soul like Hetty's, struggling +amidst the serious sad destinies of a human being, are strange. +So are the motions of a little vessel without ballast tossed about +on a stormy sea. How pretty it looked with its parti-coloured +sail in the sunlight, moored in the quiet bay! + +"Let that man bear the loss who loosed it from its moorings." + +But that will not save the vessel--the pretty thing that might +have been a lasting joy. + + + +Chapter XXXII + +Mrs. Poyser "Has Her Say Out" + + +THE next Saturday evening there was much excited discussion at the +Donnithorne Arms concerning an incident which had occurred that +very day--no less than a second appearance of the smart man in +top-boots said by some to be a mere farmer in treaty for the Chase +Farm, by others to be the future steward, but by Mr. Casson +himself, the personal witness to the stranger's visit, pronounced +contemptuously to be nothing better than a bailiff, such as +Satchell had been before him. No one had thought of denying Mr. +Casson's testimony to the fact that he had seen the stranger; +nevertheless, he proffered various corroborating circumstances. + +"I see him myself," he said; "I see him coming along by the Crab- +tree Meadow on a bald-faced hoss. I'd just been t' hev a pint--it +was half after ten i' the fore-noon, when I hev my pint as reg'lar +as the clock--and I says to Knowles, as druv up with his waggon, +'You'll get a bit o' barley to-day, Knowles,' I says, 'if you look +about you'; and then I went round by the rick-yard, and towart the +Treddles'on road, and just as I come up by the big ash-tree, I see +the man i' top-boots coming along on a bald-faced hoss--I wish I +may never stir if I didn't. And I stood still till he come up, +and I says, 'Good morning, sir,' I says, for I wanted to hear the +turn of his tongue, as I might know whether he was a this-country +man; so I says, 'Good morning, sir: it 'll 'old hup for the barley +this morning, I think. There'll be a bit got hin, if we've good +luck.' And he says, 'Eh, ye may be raight, there's noo tallin',' +he says, and I knowed by that"--here Mr. Casson gave a wink--"as +he didn't come from a hundred mile off. I daresay he'd think me a +hodd talker, as you Loamshire folks allays does hany one as talks +the right language." + +"The right language!" said Bartle Massey, contemptuously. "You're +about as near the right language as a pig's squeaking is like a +tune played on a key-bugle." + +"Well, I don't know," answered Mr. Casson, with an angry smile. +"I should think a man as has lived among the gentry from a by, is +likely to know what's the right language pretty nigh as well as a +schoolmaster." + +"Aye, aye, man," said Bartle, with a tone of sarcastic +consolation, "you talk the right language for you. When Mike +Holdsworth's goat says ba-a-a, it's all right--it 'ud be unnatural +for it to make any other noise." + +The rest of the party being Loamsnire men, Mr. Casson had the +laugh strongly against him, and wisely fell back on the previous +question, which, far from being exhausted in a single evening, was +renewed in the churchyard, before service, the next day, with the +fresh interest conferred on all news when there is a fresh person +to hear it; and that fresh hearer was Martin Poyser, who, as his +wife said, "never went boozin' with that set at Casson's, a- +sittin' soakin' in drink, and looking as wise as a lot o' cod-fish +wi' red faces." + +It was probably owing to the conversation she had had with her +husband on their way from church concerning this problematic +stranger that Mrs. Poyser's thoughts immediately reverted to him +when, a day or two afterwards, as she was standing at the house- +door with her knitting, in that eager leisure which came to her +when the afternoon cleaning was done, she saw the old squire enter +the yard on his black pony, followed by John the groom. She +always cited it afterwards as a case of prevision, which really +had something more in it than her own remarkable penetration, that +the moment she set eyes on the squire she said to herself, "I +shouldna wonder if he's come about that man as is a-going to take +the Chase Farm, wanting Poyser to do something for him without +pay. But Poyser's a fool if he does." + +Something unwonted must clearly be in the wind, for the old +squire's visits to his tenantry were rare; and though Mrs. Poyser +had during the last twelvemonth recited many imaginary speeches, +meaning even more than met the ear, which she was quite determined +to make to him the next time he appeared within the gates of the +Hall Farm, the speeches had always remained imaginary. + +"Good-day, Mrs. Poyser," said the old squire, peering at her with +his short-sighted eyes--a mode of looking at her which, as Mrs. +Poyser observed, "allays aggravated me: it was as if you was a +insect, and he was going to dab his finger-nail on you." + +However, she said, "Your servant, sir," and curtsied with an air +of perfect deference as she advanced towards him: she was not the +woman to misbehave towards her betters, and fly in the face of the +catechism, without severe provocation. + +"Is your husband at home, Mrs. Poyser?" + +"Yes, sir; he's only i' the rick-yard. I'll send for him in a +minute, if you'll please to get down and step in." + +"Thank you; I will do so. I want to consult him about a little +matter; but you are quite as much concerned in it, if not more. I +must have your opinion too." + +"Hetty, run and tell your uncle to come in," said Mrs. Poyser, as +they entered the house, and the old gentleman bowed low in answer +to Hetty's curtsy; while Totty, conscious of a pinafore stained +with gooseberry jam, stood hiding her face against the clock and +peeping round furtively. + +"What a fine old kitchen this is!" said Mr. Donnithorne, looking +round admiringly. He always spoke in the same deliberate, well- +chiselled, polite way, whether his words were sugary or venomous. +"And you keep it so exquisitely clean, Mrs. Poyser. I like these +premises, do you know, beyond any on the estate." + +"Well, sir, since you're fond of 'em, I should be glad if you'd +let a bit o' repairs be done to 'em, for the boarding's i' that +state as we're like to be eaten up wi' rats and mice; and the +cellar, you may stan' up to your knees i' water in't, if you like +to go down; but perhaps you'd rather believe my words. Won't you +please to sit down, sir?" + +"Not yet; I must see your dairy. I have not seen it for years, +and I hear on all hands about your fine cheese and butter," said +the squire, looking politely unconscious that there could be any +question on which he and Mrs. Poyser might happen to disagree. "I +think I see the door open, there. You must not be surprised if I +cast a covetous eye on your cream and butter. I don't expect that +Mrs. Satchell's cream and butter will bear comparison with yours." + +"I can't say, sir, I'm sure. It's seldom I see other folks's +butter, though there's some on it as one's no need to see--the +smell's enough." + +"Ah, now this I like," said Mr. Donnithorne, looking round at the +damp temple of cleanliness, but keeping near the door. "I'm sure +I should like my breakfast better if I knew the butter and cream +came from this dairy. Thank you, that really is a pleasant sight. +Unfortunately, my slight tendency to rheumatism makes me afraid of +damp: I'll sit down in your comfortable kitchen. Ah, Poyser, how +do you do? In the midst of business, I see, as usual. I've been +looking at your wife's beautiful dairy--the best manager in the +parish, is she not?" + +Mr. Poyser had just entered in shirt-sleeves and open waistcoat, +with a face a shade redder than usual, from the exertion of +"pitching." As he stood, red, rotund, and radiant, before the +small, wiry, cool old gentleman, he looked like a prize apple by +the side of a withered crab. + +"Will you please to take this chair, sir?" he said, lifting his +father's arm-chair forward a little: "you'll find it easy." + +"No, thank you, I never sit in easy-chairs," said the old +gentleman, seating himself on a small chair near the door. "Do +you know, Mrs. Poyser--sit down, pray, both of you--I've been far +from contented, for some time, with Mrs. Satchell's dairy +management. I think she has not a good method, as you have." + +"Indeed, sir, I can't speak to that," said Mrs. Poyser in a hard +voice, rolling and unrolling her knitting and looking icily out of +the window, as she continued to stand opposite the squire. Poyser +might sit down if he liked, she thought; she wasn't going to sit +down, as if she'd give in to any such smooth-tongued palaver. Mr. +Poyser, who looked and felt the reverse of icy, did sit down in +his three-cornered chair. + +"And now, Poyser, as Satchell is laid up, I am intending to let +the Chase Farm to a respectable tenant. I'm tired of having a +farm on my own hands--nothing is made the best of in such cases, +as you know. A satisfactory bailiff is hard to find; and I think +you and I, Poyser, and your excellent wife here, can enter into a +little arrangement in consequence, which will be to our mutual +advantage." + +"Oh," said Mr. Poyser, with a good-natured blankness of +imagination as to the nature of the arrangement. + +"If I'm called upon to speak, sir," said Mrs. Poyser, after +glancing at her husband with pity at his softness, "you know +better than me; but I don't see what the Chase Farm is t' us-- +we've cumber enough wi' our own farm. Not but what I'm glad to +hear o' anybody respectable coming into the parish; there's some +as ha' been brought in as hasn't been looked on i' that +character." + +"You're likely to find Mr. Thurle an excellent neighbour, I assure +you--such a one as you will feel glad to have accommodated by the +little plan I'm going to mention, especially as I hope you will +find it as much to your own advantage as his." + +"Indeed, sir, if it's anything t' our advantage, it'll be the +first offer o' the sort I've heared on. It's them as take +advantage that get advantage i' this world, I think. Folks have +to wait long enough afore it's brought to 'em." + +"The fact is, Poyser," said the squire, ignoring Mrs. Poyser's +theory of worldly prosperity, "there is too much dairy land, and +too little plough land, on the Chase Farm to suit Thurle's +purpose--indeed, he will only take the farm on condition of some +change in it: his wife, it appears, is not a clever dairy-woman, +like yours. Now, the plan I'm thinking of is to effect a little +exchange. If you were to have the Hollow Pastures, you might +increase your dairy, which must be so profitable under your wife's +management; and I should request you, Mrs. Poyser, to supply my +house with milk, cream, and butter at the market prices. On the +other hand, Poyser, you might let Thurle have the Lower and Upper +Ridges, which really, with our wet seasons, would be a good +riddance for you. There is much less risk in dairy land than corn +land." + +Mr. Poyser was leaning forward, with his elbows on his knees, his +head on one side, and his mouth screwed up--apparently absorbed in +making the tips of his fingers meet so as to represent with +perfect accuracy the ribs of a ship. He was much too acute a man +not to see through the whole business, and to foresee perfectly +what would be his wife's view of the subject; but he disliked +giving unpleasant answers. Unless it was on a point of farming +practice, he would rather give up than have a quarrel, any day; +and, after all, it mattered more to his wife than to him. So, +after a few moments' silence, he looked up at her and said mildly, +"What dost say?" + +Mrs. Poyser had had her eyes fixed on her husband with cold +severity during his silence, but now she turned away her head with +a toss, looked icily at the opposite roof of the cow-shed, and +spearing her knitting together with the loose pin, held it firmly +between her clasped hands. + +"Say? Why, I say you may do as you like about giving up any o' +your corn-land afore your lease is up, which it won't be for a +year come next Michaelmas, but I'll not consent to take more dairy +work into my hands, either for love or money; and there's nayther +love nor money here, as I can see, on'y other folks's love o' +theirselves, and the money as is to go into other folks's pockets. +I know there's them as is born t' own the land, and them as is +born to sweat on't"--here Mrs. Poyser paused to gasp a little-- +"and I know it's christened folks's duty to submit to their +betters as fur as flesh and blood 'ull bear it; but I'll not make +a martyr o' myself, and wear myself to skin and bone, and worret +myself as if I was a churn wi' butter a-coming in't, for no +landlord in England, not if he was King George himself." + +"No, no, my dear Mrs. Poyser, certainly not," said the squire, +still confident in his own powers of persuasion, "you must not +overwork yourself; but don't you think your work will rather be +lessened than increased in this way? There is so much milk +required at the Abbey that you will have little increase of cheese +and butter making from the addition to your dairy; and I believe +selling the milk is the most profitable way of disposing of dairy +produce, is it not?" + +"Aye, that's true," said Mr. Poyser, unable to repress an opinion +on a question of farming profits, and forgetting that it was not +in this case a purely abstract question. + +"I daresay," said Mrs. Poyser bitterly, turning her head half-way +towards her husband and looking at the vacant arm-chair--"I +daresay it's true for men as sit i' th' chimney-corner and make +believe as everything's cut wi' ins an' outs to fit int' +everything else. If you could make a pudding wi' thinking o' the +batter, it 'ud be easy getting dinner. How do I know whether the +milk 'ull be wanted constant? What's to make me sure as the house +won't be put o' board wage afore we're many months older, and then +I may have to lie awake o' nights wi' twenty gallons o' milk on my +mind--and Dingall 'ull take no more butter, let alone paying for +it; and we must fat pigs till we're obliged to beg the butcher on +our knees to buy 'em, and lose half of 'em wi' the measles. And +there's the fetching and carrying, as 'ud be welly half a day's +work for a man an' hoss--that's to be took out o' the profits, I +reckon? But there's folks 'ud hold a sieve under the pump and +expect to carry away the water." + +"That difficulty--about the fetching and carrying--you will not +have, Mrs. Poyser," said the squire, who thought that this +entrance into particulars indicated a distant inclination to +compromise on Mrs. Poyser's part. "Bethell will do that regularly +with the cart and pony." + +"Oh, sir, begging your pardon, I've never been used t' having +gentlefolks's servants coming about my back places, a-making love +to both the gells at once and keeping 'em with their hands on +their hips listening to all manner o' gossip when they should be +down on their knees a-scouring. If we're to go to ruin, it shanna +be wi' having our back kitchen turned into a public." + +"Well, Poyser," said the squire, shifting his tactics and looking +as if he thought Mrs. Poyser had suddenly withdrawn from the +proceedings and left the room, "you can turn the Hollows into +feeding-land. I can easily make another arrangement about +supplying my house. And I shall not forget your readiness to +accommodate your landlord as well as a neighbour. I know you will +be glad to have your lease renewed for three years, when the +present one expires; otherwise, I daresay Thurle, who is a man of +some capital, would be glad to take both the farms, as they could +be worked so well together. But I don't want to part with an old +tenant like you." + +To be thrust out of the discussion in this way would have been +enough to complete Mrs. Poyser's exasperation, even without the +final threat. Her husband, really alarmed at the possibility of +their leaving the old place where he had been bred and born--for +he believed the old squire had small spite enough for anything-- +was beginning a mild remonstrance explanatory of the inconvenience +he should find in having to buy and sell more stock, with, "Well, +sir, I think as it's rether hard..." when Mrs. Poyser burst in +with the desperate determination to have her say out this once, +though it were to rain notices to quit and the only shelter were +the work-house. + +"Then, sir, if I may speak--as, for all I'm a woman, and there's +folks as thinks a woman's fool enough to stan' by an' look on +while the men sign her soul away, I've a right to speak, for I +make one quarter o' the rent, and save another quarter--I say, if +Mr. Thurle's so ready to take farms under you, it's a pity but +what he should take this, and see if he likes to live in a house +wi' all the plagues o' Egypt in't--wi' the cellar full o' water, +and frogs and toads hoppin' up the steps by dozens--and the floors +rotten, and the rats and mice gnawing every bit o' cheese, and +runnin' over our heads as we lie i' bed till we expect 'em to eat +us up alive--as it's a mercy they hanna eat the children long ago. +I should like to see if there's another tenant besides Poyser as +'ud put up wi' never having a bit o' repairs done till a place +tumbles down--and not then, on'y wi' begging and praying and +having to pay half--and being strung up wi' the rent as it's much +if he gets enough out o' the land to pay, for all he's put his own +money into the ground beforehand. See if you'll get a stranger to +lead such a life here as that: a maggot must be born i' the rotten +cheese to like it, I reckon. You may run away from my words, +sir," continued Mrs. Poyser, following the old squire beyond the +door--for after the first moments of stunned surprise he had got +up, and, waving his hand towards her with a smile, had walked out +towards his pony. But it was impossible for him to get away +immediately, for John was walking the pony up and down the yard, +and was some distance from the causeway when his master beckoned. + +"You may run away from my words, sir, and you may go spinnin' +underhand ways o' doing us a mischief, for you've got Old Harry to +your friend, though nobody else is, but I tell you for once as +we're not dumb creatures to be abused and made money on by them as +ha' got the lash i' their hands, for want o' knowing how t' undo +the tackle. An' if I'm th' only one as speaks my mind, there's +plenty o' the same way o' thinking i' this parish and the next to +'t, for your name's no better than a brimstone match in +everybody's nose--if it isna two-three old folks as you think o' +saving your soul by giving 'em a bit o' flannel and a drop o' +porridge. An' you may be right i' thinking it'll take but little +to save your soul, for it'll be the smallest savin' y' iver made, +wi' all your scrapin'." + +There are occasions on which two servant-girls and a waggoner may +be a formidable audience, and as the squire rode away on his black +pony, even the gift of short-sightedness did not prevent him from +being aware that Molly and Nancy and Tim were grinning not far +from him. Perhaps he suspected that sour old John was grinning +behind him--which was also the fact. Meanwhile the bull-dog, the +black-and-tan terrier, Alick's sheep-dog, and the gander hissing +at a safe distance from the pony's heels carried out the idea of +Mrs. Poyser's solo in an irnpressive quartet. + +Mrs. Poyser, however, had no sooner seen the pony move off than +she turned round, gave the two hilarious damsels a look which +drove them into the back kitchen, and unspearing her knitting, +began to knit again with her usual rapidity as she re-entered the +house. + +"Thee'st done it now," said Mr. Poyser, a little alarmed and +uneasy, but not without some triumphant amusement at his wife's +outbreak. + +"Yes, I know I've done it," said Mrs. Poyser; "but I've had my say +out, and I shall be th' easier for't all my life. There's no +pleasure i' living if you're to be corked up for ever, and only +dribble your mind out by the sly, like a leaky barrel. I shan't +repent saying what I think, if I live to be as old as th' old +squire; and there's little likelihood--for it seems as if them as +aren't wanted here are th' only folks as aren't wanted i' th' +other world." + +"But thee wutna like moving from th' old place, this Michaelmas +twelvemonth," said Mr. Poyser, "and going into a strange parish, +where thee know'st nobody. It'll be hard upon us both, and upo' +Father too." + +"Eh, it's no use worreting; there's plenty o' things may happen +between this and Michaelmas twelvemonth. The captain may be +master afore them, for what we know," said Mrs. Poyser, inclined +to take an unusually hopeful view of an embarrassment which had +been brought about by her own merit and not by other people's +fault. + +"I'M none for worreting," said Mr. Poyser, rising from his three- +cornered chair and walking slowly towards the door; "but I should +be loath to leave th' old place, and the parish where I was bred +and born, and Father afore me. We should leave our roots behind +us, I doubt, and niver thrive again." + + + +Chapter XXXIII + +More Links + + +THE barley was all carried at last, and the harvest suppers went +by without waiting for the dismal black crop of beans. The apples +and nuts were gathered and stored; the scent of whey departed from +the farm-houses, and the scent of brewing came in its stead. The +woods behind the Chase, and all the hedgerow trees, took on a +solemn splendour under the dark low-hanging skies. Michaelmas was +come, with its fragrant basketfuls of purple damsons, and its +paler purple daisies, and its lads and lasses leaving or seeking +service and winding along between the yellow hedges, with their +bundles under their arms. But though Michaelmas was come, Mr. +Thurle, that desirable tenant, did not come to the Chase Farm, and +the old squire, afler all, had been obliged to put in a new +bailiff. It was known throughout the two parishes that the +squire's plan had been frustrated because the Poysers had refused +to be "put upon," and Mrs. Poyser's outbreak was discussed in all +the farm-houses with a zest which was only heightened by frequent +repetition. The news that "Bony" was come back from Egypt was +comparatively insipid, and the repulse of the French in Italy was +nothing to Mrs. Poyser's repulse of the old squire. Mr. Irwine +had heard a version of it in every parishioner's house, with the +one exception of the Chase. But since he had always, with +marvellous skill, avoided any quarrel with Mr. Donnithorne, he +could not allow himself the pleasure of laughing at the old +gentleman's discomfiture with any one besides his mother, who +declared that if she were rich she should like to allow Mrs. +Poyser a pension for life, and wanted to invite her to the +parsonage that she might hear an account of the scene from Mrs. +Poyser's own lips. + +"No, no, Mother," said Mr. Irwine; "it was a little bit of +irregular justice on Mrs. Poyser's part, but a magistrate like me +must not countenance irregular justice. There must be no report +spread that I have taken notice of the quarrel, else I shall lose +the little good influence I have over the old man." + +"Well, I like that woman even better than her cream-cheeses," said +Mrs. Irwine. "She has the spirit of three men, with that pale +face of hers. And she says such sharp things too." + +"Sharp! Yes, her tongue is like a new-set razor. She's quite +original in her talk too; one of those untaught wits that help to +stock a country with proverbs. I told you that capital thing I +heard her say about Craig--that he was like a cock, who thought +the sun had risen to hear him crow. Now that's an AEsop's fable +in a sentence." + +"But it will be a bad business if the old gentleman turns them out +of the farm next Michaelmas, eh?" said Mrs. Irwine. + +"Oh, that must not be; and Poyser is such a good tenant that +Donnithorne is likely to think twice, and digest his spleen rather +than turn them out. But if he should give them notice at Lady +Day, Arthur and I must move heaven and earth to mollify him. Such +old parishioners as they are must not go." + +"Ah, there's no knowing what may happen before Lady day," said +Mrs. Irwine. "It struck me on Arthur's birthday that the old man +was a little shaken: he's eighty-three, you know. It's really an +unconscionable age. It's only women who have a right to live as +long as that." + +"When they've got old-bachelor sons who would be forlorn without +them," said Mr. Irwine, laughing, and kissing his mother's hand. + +Mrs. Poyser, too, met her husband's occasional forebodings of a +notice to quit with "There's no knowing what may happen before +Lady day"--one of those undeniable general propositions which are +usually intended to convey a particular meaning very far from +undeniable. But it is really too hard upon human nature that it +should be held a criminal offence to imagine the death even of the +king when he is turned eighty-three. It is not to be believed +that any but the dullest Britons can be good subjects under that +hard condition. + +Apart from this foreboding, things went on much as usual in the +Poyser household. Mrs. Poyser thought she noticed a surprising +improvement in Hetty. To be sure, the girl got "closer tempered, +and sometimes she seemed as if there'd be no drawing a word from +her with cart-ropes," but she thought much less about her dress, +and went after the work quite eagerly, without any telling. And +it was wonderful how she never wanted to go out now--indeed, could +hardly be persuaded to go; and she bore her aunt's putting a stop +to her weekly lesson in fine-work at the Chase without the least +grumbling or pouting. It must be, after all, that she had set her +heart on Adam at last, and her sudden freak of wanting to be a +lady's maid must have been caused by some little pique or +misunderstanding between them, which had passed by. For whenever +Adam came to the Hall Farm, Hetty seemed to be in better spirits +and to talk more than at other times, though she was almost sullen +when Mr. Craig or any other admirer happened to pay a visit there. + +Adam himself watched her at first with trembling anxiety, which +gave way to surprise and delicious hope. Five days after +delivering Arthur's letter, he had ventured to go to the Hall Farm +again--not without dread lest the sight of him might be painful to +her. She was not in the house-place when he entered, and he sat +talking to Mr. and Mrs. Poyser for a few minutes with a heavy fear +on his heart that they might presently tell him Hetty was ill. +But by and by there came a light step that he knew, and when Mrs. +Poyser said, "Come, Hetty, where have you been?" Adam was obliged +to turn round, though he was afraid to see the changed look there +must be in her face. He almost started when he saw her smiling as +if she were pleased to see him--looking the same as ever at a +first glance, only that she had her cap on, which he had never +seen her in before when he came of an evening. Still, when he +looked at her again and again as she moved about or sat at her +work, there was a change: the cheeks were as pink as ever, and she +smiled as much as she had ever done of late, but there was +something different in her eyes, in the expression of her face, in +all her movements, Adam thought--something harder, older, less +child-like. "Poor thing!" he said to himself, "that's allays +likely. It's because she's had her first heartache. But she's +got a spirit to bear up under it. Thank God for that." + +As the weeks went by, and he saw her always looking pleased to see +him--turning up her lovely face towards him as if she meant him to +understand that she was glad for him to come--and going about her +work in the same equable way, making no sign of sorrow, he began +to believe that her feeling towards Arthur must have been much +slighter than he had imagined in his first indignation and alarm, +and that she had been able to think of her girlish fancy that +Arthur was in love with her and would marry her as a folly of +which she was timely cured. And it perhaps was, as he had +sometimes in his more cheerful moments hoped it would be--her +heart was really turning with all the more warmth towards the man +she knew to have a serious love for her. + +Possibly you think that Adam was not at all sagacious in his +interpretations, and that it was altogether extremely unbecoming +in a sensible man to behave as he did--falling in love with a girl +who really had nothing more than her beauty to recommend her, +attributing imaginary virtues to her, and even condescending to +cleave to her after she had fallen in love with another man, +waiting for her kind looks as a patient trembling dog waits for +his master's eye to be turned upon him. But in so complex a thing +as human nature, we must consider, it is hard to find rules +without exceptions. Of course, I know that, as a rule, sensible +men fall in love with the most sensible women of their +acquaintance, see through all the pretty deceits of coquettish +beauty, never imagine themselves loved when they are not loved, +cease loving on all proper occasions, and marry the woman most +fitted for them in every respect--indeed, so as to compel the +approbation of all the maiden ladies in their neighbourhood. But +even to this rule an exception will occur now and then in the +lapse of centuries, and my friend Adam was one. For my own part, +however, I respect him none the less--nay, I think the deep love +he had for that sweet, rounded, blossom-like, dark-eyed Hetty, of +whose inward self he was really very ignorant, came out of the +very strength of his nature and not out of any inconsistent +weakness. Is it any weakness, pray, to be wrought on by exquisite +music? To feel its wondrous harmonies searching the subtlest +windings of your soul, the delicate fibres of life where no memory +can penetrate, and binding together your whole being past and +present in one unspeakable vibration, melting you in one moment +with all the tenderness, all the love that has been scattered +through the toilsome years, concentrating in one emotion of heroic +courage or resignation all the hard-learnt lessons of self- +renouncing sympathy, blending your present joy with past sorrow +and your present sorrow with all your past joy? If not, then +neither is it a weakness to be so wrought upon by the exquisite +curves of a woman's cheek and neck and arms, by the liquid depths +of her beseeching eyes, or the sweet childish pout of her lips. +For the beauty of a lovely woman is like music: what can one say +more? Beauty has an expression beyond and far above the one +woman's soul that it clothes, as the words of genius have a wider +meaning than the thought that prompted them. It is more than a +woman's love that moves us in a woman's eyes--it seems to be a +far-off mighty love that has come near to us, and made speech for +itself there; the rounded neck, the dimpled arm, move us by +something more than their prettiness--by their close kinship with +all we have known of tenderness and peace. The noblest nature +sees the most of this impersonal expression in beauty (it is +needless to say that there are gentlemen with whiskers dyed and +undyed who see none of it whatever), and for this reason, the +noblest nature is often the most blinded to the character of the +one woman's soul that the beauty clothes. Whence, I fear, the +tragedy of human life is likely to continue for a long time to +come, in spite of mental philosophers who are ready with the best +receipts for avoiding all mistakes of the kind. + +Our good Adam had no fine words into which he could put his +feeling for Hetty: he could not disguise mystery in this way with +the appearance of knowledge; he called his love frankly a mystery, +as you have heard him. He only knew that the sight and memory of +her moved him deeply, touching the spring of all love and +tenderness, all faith and courage within him. How could he +imagine narrowness, selfishness, hardness in her? He created the +mind he believed in out of his own, which was large, unselfish, +tender. + +The hopes he felt about Hetty softened a little his feeling +towards Arthur. Surely his attentions to Hetty must have been of +a slight kind; they were altogether wrong, and such as no man in +Arthur's position ought to have allowed himself, but they must +have had an air of playfulness about them, which had probably +blinded him to their danger and had prevented them from laying any +strong hold on Hetty's heart. As the new promise of happiness +rose for Adam, his indignation and jealousy began to die out. +Hetty was not made unhappy; he almost believed that she liked him +best; and the thought sometimes crossed his mind that the +friendship which had once seemed dead for ever might revive in the +days to come, and he would not have to say "good-bye" to the grand +old woods, but would like them better because they were Arthur's. +For this new promise of happiness following so quickly on the +shock of pain had an intoxicating effect on the sober Adam, who +had all his life been used to much hardship and moderate hope. +Was he really going to have an easy lot after all? It seemed so, +for at the beginning of November, Jonathan Burge, finding it +impossible to replace Adam, had at last made up his mind to offer +him a share in the business, without further condition than that +he should continue to give his energies to it and renounce all +thought of having a separate business of his own. Son-in-law or +no son-in-law, Adam had made himself too necessary to be parted +with, and his headwork was so much more important to Burge than +his skill in handicraft that his having the management of the +woods made little difference in the value of his services; and as +to the bargains about the squire's timber, it would be easy to +call in a third person. Adam saw here an opening into a +broadening path of prosperous work such as he had thought of with +ambitious longing ever since he was a lad: he might come to build +a bridge, or a town hall, or a factory, for he had always said to +himself that Jonathan Burge's building buisness was like an acorn, +which might be the mother of a great tree. So he gave his hand to +Burge on that bargain, and went home with his mind full of happy +visions, in which (my refined reader will perhaps be shocked when +I say it) the image of Hetty hovered, and smiled over plans for +seasoning timber at a trifling expense, calculations as to the +cheapening of bricks per thousand by water-carriage, and a +favourite scheme for the strengthening of roofs and walls with a +peculiar form of iron girder. What then? Adam's enthusiasm lay +in these things; and our love is inwrought in our enthusiasm as +electricity is inwrought in the air, exalting its power by a +subtle presence. + +Adam would be able to take a separate house now, and provide for +his mother in the old one; his prospects would justify his +marrying very soon, and if Dinah consented to have Seth, their +mother would perhaps be more contented to live apart from Adam. +But he told himself that he would not be hasty--he would not try +Hetty's feeling for him until it had had time to grow strong and +firm. However, tomorrow, after church, he would go to the Hall +Farm and tell them the news. Mr. Poyser, he knew, would like it +better than a five-pound note, and he should see if Hetty's eyes +brightened at it. The months would be short with all he had to +fill his mind, and this foolish eagerness which had come over him +of late must not hurry him into any premature words. Yet when he +got home and told his mother the good news, and ate his supper, +while she sat by almost crying for joy and wanting him to eat +twice as much as usual because of this good-luck, he could not +help preparing her gently for the coming change by talking of the +old house being too small for them all to go on living in it +always. + + + +Chapter XXXIV + +The Betrothal + + +IT was a dry Sunday, and really a pleasant day for the 2d of +November. There was no sunshine, but the clouds were high, and +the wind was so still that the yellow leaves which fluttered down +from the hedgerow elms must have fallen from pure decay. +Nevertheless, Mrs. Poyser did not go to church, for she had taken +a cold too serious to be neglected; only two winters ago she had +been laid up for weeks with a cold; and since his wife did not go +to church, Mr. Poyser considered that on the whole it would be as +well for him to stay away too and "keep her company." He could +perhaps have given no precise form to the reasons that determined +this conclusion, but it is well known to all experienced minds +that our firmest convictions are often dependent on subtle +impressions for which words are quite too coarse a medium. +However it was, no one from the Poyser family went to church that +afternoon except Hetty and the boys; yet Adam was bold enough to +join them after church, and say that he would walk home with them, +though all the way through the village he appeared to be chiefly +occupied with Marty and Tommy, telling them about the squirrels in +Binton Coppice, and promising to take them there some day. But +when they came to the fields he said to the boys, "Now, then, +which is the stoutest walker? Him as gets to th' home-gate first +shall be the first to go with me to Binton Coppice on the donkey. +But Tommy must have the start up to the next stile, because he's +the smallest." + +Adam had never behaved so much like a determined lover before. As +soon as the boys had both set off, he looked down at Hetty and +said, "Won't you hang on my arm, Hetty?" in a pleading tone, as if +he had already asked her and she had refused. Hetty looked up at +him smilingly and put her round arm through his in a moment. It +was nothing to her, putting her arm through Adam's, but she knew +he cared a great deal about having her arm through his, and she +wished him to care. Her heart beat no faster, and she looked at +the half-bare hedgerows and the ploughed field with the same sense +of oppressive dulness as before. But Adam scarcely felt that he +was walking. He thought Hetty must know that he was pressing her +arm a little--a very little. Words rushed to his lips that he +dared not utter--that he had made up his mind not to utter yet-- +and so he was silent for the length of that field. The calm +patience with which he had once waited for Hetty's love, content +only with her presence and the thought of the future, had forsaken +him since that terrible shock nearly three months ago. The +agitations of jealousy had given a new restlessness to his +passion--had made fear and uncertainty too hard almost to bear. +But though he might not speak to Hetty of his love, he would tell +her about his new prospects and see if she would be pleased. So +when he was enough master of himself to talk, he said, "I'm going +to tell your uncle some news that'll surprise him, Hetty; and I +think he'll be glad to hear it too." + +"What's that?" Hetty said indifferently. + +"Why, Mr. Burge has offered me a share in his business, and I'm +going to take it." + +There was a change in Hetty's face, certainly not produced by any +agreeable impression from this news. In fact she felt a momentary +annoyance and alarm, for she had so often heard it hinted by her +uncle that Adam might have Mary Burge and a share in the business +any day, if he liked, that she associated the two objects now, and +the thought immediately occurred that perhaps Adam had given her +up because of what had happened lately, and had turned towards +Mary Burge. With that thought, and before she had time to +remember any reasons why it could not be true, came a new sense of +forsakenness and disappointment. The one thing--the one person-- +her mind had rested on in its dull weariness, had slipped away +from her, and peevish misery filled her eyes with tears. She was +looking on the ground, but Adam saw her face, saw the tears, and +before he had finished saying, "Hetty, dear Hetty, what are you +crying for?" his eager rapid thought had flown through all the +causes conceivable to him, and had at last alighted on half the +true one. Hetty thought he was going to marry Mary Burge--she +didn't like him to marry--perhaps she didn't like him to marry any +one but herself? All caution was swept away--all reason for it +was gone, and Adam could feel nothing but trembling joy. He +leaned towards her and took her hand, as he said: + +"I could afford to be married now, Hetty--I could make a wife +comfortable; but I shall never want to be married if you won't +have me." + +Hetty looked up at him and smiled through her tears, as she had +done to Arthur that first evening in the wood, when she had +thought he was not coming, and yet he came. It was a feebler +relief, a feebler triumph she felt now, but the great dark eyes +and the sweet lips were as beautiful as ever, perhaps more +beautiful, for there was a more luxuriant womanliness about Hetty +of late. Adam could hardly believe in the happiness of that +moment. His right hand held her left, and he pressed her arm +close against his heart as he leaned down towards her. + +"Do you really love me, Hetty? Will you be my own wife, to love +and take care of as long as I live?" + +Hetty did not speak, but Adam's face was very close to hers, and +she put up her round cheek against his, like a kitten. She wanted +to be caressed--she wanted to feel as if Arthur were with her +again. + +Adam cared for no words after that, and they hardly spoke through +the rest of the walk. He only said, "I may tell your uncle and +aunt, mayn't I, Hetty?" and she said, "Yes." + +The red fire-light on the hearth at the Hall Farm shone on joyful +faces that evening, when Hetty was gone upstairs and Adam took the +opportunity of telling Mr. and Mrs. Poyser and the grandfather +that he saw his way to maintaining a wife now, and that Hetty had +consented to have him. + +"I hope you have no objections against me for her husband," said +Adam; "I'm a poor man as yet, but she shall want nothing as I can +work for." + +"Objections?" said Mr. Poyser, while the grandfather leaned +forward and brought out his long "Nay, nay." "What objections can +we ha' to you, lad? Never mind your being poorish as yet; there's +money in your head-piece as there's money i' the sown field, but +it must ha' time. You'n got enough to begin on, and we can do a +deal tow'rt the bit o' furniture you'll want. Thee'st got +feathers and linen to spare--plenty, eh?" + +This question was of course addressed to Mrs. Poyser, who was +wrapped up in a warm shawl and was too hoarse to speak with her +usual facility. At first she only nodded emphatically, but she +was presently unable to resist the temptation to be more explicit. + +"It ud be a poor tale if I hadna feathers and linen," she said, +hoarsely, "when I never sell a fowl but what's plucked, and the +wheel's a-going every day o' the week." + +"Come, my wench," said Mr. Poyser, when Hetty came down, "come and +kiss us, and let us wish you luck." + +Hetty went very quietly and kissed the big good-natured man. + +"There!" he said, patting her on the back, "go and kiss your aunt +and your grandfather. I'm as wishful t' have you settled well as +if you was my own daughter; and so's your aunt, I'll be bound, for +she's done by you this seven 'ear, Hetty, as if you'd been her +own. Come, come, now," he went on, becoming jocose, as soon as +Hetty had kissed her aunt and the old man, "Adam wants a kiss too, +I'll warrant, and he's a right to one now." + +Hetty turned away, smiling, towards her empty chair. + +"Come, Adam, then, take one," persisted Mr. Poyser, "else y' arena +half a man." + +Adam got up, blushing like a small maiden--great strong fellow as +he was--and, putting his arm round Hetty stooped down and gently +kissed her lips. + +It was a pretty scene in the red fire-light; for there were no +candles--why should there be, when the fire was so bright and was +reflected from all the pewter and the polished oak? No one wanted +to work on a Sunday evening. Even Hetty felt something like +contentment in the midst of all this love. Adam's attachment to +her, Adam's caress, stirred no passion in her, were no longer +enough to satisfy her vanity, but they were the best her life +offered her now--they promised her some change. + +There was a great deal of discussion before Adam went away, about +the possibility of his finding a house that would do for him to +settle in. No house was empty except the one next to Will +Maskery's in the village, and that was too small for Adam now. +Mr. Poyser insisted that the best plan would be for Seth and his +mother to move and leave Adam in the old home, which might be +enlarged after a while, for there was plenty of space in the +woodyard and garden; but Adam objected to turning his mother out. + +"Well, well," said Mr. Poyser at last, "we needna fix everything +to-night. We must take time to consider. You canna think o' +getting married afore Easter. I'm not for long courtships, but +there must be a bit o' time to make things comfortable." + +"Aye, to be sure," said Mrs. Poyser, in a hoarse whisper; +"Christian folks can't be married like cuckoos, I reckon." + +"I'm a bit daunted, though," said Mr. Poyser, "when I think as we +may have notice to quit, and belike be forced to take a farm +twenty mile off." + +"Eh," said the old man, staring at the floor and lifting his hands +up and down, while his arms rested on the elbows of his chair, +"it's a poor tale if I mun leave th' ould spot an be buried in a +strange parish. An' you'll happen ha' double rates to pay," he +added, looking up at his son. + +"Well, thee mustna fret beforehand, father," said Martin the +younger. "Happen the captain 'ull come home and make our peace +wi' th' old squire. I build upo' that, for I know the captain 'll +see folks righted if he can." + + + +Chapter XXXV + +The Hidden Dread + + +IT was a busy time for Adam--the time between the beginning of +November and the beginning of February, and he could see little of +Hetty, except on Sundays. But a happy time, nevertheless, for it +was taking him nearer and nearer to March, when they were to be +married, and all the little preparations for their new +housekeeping marked the progress towards the longed-for day. Two +new rooms had been "run up" to the old house, for his mother and +Seth were to live with them after all. Lisbeth had cried so +piteously at the thought of leaving Adam that he had gone to Hetty +and asked her if, for the love of him, she would put up with his +mother's ways and consent to live with her. To his great delight, +Hetty said, "Yes; I'd as soon she lived with us as not." Hetty's +mind was oppressed at that moment with a worse difficulty than +poor Lisbeth's ways; she could not care about them. So Adam was +consoled for the disappointment he had felt when Seth had come +back from his visit to Snowfield and said "it was no use--Dinah's +heart wasna turned towards marrying." For when he told his mother +that Hetty was willing they should all live together and there was +no more need of them to think of parting, she said, in a more +contented tone than he had heard her speak in since it had been +settled that he was to be married, "Eh, my lad, I'll be as still +as th' ould tabby, an' ne'er want to do aught but th' offal work, +as she wonna like t' do. An' then we needna part the platters an' +things, as ha' stood on the shelf together sin' afore thee wast +born." + +There was only one cloud that now and then came across Adam's +sunshine: Hetty seemed unhappy sometimes. But to all his +anxious, tender questions, she replied with an assurance that she +was quite contented and wished nothing different; and the next +time he saw her she was more lively than usual. It might be that +she was a little overdone with work and anxiety now, for soon +after Christmas Mrs. Poyser had taken another cold, which had +brought on inflammation, and this illness had confined her to her +room all through January. Hetty had to manage everything +downstairs, and half-supply Molly's place too, while that good +damsel waited on her mistress, and she seemed to throw herself so +entirely into her new functions, working with a grave steadiness +which was new in her, that Mr. Poyser often told Adam she was +wanting to show him what a good housekeeper he would have; but he +"doubted the lass was o'erdoing it--she must have a bit o' rest +when her aunt could come downstairs." + +This desirable event of Mrs. Poyser's coming downstairs happened +in the early part of February, when some mild weather thawed the +last patch of snow on the Binton Hills. On one of these days, +soon after her aunt came down, Hetty went to Treddleston to buy +some of the wedding things which were wanting, and which Mrs. +Poyser had scolded her for neglecting, observing that she supposed +"it was because they were not for th' outside, else she'd ha' +bought 'em fast enough." + +It was about ten o'clock when Hetty set off, and the slight hoar- +frost that had whitened the hedges in the early morning had +disappeared as the sun mounted the cloudless sky. Bright February +days have a stronger charm of hope about them than any other days +in the year. One likes to pause in the mild rays of the sun, and +look over the gates at the patient plough-horses turning at the +end of the furrow, and think that the beautiful year is all before +one. The birds seem to feel just the same: their notes are as +clear as the clear air. There are no leaves on the trees and +hedgerows, but how green all the grassy fields are! And the dark +purplish brown of the ploughed earth and of the bare branches is +beautiful too. What a glad world this looks like, as one drives +or rides along the valleys and over the hills! I have often +thought so when, in foreign countries, where the fields and woods +have looked to me like our English Loamshire--the rich land tilled +with just as much care, the woods rolling down the gentle slopes +to the green meadows--I have come on sormething by the roadside +which has reminded me that I am not in Loamshire: an image of a +great agony--the agony of the Cross. It has stood perhaps by the +clustering apple-blossoms, or in the broad sunshine by the +cornfield, or at a turning by the wood where a clear brook was +gurgling below; and surely, if there came a traveller to this +world who knew nothing of the story of man's life upon it, this +image of agony would seem to him strangely out of place in the +midst of this joyous nature. He would not know that hidden behind +the apple-blossoms, or among the golden corn, or under the +shrouding boughs of the wood, there might be a human heart beating +heavily with anguish--perhaps a young blooming girl, not knowing +where to turn for refuge from swift-advancing shame, understanding +no more of this life of ours than a foolish lost lamb wandering +farther and farther in the nightfall on the lonely heath, yet +tasting the bitterest of life's bitterness. + +Such things are sometimes hidden among the sunny fields and behind +the blossoming orchards; and the sound of the gurgling brook, if +you came close to one spot behind a small bush, would be mingled +for your ear with a despairing human sob. No wonder man's +religion has much sorrow in it: no wonder he needs a suffering +God. + +Hetty, in her red cloak and warm bonnet, with her basket in her +hand, is turning towards a gate by the side of the Treddleston +road, but not that she may have a more lingering enjoyment of the +sunshine and think with hope of the long unfolding year. She +hardly knows that the sun is shining; and for weeks, now, when she +has hoped at all, it has been for something at which she herself +trembles and shudders. She only wants to be out of the high-road, +that she may walk slowly and not care how her face looks, as she +dwells on wretched thoughts; and through this gate she can get +into a field-path behind the wide thick hedgerows. Her great dark +eyes wander blankly over the fields like the eyes of one who is +desolate, homeless, unloved, not the promised bride of a brave +tender man. But there are no tears in them: her tears were all +wept away in the weary night, before she went to sleep. At the +next stile the pathway branches off: there are two roads before +her--one along by the hedgerow, which will by and by lead her into +the road again, the other across the fields, which will take her +much farther out of the way into the Scantlands, low shrouded +pastures where she will see nobody. She chooses this and begins +to walk a little faster, as if she had suddenly thought of an +object towards which it was worth while to hasten. Soon she is in +the Scantlands, where the grassy land slopes gradually downwards, +and she leaves the level ground to follow the slope. Farther on +there is a clump of trees on the low ground, and she is making her +way towards it. No, it is not a clump of trees, but a dark +shrouded pool, so full with the wintry rains that the under boughs +of the elder-bushes lie low beneath the water. She sits down on +the grassy bank, against the stooping stem of the great oak that +hangs over the dark pool. She has thought of this pool often in +the nights of the month that has just gone by, and now at last she +is come to see it. She clasps her hands round her knees, and +leans forward, and looks earnestly at it, as if trying to guess +what sort of bed it would make for her young round limbs. + +No, she has not courage to jump into that cold watery bed, and if +she had, they might find her--they might find out why she had +drowned herself. There is but one thing left to her: she must go +away, go where they can't find her. + +After the first on-coming of her great dread, some weeks after her +betrothal to Adam, she had waited and waited, in the blind vague +hope that something would happen to set her free from her terror; +but she could wait no longer. All the force of her nature had +been concentrated on the one effort of concealment, and she had +shrunk with irresistible dread from every course that could tend +towards a betrayal of her miserable secret. Whenever the thought +of writing to Arthur had occurred to her, she had rejected it. He +could do nothing for her that would shelter her from discovery and +scorn among the relatives and neighbours who once more made all +her world, now her airy dream had vanished. Her imagination no +longer saw happiness with Arthur, for he could do nothing that +would satisfy or soothe her pride. No, something else would +happen--something must happen--to set her free from this dread. +In young, childish, ignorant souls there is constantly this blind +trust in some unshapen chance: it is as hard to a boy or girl to +believe that a great wretchedness will actually befall them as to +believe that they will die. + +But now necessity was pressing hard upon her--now the time of her +marriage was close at hand--she could no longer rest in this blind +trust. She must run away; she must hide herself where no familiar +eyes could detect her; and then the terror of wandering out into +the world, of which she knew nothing, made the possibility of +going to Arthur a thought which brought some comfort with it. She +felt so helpless now, so unable to fashion the future for herself, +that the prospect of throwing herself on him had a relief in it +which was stronger than her pride. As she sat by the pool and +shuddered at the dark cold water, the hope that he would receive +her tenderly--that he would care for her and think for her--was +like a sense of lulling warmth, that made her for the moment +indifferent to everything else; and she began now to think of +nothing but the scheme by which she should get away. + +She had had a letter from Dinah lately, full of kind words about +the coming marriage, which she had heard of from Seth; and when +Hetty had read this letter aloud to her uncle, he had said, "I +wish Dinah 'ud come again now, for she'd be a comfort to your aunt +when you're gone. What do you think, my wench, o' going to see +her as soon as you can be spared and persuading her to come back +wi' you? You might happen persuade her wi' telling her as her +aunt wants her, for all she writes o' not being able to come." +Hetty had not liked the thought of going to Snowfield, and felt no +longing to see Dinah, so she only said, "It's so far off, Uncle." +But now she thought this proposed visit would serve as a pretext +for going away. She would tell her aunt when she got home again +that she should like the change of going to Snowfield for a week +or ten days. And then, when she got to Stoniton, where nobody +knew her, she would ask for the coach that would take her on the +way to Windsor. Arthur was at Windsor, and she would go to him. + +As soon as Hetty had determined on this scheme, she rose from the +grassy bank of the pool, took up her basket, and went on her way +to Treddleston, for she must buy the wedding things she had come +out for, though she would never want them. She must be careful +not to raise any suspicion that she was going to run away. + +Mrs. Poyser was quite agreeably surprised that Hetty wished to go +and see Dinah and try to bring her back to stay over the wedding. +The sooner she went the better, since the weather was pleasant +now; and Adam, when he came in the evening, said, if Hetty could +set off to-morrow, he would make time to go with her to +Treddleston and see her safe into the Stoniton coach. + +"I wish I could go with you and take care of you, Hetty," he said, +the next morning, leaning in at the coach door; "but you won't +stay much beyond a week--the time 'ull seem long." + +He was looking at her fondly, and his strong hand beld hers in its +grasp. Hetty felt a sense of protection in his presence--she was +used to it now: if she could have had the past undone and known no +other love than her quiet liking for Adam! The tears rose as she +gave him the last look. + +"God bless her for loving me," said Adam, as he went on his way to +work again, with Gyp at his heels. + +But Hetty's tears were not for Adam--not for the anguish that +would come upon him when he found she was gone from him for ever. +They were for the misery of her own lot, which took her away from +this brave tender man who offered up his whole life to her, and +threw her, a poor helpless suppliant, on the man who would think +it a misfortune that she was obliged to cling to him. + +At three o'clock that day, when Hetty was on the coach that was to +take her, they said, to Leicester--part of the long, long way to +Windsor--she felt dimly that she might be travelling all this +weary journey towards the beginning of new misery. + +Yet Arthur was at Windsor; he would surely not be angry with her. +If he did not mind about her as he used to do, he had promised to +be good to her. + + + +Book Five + + +Chapter XXXVI + +The Journey of Hope + + +A LONG, lonely journey, with sadness in the heart; away from the +familiar to the strange: that is a hard and dreary thing even to +the rich, the strong, the instructed; a hard thing, even when we +are called by duty, not urged by dread. + +What was it then to Hetty? With her poor narrow thoughts, no +longer melting into vague hopes, but pressed upon by the chill of +definite fear, repeating again and again the same small round of +memories--shaping again and again the same childish, doubtful +images of what was to come--seeing nothing in this wide world but +the little history of her own pleasures and pains; with so little +money in her pocket, and the way so long and difficult. Unless +she could afford always to go in the coaches--and she felt sure +she could not, for the journey to Stoniton was more expensive than +she had expected--it was plain that she must trust to carriers' +carts or slow waggons; and what a time it would be before she +could get to the end of her journey! The burly old coachman from +Oakbourne, seeing such a pretty young woman among the outside +passengers, had invited her to come and sit beside him; and +feeling that it became him as a man and a coachman to open the +dialogue with a joke, he applied himself as soon as they were off +the stones to the elaboration of one suitable in all respects. +After many cuts with his whip and glances at Hetty out of the +corner of his eye, he lifted his lips above the edge of his +wrapper and said, "He's pretty nigh six foot, I'll be bound, isna +he, now?" + +"Who?" said Hetty, rather startled. + +"Why, the sweetheart as you've left behind, or else him as you're +goin' arter--which is it?" + +Hetty felt her face flushing and then turning pale. She thought +this coachman must know something about her. He must know Adam, +and might tell him where she was gone, for it is difficult to +country people to believe that those who make a figure in their +own parish are not known everywhere else, and it was equally +difficult to Hetty to understand that chance words could happen to +apply closely to her circumstances. She was too frightened to +speak. + +"Hegh, hegh!" said the coachman, seeing that his joke was not so +gratifying as he had expected, "you munna take it too ser'ous; if +he's behaved ill, get another. Such a pretty lass as you can get +a sweetheart any day." + +Hetty's fear was allayed by and by, when she found that the +coachman made no further allusion to her personal concerns; but it +still had the effect of preventing her from asking him what were +the places on the road to Windsor. She told him she was only +going a little way out of Stoniton, and when she got down at the +inn where the coach stopped, she hastened away with her basket to +another part of the town. When she had formed her plan of going +to Windsor, she had not foreseen any difficulties except that of +getting away, and after she had overcome this by proposing the +visit to Dinah, her thoughts flew to the meeting with Arthur and +the question how he would behave to her--not resting on any +probable incidents of the journey. She was too entirely ignorant +of traveling to imagine any of its details, and with all her store +of money--her three guineas--in her pocket, she thought herself +amply provided. It was not until she found how much it cost her +to get to Stoniton that she began to be alarmed about the journey, +and then, for the first time, she felt her ignorance as to the +places that must be passed on her way. Oppressed with this new +alarm, she walked along the grim Stoniton streets, and at last +turned into a shabby little inn, where she hoped to get a cheap +lodging for the night. Here she asked the landlord if he could +tell her what places she must go to, to get to Windsor. + +"Well, I can't rightly say. Windsor must be pretty nigh London, +for it's where the king lives," was the answer. "Anyhow, you'd +best go t' Ashby next--that's south'ard. But there's as many +places from here to London as there's houses in Stoniton, by what +I can make out. I've never been no traveller myself. But how +comes a lone young woman like you to be thinking o' taking such a +journey as that?" + +"I'm going to my brother--he's a soldier at Windsor," said Hetty, +frightened at the landlord's questioning look. "I can't afford to +go by the coach; do you think there's a cart goes toward Ashby in +the morning?" + +"Yes, there may be carts if anybody knowed where they started +from; but you might run over the town before you found out. You'd +best set off and walk, and trust to summat overtaking you." + +Every word sank like lead on Hetty's spirits; she saw the journey +stretch bit by bit before her now. Even to get to Ashby seemed a +hard thing: it might take the day, for what she knew, and that was +nothing to the rest of the journey. But it must be done--she must +get to Arthur. Oh, how she yearned to be again with somebody who +would care for her! She who had never got up in the morning +without the certainty of seeing familiar faces, people on whom she +had an acknowledged claim; whose farthest journey had been to +Rosseter on the pillion with her uncle; whose thoughts had always +been taking holiday in dreams of pleasure, because all the +business of her life was managed for her--this kittenlike Hetty, +who till a few months ago had never felt any other grief than that +of envying Mary Burge a new ribbon, or being girded at by her aunt +for neglecting Totty, must now make her toilsome way in +loneliness, her peaceful home left behind for ever, and nothing +but a tremulous hope of distant refuge before her. Now for the +first time, as she lay down to-night in the strange hard bed, she +felt that her home had been a happy one, that her uncle had been +very good to her, that her quiet lot at Hayslope among the things +and people she knew, with her little pride in her one best gown +and bonnet, and nothing to hide from any one, was what she would +like to wake up to as a reality, and find that all the feverish +life she had known besides was a short nightmare. She thought of +all she had left behind with yearning regret for her own sake. +Her own misery filled her heart--there was no room in it for other +people's sorrow. And yet, before the cruel letter, Arthur had +been so tender and loving. The memory of that had still a charm +for her, though it was no more than a soothing draught that just +made pain bearable. For Hetty could conceive no other existence +for herself in future than a hidden one, and a hidden life, even +with love, would have had no delights for her; still less a life +mingled with shame. She knew no romances, and had only a feeble +share in the feelings which are the source of romance, so that +well-read ladies may find it difflcult to understand her state of +mind. She was too igrorant of everything beyond the simple +notions and habits in which she had been brought up to have any +more definite idea of her probable future than that Arthur would +take care of her somehow, and shelter her from anger and scorn. +He would not marry her and make her a lady; and apart from that +she could think of nothing he could give towards which she looked +with longing and ambition. + +The next morning she rose early, and taking only some milk and +bread for her breakfast, set out to walk on the road towards +Ashby, under a leaden-coloured sky, with a narrowing streak of +yellow, like a departing hope, on the edge of the horizon. Now in +her faintness of heart at the length and difficulty of her +journey, she was most of all afraid of spending her money, and +becoming so destitute that she would have to ask people's charity; +for Hettv had the pride not only of a proud nature but of a proud +class--the class that pays the most poor-rates, and most shudders +at the idea of profiting by a poor-rate. It had not yet occurred +to her that she might get money for her locket and earrings which +she carried with her, and she applied all her small arithmetic and +knowledge of prices to calculating how many meals and how many +rides were contained in her two guineas, and the odd shillings, +which had a melancholy look, as if they were the pale ashes of the +other bright-flaming coin. + +For the first few miles out of Stoniton, she walked on bravely, +always fixing on some tree or gate or projecting bush at the most +distant visible point in the road as a goal, and feeling a faint +joy when she had reached it. But when she came to the fourth +milestone, the first she had happened to notice among the long +grass by the roadside, and read that she was still only four miles +beyond Stoniton, her courage sank. She had come only this little +way, and yet felt tired, and almost hungry again in the keen +morning air; for though Hetty was accustomed to much movement and +exertion indoors, she was not used to long walks which produced +quite a different sort of fatigue from that of household activity. +As she was looking at the milestone she felt some drops falling on +her face--it was beginning to rain. Here was a new trouble which +had not entered into her sad thoughts before, and quite weighed +down by this sudden addition to her burden, she sat down on the +step of a stile and began to sob hysterically. The beginning of +hardship is like the first taste of bitter food--it seems for a +moment unbearable; yet, if there is nothing else to satisfy our +hunger, we take another bite and find it possible to go on. When +Hetty recovered from her burst of weeping, she rallied her +fainting courage: it was raining, and she must try to get on to a +village where she might find rest and shelter. Presently, as she +walked on wearily, she heard the rumbling of heavy wheels behind +her; a covered waggon was coming, creeping slowly along with a +slouching driver cracking his whip beside the horses. She waited +for it, thinking that if the waggoner were not a very sour-looking +man, she would ask him to take her up. As the waggon approached +her, the driver had fallen behind, but there was something in the +front of the big vehicle which encouraged her. At any previous +moment in her life she would not have noticed it, but now, the new +susceptibility that suffering had awakened in her caused this +object to impress her strongly. It was only a small white-and- +liver-coloured spaniel which sat on the front ledge of the waggon, +with large timid eyes, and an incessant trembling in the body, +such as you may have seen in some of these small creatures. Hetty +cared little for animals, as you know, but at this moment she felt +as if the helpless timid creature had some fellowship with her, +and without being quite aware of the reason, she was less doubtful +about speaking to the driver, who now came forward--a large ruddy +man, with a sack over his shoulders, by way of scarf or mantle. + +"Could you take me up in your waggon, if you're going towards +Ashby?" said Hetty. "I'll pay you for it." + +"Aw," said the big fellow, with that slowly dawning smile which +belongs to heavy faces, "I can take y' up fawst enough wi'out +bein' paid for't if you dooant mind lyin' a bit closish a-top o' +the wool-packs. Where do you coom from? And what do you want at +Ashby?" + +"I come from Stoniton. I'm going a long way--to Windsor." + +"What! Arter some service, or what?" + +"Going to my brother--he's a soldier there." + +"Well, I'm going no furder nor Leicester--and fur enough too--but +I'll take you, if you dooant mind being a bit long on the road. +Th' hosses wooant feel YOUR weight no more nor they feel the +little doog there, as I puck up on the road a fortni't agoo. He +war lost, I b'lieve, an's been all of a tremble iver sin'. Come, +gi' us your basket an' come behind and let me put y' in." + +To lie on the wool-packs, with a cranny left between the curtains +of the awning to let in the air, was luxury to Hetty now, and she +half-slept away the hours till the driver came to ask her if she +wanted to get down and have "some victual"; he himself was going +to eat his dinner at this "public." Late at night they reached +Leicester, and so this second day of Hetty's journey was past. +She had spent no money except what she had paid for her food, but +she felt that this slow journeying would be intolerable for her +another day, and in the morning she found her way to a coach- +office to ask about the road to Windsor, and see if it would cost +her too much to go part of the distance by coach again. Yes! The +distance was too great--the coaches were too dear--she must give +them up; but the elderly clerk at the office, touched by her +pretty anxious face, wrote down for her the names of the chief +places she must pass through. This was the only comfort she got +in Leicester, for the men stared at her as she went along the +street, and for the first time in her life Hetty wished no one +would look at her. She set out walking again; but this day she +was fortunate, for she was soon overtaken by a carrier's cart +which carried her to Hinckley, and by the help of a return chaise, +with a drunken postilion--who frightened her by driving like Jehu +the son of Nimshi, and shouting hilarious remarks at her, twisting +himself backwards on his saddle--she was before night in the heart +of woody Warwickshire: but still almost a hundred miles from +Windsor, they told her. Oh what a large world it was, and what +hard work for her to find her way in it! She went by mistake to +Stratford-on-Avon, finding Stratford set down in her list of +places, and then she was told she had come a long way out of the +right road. It was not till the fifth day that she got to Stony +Stratford. That seems but a slight journey as you look at the +map, or remember your own pleasant travels to and from the meadowy +banks of the Avon. But how wearily long it was to Hetty! It +seemed to her as if this country of flat fields, and hedgerows, +and dotted houses, and villages, and market-towns--all so much +alike to her indifferent eyes--must have no end, and she must go +on wandering among them for ever, waiting tired at toll-gates for +some cart to come, and then finding the cart went only a little +way--a very little way--to the miller's a mile off perhaps; and +she hated going into the public houses, where she must go to get +food and ask questions, because there were always men lounging +there, who stared at her and joked her rudely. Her body was very +weary too with these days of new fatigue and anxiety; they had +made her look more pale and worn than all the time of hidden dread +she had gone through at home. When at last she reached Stony +Stratford, her impatience and weariness had become too strong for +her economical caution; she determined to take the coach for the +rest of the way, though it should cost her all her remaining +money. She would need nothing at Windsor but to find Arthur. +When she had paid the fare for the last coach, she had only a +shilling; and as she got down at the sign of the Green Man in +Windsor at twelve o'clock in the middle of the seventh day, hungry +and faint, the coachman came up, and begged her to "remember him." +She put her hand in her pocket and took out the shilling, but the +tears came with the sense of exhaustion and the thought that she +was giving away her last means of getting food, which she really +required before she could go in search of Arthur. As she held out +the shilling, she lifted up her dark tear-filled eyes to the +coachman's face and said, "Can you give me back sixpence?" + +"No, no," he said, gruffly, "never mind--put the shilling up +again." + +The landlord of the Green Man had stood near enough to witness +this scene, and he was a man whose abundant feeding served to keep +his good nature, as well as his person, in high condition. And +that lovely tearful face of Hetty's would have found out the +sensitive fibre in most men. + +"Come, young woman, come in," he said, "and have adrop o' +something; you're pretty well knocked up, I can see that." + +He took her into the bar and said to his wife, "Here, missis, take +this young woman into the parlour; she's a little overcome"--for +Hetty's tears were falling fast. They were merely hysterical +tears: she thought she had no reason for weeping now, and was +vexed that she was too weak and tired to help it. She was at +Windsor at last, not far from Arthur. + +She looked with eager, hungry eyes at the bread and meat and beer +that the landlady brought her, and for some minutes she forgot +everything else in the delicious sensations of satisfying hunger +and recovering from exhaustion. The landlady sat opposite to her +as she ate, and looked at her earnestly. No wonder: Hetty had +thrown off her bonnet, and her curls had fallen down. Her face +was all the more touching in its youth and beauty because of its +weary look, and the good woman's eyes presently wandered to her +figure, which in her hurried dressing on her journey she had taken +no pains to conceal; moreover, the stranger's eye detects what the +familiar unsuspecting eye leaves unnoticed. + +"Why, you're not very fit for travelling," she said, glancing +while she spoke at Hetty's ringless hand. "Have you come far?" + +"Yes," said Hetty, roused by this question to exert more self- +command, and feeling the better for the food she had taken. "I've +come a good long way, and it's very tiring. But I'm better now. +Could you tell me which way to go to this place?" Here Hetty took +from her pocket a bit of paper: it was the end of Arthur's letter +on which he had written his address. + +While she was speaking, the landlord had come in and had begun to +look at her as earnestly as his wife had done. He took up the +piece of paper which Hetty handed across the table, and read the +address. + +"Why, what do you want at this house?" he said. It is in the +nature of innkeepers and all men who have no pressing business of +their own to ask as many questions as possible before giving any +information. + +"I want to see a gentleman as is there," said Hetty. + +"But there's no gentleman there," returned the landlord. "It's +shut up--been shut up this fortnight. What gentleman is it you +want? Perhaps I can let you know where to find him." + +"It's Captain Donnithorne," said Hetty tremulously, her heart +beginning to beat painfully at this disappointment of her hope +that she should find Arthur at once. + +"Captain Donnithorne? Stop a bit," said the landlard, slowly. +"Was he in the Loamshire Militia? A tall young officer with a +fairish skin and reddish whiskers--and had a servant by the name +o' Pym?" + +"Oh yes," said Hetty; "you know him--where is he?" + +"A fine sight o' miles away from here. The Loamshire Militia's +gone to Ireland; it's been gone this fortnight." + +"Look there! She's fainting," said the landlady, hastening to +support Hetty, who had lost her miserable consciousness and looked +like a beautiful corpse. They carried her to the sofa and +loosened her dress. + +"Here's a bad business, I suspect," said the landlord, as he +brought in some water. + +"Ah, it's plain enough what sort of business it is," said the +wife. "She's not a common flaunting dratchell, I can see that. +She looks like a respectable country girl, and she comes from a +good way off, to judge by her tongue. She talks something like +that ostler we had that come from the north. He was as honest a +fellow as we ever had about the house--they're all honest folks in +the north." + +"I never saw a prettier young woman in my life," said the husband. +"She's like a pictur in a shop-winder. It goes to one's 'eart to +look at her." + +"It 'ud have been a good deal better for her if she'd been uglier +and had more conduct," said the landlady, who on any charitable +construction must have been supposed to have more "conduct" than +beauty. "But she's coming to again. Fetch a drop more water." + + + +Chapter XXXVII + +The Journey in Despair + + +HETTY was too ill through the rest of that day for any questions +to be addressed to her--too ill even to think with any +distinctness of the evils that were to come. She only felt that +all her hope was crushed, and that instead of having found a +refuge she had only reached the borders of a new wilderness where +no goal lay before her. The sensations of bodily sickness, in a +comfortable bed, and with the tendance of the good-natured +landlady, made a sort of respite for her; such a respite as there +is in the faint weariness which obliges a man to throw himself on +the sand instead of toiling onward under the scorching sun. + +But when sleep and rest had brought back the strength necessary +for the keenness of mental suffering--when she lay the next +morning looking at the growing light which was like a cruel task- +master returning to urge from her a fresh round of hated hopeless +labour--she began to think what course she must take, to remember +that all her money was gone, to look at the prospect of further +wandering among strangers with the new clearness shed on it by the +experience of her journey to Windsor. But which way could she +turn? It was impossible for her to enter into any service, even +if she could obtain it. There was nothing but immediate beggary +before her. She thought of a young woman who had been found +against the church wall at Hayslope one Sunday, nearly dead with +cold and hunger--a tiny infant in her arms. The woman was rescued +and taken to the parish. "The parish!" You can perhaps hardly +understand the effect of that word on a mind like Hetty's, brought +up among people who were somewhat hard in their feelings even +towards poverty, who lived among the fields, and had little pity +for want and rags as a cruel inevitable fate such as they +sometimes seem in cities, but held them a mark of idleness and +vice--and it was idleness and vice that brought burdens on the +parish. To Hetty the "parish" was next to the prison in obloquy, +and to ask anything of strangers--to beg--lay in the same far-off +hideous region of intolerable shame that Hetty had all her life +thought it impossible she could ever come near. But now the +remembrance of that wretched woman whom she had seen herself, on +her way from church, being carried into Joshua Rann's, came back +upon her with the new terrible sense that there was very little +now to divide HER from the same lot. And the dread of bodily +hardship mingled with the dread of shame; for Hetty had the +luxurious nature of a round soft-coated pet animal. + +How she yearned to be back in her safe home again, cherished and +cared for as she had always been! Her aunt's scolding about +trifles would have been music to her ears now; she longed for it; +she used to hear it in a time when she had only trifles to hide. +Could she be the same Hetty that used to make up the butter in the +dairy with the Guelder roses peeping in at the window--she, a +runaway whom her friends would not open their doors to again, +lying in this strange bed, with the knowledge that she had no +money to pay for what she received, and must offer those strangers +some of the clothes in her basket? It was then she thought of her +locket and ear-rings, and seeing her pocket lie near, she reached +it and spread the contents on the bed before her. There were the +locket and ear-rings in the little velvet-lined boxes, and with +them there was a beautiful silver thimble which Adam had bought +her, the words "Remember me" making the ornament of the border; a +steel purse, with her one shilling in it;and a small red-leather +case, fastening with a strap. Those beautiful little ear-rings, +with their delicate pearls and garnet, that she had tried in her +ears with such longing in the bright sunshine on the 30th of July! +She had no longing to put them in her ears now: her head with its +dark rings of hair lay back languidly on the pillow, and the +sadness that rested about her brow and eyes was something too hard +for regretful memory. Yet she put her hands up to her ears: it +was because there were some thin gold rings in them, which were +also worth a little money. Yes, she could surely get some money +for her ornaments: those Arthur had given her must have cost a +great deal of money. The landlord and landlady had been good to +her; perhaps they would help her to get the money for these +things. + +But this money would not keep her long. What should she do when +it was gone? Where should she go? The horrible thought of want +and beggary drove her once to think she would go back to her uncle +and aunt and ask them to forgive her and have pity on her. But +she shrank from that idea again, as she might have shrunk from +scorching metal. She could never endure that shame before her +uncle and aunt, before Mary Burge, and the servants at the Chase, +and the people at Broxton, and everybody who knew her. They +should never know what had happened to her. What could she do? +She would go away from Windsor--travel again as she had done the +last week, and get among the flat green fields with the high +hedges round them, where nobody could see her or know her; and +there, perhaps, when there was nothing else she could do, she +should get courage to drown herself in some pond like that in the +Scantlands. Yes, she would get away from Windsor as soon as +possible: she didn't like these people at the inn to know about +her, to know that she had come to look for Captain Donnithorne. +She must think of some reason to tell them why she had asked for +him. + +With this thought she began to put the things back into her +pocket, meaning to get up and dress before the landlady came to +her. She had her hand on the red-leather case, when it occurred +to her that there might be something in this case which she had +forgotten--something worth selling; for without knowing what she +should do with her life, she craved the means of living as long as +possible; and when we desire eagerly to find something, we are apt +to search for it in hopeless places. No, there was nothing but +common needles and pins, and dried tulip-petals between the paper +leaves where she had written down her little money-accounts. But +on one of these leaves there was a name, which, often as she had +seen it before, now flashed on Hetty's mind like a newly +discovered message. The name was--Dinah Morris, Snowfield. There +was a text above it, written, as well as the name, by Dinah's own +hand with a little pencil, one evening that they were sitting +together and Hetty happened to have the red case lying open before +her. Hetty did not read the text now: she was only arrested by +the name. Now, for the first time, she remembered without +indifference the affectionate kindness Dinah had shown her, and +those words of Dinah in the bed-chamber--that Hetty must think of +her as a friend in trouble. Suppose she were to go to Dinah, and +ask her to help her? Dinah did not think about things as other +people did. She was a mystery to Hetty, but Hetty knew she was +always kind. She couldn't imagine Dinah's face turning away from +her in dark reproof or scorn, Dinah's voice willingly speaking ill +of her, or rejoicing in her misery as a punishment. Dinah did not +seem to belong to that world of Hetty's, whose glance she dreaded +like scorching fire. But even to her Hetty shrank from beseeching +and confession. She could not prevail on herself to say, "I will +go to Dinah": she only thought of that as a possible alternative, +if she had not courage for death. + +The good landlady was amazed when she saw Hetty come downstairs +soon after herself, neatly dressed, and looking resolutely self- +possessed. Hetty told her she was quite well this morning. She +had only been very tired and overcome with her journey, for she +had come a long way to ask about her brother, who had run away, +and they thought he was gone for a soldier, and Captain +Donnithorne might know, for he had been very kind to her brother +once. It was a lame story, and the landlady looked doubtfully at +Hetty as she told it; but there was a resolute air of self- +reliance about her this morning, so different from the helpless +prostration of yesterday, that the landlady hardly knew how to +make a remark that might seem like prying into other people's +affairs. She only invited her to sit down to breakfast with them, +and in the course of it Hetty brought out her ear-rings and +locket, and asked the landlord if he could help her to get money +for them. Her journey, she said, had cost her much more than she +expected, and now she had no money to get back to her friends, +which she wanted to do at once. + +It was not the first time the landlady had seen the ornaments, for +she had examined the contents of Hetty's pocket yesterday, and she +and her husband had discussed the fact of a country girl having +these beautiful things, with a stronger conviction than ever that +Hetty had been miserably deluded by the fine young officer. + +"Well," said the landlord, when Hetty had spread the precious +trifles before him, "we might take 'em to the jeweller's shop, for +there's one not far off; but Lord bless you, they wouldn't give +you a quarter o' what the things are worth. And you wouldn't like +to part with 'em?" he added, looking at her inquiringly. + +"Oh, I don't mind," said Hetty, hastily, "so as I can get money to +go back." + +"And they might think the things were stolen, as you wanted to +sell 'em," he went on, "for it isn't usual for a young woman like +you to have fine jew'llery like that." + +The blood rushed to Hetty's face with anger. "I belong to +respectable folks," she said; "I'm not a thief." + +"No, that you aren't, I'll be bound," said the landlady; "and +you'd no call to say that," looking indignantly at her husband. +"The things were gev to her: that's plain enough to be seen." + +"I didn't mean as I thought so," said the husband, apologetically, +"but I said it was what the jeweller might think, and so he +wouldn't be offering much money for 'em." + +"Well," said the wife, "suppose you were to advance some money on +the things yourself, and then if she liked to redeem 'em when she +got home, she could. But if we heard nothing from her after two +months, we might do as we liked with 'em." + +I will not say that in this accommodating proposition the landlady +had no regard whatever to the possible reward of her good nature +in the ultimate possession of the locket and ear-rings: indeed, +the effect they would have in that case on the mind of the +grocer's wife had presented itself with remarkable vividness to +her rapid imagination. The landlord took up the ornaments and +pushed out his lips in a meditative manner. He wished Hetty well, +doubtless; but pray, how many of your well-wishers would decline +to make a little gain out of you? Your landlady is sincerely +affected at parting with you, respects you highly, and will really +rejoice if any one else is generous to you; but at the same time +she hands you a bill by which she gains as high a percentage as +possible. + +"How much money do you want to get home with, young woman?" said +the well-wisher, at length. + +"Three guineas," answered Hetty, fixing on the sum she set out +with, for want of any other standard, and afraid of asking too +much. + +"Well, I've ho objections to advance you three guineas," said the +landlord; "and if you like to send it me back and get the +jewellery again, you can, you know. The Green Man isn't going to +run away." + +"Oh yes, I'll be very glad if you'll give me that," said Hetty, +relieved at the thought that she would not have to go to the +jeweller's and be stared at and questioned. + +"But if you want the things again, you'll write before long," said +the landlady, "because when two months are up, we shall make up +our minds as you don't want 'em." + +"Yes," said Hetty indifferently. + +The husband and wife were equally content with this arrangement. +The husband thought, if the ornaments were not redeemed, he could +make a good thing of it by taking them to London and selling them. +The wife thought she would coax the good man into letting her keep +them. And they were accommodating Hetty, poor thing--a pretty, +respectable-looking young woman, apparently in a sad case. They +declined to take anything for her food and bed: she was quite +welcome. And at eleven o'clock Hetty said "Good-bye" to them with +the same quiet, resolute air she had worn all the morning, +mounting the coach that was to take her twenty miles back along +the way she had come. + +There is a strength of self-possession which is the sign that the +last hope has departed. Despair no more leans on others than +perfect contentment, and in despair pride ceases to be +counteracted by the sense of dependence. + +Hetty felt that no one could deliver her from the evils that would +make life hateful to her; and no one, she said to herself, should +ever know her misery and humiliation. No; she would not confess +even to Dinah. She would wander out of sight, and drown herself +where her body would never be found, and no one should know what +had become of her. + +When she got off this coach, she began to walk again, and take +cheap rides in carts, and get cheap meals, going on and on without +distinct purpose, yet strangely, by some fascination, taking the +way she had come, though she was determined not to go back to her +own country. Perhaps it was because she had fixed her mind on the +grassy Warwickshire fields, with the bushy tree-studded hedgerows +that made a hiding-place even in this leafless season. She went +more slowly than she came, often getting over the stiles and +sitting for hours under the hedgerows, looking before her with +blank, beautiful eyes; fancying herself at the edge of a hidden +pool, low down, like that in the Scantlands; wondering if it were +very painful to be drowned, and if there would be anything worse +after death than what she dreaded in life. Religious doctrines +had taken no hold on Hetty's mind. She was one of those numerous +people who have had godfathers and godmothers, learned their +catechism, been confirmed, and gone to church every Sunday, and +yet, for any practical result of strength in life, or trust in +death, have never appropriated a single Christian idea or +Christian feeling. You would misunderstand her thoughts during +these wretched days, if you imagined that they were influenced +either by religious fears or religious hopes. + +She chose to go to Stratford-on-Avon again, where she had gone +before by mistake, for she remembered some grassy fields on her +former way towards it--fields among which she thought she might +find just the sort of pool she had in her mind. Yet she took care +of her money still; she carried her basket; death seemed still a +long way off, and life was so strong in her. She craved food and +rest--she hastened towards them at the very moment she was +picturing to herself the bank from which she would leap towards +death. It was already five days since she had left Windsor, for +she had wandered about, always avoiding speech or questioning +looks, and recovering her air of proud self-dependence whenever +she was under observation, choosing her decent lodging at night, +and dressing herself neatly in the morning, and setting off on her +way steadily, or remaining under shelter if it rained, as if she +had a happy life to cherish. + +And yet, even in her most self-conscious moments, the face was +sadly different from that which had smiled at itself in the old +specked glass, or smiled at others when they glanced at it +admiringly. A hard and even fierce look had come in the eyes, +though their lashes were as long as ever, and they had all their +dark brightness. And the cheek was never dimpled with smiles now. +It was the same rounded, pouting, childish prettiness, but with +all love and belief in love departed from it--the sadder for its +beauty, like that wondrous Medusa-face, with the passionate, +passionless lips. + +At last she was among the fields she had been dreaming of, on a +long narrow pathway leading towards a wood. If there should be a +pool in that wood! It would be better hidden than one in the +fields. No, it was not a wood, only a wild brake, where there had +once been gravel-pits, leaving mounds and hollows studded with +brushwood and small trees. She roamed up and down, thinking there +was perhaps a pool in every hollow before she came to it, till her +limbs were weary, and she sat down to rest. The afternoon was far +advanced, and the leaden sky was darkening, as if the sun were +setting behind it. After a little while Hetty started up again, +feeling that darkness would soon come on; and she must put off +finding the pool till to-morrow, and make her way to some shelter +for the night. She had quite lost her way in the fields, and +might as well go in one direction as another, for aught she knew. +She walked through field after field, and no village, no house was +in sight; but there, at the corner of this pasture, there was a +break in the hedges; the land seemed to dip down a little, and two +trees leaned towards each other across the opening. Hetty's heart +gave a great heat as she thought there must be a pool there. She +walked towards it heavily over the tufted grass, with pale lips +and a sense of trembling. It was as if the thing were come in +spite of herself, instead of being the object of her search. + +There it was, black under the darkening sky: no motion, no sound +near. She set down her basket, and then sank down herself on the +grass, trembling. The pool had its wintry depth now: by the time +it got shallow, as she remembered the pools did at Hayslope, in +the summer, no one could find out that it was her body. But then +there was her basket--she must hide that too. She must throw it +into the water--make it heavy with stones first, and then throw it +in. She got up to look about for stones, and soon brought five or +six, which she laid down beside her basket, and then sat down +again. There was no need to hurry--there was all the night to +drown herself in. She sat leaning her elbow on the basket. She +was weary, hungry. There were some buns in her basket--three, +which she had supplied herself with at the place where she ate her +dinner. She took them out now and ate them eagerly, and then sat +still again, looking at the pool. The soothed sensation that came +over her from the satisfaction of her hunger, and this fixed +dreamy attitude, brought on drowsiness, and presently her head +sank down on her knees. She was fast asleep. + +When she awoke it was deep night, and she felt chill. She was +frightened at this darkness--frightened at the long night before +her. If she could but throw herself into the water! No, not yet. +She began to walk about that she might get warm again, as if she +would have more resolution then. Oh how long the time was in that +darkness! The bright hearth and the warmth and the voices of +home, the secure uprising and lying down, the familiar fields, the +familiar people, the Sundays and holidays with their simple joys +of dress and feasting--all the sweets of her young life rushed +before her now, and she seemed to be stretching her arms towards +them across a great gulf. She set her teeth when she thought of +Arthur. She cursed him, without knowing what her cursing would +do. She wished he too might know desolation, and cold, and a life +of shame that he dared not end by death. + +The horror of this cold, and darkness, and solitude--out of all +human reach--became greater every long minute. It was almost as +if she were dead already, and knew that she was dead, and longed +to get back to life again. But no: she was alive still; she had +not taken the dreadful leap. She felt a strange contradictory +wretchedness and exultation: wretchedness, that she did not dare +to face death; exultation, that she was still in life--that she +might yet know light and warmth again. She walked backwards and +forwards to warm herself, beginning to discern something of the +objects around her, as her eyes became accustomed to the night-- +the darker line of the hedge, the rapid motion of some living +creature--perhaps a field-mouse--rushing across the grass. She no +longer felt as if the darkness hedged her in. She thought she +could walk back across the field, and get over the stile; and +then, in the very next field, she thought she remembered there was +a hovel of furze near a sheepfold. If she could get into that +hovel, she would be warmer. She could pass the night there, for +that was what Alick did at Hayslope in lambing-time. The thought +of this hovel brought the energy of a new hope. She took up her +basket and walked across the field, but it was some time before +she got in the right direction for the stile. The exercise and +the occupation of finding the stile were a stimulus to her, +however, and lightened the horror of the darkness and solitude. +There were sheep in the next field, and she startled a group as +she set down her basket and got over the stile; and the sound of +their movement comforted her, for it assured her that her +impression was right--this was the field where she had seen the +hovel, for it was the field where the sheep were. Right on along +the path, and she would get to it. She reached the opposite gate, +and felt her way along its rails and the rails of the sheep-fold, +till her hand encountered the pricking of the gorsy wall. +Delicious sensation! She had found the shelter. She groped her +way, touching the prickly gorse, to the door, and pushed it open. +It was an ill-smelling close place, but warm, and there was straw +on the ground. Hetty sank down on the straw with a sense of +escape. Tears came--she had never shed tears before since she +left Windsor--tears and sobs of hysterical joy that she had still +hold of life, that she was still on the familiar earth, with the +sheep near her. The very consciousness of her own limbs was a +delight to her: she turned up her sleeves, and kissed her arms +with the passionate love of life. Soon warmth and weariness +lulled her in the midst of her sobs, and she fell continually into +dozing, fancying herself at the brink of the pool again--fancying +that she had jumped into the water, and then awaking with a start, +and wondering where she was. But at last deep dreamless sleep +came; her head, guarded by her bonnet, found a pillow against the +gorsy wall, and the poor soul, driven to and fro between two equal +terrors, found the one relief that was possible to it--the relief +of unconsciousness. + +Alas! That relief seems to end the moment it has begun. It +seemed to Hetty as if those dozen dreams had only passed into +another dream--that she was in the hovel, and her aunt was +standing over her with a candle in her hand. She trembled under +her aunt's glance, and opened her eyes. There was no candle, but +there was light in the hovel--the light of early morning through +the open door. And there was a face looking down on her; but it +was an unknown face, belonging to an elderly man in a smock-frock. + +"Why, what do you do here, young woman?" the man said roughly. + +Hetty trembled still worse under this real fear and shame than she +had done in her momentary dream under her aunt's glance. She felt +that she was like a beggar already--found sleeping in that place. +But in spite of her trembling, she was so eager to account to the +man for her presence here, that she found words at once. + +"I lost my way," she said. "I'm travelling--north'ard, and I got +away from the road into the fields, and was overtaken by the dark. +Will you tell me the way to the nearest village?" + +She got up as she was speaking, and put her hands to her bonnet to +adjust it, and then laid hold of her basket. + +The man looked at her with a slow bovine gaze, without giving her +any answer, for some seconds. Then he turned away and walked +towards the door of the hovel, but it was not till he got there +that he stood still, and, turning his shoulder half-round towards +her, said, "Aw, I can show you the way to Norton, if you like. +But what do you do gettin' out o' the highroad?" he added, with a +tone of gruff reproof. "Y'ull be gettin' into mischief, if you +dooant mind." + +"Yes," said Hetty, "I won't do it again. I'll keep in the road, +if you'll be so good as show me how to get to it." + +"Why dooant you keep where there's a finger-poasses an' folks to +ax the way on?" the man said, still more gruffly. "Anybody 'ud +think you was a wild woman, an' look at yer." + +Hetty was frightened at this gruff old man, and still more at this +last suggestion that she looked like a wild woman. As she +followed him out of the hovel she thought she would give him a +sixpence for telling her the way, and then he would not suppose +she was wild. As he stopped to point out the road to her, she put +her hand in her pocket to get the six-pence ready, and when he was +turning away, without saying good-morning, she held it out to him +and said, "Thank you; will you please to take something for your +trouble?" + +He looked slowly at the sixpence, and then said, "I want none o' +your money. You'd better take care on't, else you'll get it stool +from yer, if you go trapesin' about the fields like a mad woman a- +thatway." + +The man left her without further speech, and Hetty held on her +way. Another day had risen, and she must wander on. It was no +use to think of drowning herself--she could not do it, at least +while she had money left to buy food and strength to journey on. +But the incident on her waking this morning heightened her dread +of that time when her money would be all gone; she would have to +sell her basket and clothes then, and she would really look like a +beggar or a wild woman, as the man had said. The passionate joy +in life she had felt in the night, after escaping from the brink +of the black cold death in the pool, was gone now. Life now, by +the morning light, with the impression of that man's hard +wondering look at her, was as full of dread as death--it was +worse; it was a dread to which she felt chained, from which she +shrank and shrank as she did from the black pool, and yet could +find no refuge from it. + +She took out her money from her purse, and looked at it. She had +still two-and-twenty shillings; it would serve her for many days +more, or it would help her to get on faster to Stonyshire, within +reach of Dinah. The thought of Dinah urged itself more strongly +now, since the experience of the night had driven her shuddering +imagination away from the pool. If it had been only going to +Dinah--if nobody besides Dinah would ever know--Hetty could have +made up her mind to go to her. The soft voice, the pitying eyes, +would have drawn her. But afterwards the other people must know, +and she could no more rush on that shame than she could rush on +death. + +She must wander on and on, and wait for a lower depth of despair +to give her courage. Perhaps death would come to her, for she was +getting less and less able to bear the day's weariness. And yet-- +such is the strange action of our souls, drawing us by a lurking +desire towards the very ends we dread--Hetty, when she set out +again from Norton, asked the straightest road northwards towards +Stonyshire, and kept it all that day. + +Poor wandering Hetty, with the rounded childish face and the hard, +unloving, despairing soul looking out of it--with the narrow heart +and narrow thoughts, no room in them for any sorrows but her own, +and tasting that sorrow with the more intense bitterness! My +heart bleeds for her as I see her toiling along on her weary feet, +or seated in a cart, with her eyes fixed vacantly on the road +before her, never thinking or caring whither it tends, till hunger +comes and makes her desire that a village may be near. + +What will be the end, the end of her objectless wandering, apart +from all love, caring for human beings only through her pride, +clinging to life only as the hunted wounded brute clings to it? + +God preserve you and me from being the beginners of such miserty! + + + +Chapter XXXVIII + +The Quest + + +THE first ten days after Hetty's departure passed as quietly as +any other days with the family at the Hall Farm, and with Adam at +his daily work. They had expected Hetty to stay away a week or +ten days at least, perhaps a little longer if Dinah came back with +her, because there might then be somethung to detain them at +Snowfield. But when a fortnight had passed they began to feel a +little surprise that Hetty did not return; she must surely have +found it pleasanter to be with Dinah than any one could have +supposed. Adam, for his part, was getting very impatient to see +her, and he resolved that, if she did not appear the next day +(Saturday), he would set out on Sunday morning to fetch her. +There was no coach on a Sunday, but by setting out before it was +light, and perhaps getting a lift in a cart by the way, he would +arrive pretty early at Snowfield, and bring back Hetty the next +day--Dinah too, if she were coming. It was quite time Hetty came +home, and he would afford to lose his Monday for the sake of +bringing her. + +His project was quite approved at the Farm when he went there on +Saturday evening. Mrs. Poyser desired him emphatically not to +come back without Hetty, for she had been quite too long away, +considering the things she had to get ready by the middle of +March, and a week was surely enough for any one to go out for +their health. As for Dinah, Mrs. Poyser had small hope of their +bringing her, unless they could make her believe the folks at +Hayslope were twice as miserable as the folks at Snowfield. +"Though," said Mrs. Poyser, by way of conclusion, "you might tell +her she's got but one aunt left, and SHE'S wasted pretty nigh to a +shadder; and we shall p'rhaps all be gone twenty mile farther off +her next Michaelmas, and shall die o' broken hearts among strange +folks, and leave the children fatherless and motherless." + +"Nay, nay," said Mr. Poyser, who certainly had the air of a man +perfectly heart-whole, "it isna so bad as that. Thee't looking +rarely now, and getting flesh every day. But I'd be glad for +Dinah t' come, for she'd help thee wi' the little uns: they took +t' her wonderful." + +So at daybreak, on Sunday, Adam set off. Seth went with him the +first mile or two, for the thought of Snowfield and the +possibility that Dinah might come again made him restless, and the +walk with Adam in the cold morning air, both in their best +clothes, helped to give him a sense of Sunday calm. It was the +last morning in February, with a low grey sky, and a slight hoar- +frost on the green border of the road and on the black hedges. +They heard the gurgling of the full brooklet hurrying down the +hill, and the faint twittering of the early birds. For they +walked in silence, though with a pleased sense of companionship. + +"Good-bye, lad," said Adam, laying his hand on Seth's shoulder and +looking at him affectionately as they were about to part. "I wish +thee wast going all the way wi' me, and as happy as I am." + +"I'm content, Addy, I'm content," said Seth cheerfully. "I'll be +an old bachelor, belike, and make a fuss wi' thy children." + +The'y turned away from each other, and Seth walked leisurely +homeward, mentally repeating one of his favourite hymns--he was +very fond of hymns: + +Dark and cheerless is the morn + Unaccompanied by thee: +Joyless is the day's return + Till thy mercy's beams I see: +Till thou inward light impart, +Glad my eyes and warm my heart. + +Visit, then, this soul of mine, + Pierce the gloom of sin and grief-- +Fill me, Radiancy Divine, + Scatter all my unbelief. +More and more thyself display, +Shining to the perfect day. + + +Adam walked much faster, and any one coming along the Oakbourne +road at sunrise that morning must have had a pleasant sight in +this tall broad-chested man, striding along with a carriage as +upright and firm as any soldier's, glancing with keen glad eyes at +the dark-blue hills as they began to show themselves on his way. +Seldom in Adam's life had his face been so free from any cloud of +anxiety as it was this morning; and this freedom from care, as is +usual with constructive practical minds like his, made him all the +more observant of the objects round him and all the more ready to +gather suggestions from them towards his own favourite plans and +ingenious contrivances. His happy love--the knowledge that his +steps were carrying him nearer and nearer to Hetty, who was so +soon to be his--was to his thoughts what the sweet morning air was +to his sensations: it gave him a consciousness of well-being that +made activity delightful. Every now and then there was a rush of +more intense feeling towards her, which chased away other images +than Hetty; and along with that would come a wondering +thankfulness that all this happiness was given to him--that this +life of ours had such sweetness in it. For Adam had a devout +mind, though he was perhaps rather impatient of devout words, and +his tenderness lay very close to his reverence, so that the one +could hardly be stirred without the other. But after feeling had +welled up and poured itself out in this way, busy thought would +come back with the greater vigour; and this morning it was intent +on schemes by which the roads might be improved that were so +imperfect all through the country, and on picturing all the +benefits that might come from the exertions of a single country +gentleman, if he would set himself to getting the roads made good +in his own district. + +It seemed a very short walk, the ten miles to Oakbourne, that +pretty town within sight of the blue hills, where he break-fasted. +After this, the country grew barer and barer: no more rolling +woods, no more wide-branching trees near frequent homesteads, no +more bushy hedgerows, but greystone walls intersecting the meagre +pastures, and dismal wide-scattered greystone houses on broken +lands where mines had been and were no longer. "A hungry land," +said Adam to himself. "I'd rather go south'ard, where they say +it's as flat as a table, than come to live here; though if Dinah +likes to live in a country where she can be the most comfort to +folks, she's i' the right to live o' this side; for she must look +as if she'd come straight from heaven, like th' angels in the +desert, to strengthen them as ha' got nothing t' eat." And when +at last he came in sight of Snowfield, he thought it looked like a +town that was "fellow to the country," though the stream through +the valley where the great mill stood gave a pleasant greenness to +the lower fields. The town lay, grim, stony, and unsheltered, up +the side of a steep hill, and Adam did not go forward to it at +present, for Seth had told him where to find Dinah. It was at a +thatched cottage outside the town, a little way from the mill--an +old cottage, standing sideways towards the road, with a little bit +of potato-ground before it. Here Dinah lodged with an elderly +couple; and if she and Hetty happened to be out, Adam could learn +where they were gone, or when they would be at home again. Dinah +might be out on some preaching errand, and perhaps she would have +left Hetty at home. Adam could not help hoping this, and as he +recognized the cottage by the roadside before him, there shone out +in his face that involuntary smile which belongs to the +expectation of a near joy. + +He hurried his step along the narrow causeway, and rapped at the +door. It was opened by a very clean old woman, with a slow +palsied shake of the head. + +"Is Dinah Morris at home?" said Adam. + +"Eh?...no," said the old woman, looking up at this tall stranger +with a wonder that made her slower of speech than usual. "Will +you please to come in?" she added, retiring from the door, as if +recollecting herself. "Why, ye're brother to the young man as +come afore, arena ye?" + +"Yes," said Adam, entering. "That was Seth Bede. I'm his brother +Adam. He told me to give his respects to you and your good +master." + +"Aye, the same t' him. He was a gracious young man. An' ye +feature him, on'y ye're darker. Sit ye down i' th' arm-chair. My +man isna come home from meeting." + +Adam sat down patiently, not liking to hurry the shaking old woman +with questions, but looking eagerly towards the narrow twisting +stairs in one corner, for he thought it was possible Hetty might +have heard his voice and would come down them. + +"So you're come to see Dinah Morris?" said the old woman, standing +opposite to him. "An' you didn' know she was away from home, +then?" + +"No," said Adam, "but I thought it likely she might be away, +seeing as it's Sunday. But the other young woman--is she at home, +or gone along with Dinah?" + +The old woman looked at Adam with a bewildered air. + +"Gone along wi' her?" she said. "Eh, Dinah's gone to Leeds, a big +town ye may ha' heared on, where there's a many o' the Lord's +people. She's been gone sin' Friday was a fortnight: they sent +her the money for her journey. You may see her room here," she +went on, opening a door and not noticing the effect of her words +on Adam. He rose and followed her, and darted an eager glance +into the little room with its narrow bed, the portrait of Wesley +on the wall, and the few books lying on the large Bible. He had +had an irrational hope that Hetty might be there. He could not +speak in the first moment after seeing that the room was empty; an +undefined fear had seized him--something had happened to Hetty on +the journey. Still the old woman was so slow of; speech and +apprehension, that Hetty might be at Snowfield after all. + +"It's a pity ye didna know," she said. "Have ye come from your +own country o' purpose to see her?" + +"But Hetty--Hetty Sorrel," said Adam, abruptly; "Where is she?" + +"I know nobody by that name," said the old woman, wonderingly. +"Is it anybody ye've heared on at Snowfield?" + +"Did there come no young woman here--very young and pretty--Friday +was a fortnight, to see Dinah Morris?" + +"Nay; I'n seen no young woman." + +"Think; are you quite sure? A girl, eighteen years old, with dark +eyes and dark curly hair, and a red cloak on, and a basket on her +arm? You couldn't forget her if you saw her." + +"Nay; Friday was a fortnight--it was the day as Dinah went away-- +there come nobody. There's ne'er been nobody asking for her till +you come, for the folks about know as she's gone. Eh dear, eh +dear, is there summat the matter?" + +The old woman had seen the ghastly look of fear in Adam's face. +But he was not stunned or confounded: he was thinking eagerly +where he could inquire about Hetty. + +"Yes; a young woman started from our country to see Dinah, Friday +was a fortnight. I came to fetch her back. I'm afraid something +has happened to her. I can't stop. Good-bye." + +He hastened out of the cottage, and the old woman followed him to +the gate, watching him sadly with her shaking head as he almost +ran towards the town. He was going to inquire at the place where +the Oakbourne coach stopped. + +No! No young woman like Hetty had been seen there. Had any +accident happened to the coach a fortnight ago? No. And there +was no coach to take him back to Oakbourne that day. Well, he +would walk: he couldn't stay here, in wretched inaction. But the +innkeeper, seeing that Adam was in great anxiety, and entering +into this new incident with the eagerness of a man who passes a +great deal of time with his hands in his pockets looking into an +obstinately monotonous street, offered to take him back to +Oakbourne in his own "taxed cart" this very evening. It was not +five o'clock; there was plenty of time for Adam to take a meal and +yet to get to Oakbourne before ten o'clock. The innkeeper +declared that he really wanted to go to Oakbourne, and might as +well go to-night; he should have all Monday before him then. +Adam, after making an ineffectual attempt to eat, put the food in +his pocket, and, drinking a draught of ale, declared himself ready +to set off. As they approached the cottage, it occurred to him +that he would do well to learn from the old woman where Dinah was +to be found in Leeds: if there was trouble at the Hall Farm--he +only half-admitted the foreboding that there would be--the Poysers +might like to send for Dinah. But Dinah had not left any address, +and the old woman, whose memory for names was infirm, could not +recall the name of the "blessed woman" who was Dinah's chief +friend in the Society at Leeds. + +During that long, long journey in the taxed cart, there was time +for all the conjectures of importunate fear and struggling hope. +In the very first shock of discovering that Hetty had not been to +Snowfield, the thought of Arthur had darted through Adam like a +sharp pang, but he tried for some time to ward off its return by +busying himself with modes of accounting for the alarming fact, +quite apart from that intolerable thought. Some accident had +happened. Hetty had, by some strange chance, got into a wrong +vehicle from Oakbourne: she had been taken ill, and did not want +to frighten them by letting them know. But this frail fence of +vague improbabilities was soon hurled down by a rush of distinct +agonizing fears. Hetty had been deceiving herself in thinking +that she could love and marry him: she had been loving Arthur all +the while; and now, in her desperation at the nearness of their +marriage, she had run away. And she was gone to him. The old +indignation and jealousy rose again, and prompted the suspicion +that Arthur had been dealing falsely--had written to Hetty--had +tempted her to come to him--being unwilling, after all, that she +should belong to another man besides himself. Perhaps the whole +thing had been contrived by him, and he had given her directions +how to follow him to Ireland--for Adam knew that Arthur had been +gone thither three weeks ago, having recently learnt it at the +Chase. Every sad look of Hetty's, since she had been engaged to +Adam, returned upon him now with all the exaggeration of painful +retrospect. He had been foolishly sanguine and confident. The +poor thing hadn't perhaps known her own mind for a long while; had +thought that she could forget Arthur; had been momentarily drawn +towards the man who offered her a protecting, faithful love. He +couldn't bear to blame her: she never meant to cause him this +dreadful pain. The blame lay with that man who had selfishly +played with her heart--had perhaps even deliberately lured her +away. + +At Oakbourne, the ostler at the Royal Oak remembered such a young +woman as Adam described getting out of the Treddleston coach more +than a fortnight ago--wasn't likely to forget such a pretty lass +as that in a hurry--was sure she had not gone on by the Buxton +coach that went through Snowfield, but had lost sight of her while +he went away with the horses and had never set eyes on her again. +Adam then went straight to the house from which the Stonition +coach started: Stoniton was the most obvious place for Hetty to go +to first, whatever might be her destination, for she would hardly +venture on any but the chief coach-roads. She had been noticed +here too, and was remembered to have sat on the box by the +coachman; but the coachman could not be seen, for another man had +been driving on that road in his stead the last three or four +days. He could probably be seen at Stoniton, through inquiry at +the inn where the coach put up. So the anxious heart-stricken +Adam must of necessity wait and try to rest till morning--nay, +till eleven o'clock, when the coach started. + +At Stoniton another delay occurred, for the old coachman who had +driven Hetty would not be in the town again till night. When he +did come he remembered Hetty well, and remembered his own joke +addressed to her, quoting it many times to Adam, and observing +with equal frequency that he thought there was something more than +common, because Hetty had not laughed when he joked her. But he +declared, as the people had done at the inn, that he had lost +sight of Hetty directly she got down. Part of the next morning +was consumed in inquiries at every house in the town from which a +coach started--(all in vain, for you know Hetty did not start from +Stonition by coach, but on foot in the grey morning)--and then in +walking out to the first toll-gates on the different lines of +road, in the forlorn hope of finding some recollection of her +there. No, she was not to be traced any farther; and the next +hard task for Adam was to go home and carry the wretched tidings +to the Hall Farm. As to what he should do beyond that, he had +come to two distinct resolutions amidst the tumult of thought and +feeling which was going on within him while he went to and fro. +He would not mention what he knew of Arthur Donnithorne's +behaviour to Hetty till there was a clear necessity for it: it was +still possible Hetty might come back, and the disclosure might be +an injury or an offence to her. And as soon as he had been home +and done what was necessary there to prepare for his further +absence, he would start off to Ireland: if he found no trace of +Hetty on the road, he would go straight to Arthur Donnithorne and +make himself certain how far he was acquainted with her movements. +Several times the thought occurred to him that he would consult +Mr. Irwine, but that would be useless unless he told him all, and +so betrayed the secret about Arthur. It seems strange that Adam, +in the incessant occupation of his mind about Hetty, should never +have alighted on the probability that she had gone to Windsor, +ignorant that Arthur was no longer there. Perhaps the reason was +that he could not conceive Hetty's throwing herself on Arthur +uncalled; he imagined no cause that could have driven her to such +a step, after that letter written in August. There were but two +alternatives in his mind: either Arthur had written to her again +and enticed her away, or she had simply fled from her approaching +marriage with himself because she found, after all, she could not +love him well enough, and yet was afraid of her friends' anger if +she retracted. + +With this last determination on his mind, of going straight to +Arthur, the thought that he had spent two days in inquiries which +had proved to be almost useless, was torturing to Adam; and yet, +since he would not tell the Poysers his conviction as to where +Hetty was gone, or his intention to follow her thither, he must be +able to say to them that he had traced her as far as possible. + +It was after twelve o'clock on Tuesday night when Adam reached +Treddleston; and, unwilling to disturb his mother and Seth, and +also to encounter their questions at that hour, he threw himself +without undressing on a bed at the "Waggon Overthrown," and slept +hard from pure weariness. Not more than four hours, however, for +before five o'clock he set out on his way home in the faint +morning twilight. He always kept a key of the workshop door in +his pocket, so that he could let himself in; and he wished to +enter without awaking his mother, for he was anxious to avoid +telling her the new trouble himself by seeing Seth first, and +asking him to tell her when it should be necessary. He walked +gently along the yard, and turned the key gently in the door; but, +as he expected, Gyp, who lay in the workshop, gave a sharp bark. +It subsided when he saw Adam, holding up his finger at him to +impose silence, and in his dumb, tailless joy he must content +himself with rubbing his body against his master's legs. + +Adam was too heart-sick to take notice of Gyp's fondling. He +threw himself on the bench and stared dully at the wood and the +signs of work around him, wondering if he should ever come to feel +pleasure in them again, while Gyp, dimly aware that there was +something wrong with his master, laid his rough grey head on +Adam's knee and wrinkled his brows to look up at him. Hitherto, +since Sunday afternoon, Adam had been constantly among strange +people and in strange places, having no associations with the +details of his daily life, and now that by the light of this new +morning he was come back to his home and surrounded by the +familiar objects that seemed for ever robbed of their charm, the +reality--the hard, inevitable reality of his troubles pressed upon +him with a new weight. Right before him was an unfinished chest +of drawers, which he had been making in spare moments for Hetty's +use, when his home should be hers. + +Seth had not heard Adam's entrance, but he had been roused by +Gyp's bark, and Adam heard him moving about in the room above, +dressing himself. Seth's first thoughts were about his brother: +he would come home to-day, surely, for the business would be +wanting him sadly by to-morrow, but it was pleasant to think he +had had a longer holiday than he had expected. And would Dinah +come too? Seth felt that that was the greatest happiness he could +look forward to for himself, though he had no hope left that she +would ever love him well enough to marry him; but he had often +said to himself, it was better to be Dinah's friend and brother +than any other woman's husband. If he could but be always near +her, instead of living so far off! + +He came downstairs and opened the inner door leading from the +kitchen into the workshop, intending to let out Gyp; but he stood +still in the doorway, smitten with a sudden shock at the sight of +Adam seated listlessly on the bench, pale, unwashed, with sunken +blank eyes, almost like a drunkard in the morning. But Seth felt +in an instant what the marks meant--not drunkenness, but some +great calamity. Adam looked up at him without speaking, and Seth +moved forward towards the bench, himself trembling so that speech +did not come readily. + +"God have mercy on us, Addy," he said, in a low voice, sitting +down on the bench beside Adam, "what is it?" + +Adam was unable to speak. The strong man, accustomed to suppress +the signs of sorrow, had felt his heart swell like a child's at +this first approach of sympathy. He fell on Seth's neck and +sobbed. + +Seth was prepared for the worst now, for, even in his +recollections of their boyhood, Adam had never sobbed before. + +"Is it death, Adam? Is she dead?" he asked, in a low tone, when +Adam raised his head and was recovering himself. + +"No, lad; but she's gone--gone away from us. She's never been to +Snowfield. Dinah's been gone to Leeds ever since last Friday was +a fortnight, the very day Hetty set out. I can't find out where +she went after she got to Stoniton." + +Seth was silent from utter astonishment: he knew nothing that +could suggest to him a reason for Hetty's going away. + +"Hast any notion what she's done it for?" he said, at last. + +"She can't ha' loved me. She didn't like our marriage when it +came nigh--that must be it," said Adam. He had determined to +mention no further reason. + +"I hear Mother stirring," said Seth. "Must we tell her?" + +"No, not yet," said Adam, rising from the bench and pushing the +hair from his face, as if he wanted to rouse himself. "I can't +have her told yet; and I must set out on another journey directly, +after I've been to the village and th' Hall Farm. I can't tell +thee where I'm going, and thee must say to her I'm gone on +business as nobody is to know anything about. I'll go and wash +myself now." Adam moved towards the door of the workshop, but +after a step or two he turned round, and, meeting Seth's eyes with +a calm sad glance, he said, "I must take all the money out o' the +tin box, lad; but if anything happens to me, all the rest 'll be +thine, to take care o' Mother with." + +Seth was pale and trembling: he felt there was some terrible +secret under all this. "Brother," he said, faintly--he never +called Adam "Brother" except in solemn moments--"I don't believe +you'll do anything as you can't ask God's blessing on." + +"Nay, lad," said Adam, "don't be afraid. I'm for doing nought but +what's a man's duty." + +The thought that if he betrayed his trouble to his mother, she +would only distress him by words, half of blundering affection, +half of irrepressible triumph that Hetty proved as unfit to be his +wife as she had always foreseen, brought back some of his habitual +firmness and self-command. He had felt ill on his journey home-- +he told her when she came down--had stayed all night at +Tredddleston for that reason; and a bad headache, that still hung +about him this morning, accounted for his paleness and heavy eyes. + +He determined to go to the village, in the first place, attend to +his business for an hour, and give notice to Burge of his being +obliged to go on a journey, which he must beg him not to mention +to any one; for he wished to avoid going to the Hall Farm near +breakfast-time, when the children and servants would be in the +house-place, and there must be exclamations in their hearing about +his having returned without Hetty. He waited until the clock +struck nine before he left the work-yard at the village, and set +off, through the fields, towards the Farm. It was an immense +relief to him, as he came near the Home Close, to see Mr. Poyser +advancing towards him, for this would spare him the pain of going +to the house. Mr. Poyser was walking briskly this March morning, +with a sense of spring business on his mind: he was going to cast +the master's eye on the shoeing of a new cart-horse, carrying his +spud as a useful companion by the way. His surprise was great +when he caught sight of Adam, but he was not a man given to +presentiments of evil. + +"Why, Adam, lad, is't you? Have ye been all this time away and +not brought the lasses back, after all? Where are they?" + +"No, I've not brought 'em," said Adam, turning round, to indicate +that he wished to walk back with Mr. Poyser. + +"Why," said Martin, looking with sharper attention at Adam, "ye +look bad. Is there anything happened?" + +"Yes," said Adam, heavily. "A sad thing's happened. I didna find +Hetty at Snowfield." + +Mr. Poyser's good-natured face showed signs of troubled +astonishment. "Not find her? What's happened to her?" he said, +his thoughts flying at once to bodily accident. + +"That I can't tell, whether anything's happened to her. She never +went to Snowfield--she took the coach to Stoniton, but I can't +learn nothing of her after she got down from the Stoniton coach." + +"Why, you donna mean she's run away?" said Martin, standing still, +so puzzled and bewildered that the fact did not yet make itself +felt as a trouble by him. + +"She must ha' done," said Adam. "She didn't like our marriage +when it came to the point--that must be it. She'd mistook her +feelings." + +Martin was silent for a minute or two, looking on the ground and +rooting up the grass with his spud, without knowing what he was +doing. His usual slowness was always trebled when the subject of +speech was painful. At last he looked up, right in Adam's face, +saying, "Then she didna deserve t' ha' ye, my lad. An' I feel i' +fault myself, for she was my niece, and I was allays hot for her +marr'ing ye. There's no amends I can make ye, lad--the more's the +pity: it's a sad cut-up for ye, I doubt." + +Adam could say nothing; and Mr. Poyser, after pursuing his walk +for a little while, went on, "I'll be bound she's gone after +trying to get a lady's maid's place, for she'd got that in her +head half a year ago, and wanted me to gi' my consent. But I'd +thought better on her"--he added, shaking his head slowly and +sadly--"I'd thought better on her, nor to look for this, after +she'd gi'en y' her word, an' everything been got ready." + +Adam had the strongest motives for encouraging this supposition in +Mr. Poyser, and he even tried to believe that it might possibly be +true. He had no warrant for the certainty that she was gone to +Arthur. + +"It was better it should be so," he said, as quietly as he could, +"if she felt she couldn't like me for a husband. Better run away +before than repent after. I hope you won't look harshly on her if +she comes back, as she may do if she finds it hard to get on away +from home." + +"I canna look on her as I've done before," said Martin decisively. +"She's acted bad by you, and by all of us. But I'll not turn my +back on her: she's but a young un, and it's the first harm I've +knowed on her. It'll be a hard job for me to tell her aunt. Why +didna Dinah come back wi' ye? She'd ha' helped to pacify her aunt +a bit." + +"Dinah wasn't at Snowfield. She's been gone to Leeds this +fortnight, and I couldn't learn from th' old woman any direction +where she is at Leeds, else I should ha' brought it you." + +"She'd a deal better be staying wi' her own kin," said Mr. Poyser, +indignantly, "than going preaching among strange folks a-that'n." + +"I must leave you now, Mr. Poyser," said Adam, "for I've a deal to +see to." + +"Aye, you'd best be after your business, and I must tell the +missis when I go home. It's a hard job." + +"But," said Adam, "I beg particular, you'll keep what's happened +quiet for a week or two. I've not told my mother yet, and there's +no knowing how things may turn out." + +"Aye, aye; least said, soonest mended. We'n no need to say why +the match is broke off, an' we may hear of her after a bit. Shake +hands wi' me, lad: I wish I could make thee amends." + +There was something in Martin Poyser's throat at that moment which +caused him to bring out those scanty words in rather a broken +fashion. Yet Adam knew what they meant all the better, and the +two honest men grasped each other's hard hands in mutual +understanding. + +There was nothing now to hinder Adam from setting off. He had +told Seth to go to the Chase and leave a message for the squire, +saying that Adam Bede had been obliged to start off suddenly on a +journey--and to say as much, and no more, to any one else who made +inquiries about him. If the Poysers learned that he was gone away +again, Adam knew they would infer that he was gone in search of +Hetty. + +He had intended to go right on his way from the Hall Farm, but now +the impulse which had frequently visited him before--to go to Mr. +Irwine, and make a confidant of him--recurred with the new force +which belongs to a last opportunity. He was about to start on a +long journey--a difficult one--by sea--and no soul would know +where he was gone. If anything happened to him? Or, if he +absolutely needed help in any matter concerning Hetty? Mr. Irwine +was to be trusted; and the feeling which made Adam shrink from +telling anything which was her secret must give way before the +need there was that she should have some one else besides himself +who would be prepared to defend her in the worst extremity. +Towards Arthur, even though he might have incurred no new guilt, +Adam felt that he was not bound to keep silence when Hetty's +interest called on him to speak. + +"I must do it," said Adam, when these thoughts, which had spread +themselves through hours of his sad journeying, now rushed upon +him in an instant, like a wave that had been slowly gathering; +"it's the right thing. I can't stand alone in this way any +longer." + + + +Chapter XXXIX + +The Tidings + + +ADAM turned his face towards Broxton and walked with his swiftest +stride, looking at his watch with the fear that Mr. Irwine might +be gone out--hunting, perhaps. The fear and haste together +produced a state of strong excitement before he reached the +rectory gate, and outside it he saw the deep marks of a recent +hoof on the gravel. + +But the hoofs were turned towards the gate, not away from it, and +though there was a horse against the stable door, it was not Mr. +Irwine's: it had evidently had a journey this morning, and must +belong to some one who had come on business. Mr. Irwine was at +home, then; but Adam could hardly find breath and calmness to tell +Carroll that he wanted to speak to the rector. The double +suffering of certain and uncertain sorrow had begun to shake the +strong man. The butler looked at him wonderingly, as he threw +himself on a bench in the passage and stared absently at the clock +on the opposite wall. The master had somebody with him, he said, +but he heard the study door open--the stranger seemed to be coming +out, and as Adam was in a hurry, he would let the master know at +once. + +Adam sat looking at the clock: the minute-hand was hurrying along +the last five minutes to ten with a loud, hard, indifferent tick, +and Adam watched the movement and listened to the sound as if he +had had some reason for doing so. In our times of bitter +suffering there are almost always these pauses, when our +consciousness is benumbed to everything but some trivial +perception or sensation. It is as if semi-idiocy came to give us +rest from the memory and the dread which refuse to leave us in our +sleep. + +Carroll, coming back, recalled Adam to the sense of his burden. +He was to go into the study immediately. "I can't think what that +strange person's come about," the butler added, from mere +incontinence of remark, as he preceded Adam to the door, "he's +gone i' the dining-room. And master looks unaccountable--as if he +was frightened." Adam took no notice of the words: he could not +care about other people's business. But when he entered the study +and looked in Mr. Irwine's face, he felt in an instant that there +was a new expression in it, strangely different from the warm +friendliness it had always worn for him before. A letter lay open +on the table, and Mr. Irwine's hand was on it, but the changed +glance he cast on Adam could not be owing entirely to +preoccupation with some disagreeable business, for he was looking +eagerly towards the door, as if Adam's entrance were a matter of +poignant anxiety to him. + +"You want to speak to me, Adam," he said, in that low +constrainedly quiet tone which a man uses when he is determined to +suppress agitation. "Sit down here." He pointed to a chair just +opposite to him, at no more than a yard's distance from his own, +and Adam sat down with a sense that this cold manner of Mr. +Irwine's gave an additional unexpected difficulty to his +disclosure. But when Adam had made up his mind to a measure, he +was not the man to renounce it for any but imperative reasons. + +"I come to you, sir," he said, "as the gentleman I look up to most +of anybody. I've something very painful to tell you--something as +it'll pain you to hear as well as me to tell. But if I speak o' +the wrong other people have done, you'll see I didn't speak till +I'd good reason." + +Mr. Irwine nodded slowly, and Adam went on rather tremulously, +"You was t' ha' married me and Hetty Sorrel, you know, sir, o' the +fifteenth o' this month. I thought she loved me, and I was th' +happiest man i' the parish. But a dreadful blow's come upon me." + +Mr. Irwine started up from his chair, as if involuntarily, but +then, determined to control himself, walked to the window and +looked out. + +"She's gone away, sir, and we don't know where. She said she was +going to Snowfield o' Friday was a fortnight, and I went last +Sunday to fetch her back; but she'd never been there, and she took +the coach to Stoniton, and beyond that I can't trace her. But now +I'm going a long journey to look for her, and I can't trust t' +anybody but you where I'm going." + +Mr. Irwine came back from the window and sat down. + +"Have you no idea of the reason why she went away?" he said. + +"It's plain enough she didn't want to marry me, sir," said Adam. +"She didn't like it when it came so near. But that isn't all, I +doubt. There's something else I must tell you, sir. There's +somebody else concerned besides me." + +A gleam of something--it was almost like relief or joy--came +across the eager anxiety of Mr. Irwine's face at that moment. +Adam was looking on the ground, and paused a little: the next +words were hard to speak. But when he went on, he lifted up his +head and looked straight at Mr. Irwine. He would do the thing he +had resolved to do, without flinching. + +"You know who's the man I've reckoned my greatest friend," he +said, "and used to be proud to think as I should pass my life i' +working for him, and had felt so ever since we were lads...." + +Mr. Irwine, as if all self-control had forsaken him, grasped +Adam's arm, which lay on the table, and, clutching it tightly like +a man in pain, said, with pale lips and a low hurried voice, "No, +Adam, no--don't say it, for God's sake!" + +Adam, surprised at the violence of Mr. Irwine's feeling, repented +of the words that had passed his lips and sat in distressed +silence. The grasp on his arm gradually relaxed, and Mr. Irwine +threw himself back in his chair, saying, "Go on--I must know it." + +"That man played with Hetty's feelings, and behaved to her as he'd +no right to do to a girl in her station o' life--made her presents +and used to go and meet her out a-walking. I found it out only +two days before he went away--found him a-kissing her as they were +parting in the Grove. There'd been nothing said between me and +Hetty then, though I'd loved her for a long while, and she knew +it. But I reproached him with his wrong actions, and words and +blows passed between us; and he said solemnly to me, after that, +as it had been all nonsense and no more than a bit o' flirting. +But I made him write a letter to tell Hetty he'd meant nothing, +for I saw clear enough, sir, by several things as I hadn't +understood at the time, as he'd got hold of her heart, and I +thought she'd belike go on thinking of him and never come to love +another man as wanted to marry her. And I gave her the letter, +and she seemed to bear it all after a while better than I'd +expected...and she behaved kinder and kinder to me...I daresay she +didn't know her own feelings then, poor thing, and they came back +upon her when it was too late...I don't want to blame her...I +can't think as she meant to deceive me. But I was encouraged to +think she loved me, and--you know the rest, sir. But it's on my +mind as he's been false to me, and 'ticed her away, and she's gone +to him--and I'm going now to see, for I can never go to work again +till I know what's become of her." + +During Adam's narrative, Mr. Irwine had had time to recover his +self-mastery in spite of the painful thoughts that crowded upon +him. It was a bitter remembrance to him now--that morning when +Arthur breakfasted with him and seemed as if he were on the verge +of a confession. It was plain enough now what he had wanted to +confess. And if their words had taken another turn...if he +himself had been less fastidious about intruding on another man's +secrets...it was cruel to think how thin a film had shut out +rescue from all this guilt and misery. He saw the whole history +now by that terrible illumination which the present sheds back +upon the past. But every other feeling as it rushed upon his was +thrown into abeyance by pity, deep respectful pity, for the man +who sat before him--already so bruised, going forth with sad blind +resignedness to an unreal sorrow, while a real one was close upon +him, too far beyond the range of common trial for him ever to have +feared it. His own agitation was quelled by a certain awe that +comes over us in the presence of a great anguish, for the anguish +he must inflict on Adam was already present to him. Again he put +his hand on the arm that lay on the table, but very gently this +time, as he said solemnly: + +"Adam, my dear friend, you have had some hard trials in your life. +You can bear sorrow manfully, as well as act manfully. God +requires both tasks at our hands. And there is a heavier sorrow +coming upon you than any you have yet known. But you are not +guilty--you have not the worst of all sorrows. God help him who +has!" + +The two pale faces looked at each other; in Adam's there was +trembling suspense, in Mr. Irwine's hesitating, shrinking pity. +But he went on. + +"I have had news of Hetty this morning. She is not gone to him. +She is in Stonyshire--at Stoniton." + +Adam started up from his chair, as if he thought he could have +leaped to her that moment. But Mr. Irwine laid hold of his arm +again and said, persuasively, "Wait, Adam, wait." So he sat down. + +"She is in a very unhappy position--one which will make it worse +for you to find her, my poor friend, than to have lost her for +ever." + +Adam's lips moved tremulously, but no sound came. They moved +again, and he whispered, "Tell me." + +"She has been arrested...she is in prison." + +It was as if an insulting blow had brought back the spirit of +resistance into Adam. The blood rushed to his face, and he said, +loudly and sharply, "For what?" + +"For a great crime--the murder of her child." + +"It CAN'T BE!" Adam almost shouted, starting up from his cnair and +making a stride towards the door; but he turned round again, +setting his back against the bookcase, and looking fiercely at Mr. +Irwine. "It isn't possible. She never had a child. She can't be +guilty. WHO says it?" + +"God grant she may be innocent, Adam. We can still hope she is." + +"But who says she is guilty?" said Adam violently. "Tell me +everything." + +"Here is a letter from the magistrate before whom she was taken, +and the constable who arrested her is in the dining-room. She +will not confess her name or where she comes from; but I fear, I +fear, there can be no doubt it is Hetty. The description of her +person corresponds, only that she is said to look very pale and +ill. She had a small red-leather pocket-book in her pocket with +two names written in it--one at the beginning, 'Hetty Sorrel, +Hayslope,' and the other near the end, 'Dinah Morris, Snowfield.' +She will not say which is her own name--she denies everything, and +will answer no questions, and application has been made to me, as +a magistrate, that I may take measures for identifying her, for it +was thought probable that the name which stands first is her own +name." + +"But what proof have they got against her, if it IS Hetty?" said +Adam, still violently, with an effort that seemed to shake his +whole frame. "I'll not believe it. It couldn't ha' been, and +none of us know it." + +"Terrible proof that she was under the temptation to commit the +crime; but we have room to hope that she did not really commit it. +Try and read that letter, Adam." + +Adam took the letter between his shaking hands and tried to fix +his eyes steadily on it. Mr. Irwine meanwhile went out to give +some orders. When he came back, Adam's eyes were still on the +first page--he couldn't read--he could not put the words together +and make out what they meant. He threw it down at last and +clenched his fist. + +"It's HIS doing," he said; "if there's been any crime, it's at his +door, not at hers. HE taught her to deceive--HE deceived me +first. Let 'em put HIM on his trial--let him stand in court +beside her, and I'll tell 'em how he got hold of her heart, and +'ticed her t' evil, and then lied to me. Is HE to go free, while +they lay all the punishment on her...so weak and young?" + +The image called up by these last words gave a new direction to +poor Adam's maddened feelings. He was silent, looking at the +corner of the room as if he saw something there. Then he burst +out again, in a tone of appealing anguish, "I can't bear it...O +God, it's too hard to lay upon me--it's too hard to think she's +wicked." + +Mr. Irwine had sat down again in silence. He was too wise to +utter soothing words at present, and indeed, the sight of Adam +before him, with that look of sudden age which sometimes comes +over a young face in moments of terrible emotion--the hard +bloodless look of the skin, the deep lines about the quivering +mouth, the furrows in the brow--the sight of this strong firm man +shattered by the invisible stroke of sorrow, moved him so deeply +that speech was not easy. Adam stood motionless, with his eyes +vacantly fixed in this way for a minute or two; in that short +space he was living through all his love again. + +"She can't ha' done it," he said, still without moving his eyes, +as if he were only talking to himself: "it was fear made her hide +it...I forgive her for deceiving me...I forgive thee, Hetty...thee +wast deceived too...it's gone hard wi' thee, my poor Hetty...but +they'll never make me believe it." + +He was silent again for a few moments, and then he said, with +fierce abruptness, "I'll go to him--I'll bring him back--I'll make +him go and look at her in her misery--he shall look at her till he +can't forget it--it shall follow him night and day--as long as he +lives it shall follow him--he shan't escape wi' lies this time-- +I'll fetch him, I'll drag him myself." + +In the act of going towards the door, Adam paused automatically +and looked about for his hat, quite unconscious where he was or +who was present with him. Mr. Irwine had followed him, and now +took him by the arm, saying, in a quiet but decided tone, "No, +Adam, no; I'm sure you will wish to stay and see what good can be +done for her, instead of going on a useless errand of vengeance. +The punishment will surely fall without your aid. Besides, he is +no longer in Ireland. He must be on his way home--or would be, +long before you arrived, for his grandfather, I know, wrote for +him to come at least ten days ago. I want you now to go with me +to Stoniton. I have ordered a horse for you to ride with us, as +soon as you can compose yourself." + +While Mr. Irwine was speaking, Adam recovered his consciousness of +the actual scene. He rubbed his hair off his forehead and +listened. + +"Remember," Mr. Irwine went on, "there are others to think of, and +act for, besides yourself, Adam: there are Hetty's friends, the +good Poysers, on whom this stroke will fall more heavily than I +can bear to think. I expect it from your strength of mind, Adam-- +from your sense of duty to God and man--that you will try to act +as long as action can be of any use." + +In reality, Mr. Irwine proposed this journey to Stoniton for +Adam's own sake. Movement, with some object before him, was the +best means of counteracting the violence of suffering in these +first hours. + +"You will go with me to Stoniton, Adam?" he said again, after a +moment's pause. "We have to see if it is really Hetty who is +there, you know." + +"Yes, sir," said Adam, "I'll do what you think right. But the +folks at th' Hall Farm?" + +"I wish them not to know till I return to tell them myself. I +shall have ascertained things then which I am uncertain about now, +and I shall return as soon as possible. Come now, the horses are +ready." + + + +Chapter XL + +The Bitter Waters Spread + + +MR. IRWINE returned from Stoniton in a post-chaise that night, and +the first words Carroll said to him, as he entered the house, +were, that Squire Donnithorne was dead--found dead in his bed at +ten o'clock that morning--and that Mrs. Irwine desired him to say +she should be awake when Mr. Irwine came home, and she begged him +not to go to bed without seeing her. + +"Well, Dauphin," Mrs. Irwine said, as her son entered her room, +"you're come at last. So the old gentleman's fidgetiness and low +spirits, which made him send for Arthur in that sudden way, really +meant something. I suppose Carroll has told you that Donnithorne +was found dead in his bed this morning. You will believe my +prognostications another time, though I daresay I shan't live to +prognosticate anything but my own death." + +"What have they done about Arthur?" said Mr. Irwine. "Sent a +messenger to await him at Liverpool?" + +"Yes, Ralph was gone before the news was brought to us. Dear +Arthur, I shall live now to see him master at the Chase, and +making good times on the estate, like a generous-hearted fellow as +he is. He'll be as happy as a king now." + +Mr. Irwine could not help giving a slight groan: he was worn with +anxiety and exertion, and his mother's light words were almost +intolerable. + +"What are you so dismal about, Dauphin? Is there any bad news? +Or are you thinking of the danger for Arthur in crossing that +frightful Irish Channel at this time of year?" + +"No, Mother, I'm not thinking of that; but I'm not prepared to +rejoice just now." + +"You've been worried by this law business that you've been to +Stoniton about. What in the world is it, that you can't tell me?" + +"You will know by and by, mother. It would not be right for me to +tell you at present. Good-night: you'll sleep now you have no +longer anything to listen for." + +Mr. Irwine gave up his intention of sending a letter to meet +Arthur, since it would not now hasten his return: the news of his +grandfather's death would bring him as soon as he could possibly +come. He could go to bed now and get some needful rest, before +the time came for the morning's heavy duty of carrying his +sickening news to the Hall Farm and to Adam's home. + +Adam himself was not come back from Stoniton, for though he shrank +from seeing Hetty, he could not bear to go to a distance from her +again. + +"It's no use, sir," he said to the rector, "it's no use for me to +go back. I can't go to work again while she's here, and I +couldn't bear the sight o' the things and folks round home. I'll +take a bit of a room here, where I can see the prison walls, and +perhaps I shall get, in time, to bear seeing her." + +Adam had not been shaken in his belief that Hetty was innocent of +the crime she was charged with, for Mr. Irwine, feeling that the +belief in her guilt would be a crushing addition to Adam's load, +had kept from him the facts which left no hope in his own mind. +There was not any reason for thrusting the whole burden on Adam at +once, and Mr. Irwine, at parting, only said, "If the evidence +should tell too strongly against her, Adam, we may still hope for +a pardon. Her youth and other circumstances will be a plea for +her." + +"Ah, and it's right people should know how she was tempted into +the wrong way," said Adam, with bitter earnestness. "It's right +they should know it was a fine gentleman made love to her, and +turned her head wi' notions. You'll remember, sir, you've +promised to tell my mother, and Seth, and the people at the farm, +who it was as led her wrong, else they'll think harder of her than +she deserves. You'll be doing her a hurt by sparing him, and I +hold him the guiltiest before God, let her ha' done what she may. +If you spare him, I'll expose him!" + +"I think your demand is just, Adam," said Mr. Irwine, "but when +you are calmer, you will judge Arthur more mercifully. I say +nothing now, only that his punishment is in other hands than +ours." + +Mr. Irwine felt it hard upon him that he should have to tell of +Arthur's sad part in the story of sin and sorrow--he who cared for +Arthur with fatherly affection, who had cared for him with +fatherly pride. But he saw clearly that the secret must be known +before long, even apart from Adam's determination, since it was +scarcely to be supposed that Hetty would persist to the end in her +obstinate silence. He made up his mind to withhold nothing from +the Poysers, but to tell them the worst at once, for there was no +time to rob the tidings of their suddenness. Hetty's trial must +come on at the Lent assizes, and they were to be held at Stoniton +the next week. It was scarcely to be hoped that Martin Poyser +could escape the pain of being called as a witness, and it was +better he should know everything as long beforehand as possible. + +Before ten o'clock on Thursday morning the home at the Hall Farm +was a house of mourning for a misfortune felt to be worse than +death. The sense of family dishonour was too keen even in the +kind-hearted Martin Poyser the younger to leave room for any +compassion towards Hetty. He and his father were simple-minded +farmers, proud of their untarnished character, proud that they +came of a family which had held up its head and paid its way as +far back as its name was in the parish register; and Hetty had +brought disgrace on them all--disgrace that could never be wiped +out. That was the all-conquering feeling in the mind both of +father and son--the scorching sense of disgrace, which neutralised +all other sensibility--and Mr. Irwine was struck with surprise to +observe that Mrs. Poyser was less severe than her husband. We are +often startled by the severity of mild people on exceptional +occasions; the reason is, that mild people are most liable to be +under the yoke of traditional impressions. + +"I'm willing to pay any money as is wanted towards trying to bring +her off," said Martin the younger when Mr. Irwine was gone, while +the old grandfather was crying in the opposite chair, "but I'll +not go nigh her, nor ever see her again, by my own will. She's +made our bread bitter to us for all our lives to come, an' we +shall ne'er hold up our heads i' this parish nor i' any other. +The parson talks o' folks pitying us: it's poor amends pity 'ull +make us." + +"Pity?" said the grandfather, sharply. "I ne'er wanted folks's +pity i' MY life afore...an' I mun begin to be looked down on now, +an' me turned seventy-two last St. Thomas's, an' all th' +underbearers and pall-bearers as I'n picked for my funeral are i' +this parish and the next to 't....It's o' no use now...I mun be +ta'en to the grave by strangers." + +"Don't fret so, father," said Mrs. Poyser, who had spoken very +little, being almost overawed by her husband's unusual hardness +and decision. "You'll have your children wi' you; an' there's the +lads and the little un 'ull grow up in a new parish as well as i' +th' old un." + +"Ah, there's no staying i' this country for us now," said Mr. +Poyser, and the hard tears trickled slowly down his round cheeks. +"We thought it 'ud be bad luck if the old squire gave us notice +this Lady day, but I must gi' notice myself now, an' see if there +can anybody be got to come an' take to the crops as I'n put i' the +ground; for I wonna stay upo' that man's land a day longer nor I'm +forced to't. An' me, as thought him such a good upright young +man, as I should be glad when he come to be our landlord. I'll +ne'er lift my hat to him again, nor sit i' the same church wi' +him...a man as has brought shame on respectable folks...an' +pretended to be such a friend t' everybody....Poor Adam there...a +fine friend he's been t' Adam, making speeches an' talking so +fine, an' all the while poisoning the lad's life, as it's much if +he can stay i' this country any more nor we can." + +"An' you t' ha' to go into court, and own you're akin t' her," +said the old man. "Why, they'll cast it up to the little un, as +isn't four 'ear old, some day--they'll cast it up t' her as she'd +a cousin tried at the 'sizes for murder." + +"It'll be their own wickedness, then," said Mrs. Poyser, with a +sob in her voice. "But there's One above 'ull take care o' the +innicent child, else it's but little truth they tell us at church. +It'll be harder nor ever to die an' leave the little uns, an' +nobody to be a mother to 'em." + +"We'd better ha' sent for Dinah, if we'd known where she is," said +Mr. Poyser; "but Adam said she'd left no direction where she'd be +at Leeds." + +"Why, she'd be wi' that woman as was a friend t' her Aunt Judith," +said Mrs. Poyser, comforted a little by this suggestion of her +husbands. "I've often heard Dinah talk of her, but I can't +remember what name she called her by. But there's Seth Bede; he's +like enough to know, for she's a preaching woman as the Methodists +think a deal on." + +"I'll send to Seth," said Mr. Poyser. "I'll send Alick to tell +him to come, or else to send up word o' the woman's name, an' thee +canst write a letter ready to send off to Treddles'on as soon as +we can make out a direction." + +"It's poor work writing letters when you want folks to come to you +i' trouble," said Mrs. Poyser. "Happen it'll be ever so long on +the road, an' never reach her at last." + +Before Alick arrived with the message, Lisbeth's thoughts too had +already flown to Dinah, and she had said to Seth, "Eh, there's no +comfort for us i' this world any more, wi'out thee couldst get +Dinah Morris to come to us, as she did when my old man died. I'd +like her to come in an' take me by th' hand again, an' talk to me. +She'd tell me the rights on't, belike--she'd happen know some good +i' all this trouble an' heart-break comin' upo' that poor lad, as +ne'er done a bit o' wrong in's life, but war better nor anybody +else's son, pick the country round. Eh, my lad...Adam, my poor +lad!" + +"Thee wouldstna like me to leave thee, to go and fetch Dinah?" +said Seth, as his mother sobbed and rocked herself to and fro. + +"Fetch her?" said Lisbeth, looking up and pausing from her grief, +like a crying child who hears some promise of consolation. "Why, +what place is't she's at, do they say?" + +"It's a good way off, mother--Leeds, a big town. But I could be +back in three days, if thee couldst spare me." + +"Nay, nay, I canna spare thee. Thee must go an' see thy brother, +an' bring me word what he's a-doin'. Mester Irwine said he'd come +an' tell me, but I canna make out so well what it means when he +tells me. Thee must go thysen, sin' Adam wonna let me go to him. +Write a letter to Dinah canstna? Thee't fond enough o' writin' +when nobody wants thee." + +"I'm not sure where she'd be i' that big town," said Seth. "If +I'd gone myself, I could ha' found out by asking the members o' +the Society. But perhaps if I put Sarah Williamson, Methodist +preacher, Leeds, o' th' outside, it might get to her; for most +like she'd be wi' Sarah Williamson." + +Alick came now with the message, and Seth, finding that Mrs. +Poyser was writing to Dinah, gave up the intention of writing +himself; but he went to the Hall Farm to tell them all he could +suggest about the address of the letter, and warn them that there +might be some delay in the delivery, from his not knowing an exact +direction. + +On leaving Lisbeth, Mr. Irwine had gone to Jonathan Burge, who had +also a claim to be acquainted with what was likely to keep Adam +away from business for some time; and before six o'clock that +evening there were few people in Broxton and Hayslope who had not +heard the sad news. Mr. Irwine had not mentioned Arthur's name to +Burge, and yet the story of his conduct towards Hetty, with all +the dark shadows cast upon it by its terrible consequences, was +presently as well known as that his grandfather was dead, and that +he was come into the estate. For Martin Poyser felt no motive to +keep silence towards the one or two neighbours who ventured to +come and shake him sorrowfully by the hand on the first day of his +trouble; and Carroll, who kept his ears open to all that passed at +the rectory, had framed an inferential version of the story, and +found early opportunities of communicating it. + +One of those neighbours who came to Martin Poyser and shook him by +the hand without speaking for some minutes was Bartle Massey. He +had shut up his school, and was on his way to the rectory, where +he arrived about half-past seven in the evening, and, sending his +duty to Mr. Irwine, begged pardon for troubling him at that hour, +but had something particular on his mind. He was shown into the +study, where Mr. Irwine soon joined him. + +"Well, Bartle?" said Mr. Irwine, putting out his hand. That was +not his usual way of saluting the schoolmaster, but trouble makes +us treat all who feel with us very much alike. "Sit down." + +"You know what I'm come about as well as I do, sir, I daresay," +said Bartle. + +"You wish to know the truth about the sad news that has reached +you...about Hetty Sorrel?" + +"Nay, sir, what I wish to know is about Adam Bede. I understand +you left him at Stoniton, and I beg the favour of you to tell me +what's the state of the poor lad's mind, and what he means to do. +For as for that bit o' pink-and-white they've taken the trouble to +put in jail, I don't value her a rotten nut--not a rotten nut-- +only for the harm or good that may come out of her to an honest +man--a lad I've set such store by--trusted to, that he'd make my +bit o' knowledge go a good way in the world....Why, sir, he's the +only scholar I've had in this stupid country that ever had the +will or the head-piece for mathematics. If he hadn't had so much +hard work to do, poor fellow, he might have gone into the higher +branches, and then this might never have happened--might never +have happened." + +Bartle was heated by the exertion of walking fast in an agitated +frame of mind, and was not able to check himself on this first +occasion of venting his feelings. But he paused now to rub his +moist forehead, and probably his moist eyes also. + +"You'll excuse me, sir," he said, when this pause had given him +time to reflect, "for running on in this way about my own +feelings, like that foolish dog of mine howling in a storm, when +there's nobody wants to listen to me. I came to hear you speak, +not to talk myself--if you'll take the trouble to tell me what the +poor lad's doing." + +"Don't put yourself under any restraint, Bartle," said Mr. Irwine. +"The fact is, I'm very much in the same condition as you just now; +I've a great deal that's painful on my mind, and I find it hard +work to be quite silent about my own feelings and only attend to +others. I share your concern for Adam, though he is not the only +one whose sufferings I care for in this affair. He intends to +remain at Stoniton till after the trial: it will come on probably +a week to-morrow. He has taken a room there, and I encouraged him +to do so, because I think it better he should be away from his own +home at present; and, poor fellow, he still believes Hetty is +innocent--he wants to summon up courage to see her if he can; he +is unwilling to leave the spot where she is." + +"Do you think the creatur's guilty, then?" said Bartle. "Do you +think they'll hang her?" + +"I'm afraid it will go hard with her. The evidence is very +strong. And one bad symptom is that she denies everything--denies +that she has had a child in the face of the most positive +evidence. I saw her myself, and she was obstinately silent to me; +she shrank up like a frightened animal when she saw me. I was +never so shocked in my life as at the change in her. But I trust +that, in the worst case, we may obtain a pardon for the sake of +the innocent who are involved." + +"Stuff and nonsense!" said Bartle, forgetting in his irritation to +whom he was speaking. "I beg your pardon, sir, I mean it's stuff +and nonsense for the innocent to care about her being hanged. For +my own part, I think the sooner such women are put out o' the +world the better; and the men that help 'em to do mischief had +better go along with 'em for that matter. What good will you do +by keeping such vermin alive, eating the victual that 'ud feed +rational beings? But if Adam's fool enough to care about it, I +don't want him to suffer more than's needful....Is he very much +cut up, poor fellow?" Bartle added, taking out his spectacles and +putting them on, as if they would assist his imagination. + +"Yes, I'm afraid the grief cuts very deep," said Mr. Irwine. "He +looks terribly shattered, and a certain violence came over him now +and then yesterday, which made me wish I could have remained near +him. But I shall go to Stoniton again to-morrow, and I have +confidence enough in the strength of Adam's principle to trust +that he will be able to endure the worst without being driven to +anything rash." + +Mr. Irwine, who was involuntarily uttering his own thoughts rather +than addressing Bartle Massey in the last sentence, had in his +mind the possibility that the spirit of vengeance to-wards Arthur, +which was the form Adam's anguish was continually taking, might +make him seek an encounter that was likely to end more fatally +than the one in the Grove. This possibility heightened the +anxiety with which he looked forward to Arthur's arrival. But +Bartle thought Mr. Irwine was referring to suicide, and his face +wore a new alarm. + +"I'll tell you what I have in my head, sir," he said, "and I hope +you'll approve of it. I'm going to shut up my school--if the +scholars come, they must go back again, that's all--and I shall go +to Stoniton and look after Adam till this business is over. I'll +pretend I'm come to look on at the assizes; he can't object to +that. What do you think about it, sir?" + +"Well," said Mr. Irwine, rather hesitatingly, "there would be some +real advantages in that...and I honour you for your friendship +towards him, Bartle. But...you must be careful what you say to +him, you know. I'm afraid you have too little fellow-feeling in +what you consider his weakness about Hetty." + +"Trust to me, sir--trust to me. I know what you mean. I've been +a fool myself in my time, but that's between you and me. I shan't +thrust myself on him only keep my eye on him, and see that he gets +some good food, and put in a word here and there." + +"Then," said Mr. Irwine, reassured a little as to Bartle's +discretion, "I think you'll be doing a good deed; and it will be +well for you to let Adam's mother and brother know that you're +going." + +"Yes, sir, yes," said Bartle, rising, and taking off his +spectacles, "I'll do that, I'll do that; though the mother's a +whimpering thing--I don't like to come within earshot of her; +however, she's a straight-backed, clean woman, none of your +slatterns. I wish you good-bye, sir, and thank you for the time +you've spared me. You're everybody's friend in this business-- +everybody's friend. It's a heavy weight you've got on your +shoulders." + +"Good-bye, Bartle, till we meet at Stoniton, as I daresay we +shall." + +Bartle hurried away from the rectory, evading Carroll's +conversational advances, and saying in an exasperated tone to +Vixen, whose short legs pattered beside him on the gravel, "Now, I +shall be obliged to take you with me, you good-for-nothing woman. +You'd go fretting yourself to death if I left you--you know you +would, and perhaps get snapped up by some tramp. And you'll be +running into bad company, I expect, putting your nose in every +hole and corner where you've no business! But if you do anything +disgraceful, I'll disown you--mind that, madam, mind that!" + + + +Chapter XLI + +The Eve of the Trial + + + +AN upper room in a dull Stoniton street, with two beds in it--one +laid on the floor. It is ten o'clock on Thursday night, and the +dark wall opposite the window shuts out the moonlight that might +have struggled with the light of the one dip candle by which +Bartle Massey is pretending to read, while he is really looking +over his spectacles at Adam Bede, seated near the dark window. + +You would hardly have known it was Adam without being told. His +face has got thinner this last week: he has the sunken eyes, the +neglected beard of a man just risen from a sick-bed. His heavy +black hair hangs over his forehead, and there is no active impulse +in him which inclines him to push it off, that he may be more +awake to what is around him. He has one arm over the back of the +chair, and he seems to be looking down at his clasped hands. He +is roused by a knock at the door. + +"There he is," said Bartle Massey, rising hastily and unfastening +the door. It was Mr. Irwine. + +Adam rose from his chair with instinctive respect, as Mr. Irwine +approached him and took his hand. + +"I'm late, Adam," he said, sitting down on the chair which Bartle +placed for him, "but I was later in setting off from Broxton than +I intended to be, and I have been incessantly occupied since I +arrived. I have done everything now, however--everything that can +be done to-night, at least. Let us all sit down." + +Adam took his chair again mechanically, and Bartle, for whom there +was no chair remaining, sat on the bed in the background. + +"Have you seen her, sir?" said Adam tremulously. + +"Yes, Adam; I and the chaplain have both been with her this +evening." + +"Did you ask her, sir...did you say anything about me?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Irwine, with some hesitation, "I spoke of you. I +said you wished to see her before the trial, if she consented." + +As Mr. Irwine paused, Adam looked at him with eager, questioning +eyes. + +"You know she shrinks from seeing any one, Adam. It is not only +you--some fatal influence seems to have shut up her heart against +her fellow-creatures. She has scarcely said anything more than +'No' either to me or the chaplain. Three or four days ago, before +you were mentioned to her, when I asked her if there was any one +of her family whom she would like to see--to whom she could open +her mind--she said, with a violent shudder, 'Tell them not to come +near me--I won't see any of them.'" + +Adam's head was hanging down again, and he did not speak. There +was silence for a few minutes, and then Mr. Irwine said, "I don't +like to advise you against your own feelings, Adam, if they now +urge you strongly to go and see her to-morrow morning, even +without her consent. It is just possible, notwithstanding +appearances to the contrary, that the interview might affect her +favourably. But I grieve to say I have scarcely any hope of that. +She didn't seem agitated when I mentioned your name; she only said +'No,' in the same cold, obstinate way as usual. And if the +meeting had no good effect on her, it would be pure, useless +suffering to you--severe suffering, I fear. She is very much +changed..." + +Adam started up from his chair and seized his hat, which lay on +the table. But he stood still then, and looked at Mr. Irwine, as +if he had a question to ask which it was yet difficult to utter. +Bartle Massey rose quietly, turned the key in the door, and put it +in his pocket. + +"Is he come back?" said Adam at last. + +"No, he is not," said Mr. Irwine, quietly. "Lay down your hat, +Adam, unless you like to walk out with me for a little fresh air. +I fear you have not been out again to-day." + +"You needn't deceive me, sir," said Adam, looking hard at Mr. +Irwine and speaking in a tone of angry suspicion. "You needn't be +afraid of me. I only want justice. I want him to feel what she +feels. It's his work...she was a child as it 'ud ha' gone t' +anybody's heart to look at...I don't care what she's done...it was +him brought her to it. And he shall know it...he shall feel +it...if there's a just God, he shall feel what it is t' ha' +brought a child like her to sin and misery." + +"I'm not deceiving you, Adam," said Mr. Irwine. "Arthur +Donnithorne is not come back--was not come back when I left. I +have left a letter for him: he will know all as soon as he +arrives." + +"But you don't mind about it," said Adam indignantly. "You think +it doesn't matter as she lies there in shame and misery, and he +knows nothing about it--he suffers nothing." + +"Adam, he WILL know--he WILL suffer, long and bitterly. He has a +heart and a conscience: I can't be entirely deceived in his +character. I am convinced--I am sure he didn't fall under +temptation without a struggle. He may be weak, but he is not +callous, not coldly selfish. I am persuaded that this will be a +shock of which he will feel the effects all his life. Why do you +crave vengeance in this way? No amount of torture that you could +inflict on him could benefit her." + +"No--O God, no," Adam groaned out, sinking on his chair again; +"but then, that's the deepest curse of all...that's what makes the +blackness of it...IT CAN NEVER BE UNDONE. My poor Hetty...she can +never be my sweet Hetty again...the prettiest thing God had made-- +smiling up at me...I thought she loved me...and was good..." + +Adam's voice had been gradually sinking into a hoarse undertone, +as if he were only talking to himself; but now he said abruptly, +looking at Mr. Irwine, "But she isn't as guilty as they say? You +don't think she is, sir? She can't ha' done it." + +"That perhaps can never be known with certainty, Adam," Mr. Irwine +answered gently. "In these cases we sometimes form our judgment +on what seems to us strong evidence, and yet, for want of knowing +some small fact, our judgment is wrong. But suppose the worst: +you have no right to say that the guilt of her crime lies with +him, and that he ought to bear the punishment. It is not for us +men to apportion the shares of moral guilt and retribution. We +find it impossible to avoid mistakes even in determining who has +committed a single criminal act, and the problem how far a man is +to be held responsible for the unforeseen consequences of his own +deed is one that might well make us tremble to look into it. The +evil consequences that may lie folded in a single act of selfish +indulgence is a thought so awful that it ought surely to awaken +some feeling less presumptuous than a rash desire to punish. You +have a mind that can understand this fully, Adam, when you are +calm. Don't suppose I can't enter into the anguish that drives +you into this state of revengeful hatred. But think of this: if +you were to obey your passion--for it IS passion, and you deceive +yourself in calling it justice--it might be with you precisely as +it has been with Arthur; nay, worse; your passion might lead you +yourself into a horrible crime." + +"No--not worse," said Adam, bitterly; "I don't believe it's worse-- +I'd sooner do it--I'd sooner do a wickedness as I could suffer +for by myself than ha' brought HER to do wickedness and then stand +by and see 'em punish her while they let me alone; and all for a +bit o' pleasure, as, if he'd had a man's heart in him, he'd ha' +cut his hand off sooner than he'd ha' taken it. What if he didn't +foresee what's happened? He foresaw enough; he'd no right to +expect anything but harm and shame to her. And then he wanted to +smooth it off wi' lies. No--there's plenty o' things folks are +hanged for not half so hateful as that. Let a man do what he +will, if he knows he's to bear the punishment himself, he isn't +half so bad as a mean selfish coward as makes things easy t' +himself and knows all the while the punishment 'll fall on +somebody else." + +"There again you partly deceive yourself, Adam. There is no sort +of wrong deed of which a man can bear the punishment alone; you +can't isolate yourself and say that the evil which is in you shall +not spread. Men's lives are as thoroughly blended with each other +as the air they breathe: evil spreads as necessarily as disease. +I know, I feel the terrible extent of suffering this sin of +Arthur's has caused to others; but so does every sin cause +suffering to others besides those who commit it. An act of +vengeance on your part against Arthur would simply be another evil +added to those we are suffering under: you could not bear the +punishment alone; you would entail the worst sorrows on every one +who loves you. You would have committed an act of blind fury that +would leave all the present evils just as they were and add worse +evils to them. You may tell me that you meditate no fatal act of +vengeance, but the feeling in your mind is what gives birth to +such actions, and as long as you indulge it, as long as you do not +see that to fix your mind on Arthur's punishment is revenge, and +not justice, you are in danger of being led on to the commission +of some great wrong. Remember what you told me about your +feelings after you had given that blow to Arthur in the Grove." + +Adam was silent: the last words had called up a vivid image of the +past, and Mr. Irwine left him to his thoughts, while he spoke to +Bartle Massey about old Mr. Donnithorne's funeral and other +matters of an indifferent kind. But at length Adam turned round +and said, in a more subdued tone, "I've not asked about 'em at th' +Hall Farm, sir. Is Mr. Poyser coming?" + +"He is come; he is in Stoniton to-night. But I could not advise +him to see you, Adam. His own mind is in a very perturbed state, +and it is best he should not see you till you are calmer." + +"Is Dinah Morris come to 'em, sir? Seth said they'd sent for +her." + +"No. Mr. Poyser tells me she was not come when he left. They're +afraid the letter has not reached her. It seems they had no exact +address." + +Adam sat ruminating a little while, and then said, "I wonder if +Dinah 'ud ha' gone to see her. But perhaps the Poysers would ha' +been sorely against it, since they won't come nigh her themselves. +But I think she would, for the Methodists are great folks for +going into the prisons; and Seth said he thought she would. She'd +a very tender way with her, Dinah had; I wonder if she could ha' +done any good. You never saw her, sir, did you?" + +"Yes, I did. I had a conversation with her--she pleased me a good +deal. And now you mention it, I wish she would come, for it is +possible that a gentle mild woman like her might move Hetty to +open her heart. The jail chaplain is rather harsh in his manner." + +"But it's o' no use if she doesn't come," said Adam sadly. + +"If I'd thought of it earlier, I would have taken some measures +for finding her out," said Mr. Irwine, "but it's too late now, I +fear...Well, Adam, I must go now. Try to get some rest to-night. +God bless you. I'll see you early to-morrow morning." + + + +Chapter XLII + +The Morning of the Trial + + +AT one o'clock the next day, Adam was alone in his dull upper +room; his watch lay before him on the table, as if he were +counting the long minutes. He had no knowledge of what was likely +to be said by the witnesses on the trial, for he had shrunk from +all the particulars connected with Hetty's arrest and accusation. +This brave active man, who would have hastened towards any danger +or toil to rescue Hetty from an apprehended wrong or misfortune, +felt himself powerless to contemplate irremediable evil and +suffering. The susceptibility which would have been an impelling +force where there was any possibility of action became helpless +anguish when he was obliged to be passive, or else sought an +active outlet in the thought of inflicting justice on Arthur. +Energetic natures, strong for all strenuous deeds, will often rush +away from a hopeless sufferer, as if they were hard-hearted. It +is the overmastering sense of pain that drives them. They shrink +by an ungovernable instinct, as they would shrink from laceration. +Adam had brought himself to think of seeing Hetty, if she would +consent to see him, because he thought the meeting might possibly +be a good to her--might help to melt away this terrible hardness +they told him of. If she saw he bore her no ill will for what she +had done to him, she might open her heart to him. But this +resolution had been an immense effort--he trembled at the thought +of seeing her changed face, as a timid woman trembles at the +thought of the surgeon's knife, and he chose now to bear the long +hours of suspense rather than encounter what seemed to him the +more intolerable agony of witnessing her trial. + +Deep unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a +regeneration, the initiation into a new state. The yearning +memories, the bitter regret, the agonized sympathy, the struggling +appeals to the Invisible Right--all the intense emotions which had +filled the days and nights of the past week, and were compressing +themselves again like an eager crowd into the hours of this single +morning, made Adam look back on all the previous years as if they +had been a dim sleepy existence, and he had only now awaked to +full consciousness. It seemed to him as if he had always before +thought it a light thing that men should suffer, as if all that he +had himself endured and called sorrow before was only a moment's +stroke that had never left a bruise. Doubtless a great anguish +may do the work of years, and we may come out from that baptism of +fire with a soul full of new awe and new pity. + +"O God," Adam groaned, as he leaned on the table and looked +blankly at the face of the watch, "and men have suffered like this +before...and poor helpless young things have suffered like +her....Such a little while ago looking so happy and so +pretty...kissing 'em all, her grandfather and all of 'em, and they +wishing her luck....O my poor, poor Hetty...dost think on it now?" + +Adam started and looked round towards the door. Vixen had begun +to whimper, and there was a sound of a stick and a lame walk on +the stairs. It was Bartle Massey come back. Could it be all +over? + +Bartle entered quietly, and, going up to Adam, grasped his hand +and said, "I'm just come to look at you, my boy, for the folks are +gone out of court for a bit." + +Adam's heart beat so violently he was unable to speak--he could +only return the pressure of his friend's hand--and Bartle, drawing +up the other chair, came and sat in front of him, taking off his +hat and his spectacles. + +"That's a thing never happened to me before," he observed, "to go +out o' the door with my spectacles on. I clean forgot to take 'em +off." + +The old man made this trivial remark, thinking it better not to +respond at all to Adam's agitation: he would gather, in an +indirect way, that there was nothing decisive to communicate at +present. + +"And now," he said, rising again, "I must see to your having a bit +of the loaf, and some of that wine Mr. Irwine sent this morning. +He'll be angry with me if you don't have it. Come, now," he went +on, bringing forward the bottle and the loaf and pouring some wine +into a cup, "I must have a bit and a sup myself. Drink a drop +with me, my lad--drink with me." + +Adam pushed the cup gently away and said, entreatingly, "Tell me +about it, Mr. Massey--tell me all about it. Was she there? Have +they begun?" + +"Yes, my boy, yes--it's taken all the time since I first went; but +they're slow, they're slow; and there's the counsel they've got +for her puts a spoke in the wheel whenever he can, and makes a +deal to do with cross-examining the witnesses and quarrelling with +the other lawyers. That's all he can do for the money they give +him; and it's a big sum--it's a big sum. But he's a 'cute fellow, +with an eye that 'ud pick the needles out of the hay in no time. +If a man had got no feelings, it 'ud be as good as a demonstration +to listen to what goes on in court; but a tender heart makes one +stupid. I'd have given up figures for ever only to have had some +good news to bring to you, my poor lad." + +"But does it seem to be going against her?" said Adam. "Tell me +what they've said. I must know it now--I must know what they have +to bring against her." + +"Why, the chief evidence yet has been the doctors; all but Martin +Poyser--poor Martin. Everybody in court felt for him--it was like +one sob, the sound they made when he came down again. The worst +was when they told him to look at the prisoner at the bar. It was +hard work, poor fellow--it was hard work. Adam, my boy, the blow +falls heavily on him as well as you; you must help poor Martin; +you must show courage. Drink some wine now, and show me you mean +to bear it like a man." + +Bartle had made the right sort of appeal. Adam, with an air of +quiet obedience, took up the cup and drank a little. + +"Tell me how SHE looked," he said presently. + +"Frightened, very frightened, when they first brought her in; it +was the first sight of the crowd and the judge, poor creatur. And +there's a lot o' foolish women in fine clothes, with gewgaws all +up their arms and feathers on their heads, sitting near the judge: +they've dressed themselves out in that way, one 'ud think, to be +scarecrows and warnings against any man ever meddling with a woman +again. They put up their glasses, and stared and whispered. But +after that she stood like a white image, staring down at her hands +and seeming neither to hear nor see anything. And she's as white +as a sheet. She didn't speak when they asked her if she'd plead +'guilty' or 'not guilty,' and they pleaded 'not guilty' for her. +But when she heard her uncle's name, there seemed to go a shiver +right through her; and when they told him to look at her, she hung +her head down, and cowered, and hid her face in her hands. He'd +much ado to speak poor man, his voice trembled so. And the +counsellors--who look as hard as nails mostly--I saw, spared him +as much as they could. Mr. Irwine put himself near him and went +with him out o' court. Ah, it's a great thing in a man's life to +be able to stand by a neighbour and uphold him in such trouble as +that." + +"God bless him, and you too, Mr. Massey," said Adam, in a low +voice, laying his hand on Bartle's arm. + +"Aye, aye, he's good metal; he gives the right ring when you try +him, our parson does. A man o' sense--says no more than's +needful. He's not one of those that think they can comfort you +with chattering, as if folks who stand by and look on knew a deal +better what the trouble was than those who have to bear it. I've +had to do with such folks in my time--in the south, when I was in +trouble myself. Mr. Irwine is to be a witness himself, by and by, +on her side, you know, to speak to her character and bringing up." + +"But the other evidence...does it go hard against her!" said Adam. +"What do you think, Mr. Massey? Tell me the truth." + +"Yes, my lad, yes. The truth is the best thing to tell. It must +come at last. The doctors' evidence is heavy on her--is heavy. +But she's gone on denying she's had a child from first to last. +These poor silly women-things--they've not the sense to know it's +no use denying what's proved. It'll make against her with the +jury, I doubt, her being so obstinate: they may be less for +recommending her to mercy, if the verdict's against her. But Mr. +Irwine 'ull leave no stone unturned with the judge--you may rely +upon that, Adam." + +"Is there nobody to stand by her and seem to care for her in the +court?" said Adam. + +"There's the chaplain o' the jail sits near her, but he's a sharp +ferrety-faced man--another sort o' flesh and blood to Mr. Irwine. +They say the jail chaplains are mostly the fag-end o' the clergy." + +"There's one man as ought to be there," said Adam bitterly. +Presently he drew himself up and looked fixedly out of the window, +apparently turning over some new idea in his mind. + +"Mr. Massey," he said at last, pushing the hair off his forehead, +"I'll go back with you. I'll go into court. It's cowardly of me +to keep away. I'll stand by her--I'll own her--for all she's been +deceitful. They oughtn't to cast her off--her own flesh and +blood. We hand folks over to God's mercy, and show none +ourselves. I used to be hard sometimes: I'll never be hard again. +I'll go, Mr. Massey--I'll go with you." + +There was a decision in Adam's manner which would have prevented +Bartle from opposing him, even if he had wished to do so. He only +said, "Take a bit, then, and another sup, Adam, for the love of +me. See, I must stop and eat a morsel. Now, you take some." + +Nerved by an active resolution, Adam took a morsel of bread and +drank some wine. He was haggard and unshaven, as he had been +yesterday, but he stood upright again, and looked more like the +Adam Bede of former days. + + + +Chapter XLIII + +The Verdict + + +THE place fitted up that day as a court of justice was a grand old +hall, now destroyed by fire. The midday light that fell on the +close pavement of human heads was shed through a line of high +pointed windows, variegated with the mellow tints of old painted +glass. Grim dusty armour hung in high relief in front of the dark +oaken gallery at the farther end, and under the broad arch of the +great mullioned window opposite was spread a curtain of old +tapestry, covered with dim melancholy figures, like a dozing +indistinct dream of the past. It was a place that through the +rest of the year was haunted with the shadowy memories of old +kings and queens, unhappy, discrowned, imprisoned; but to-day all +those shadows had fled, and not a soul in the vast hall felt the +presence of any but a living sorrow, which was quivering in warm +hearts. + +But that sorrow seemed to have made it itself feebly felt +hitherto, now when Adam Bede's tall figure was suddenly seen being +ushered to the side of the prisoner's dock. In the broad sunlight +of the great hall, among the sleek shaven faces of other men, the +marks of suffering in his face were startling even to Mr. Irwine, +who had last seen him in the dim light of his small room; and the +neighbours from Hayslope who were present, and who told Hetty +Sorrel's story by their firesides in their old age, never forgot +to say how it moved them when Adam Bede, poor fellow, taller by +the head than most of the people round him, came into court and +took his place by her side. + +But Hetty did not see him. She was standing in the same position +Bartle Massey had described, her hands crossed over each other and +her eyes fixed on them. Adam had not dared to look at her in the +first moments, but at last, when the attention of the court was +withdrawn by the proceedings he turned his face towards her with a +resolution not to shrink. + +Why did they say she was so changed? In the corpse we love, it is +the likeness we see--it is the likeness, which makes itself felt +the more keenly because something else was and is not. There they +were--the sweet face and neck, with the dark tendrils of hair, the +long dark lashes, the rounded cheek and the pouting lips--pale and +thin, yes, but like Hetty, and only Hetty. Others thought she +looked as if some demon had cast a blighting glance upon her, +withered up the woman's soul in her, and left only a hard +despairing obstinacy. But the mother's yearning, that completest +type of the life in another life which is the essence of real +human love, feels the presence of the cherished child even in the +debased, degraded man; and to Adam, this pale, hard-looking +culprit was the Hetty who had smiled at him in the garden under +the apple-tree boughs--she was that Hetty's corpse, which he had +trembled to look at the first time, and then was unwilling to turn +away his eyes from. + +But presently he heard something that compelled him to listen, and +made the sense of sight less absorbing. A woman was in the +witness-box, a middle-aged woman, who spoke in a firm distinct +voice. She said, "My name is Sarah Stone. I am a widow, and keep +a small shop licensed to sell tobacco, snuff, and tea in Church +Lane, Stoniton. The prisoner at the bar is the same young woman +who came, looking ill and tired, with a basket on her arm, and +asked for a lodging at my house on Saturday evening, the 27th of +February. She had taken the house for a public, because there was +a figure against the door. And when I said I didn't take in +lodgers, the prisoner began to cry, and said she was too tired to +go anywhere else, and she only wanted a bed for one night. And +her prettiness, and her condition, and something respectable about +her clothes and looks, and the trouble she seemed to be in made me +as I couldn't find in my heart to send her away at once. I asked +her to sit down, and gave her some tea, and asked her where she +was going, and where her friends were. She said she was going +home to her friends: they were farming folks a good way off, and +she'd had a long journey that had cost her more money than she +expected, so as she'd hardly any money left in her pocket, and was +afraid of going where it would cost her much. She had been +obliged to sell most of the things out of her basket, but she'd +thankfully give a shilling for a bed. I saw no reason why I +shouldn't take the young woman in for the night. I had only one +room, but there were two beds in it, and I told her she might stay +with me. I thought she'd been led wrong, and got into trouble, +but if she was going to her friends, it would be a good work to +keep her out of further harm." + +The witness then stated that in the night a child was born, and +she identified the baby-clothes then shown to her as those in +which she had herself dressed the child. + +"Those are the clothes. I made them myself, and had kept them by +me ever since my last child was born. I took a deal of trouble +both for the child and the mother. I couldn't help taking to the +little thing and being anxious about it. I didn't send for a +doctor, for there seemed no need. I told the mother in the day- +time she must tell me the name of her friends, and where they +lived, and let me write to them. She said, by and by she would +write herself, but not to-day. She would have no nay, but she +would get up and be dressed, in spite of everything I could say. +She said she felt quite strong enough; and it was wonderful what +spirit she showed. But I wasn't quite easy what I should do about +her, and towards evening I made up my mind I'd go, after Meeting +was over, and speak to our minister about it. I left the house +about half-past eight o'clock. I didn't go out at the shop door, +but at the back door, which opens into a narrow alley. I've only +got the ground-floor of the house, and the kitchen and bedroom +both look into the alley. I left the prisoner sitting up by the +fire in the kitchen with the baby on her lap. She hadn't cried or +seemed low at all, as she did the night before. I thought she had +a strange look with her eyes, and she got a bit flushed towards +evening. I was afraid of the fever, and I thought I'd call and +ask an acquaintance of mine, an experienced woman, to come back +with me when I went out. It was a very dark night. I didn't +fasten the door behind me; there was no lock; it was a latch with +a bolt inside, and when there was nobody in the house I always +went out at the shop door. But I thought there was no danger in +leaving it unfastened that little while. I was longer than I +meant to be, for I had to wait for the woman that came back with +me. It was an hour and a half before we got back, and when we +went in, the candle was standing burning just as I left it, but +the prisoner and the baby were both gone. She'd taken her cloak +and bonnet, but she'd left the basket and the things in it....I +was dreadful frightened, and angry with her for going. I didn't +go to give information, because I'd no thought she meant to do any +harm, and I knew she had money in her pocket to buy her food and +lodging. I didn't like to set the constable after her, for she'd +a right to go from me if she liked." + +The effect of this evidence on Adam was electrical; it gave him +new force. Hetty could not be guilty of the crime--her heart must +have clung to her baby--else why should she have taken it with +her? She might have left it behind. The little creature had died +naturally, and then she had hidden it. Babies were so liable to +death--and there might be the strongest suspicions without any +proof of guilt. His mind was so occupied with imaginary arguments +against such suspicions, that he could not listen to the cross- +examination by Hetty's counsel, who tried, without result, to +elicit evidence that the prisoner had shown some movements of +maternal affection towards the child. The whole time this witness +was being examined, Hetty had stood as motionless as before: no +word seemed to arrest her ear. But the sound of the next +witness's voice touched a chord that was still sensitive, she gave +a start and a frightened look towards him, but immediately turned +away her head and looked down at her hands as before. This +witness was a man, a rough peasant. He said: + +"My name is John Olding. I am a labourer, and live at Tedd's +Hole, two miles out of Stoniton. A week last Monday, towards one +o'clock in the afternoon, I was going towards Hetton Coppice, and +about a quarter of a mile from the coppice I saw the prisoner, in +a red cloak, sitting under a bit of a haystack not far off the +stile. She got up when she saw me, and seemed as if she'd be +walking on the other way. It was a regular road through the +fields, and nothing very uncommon to see a young woman there, but +I took notice of her because she looked white and scared. I +should have thought she was a beggar-woman, only for her good +clothes. I thought she looked a bit crazy, but it was no business +of mine. I stood and looked back after her, but she went right on +while she was in sight. I had to go to the other side of the +coppice to look after some stakes. There's a road right through +it, and bits of openings here and there, where the trees have been +cut down, and some of 'em not carried away. I didn't go straight +along the road, but turned off towards the middle, and took a +shorter way towards the spot I wanted to get to. I hadn't got far +out of the road into one of the open places before I heard a +strange cry. I thought it didn't come from any animal I knew, but +I wasn't for stopping to look about just then. But it went on, +and seemed so strange to me in that place, I couldn't help +stopping to look. I began to think I might make some money of it, +if it was a new thing. But I had hard work to tell which way it +came from, and for a good while I kept looking up at the boughs. +And then I thought it came from the ground; and there was a lot of +timber-choppings lying about, and loose pieces of turf, and a +trunk or two. And I looked about among them, but could find +nothing, and at last the cry stopped. So I was for giving it up, +and I went on about my business. But when I came back the same +way pretty nigh an hour after, I couldn't help laying down my +stakes to have another look. And just as I was stooping and +laying down the stakes, I saw something odd and round and whitish +lying on the ground under a nut-bush by the side of me. And I +stooped down on hands and knees to pick it up. And I saw it was a +little baby's hand." + +At these words a thrill ran through the court. Hetty was visibly +trembling; now, for the first time, she seemed to be listening to +what a witness said. + +"There was a lot of timber-choppings put together just where the +ground went hollow, like, under the bush, and the hand came out +from among them. But there was a hole left in one place and I +could see down it and see the child's head; and I made haste and +did away the turf and the choppings, and took out the child. It +had got comfortable clothes on, but its body was cold, and I +thought it must be dead. I made haste back with it out of the +wood, and took it home to my wife. She said it was dead, and I'd +better take it to the parish and tell the constable. And I said, +'I'll lay my life it's that young woman's child as I met going to +the coppice.' But she seemed to be gone clean out of sight. And +I took the child on to Hetton parish and told the constable, and +we went on to Justice Hardy. And then we went looking after the +young woman till dark at night, and we went and gave information +at Stoniton, as they might stop her. And the next morning, +another constable came to me, to go with him to the spot where I +found the child. And when we got there, there was the prisoner a- +sitting against the bush where I found the child; and she cried +out when she saw us, but she never offered to move. She'd got a +big piece of bread on her lap." + +Adam had given a faint groan of despair while this witness was +speaking. He had hidden his face on his arm, which rested on the +boarding in front of him. It was the supreme moment of his +suffering: Hetty was guilty; and he was silently calling to God +for help. He heard no more of the evidence, and was unconscious +when the case for the prosecution had closed--unconscious that Mr. +Irwine was in the witness-box, telling of Hetty's unblemished +character in her own parish and of the virtuous habits in which +she had been brought up. This testimony could have no influence +on the verdict, but it was given as part of that plea for mercy +which her own counsel would have made if he had been allowed to +speak for her--a favour not granted to criminals in those stern +times. + +At last Adam lifted up his head, for there was a general movement +round him. The judge had addressed the jury, and they were +retiring. The decisive moment was not far off Adam felt a +shuddering horror that would not let him look at Hetty, but she +had long relapsed into her blank hard indifference. All eyes were +strained to look at her, but she stood like a statue of dull +despair. + +'There was a mingled rustling, whispering, and low buzzing +throughout the court during this interval. The desire to listen +was suspended, and every one had some feeling or opinion to +express in undertones. Adam sat looking blankly before him, but +he did not see the objects that were right in front of his eyes-- +the counsel and attorneys talking with an air of cool business, +and Mr. Irwine in low earnest conversation with the judge--did not +see Mr. Irwine sit down again in agitation and shake his head +mournfully when somebody whispered to him. The inward action was +too intense for Adam to take in outward objects until some strong +sensation roused him. + +It was not very long, hardly more than a quarter of an hour, +before the knock which told that the jury had come to their +decision fell as a signal for silence on every ear. It is +sublime--that sudden pause of a great multitude which tells that +one soul moves in them all. Deeper and deeper the silence seemed +to become, like the deepening night, while the jurymen's names +were called over, and the prisoner was made to hold up her hand, +and the jury were asked for their verdict. + +"Guilty." + +It was the verdict every one expected, but there was a sigh of +disappointment from some hearts that it was followed by no +recommendation to mercy. Still the sympathy of the court was not +with the prisoner. The unnaturalness of her crime stood out the +more harshly by the side of her hard immovability and obstinate +silence. Even the verdict, to distant eyes, had not appeared to +move her, but those who were near saw her trembling. + +The stillness was less intense until the judge put on his black +cap, and the chaplain in his canonicals was observed behind him. +Then it deepened again, before the crier had had time to command +silence. If any sound were heard, it must have been the sound of +beating hearts. The judge spoke, "Hester Sorrel...." + +The blood rushed to Hetty's face, and then fled back again as she +looked up at the judge and kept her wide-open eyes fixed on him, +as if fascinated by fear. Adam had not yet turned towards her, +there was a deep horror, like a great gulf, between them. But at +the words "and then to be hanged by the neck till you be dead," a +piercing shriek rang through the hall. It was Hetty's shriek. +Adam started to his feet and stretched out his arms towards her. +But the arms could not reach her: she had fallen down in a +fainting-fit, and was carried out of court. + + + +Chapter XLIV + +Arthur's Return + + +When Arthur Donnithorne landed at Liverpool and read the letter +from his Aunt Lydia, briefly announcing his grand-father's death, +his first feeling was, "Poor Grandfather! I wish I could have got +to him to be with him when he died. He might have felt or wished +something at the last that I shall never know now. It was a +lonely death." + +It is impossible to say that his grief was deeper than that. Pity +and softened memory took place of the old antagonism, and in his +busy thoughts about the future, as the chaise carried him rapidly +along towards the home where he was now to be master, there was a +continually recurring effort to remember anything by which he +could show a regard for his grandfather's wishes, without +counteracting his own cherished aims for the good of the tenants +and the estate. But it is not in human nature--only in human +pretence--for a young man like Arthur, with a fine constitution +and fine spirits, thinking well of himself, believing that others +think well of him, and having a very ardent intention to give them +more and more reason for that good opinion--it is not possible for +such a young man, just coming into a splendid estate through the +death of a very old man whom he was not fond of, to feel anything +very different from exultant joy. Now his real life was +beginning; now he would have room and opportunity for action, and +he would use them. He would show the Loamshire people what a fine +country gentleman was; he would not exchange that career for any +other under the sun. He felt himself riding over the hills in the +breezy autumn days, looking after favourite plans of drainage and +enclosure; then admired on sombre mornings as the best rider on +the best horse in the hunt; spoken well of on market-days as a +first-rate landlord; by and by making speeches at election +dinners, and showing a wonderful knowledge of agriculture; the +patron of new ploughs and drills, the severe upbraider of +negligent landowners, and withal a jolly fellow that everybody +must like--happy faces greeting him everywhere on his own estate, +and the neighbouring families on the best terms with him. The +Irwines should dine with him every week, and have their own +carriage to come in, for in some very delicate way that Arthur +would devise, the lay-impropriator of the Hayslope tithes would +insist on paying a couple of hundreds more to the vicar; and his +aunt should be as comfortable as possible, and go on living at the +Chase, if she liked, in spite of her old-maidish ways--at least +until he was married, and that event lay in the indistinct +background, for Arthur had not yet seen the woman who would play +the lady-wife to the first-rate country gentleman. + +These were Arthur's chief thoughts, so far as a man's thoughts +through hours of travelling can be compressed into a few +sentences, which are only like the list of names telling you what +are the scenes in a long long panorama full of colour, of detail, +and of life. The happy faces Arthur saw greeting him were not +pale abstractions, but real ruddy faces, long familiar to him: +Martin Poyser was there--the whole Poyser family. + +What--Hetty? + +Yes; for Arthur was at ease about Hetty--not quite at ease about +the past, for a certain burning of the ears would come whenever he +thought of the scenes with Adam last August, but at ease about her +present lot. Mr. Irwine, who had been a regular correspondent, +telling him all the news about the old places and people, had sent +him word nearly three months ago that Adam Bede was not to marry +Mary Burge, as he had thought, but pretty Hetty Sorrel. Martin +Poyser and Adam himself had both told Mr. Irwine all about it-- +that Adam had been deeply in love with Hetty these two years, and +that now it was agreed they were to be married in March. That +stalwart rogue Adam was more susceptible than the rector had +thought; it was really quite an idyllic love affair; and if it had +not been too long to tell in a letter, he would have liked to +describe to Arthur the blushing looks and the simple strong words +with which the fine honest fellow told his secret. He knew Arthur +would like to hear that Adam had this sort of happiness in +prospect. + +Yes, indeed! Arthur felt there was not air enough in the room to +satisfy his renovated life, when he had read that passage in the +letter. He threw up the windows, he rushed out of doors into the +December air, and greeted every one who spoke to him with an eager +gaiety, as if there had been news of a fresh Nelson victory. For +the first time that day since he had come to Windsor, he was in +true boyish spirits. The load that had been pressing upon him was +gone, the haunting fear had vanished. He thought he could conquer +his bitterness towards Adam now--could offer him his hand, and ask +to be his friend again, in spite of that painful memory which +would still make his ears burn. He had been knocked down, and he +had been forced to tell a lie: such things make a scar, do what we +will. But if Adam were the same again as in the old days, Arthur +wished to be the same too, and to have Adam mixed up with his +business and his future, as he had always desired before the +accursed meeting in August. Nay, he would do a great deal more +for Adam than he should otherwise have done, when he came into the +estate; Hetty's husband had a special claim on him--Hetty herself +should feel that any pain she had suffered through Arthur in the +past was compensated to her a hundredfold. For really she could +not have felt much, since she had so soon made up her mind to +marry Adam. + +You perceive clearly what sort of picture Adam and Hetty made in +the panorama of Arthur's thoughts on his journey homeward. It was +March now; they were soon to be married: perhaps they were already +married. And now it was actually in his power to do a great deal +for them. Sweet--sweet little Hetty! The little puss hadn't +cared for him half as much as he cared for her; for he was a great +fool about her still--was almost afraid of seeing her--indeed, had +not cared much to look at any other woman since he parted from +her. That little figure coming towards him in the Grove, those +dark-fringed childish eyes, the lovely lips put up to kiss him-- +that picture had got no fainter with the lapse of months. And she +would look just the same. It was impossible to think how he could +meet her: he should certainly tremble. Strange, how long this +sort of influence lasts, for he was certainly not in love with +Hetty now. He had been earnestly desiring, for months, that she +should marry Adam, and there was nothing that contributed more to +his happiness in these moments than the thought of their marriage. +It was the exaggerating effect of imagination that made his heart +still beat a little more quickly at the thought of her. When he +saw the little thing again as she really was, as Adam's wife, at +work quite prosaically in her new home, he should perhaps wonder +at the possibility of his past feelings. Thank heaven it had +turned out so well! He should have plenty of affairs and +interests to fill his life now, and not be in danger of playing +the fool again. + +Pleasant the crack of the post-boy's whip! Pleasant the sense of +being hurried along in swift ease through English scenes, so like +those round his own home, only not quite so charming. Here was a +market-town--very much like Treddleston--where the arms of the +neighbouring lord of the manor were borne on the sign of the +principal inn; then mere fields and hedges, their vicinity to a +market-town carrying an agreeable suggestion of high rent, till +the land began to assume a trimmer look, the woods were more +frequent, and at length a white or red mansion looked down from a +moderate eminence, or allowed him to be aware of its parapet and +chimneys among the dense-looking masses of oaks and elms--masses +reddened now with early buds. And close at hand came the village: +the small church, with its red-tiled roof, looking humble even +among the faded half-timbered houses; the old green gravestones +with nettles round them; nothing fresh and bright but the +children, opening round eyes at the swift post-chaise; nothing +noisy and busy but the gaping curs of mysterious pedigree. What a +much prettier village Hayslope was! And it should not be +neglected like this place: vigorous repairs should go on +everywhere among farm-buildings and cottages, and travellers in +post-chaises, coming along the Rosseter road, should do nothing +but admire as they went. And Adam Bede should superintend all the +repairs, for he had a share in Burge's business now, and, if he +liked, Arthur would put some money into the concern and buy the +old man out in another year or two. That was an ugly fault in +Arthur's life, that affair last summer, but the future should make +amends. Many men would have retained a feeling of vindictiveness +towards Adam, but he would not--he would resolutely overcome all +littleness of that kind, for he had certainly been very much in +the wrong; and though Adam had been harsh and violent, and had +thrust on him a painful dilemma, the poor fellow was in love, and +had real provocation. No, Arthur had not an evil feeling in his +mind towards any human being: he was happy, and would make every +one else happy that came within his reach. + +And here was dear old Hayslope at last, sleeping, on the hill, +like a quiet old place as it was, in the late afternoon sunlight, +and opposite to it the great shoulders of the Binton Hills, below +them the purplish blackness of the hanging woods, and at last the +pale front of the Abbey, looking out from among the oaks of the +Chase, as if anxious for the heir's return. "Poor Grandfather! +And he lies dead there. He was a young fellow once, coming into +the estate and making his plans. So the world goes round! Aunt +Lydia must feel very desolate, poor thing; but she shall be +indulged as much as she indulges her fat Fido." + +The wheels of Arthur's chaise had been anxiously listened for at +the Chase, for to-day was Friday, and the funeral had already been +deferred two days. Before it drew up on the gravel of the +courtyard, all the servants in the house were assembled to receive +him with a grave, decent welcome, befitting a house of death. A +month ago, perhaps, it would have been difficult for them to have +maintained a suitable sadness in their faces, when Mr. Arthur was +come to take possession; but the hearts of the head-servants were +heavy that day for another cause than the death of the old squire, +and more than one of them was longing to be twenty miles away, as +Mr. Craig was, knowing what was to become of Hetty Sorrel--pretty +Hetty Sorrel--whom they used to see every week. They had the +partisanship of household servants who like their places, and were +not inclined to go the full length of the severe indignation felt +against him by the farming tenants, but rather to make excuses for +him; nevertheless, the upper servants, who had been on terms of +neighbourly intercourse with the Poysers for many years, could not +help feeling that the longed-for event of the young squire's +coming into the estate had been robbed of all its pleasantness. + +To Arthur it was nothing surprising that the servants looked grave +and sad: he himself was very much touched on seeing them all +again, and feeling that he was in a new relation to them. It was +that sort of pathetic emotion which has more pleasure than pain in +it--which is perhaps one of the most delicious of all states to a +good-natured man, conscious of the power to satisfy his good +nature. His heart swelled agreeably as he said, "Well, Mills, how +is my aunt?" + +But now Mr. Bygate, the lawyer, who had been in the house ever +since the death, came forward to give deferential greetings and +answer all questions, and Arthur walked with him towards the +library, where his Aunt Lydia was expecting him. Aunt Lydia was +the only person in the house who knew nothing about Hetty. Her +sorrow as a maiden daughter was unmixed with any other thoughts +than those of anxiety about funeral arrangements and her own +future lot; and, after the manner of women, she mourned for the +father who had made her life important, all the more because she +had a secret sense that there was little mourning for him in other +hearts. + +But Arthur kissed her tearful face more tenderly than he had ever +done in his life before. + +"Dear Aunt," he said affectionately, as he held her hand, "YOUR +loss is the greatest of all, but you must tell me how to try and +make it up to you all the rest of your life." + +"It was so sudden and so dreadful, Arthur," poor Miss Lydia began, +pouring out her little plaints, and Arthur sat down to listen with +impatient patience. When a pause came, he said: + +"Now, Aunt, I'll leave you for a quarter of an hour just to go to +my own room, and then I shall come and give full attention to +everything." + +"My room is all ready for me, I suppose, Mills?" he said to the +butler, who seemed to be lingering uneasily about the entrance- +hall. + +"Yes, sir, and there are letters for you; they are all laid on the +writing-table in your dressing-room." + +On entering the small anteroom which was called a dressing-room, +but which Arthur really used only to lounge and write in, he just +cast his eyes on the writing-table, and saw that there were +several letters and packets lying there; but he was in the +uncomfortable dusty condition of a man who has had a long hurried +journey, and he must really refresh himself by attending to his +toilette a little, before he read his letters. Pym was there, +making everything ready for him, and soon, with a delightful +freshness about him, as if he were prepared to begin a new day, he +went back into his dressing-room to open his letters. The level +rays of the low afternoon sun entered directly at the window, and +as Arthur seated himself in his velvet chair with their pleasant +warmth upon him, he was conscious of that quiet well-being which +perhaps you and I have felt on a sunny afternoon when, in our +brightest youth and health, life has opened a new vista for us, +and long to-morrows of activity have stretched before us like a +lovely plain which there was no need for hurrying to look at, +because it was all our own. + +The top letter was placed with its address upwards: it was in Mr. +Irwine's handwriting, Arthur saw at once; and below the address +was written, "To be delivered as soon as he arrives." Nothing +could have been less surprising to him than a letter from Mr. +Irwine at that moment: of course, there was something he wished +Arthur to know earlier than it was possible for them to see each +other. At such a time as that it was quite natural that Irwine +should have something pressing to say. Arthur broke the seal with +an agreeable anticipation of soon seeing the writer. + + +"I send this letter to meet you on your arrival, Arthur, because I +may then be at Stoniton, whither I am called by the most painful +duty it has ever been given me to perform, and it is right that +you should know what I have to tell you without delay. + +"I will not attempt to add by one word of reproach to the +retribution that is now falling on you: any other words that I +could write at this moment must be weak and unmeaning by the side +of those in which I must tell you the simple fact. + +"Hetty Sorrel is in prison, and will be tried on Friday for the +crime of child-murder."... + + +Arthur read no more. He started up from his chair and stood for a +single minute with a sense of violent convulsion in his whole +frame, as if the life were going out of him with horrible throbs; +but the next minute he had rushed out of the room, still clutching +the letter--he was hurrying along the corridor, and down the +stairs into the hall. Mills was still there, but Arthur did not +see him, as he passed like a hunted man across the hall and out +along the gravel. The butler hurried out after him as fast as his +elderly limbs could run: he guessed, he knew, where the young +squire was going. + +When Mills got to the stables, a horse was being saddled, and +Arthur was forcing himself to read the remaining words of the +letter. He thrust it into his pocket as the horse was led up to +him, and at that moment caught sight of Mills' anxious face in +front of him. + +"Tell them I'm gone--gone to Stoniton," he said in a muffled tone +of agitation--sprang into the saddle, and set off at a gallop. + + + +Chapter XLV + +In the Prison + + +NEAR sunset that evening an elderly gentleman was standing with +his back against the smaller entrance-door of Stoniton jail, +saying a few last words to the departing chaplain. The chaplain +walked away, but the elderly gentleman stood still, looking down +on the pavement and stroking his chin with a ruminating air, when +he was roused by a sweet clear woman's voice, saying, "Can I get +into the prison, if you please?" + +He turned his head and looked fixedly at the speaker for a few +moments without answering. + +"I have seen you before," he said at last. "Do you remember +preaching on the village green at Hayslope in Loamshire?" + +"Yes, sir, surely. Are you the gentleman that stayed to listen on +horseback?" + +"Yes. Why do you want to go into the prison?" + +"I want to go to Hetty Sorrel, the young woman who has been +condemned to death--and to stay with her, if I may be permitted. +Have you power in the prison, sir?" + +"Yes; I am a magistrate, and can get admittance for you. But did +you know this criminal, Hetty Sorrel?" + +"Yes, we are kin. My own aunt married her uncle, Martin Poyser. +But I was away at Leeds, and didn't know of this great trouble in +time to get here before to-day. I entreat you, sir, for the love +of our heavenly Father, to let me go to her and stay with her." + +"How did you know she was condemned to death, if you are only just +come from Leeds?" + +"I have seen my uncle since the trial, sir. He is gone back to +his home now, and the poor sinner is forsaken of all. I beseech +you to get leave for me to be with her." + +"What! Have you courage to stay all night in the prison? She is +very sullen, and will scarcely make answer when she is spoken to." + +"Oh, sir, it may please God to open her heart still. Don't let us +delay." + +"Come, then," said the elderly gentleman, ringing and gaining +admission, "I know you have a key to unlock hearts." + +Dinah mechanically took off her bonnet and shawl as soon as they +were within the prison court, from the habit she had of throwing +them off when she preached or prayed, or visited the sick; and +when they entered the jailer's room, she laid them down on a chair +unthinkingly. There was no agitation visible in her, but a deep +concentrated calmness, as if, even when she was speaking, her soul +was in prayer reposing on an unseen support. + +After speaking to the jailer, the magistrate turned to her and +said, "The turnkey will take you to the prisoner's cell and leave +you there for the night, if you desire it, but you can't have a +light during the night--it is contrary to rules. My name is +Colonel Townley: if I can help you in anything, ask the jailer for +my address and come to me. I take some interest in this Hetty +Sorrel, for the sake of that fine fellow, Adam Bede. I happened +to see him at Hayslope the same evening I heard you preach, and +recognized him in court to-day, ill as he looked." + +"Ah, sir, can you tell me anything about him? Can you tell me +where he lodges? For my poor uncle was too much weighed down with +trouble to remember." + +"Close by here. I inquired all about him of Mr. Irwine. He +lodges over a tinman's shop, in the street on the right hand as +you entered the prison. There is an old school-master with him. +Now, good-bye: I wish you success." + +"Farewell, sir. I am grateful to you." + +As Dinah crossed the prison court with the turnkey, the solemn +evening light seemed to make the walls higher than they were by +day, and the sweet pale face in the cap was more than ever like a +white flower on this background of gloom. The turnkey looked +askance at her all the while, but never spoke. He somehow felt +that the sound of his own rude voice would be grating just then. +He struck a light as they entered the dark corridor leading to the +condemned cell, and then said in his most civil tone, "It'll be +pretty nigh dark in the cell a'ready, but I can stop with my light +a bit, if you like." + +"Nay, friend, thank you," said Dinah. "I wish to go in alone." + +"As you like," said the jailer, turning the harsh key in the lock +and opening the door wide enough to admit Dinah. A jet of light +from his lantern fell on the opposite corner of the cell, where +Hetty was sitting on her straw pallet with her face buried in her +knees. It seemed as if she were asleep, and yet the grating of +the lock would have been likely to waken her. + +The door closed again, and the only light in the cell was that of +the evening sky, through the small high grating--enough to discern +human faces by. Dinah stood still for a minute, hesitating to +speak because Hetty might be asleep, and looking at the motionless +heap with a yearning heart. Then she said, softly, "Hetty!" + +There was a slight movement perceptible in Hetty's frame--a start +such as might have been produced by a feeble electrical shock--but +she did not look up. Dinah spoke again, in a tone made stronger +by irrepressible emotion, "Hetty...it's Dinah." + +Again there was a slight startled movement through Hetty's frame, +and without uncovering her face, she raised her head a little, as +if listening. + +"Hetty...Dinah is come to you." + +After a moment's pause, Hetty lifted her head slowly and timidly +from her knees and raised her eyes. The two pale faces were +looking at each other: one with a wild hard despair in it, the +other full of sad yearning love. Dinah unconsciously opened her +arms and stretched them out. + +"Don't you know me, Hetty? Don't you remember Dinah? Did you +think I wouldn't come to you in trouble?" + +Hetty kept her eyes fixed on Dinah's face--at first like an animal +that gazes, and gazes, and keeps aloof. + +"I'm come to be with you, Hetty--not to leave you--to stay with +you--to be your sister to the last." + +Slowly, while Dinah was speaking, Hetty rose, took a step forward, +and was clasped in Dinah's arms. + +They stood so a long while, for neither of them felt the impulse +to move apart again. Hetty, without any distinct thought of it, +hung on this something that was come to clasp her now, while she +was sinking helpless in a dark gulf; and Dinah felt a deep joy in +the first sign that her love was welcomed by the wretched lost +one. The light got fainter as they stood, and when at last they +sat down on the straw pallet together, their faces had become +indistinct. + +Not a word was spoken. Dinah waited, hoping for a spontaneous +word from Hetty, but she sat in the same dull despair, only +clutching the hand that held hers and leaning her cheek against +Dinah's. It was the human contact she clung to, but she was not +the less sinking into the dark gulf. + +Dinah began to doubt whether Hetty was conscious who it was that +sat beside her. She thought suffering and fear might have driven +the poor sinner out of her mind. But it was borne in upon her, as +she afterwards said, that she must not hurry God's work: we are +overhasty to speak--as if God did not manifest himself by our +silent feeling, and make his love felt through ours. She did not +know how long they sat in that way, but it got darker and darker, +till there was only a pale patch of light on the opposite wall: +all the rest was darkness. But she felt the Divine presence more +and more--nay, as if she herself were a part of it, and it was the +Divine pity that was beating in her heart and was willing the +rescue of this helpless one. At last she was prompted to speak +and find out how far Hetty was conscious of the present. + +"Hetty," she said gently, "do you know who it is that sits by your +side?" + +"Yes," Hetty answered slowly, "it's Dinah." + +"And do you remember the time when we were at the Hall Farm +together, and that night when I told you to be sure and think of +me as a friend in trouble?" + +"Yes," said Hetty. Then, after a pause, she added, "But you can +do nothing for me. You can't make 'em do anything. They'll hang +me o' Monday--it's Friday now." + +As Hetty said the last words, she clung closer to Dinah, +shuddering. + +"No, Hetty, I can't save you from that death. But isn't the +suffering less hard when you have somebody with you, that feels +for you--that you can speak to, and say what's in your +heart?...Yes, Hetty: you lean on me: you are glad to have me with +you." + +"You won't leave me, Dinah? You'll keep close to me?" + +"No, Hetty, I won't leave you. I'll stay with you to the +last....But, Hetty, there is some one else in this cell besides +me, some one close to you." + +Hetty said, in a frightened whisper, "Who?" + +"Some one who has been with you through all your hours of sin and +trouble--who has known every thought you have had--has seen where +you went, where you lay down and rose up again, and all the deeds +you have tried to hide in darkness. And on Monday, when I can't +follow you--when my arms can't reach you--when death has parted +us--He who is with us now, and knows all, will be with you then. +It makes no difference--whether we live or die, we are in the +presence of God." + +"Oh, Dinah, won't nobody do anything for me? Will they hang me +for certain?...I wouldn't mind if they'd let me live." + +"My poor Hetty, death is very dreadful to you. I know it's +dreadful. But if you had a friend to take care of you after +death--in that other world--some one whose love is greater than +mine--who can do everything?...If God our Father was your friend, +and was willing to save you from sin and suffering, so as you +should neither know wicked feelings nor pain again? If you could +believe he loved you and would help you, as you believe I love you +and will help you, it wouldn't be so hard to die on Monday, would +it?" + +"But I can't know anything about it," Hetty said, with sullen +sadness. + +"Because, Hetty, you are shutting up your soul against him, by +trying to hide the truth. God's love and mercy can overcome all +things--our ignorance, and weakness, and all the burden of our +past wickedness--all things but our wilful sin, sin that we cling +to, and will not give up. You believe in my love and pity for +you, Hetty, but if you had not let me come near you, if you +wouldn't have looked at me or spoken to me, you'd have shut me out +from helping you. I couldn't have made you feel my love; I +couldn't have told you what I felt for you. Don't shut God's love +out in that way, by clinging to sin....He can't bless you while +you have one falsehood in your soul; his pardoning mercy can't +reach you until you open your heart to him, and say, 'I have done +this great wickedness; O God, save me, make me pure from sin.' +While you cling to one sin and will not part with it, it must drag +you down to misery after death, as it has dragged you to misery +here in this world, my poor, poor Hetty. It is sin that brings +dread, and darkness, and despair: there is light and blessedness +for us as soon as we cast it off. God enters our souls then, and +teaches us, and brings us strength and peace. Cast it off now, +Hetty--now: confess the wickedness you have done--the sin you have +been guilty of against your Heavenly Father. Let us kneel down +together, for we are in the presence of God." + +Hetty obeyed Dinah's movement, and sank on her knees. They still +held each other's hands, and there was long silence. Then Dinah +said, "Hetty, we are before God. He is waiting for you to tell +the truth." + +Still there was silence. At last Hetty spoke, in a tone of +beseeching-- + +"Dinah...help me...I can't feel anything like you...my heart is +hard." + +Dinah held the clinging hand, and all her soul went forth in her +voice: + + +"Jesus, thou present Saviour! Thou hast known the depths of all +sorrow: thou hast entered that black darkness where God is not, +and hast uttered the cry of the forsaken. Come Lord, and gather +of the fruits of thy travail and thy pleading. Stretch forth thy +hand, thou who art mighty to save to the uttermost, and rescue +this lost one. She is clothed round with thick darkness. The +fetters of her sin are upon her, and she cannot stir to come to +thee. She can only feel her heart is hard, and she is helpless. +She cries to me, thy weak creature....Saviour! It is a blind cry +to thee. Hear it! Pierce the darkness! Look upon her with thy +face of love and sorrow that thou didst turn on him who denied +thee, and melt her hard heart. + +"See, Lord, I bring her, as they of old brought the sick and +helpless, and thou didst heal them. I bear her on my arms and +carry her before thee. Fear and trembling have taken hold on her, +but she trembles only at the pain and death of the body. Breathe +upon her thy life-giving Spirit, and put a new fear within her-- +the fear of her sin. Make her dread to keep the accursed thing +within her soul. Make her feel the presence of the living God, +who beholds all the past, to whom the darkness is as noonday; who +is waiting now, at the eleventh hour, for her to turn to him, and +confess her sin, and cry for mercy--now, before the night of death +comes, and the moment of pardon is for ever fled, like yesterday +that returneth not. + +"Saviour! It is yet time--time to snatch this poor soul from +everlasting darkness. I believe--I believe in thy infinite love. +What is my love or my pleading? It is quenched in thine. I can +only clasp her in my weak arms and urge her with my weak pity. +Thou--thou wilt breathe on the dead soul, and it shall arise from +the unanswering sleep of death. + +"Yea, Lord, I see thee, coming through the darkness coming, like +the morning, with healing on thy wings. The marks of thy agony +are upon thee--I see, I see thou art able and willing to save-- +thou wilt not let her perish for ever. "Come, mighty Saviour! +Let the dead hear thy voice. Let the eyes of the blind be opened. +Let her see that God encompasses her. Let her tremble at nothing +but at the sin that cuts her off from him. Melt the hard heart. +Unseal the closed lips: make her cry with her whole soul, 'Father, +I have sinned.'..." + + +"Dinah," Hetty sobbed out, throwing her arms round Dinah's neck, +"I will speak...I will tell...I won't hide it any more." + +But the tears and sobs were too violent. Dinah raised her gently +from her knees and seated her on the pallet again, sitting down by +her side. It was a long time before the convulsed throat was +quiet, and even then they sat some time in stillness and darkness, +holding each other's hands. At last Hetty whispered, "I did do +it, Dinah...I buried it in the wood...the little baby...and it +cried...I heard it cry...ever such a way off...all night...and I +went back because it cried." + +She paused, and then spoke hurriedly in a louder, pleading tone. + +"But I thought perhaps it wouldn't die--there might somebody find +it. I didn't kill it--I didn't kill it myself. I put it down +there and covered it up, and when I came back it was gone....It +was because I was so very miserable, Dinah...I didn't know where +to go...and I tried to kill myself before, and I couldn't. Oh, I +tried so to drown myself in the pool, and I couldn't. I went to +Windsor--I ran away--did you know? I went to find him, as he might +take care of me; and he was gone; and then I didn't know what to +do. I daredn't go back home again--I couldn't bear it. I +couldn't have bore to look at anybody, for they'd have scorned me. +I thought o' you sometimes, and thought I'd come to you, for I +didn't think you'd be cross with me, and cry shame on me. I +thought I could tell you. But then the other folks 'ud come to +know it at last, and I couldn't bear that. It was partly thinking +o' you made me come toward Stoniton; and, besides, I was so +frightened at going wandering about till I was a beggar-woman, and +had nothing; and sometimes it seemed as if I must go back to the +farm sooner than that. Oh, it was so dreadful, Dinah...I was so +miserable...I wished I'd never been born into this world. I +should never like to go into the green fields again--I hated 'em +so in my misery." + +Hetty paused again, as if the sense of the past were too strong +upon her for words. + +"And then I got to Stoniton, and I began to feel frightened that +night, because I was so near home. And then the little baby was +born, when I didn't expect it; and the thought came into my mind +that I might get rid of it and go home again. The thought came +all of a sudden, as I was lying in the bed, and it got stronger +and stronger...I longed so to go back again...I couldn't bear +being so lonely and coming to beg for want. And it gave me +strength and resolution to get up and dress myself. I felt I must +do it...I didn't know how...I thought I'd find a pool, if I could, +like that other, in the corner of the field, in the dark. And +when the woman went out, I felt as if I was strong enough to do +anything...I thought I should get rid of all my misery, and go +back home, and never let 'em know why I ran away I put on my +bonnet and shawl, and went out into the dark street, with the baby +under my cloak; and I walked fast till I got into a street a good +way off, and there was a public, and I got some warm stuff to +drink and some bread. And I walked on and on, and I hardly felt +the ground I trod on; and it got lighter, for there came the moon-- +oh, Dinah, it frightened me when it first looked at me out o' the +clouds--it never looked so before; and I turned out of the road +into the fields, for I was afraid o' meeting anybody with the moon +shining on me. And I came to a haystack, where I thought I could +lie down and keep myself warm all night. There was a place cut +into it, where I could make me a bed, and I lay comfortable, and +the baby was warm against me; and I must have gone to sleep for a +good while, for when I woke it was morning, but not very light, +and the baby was crying. And I saw a wood a little way off...I +thought there'd perhaps be a ditch or a pond there...and it was so +early I thought I could hide the child there, and get a long way +off before folks was up. And then I thought I'd go home--I'd get +rides in carts and go home and tell 'em I'd been to try and see +for a place, and couldn't get one. I longed so for it, Dinah, I +longed so to be safe at home. I don't know how I felt about the +baby. I seemed to hate it--it was like a heavy weight hanging +round my neck; and yet its crying went through me, and I daredn't +look at its little hands and face. But I went on to the wood, and +I walked about, but there was no water...." + +Hetty shuddered. She was silent for some moments, and when she +began again, it was in a whisper. + +"I came to a place where there was lots of chips and turf, and I +sat down on the trunk of a tree to think what I should do. And +all of a sudden I saw a hole under the nut-tree, like a little +grave. And it darted into me like lightning--I'd lay the baby +there and cover it with the grass and the chips. I couldn't kill +it any other way. And I'd done it in a minute; and, oh, it cried +so, Dinah--I couldn't cover it quite up--I thought perhaps +somebody 'ud come and take care of it, and then it wouldn't die. +And I made haste out of the wood, but I could hear it crying all +the while; and when I got out into the fields, it was as if I was +held fast--I couldn't go away, for all I wanted so to go. And I +sat against the haystack to watch if anybody 'ud come. I was very +hungry, and I'd only a bit of bread left, but I couldn't go away. +And after ever such a while--hours and hours--the man came--him in +a smock-frock, and he looked at me so, I was frightened, and I +made haste and went on. I thought he was going to the wood and +would perhaps find the baby. And I went right on, till I came to +a village, a long way off from the wood, and I was very sick, and +faint, and hungry. I got something to eat there, and bought a +loaf. But I was frightened to stay. I heard the baby crying, and +thought the other folks heard it too--and I went on. But I was so +tired, and it was getting towards dark. And at last, by the +roadside there was a barn--ever such a way off any house--like the +barn in Abbot's Close, and I thought I could go in there and hide +myself among the hay and straw, and nobody 'ud be likely to come. +I went in, and it was half full o' trusses of straw, and there was +some hay too. And I made myself a bed, ever so far behind, where +nobody could find me; and I was so tired and weak, I went to +sleep....But oh, the baby's crying kept waking me, and I thought +that man as looked at me so was come and laying hold of me. But I +must have slept a long while at last, though I didn't know, for +when I got up and went out of the barn, I didn't know whether it +was night or morning. But it was morning, for it kept getting +lighter, and I turned back the way I'd come. I couldn't help it, +Dinah; it was the baby's crying made me go--and yet I was +frightened to death. I thought that man in the smock-frock 'ud +see me and know I put the baby there. But I went on, for all +that. I'd left off thinking about going home--it had gone out o' +my mind. I saw nothing but that place in the wood where I'd +buried the baby...I see it now. Oh Dinah! shall I allays see it?" + +Hetty clung round Dinah and shuddered again. The silence seemed +long before she went on. + +"I met nobody, for it was very early, and I got into the wood....I +knew the way to the place...the place against the nut-tree; and I +could hear it crying at every step....I thought it was alive....I +don't know whether I was frightened or glad...I don't know what I +felt. I only know I was in the wood and heard the cry. I don't +know what I felt till I saw the baby was gone. And when I'd put +it there, I thought I should like somebody to find it and save it +from dying; but when I saw it was gone, I was struck like a stone, +with fear. I never thought o' stirring, I felt so weak. I knew I +couldn't run away, and everybody as saw me 'ud know about the +baby. My heart went like a stone. I couldn't wish or try for +anything; it seemed like as if I should stay there for ever, and +nothing 'ud ever change. But they came and took me away." + +Hetty was silent, but she shuddered again, as if there was still +something behind; and Dinah waited, for her heart was so full that +tears must come before words. At last Hetty burst out, with a +sob, "Dinah, do you think God will take away that crying and the +place in the wood, now I've told everything?" + +"Let us pray, poor sinner. Let us fall on our knees again, and +pray to the God of all mercy." + + + +Chapter XLVI + +The Hours of Suspense + + +ON Sunday morning, when the church bells in Stoniton were ringing +for morning service, Bartle Massey re-entered Adam's room, after a +short absence, and said, "Adam, here's a visitor wants to see +you." + +Adam was seated with is back towards the door, but he started up +and turned round instantly, with a flushed face and an eager look. +His face was even thinner and more worn than we have seen it +before, but he was washed and shaven this Sunday morning. + +"Is it any news?" he said. + +"Keep yourself quiet, my lad," said Bartle; "keep quiet. It's not +what you're thinking of. It's the young Methodist woman come from +the prison. She's at the bottom o' the stairs, and wants to know +if you think well to see her, for she has something to say to you +about that poor castaway; but she wouldn't come in without your +leave, she said. She thought you'd perhaps like to go out and +speak to her. These preaching women are not so back'ard +commonly," Bartle muttered to himself. + +"Ask her to come in," said Adam. + +He was standing with his face towards the door, and as Dinah +entered, lifting up her mild grey eyes towards him, she saw at +once the great change that had come since the day when she had +looked up at the tall man in the cottage. There was a trembling +in her clear voice as she put her hand into his and said, "Be +comforted, Adam Bede, the Lord has not forsaken her." + +"Bless you for coming to her," Adam said. "Mr. Massey brought me +word yesterday as you was come." + +They could neither of them say any more just yet, but stood before +each other in silence; and Bartle Massey, too, who had put on his +spectacles, seemed transfixed, examining Dinah's face. But he +recovered himself first, and said, "Sit down, young woman, sit +down," placing the chair for her and retiring to his old seat on +the bed. + +"Thank you, friend; I won't sit down," said Dinah, "for I must +hasten back. She entreated me not to stay long away. What I came +for, Adam Bede, was to pray you to go and see the poor sinner and +bid her farewell. She desires to ask your forgiveness, and it is +meet you should see her to-day, rather than in the early morning, +when the time will be short." + +Adam stood trembling, and at last sank down on his chair again. + +"It won't be," he said, "it'll be put off--there'll perhaps come a +pardon. Mr. Irwine said there was hope. He said, I needn't quite +give it up." + +"That's a blessed thought to me," said Dinah, her eyes filling +with tears. "It's a fearful thing hurrying her soul away so +fast." + +"But let what will be," she added presently. "You will surely +come, and let her speak the words that are in her heart. Although +her poor soul is very dark and discerns little beyond the things +of the flesh, she is no longer hard. She is contrite, she has +confessed all to me. The pride of her heart has given way, and +she leans on me for help and desires to be taught. This fills me +with trust, for I cannot but think that the brethren sometimes err +in measuring the Divine love by the sinner's knowledge. She is +going to write a letter to the friends at the Hall Farm for me to +give them when she is gone, and when I told her you were here, she +said, 'I should like to say good-bye to Adam and ask him to +forgive me.' You will come, Adam? Perhaps you will even now come +back with me." + +"I can't," Adam said. "I can't say good-bye while there's any +hope. I'm listening, and listening--I can't think o' nothing but +that. It can't be as she'll die that shameful death--I can't +bring my mind to it." + +He got up from his chair again and looked away out of the window, +while Dinah stood with compassionate patience. In a minute or two +he turned round and said, "I will come, Dinah...to-morrow +morning...if it must be. I may have more strength to bear it, if +I know it must be. Tell her, I forgive her; tell her I will come-- +at the very last." + +"I will not urge you against the voice of your own heart," said +Dinah. "I must hasten back to her, for it is wonderful how she +clings now, and was not willing to let me out of her sight. She +used never to make any return to my affection before, but now +tribulation has opened her heart. Farewell, Adam. Our heavenly +Father comfort you and strengthen you to bear all things." Dinah +put out her hand, and Adam pressed it in silence. + +Bartle Massey was getting up to lift the stiff latch of the door +for her, but before he could reach it, she had said gently, +"Farewell, friend," and was gone, with her light step down the +stairs. + +"Well," said Bartle, taking off his spectacles and putting them +into his pocket, "if there must be women to make trouble in the +world, it's but fair there should be women to be comforters under +it; and she's one--she's one. It's a pity she's a Methodist; but +there's no getting a woman without some foolishness or other." + +Adam never went to bed that night. The excitement of suspense, +heightening with every hour that brought him nearer the fatal +moment, was too great, and in spite of his entreaties, in spite of +his promises that he would be perfectly quiet, the schoolmaster +watched too. + +"What does it matter to me, lad?" Bartle said: "a night's sleep +more or less? I shall sleep long enough, by and by, underground. +Let me keep thee company in trouble while I can." + +It was a long and dreary night in that small chamber. Adam would +sometimes get up and tread backwards and forwards along the short +space from wall to wall; then he would sit down and hide his face, +and no sound would be heard but the ticking of the watch on the +table, or the falling of a cinder from the fire which the +schoolmaster carefully tended. Sometimes he would burst out into +vehement speech, "If I could ha' done anything to save her--if my +bearing anything would ha' done any good...but t' have to sit +still, and know it, and do nothing...it's hard for a man to +bear...and to think o' what might ha' been now, if it hadn't been +for HIM....O God, it's the very day we should ha' been married." + +"Aye, my lad," said Bartle tenderly, "it's heavy--it's heavy. But +you must remember this: when you thought of marrying her, you'd a +notion she'd got another sort of a nature inside her. You didn't +think she could have got hardened in that little while to do what +she's done." + +"I know--I know that," said Adam. "I thought she was loving and +tender-hearted, and wouldn't tell a lie, or act deceitful. How +could I think any other way? And if he'd never come near her, and +I'd married her, and been loving to her, and took care of her, she +might never ha' done anything bad. What would it ha' signified-- +my having a bit o' trouble with her? It 'ud ha' been nothing to +this." + +"There's no knowing, my lad--there's no knowing what might have +come. The smart's bad for you to bear now: you must have time-- +you must have time. But I've that opinion of you, that you'll +rise above it all and be a man again, and there may good come out +of this that we don't see." + +"Good come out of it!" said Adam passionately. "That doesn't +alter th' evil: HER ruin can't be undone. I hate that talk o' +people, as if there was a way o' making amends for everything. +They'd more need be brought to see as the wrong they do can never +be altered. When a man's spoiled his fellow-creatur's life, he's +no right to comfort himself with thinking good may come out of it. +Somebody else's good doesn't alter her shame and misery." + +"Well, lad, well," said Bartle, in a gentle tone, strangely in +contrast with his usual peremptoriness and impatience of +contradiction, "it's likely enough I talk foolishness. I'm an old +fellow, and it's a good many years since I was in trouble myself. +It's easy finding reasons why other folks should be patient." + +"Mr. Massey," said Adam penitently, "I'm very hot and hasty. I +owe you something different; but you mustn't take it ill of me." + +"Not I, lad--not I." + +So the night wore on in agitation till the chill dawn and the +growing light brought the tremulous quiet that comes on the brink +of despair. There would soon be no more suspense. + +"Let us go to the prison now, Mr. Massey," said Adam, when he saw +the hand of his watch at six. "If there's any news come, we shall +hear about it." + +The people were astir already, moving rapidly, in one direction, +through the streets. Adam tried not to think where they were +going, as they hurried past him in that short space between his +lodging and the prison gates. He was thankful when the gates shut +him in from seeing those eager people. + +No; there was no news come--no pardon--no reprieve. + +Adam lingered in the court half an hour before he could bring +himself to send word to Dinah that he was come. But a voice +caught his ear: he could not shut out the words. + +"The cart is to set off at half-past seven." + +It must be said--the last good-bye: there was no help. + +In ten minutes from that time, Adam was at the door of the cell. +Dinah had sent him word that she could not come to him; she could +not leave Hetty one moment; but Hetty was prepared for the +meeting. + +He could not see her when he entered, for agitation deadened his +senses, and the dim cell was almost dark to him. He stood a +moment after the door closed behind him, trembling and stupefied. + +But he began to see through the dimness--to see the dark eyes +lifted up to him once more, but with no smile in them. O God, how +sad they looked! The last time they had met his was when he +parted from her with his heart full of joyous hopeful love, and +they looked out with a tearful smile from a pink, dimpled, +childish face. The face was marble now; the sweet lips were +pallid and half-open and quivering; the dimples were all gone--all +but one, that never went; and the eyes--O, the worst of all was +the likeness they had to Hetty's. They were Hetty's eyes looking +at him with that mournful gaze, as if she had come back to him +from the dead to tell him of her misery. + +She was clinging close to Dinah; her cheek was against Dinah's. +It seemed as if her last faint strength and hope lay in that +contact, and the pitying love that shone out from Dinah's face +looked like a visible pledge of the Invisible Mercy. + +When the sad eyes met--when Hetty and Adam looked at each other-- +she felt the change in him too, and it seemed to strike her with +fresh fear. It was the first time she had seen any being whose +face seemed to reflect the change in herself: Adam was a new image +of the dreadful past and the dreadful present. She trembled more +as she looked at him. + +"Speak to him, Hetty," Dinah said; "tell him what is in your +heart." + +Hetty obeyed her, like a little child. + +"Adam...I'm very sorry...I behaved very wrong to you...will you +forgive me...before I die?" + +Adam answered with a half-sob, "Yes, I forgive thee Hetty. I +forgave thee long ago." + +It had seemed to Adam as if his brain would burst with the anguish +of meeting Hetty's eyes in the first moments, but the sound of her +voice uttering these penitent words touched a chord which had been +less strained. There was a sense of relief from what was becoming +unbearable, and the rare tears came--they had never come before, +since he had hung on Seth's neck in the beginning of his sorrow. + +Hetty made an involuntary movement towards him, some of the love +that she had once lived in the midst of was come near her again. +She kept hold of Dinah's hand, but she went up to Adam and said +timidly, "Will you kiss me again, Adam, for all I've been so +wicked?" + +Adam took the blanched wasted hand she put out to him, and they +gave each other the solemn unspeakable kiss of a lifelong parting. + +"And tell him," Hetty said, in rather a stronger voice, "tell +him...for there's nobody else to tell him...as I went after him +and couldn't find him...and I hated him and cursed him once...but +Dinah says I should forgive him...and I try...for else God won't +forgive me." + +There was a noise at the door of the cell now--the key was being +turned in the lock, and when the door opened, Adam saw +indistinctly that there were several faces there. He was too +agitated to see more--even to see that Mr. Irwine's face was one +of them. He felt that the last preparations were beginning, and +he could stay no longer. Room was silently made for him to +depart, and he went to his chamber in loneliness, leaving Bartle +Massey to watch and see the end. + + + +Chapter XLVII + +The Last Moment + + +IT was a sight that some people remembered better even than their +own sorrows--the sight in that grey clear morning, when the fatal +cart with the two young women in it was descried by the waiting +watching multitude, cleaving its way towards the hideous symbol of +a deliberately inflicted sudden death. + +All Stoniton had heard of Dinah Morris, the young Methodist woman +who had brought the obstinate criminal to confess, and there was +as much eagerness to see her as to see the wretched Hetty. + +But Dinah was hardly conscious of the multitude. When Hetty had +caught sight of the vast crowd in the distance, she had clutched +Dinah convulsively. + +"Close your eyes, Hetty," Dinah said, "and let us pray without +ceasing to God." + +And in a low voice, as the cart went slowly along through the +midst of the gazing crowd, she poured forth her soul with the +wrestling intensity of a last pleading, for the trembling creature +that clung to her and clutched her as the only visible sign of +love and pity. + +Dinah did not know that the crowd was silent, gazing at her with a +sort of awe--she did not even know how near they were to the fatal +spot, when the cart stopped, and she shrank appalled at a loud +shout hideous to her ear, like a vast yell of demons. Hetty's +shriek mingled with the sound, and they clasped each other in +mutual horror. + +But it was not a shout of execration--not a yell of exultant +cruelty. + +It was a shout of sudden excitement at the appearance of a +horseman cleaving the crowd at full gallop. The horse is hot and +distressed, but answers to the desperate spurring; the rider looks +as if his eyes were glazed by madness, and he saw nothing but what +was unseen by others. See, he has something in his hand--he is +holding it up as if it were a signal. + +The Sheriff knows him: it is Arthur Donnithorne, carrying in his +hand a hard-won release from death. + + + +Chapter XLVIII + +A nother Meeting in the Wood + + +THE next day, at evening, two men were walking from opposite +points towards the same scene, drawn thither by a common memory. +The scene was the Grove by Donnithorne Chase: you know who the men +were. + +The old squire's funeral had taken place that morning, the will +had been read, and now in the first breathing-space, Arthur +Donnithorne had come out for a lonely walk, that he might look +fixedly at the new future before him and confirm himself in a sad +resolution. He thought he could do that best in the Grove. + +Adam too had come from Stontion on Monday evening, and to-day he +had not left home, except to go to the family at the Hall Farm and +tell them everything that Mr. Irwine had left untold. He had +agreed with the Poysers that he would follow them to their new +neighbourhood, wherever that might be, for he meant to give up the +management of the woods, and, as soon as it was practicable, he +would wind up his business with Jonathan Burge and settle with his +mother and Seth in a home within reach of the friends to whom he +felt bound by a mutual sorrow. + +"Seth and me are sure to find work," he said. "A man that's got +our trade at his finger-ends is at home everywhere; and we must +make a new start. My mother won't stand in the way, for she's +told me, since I came home, she'd made up her mind to being buried +in another parish, if I wished it, and if I'd be more comfortable +elsewhere. It's wonderful how quiet she's been ever since I came +back. It seems as if the very greatness o' the trouble had +quieted and calmed her. We shall all be better in a new country, +though there's some I shall be loath to leave behind. But I won't +part from you and yours, if I can help it, Mr. Poyser. Trouble's +made us kin." + +"Aye, lad," said Martin. "We'll go out o' hearing o' that man's +name. But I doubt we shall ne'er go far enough for folks not to +find out as we've got them belonging to us as are transported o'er +the seas, and were like to be hanged. We shall have that flyin' +up in our faces, and our children's after us." + +That was a long visit to the Hall Farm, and drew too strongly on +Adam's energies for him to think of seeing others, or re-entering +on his old occupations till the morrow. "But to-morrow," he said +to himself, "I'll go to work again. I shall learn to like it +again some time, maybe; and it's right whether I like it or not." + +This evening was the last he would allow to be absorbed by sorrow: +suspense was gone now, and he must bear the unalterable. He was +resolved not to see Arthur Donnithorne again, if it were possible +to avoid him. He had no message to deliver from Hetty now, for +Hetty had seen Arthur. And Adam distrusted himself--he had +learned to dread the violence of his own feeling. That word of +Mr. Irwine's--that he must remember what he had felt after giving +the last blow to Arthur in the Grove--had remained with him. + +These thoughts about Arthur, like all thoughts that are charged +with strong feeling, were continually recurring, and they always +called up the image of the Grove--of that spot under the +overarching boughs where he had caught sight of the two bending +figures, and had been possessed by sudden rage. + +"I'll go and see it again to-night for the last time," he said; +"it'll do me good; it'll make me feel over again what I felt when +I'd knocked him down. I felt what poor empty work it was, as soon +as I'd done it, before I began to think he might be dead." + +In this way it happened that Arthur and Adam were walking towards +the same spot at the same time. + +Adam had on his working-dress again, now, for he had thrown off +the other with a sense of relief as soon as he came home; and if +he had had the basket of tools over his shoulder, he might have +been taken, with his pale wasted face, for the spectre of the Adam +Bede who entered the Grove on that August evening eight months +ago. But he had no basket of tools, and he was not walking with +the old erectness, looking keenly round him; his hands were thrust +in his side pockets, and his eyes rested chiefly on the ground. +He had not long entered the Grove, and now he paused before a +beech. He knew that tree well; it was the boundary mark of his +youth--the sign, to him, of the time when some of his earliest, +strongest feelings had left him. He felt sure they would never +return. And yet, at this moment, there was a stirring of +affection at the remembrance of that Arthur Donnithorne whom he +had believed in before he had come up to this beech eight months +ago. It was affection for the dead: THAT Arthur existed no +longer. + +He was disturbed by the sound of approaching footsteps, but the +beech stood at a turning in the road, and he could not see who was +coming until the tall slim figure in deep mourning suddenly stood +before him at only two yards' distance. They both started, and +looked at each other in silence. Often, in the last fortnight, +Adam had imagined himself as close to Arthur as this, assailing +him with words that should be as harrowing as the voice of +remorse, forcing upon him a just share in the misery he had +caused; and often, too, he had told himself that such a meeting +had better not be. But in imagining the meeting he had always +seen Arthur, as he had met him on that evening in the Grove, +florid, careless, light of speech; and the figure before him +touched him with the signs of suffering. Adam knew what suffering +was--he could not lay a cruel finger on a bruised man. He felt no +impulse that he needed to resist. Silence was more just than +reproach. Arthur was the first to speak. + +"Adam," he said, quietly, "it may be a good thing that we have met +here, for I wished to see you. I should have asked to see you to- +morrow." + +He paused, but Adam said nothing. + +"I know it is painful to you to meet me," Arthur went on, "but it +is not likely to happen again for years to come." + +"No, sir," said Adam, coldly, "that was what I meant to write to +you to-morrow, as it would be better all dealings should be at an +end between us, and somebody else put in my place." + +Arthur felt the answer keenly, and it was not without an effort +that he spoke again. + +"It was partly on that subject I wished to speak to you. I don't +want to lessen your indignation against me, or ask you to do +anything for my sake. I only wish to ask you if you will help me +to lessen the evil consequences of the past, which is +unchangeable. I don't mean consequences to myself, but to others. +It is but little I can do, I know. I know the worst consequences +will remain; but something may be done, and you can help me. Will +you listen to me patiently?" + +"Yes, sir," said Adam, after some hesitation; "I'll hear what it +is. If I can help to mend anything, I will. Anger 'ull mend +nothing, I know. We've had enough o' that." + +"I was going to the Hermitage," said Arthur. "Will you go there +with me and sit down? We can talk better there." + +The Hermitage had never been entered since they left it together, +for Arthur had locked up the key in his desk. And now, when he +opened the door, there was the candle burnt out in the socket; +there was the chair in the same place where Adam remembered +sitting; there was the waste-paper basket full of scraps, and deep +down in it, Arthur felt in an instant, there was the little pink +silk handkerchief. It would have been painful to enter this place +if their previous thoughts had been less painful. + +They sat down opposite each other in the old places, and Arthur +said, "I'm going away, Adam; I'm going into the army." + +Poor Arthur felt that Adam ought to be affected by this +announcement--ought to have a movement of sympathy towards him. +But Adam's lips remained firmly closed, and the expression of his +face unchanged. + +"What I want to say to you," Arthur continued, "is this: one of my +reasons for going away is that no one else may leave Hayslope--may +leave their home on my account. I would do anything, there is no +sacrifice I would not make, to prevent any further injury to +others through my--through what has happened." + +Arthur's words had precisely the opposite effect to that he had +anticipated. Adam thought he perceived in them that notion of +compensation for irretrievable wrong, that self-soothing attempt +to make evil bear the same fruits as good, which most of all +roused his indignation. He was as strongly impelled to look +painful facts right in the face as Arthur was to turn away his +eyes from them. Moreover, he had the wakeful suspicious pride of +a poor man in the presence of a rich man. He felt his old +severity returning as he said, "The time's past for that, sir. A +man should make sacrifices to keep clear of doing a wrong; +sacrifices won't undo it when it's done. When people's feelings +have got a deadly wound, they can't be cured with favours." + +"Favours!" said Arthur, passionately; "no; how can you suppose I +meant that? But the Poysers--Mr. Irwine tells me the Poysers mean +to leave the place where they have lived so many years--for +generations. Don't you see, as Mr. Irwine does, that if they +could be persuaded to overcome the feeling that drives them away, +it would be much better for them in the end to remain on the old +spot, among the friends and neighbours who know them?" + +"That's true," said Adam coldly. "But then, sir, folks's feelings +are not so easily overcome. It'll be hard for Martin Poyser to go +to a strange place, among strange faces, when he's been bred up on +the Hall Farm, and his father before him; but then it 'ud be +harder for a man with his feelings to stay. I don't see how the +thing's to be made any other than hard. There's a sort o' damage, +sir, that can't be made up for." + +Arthur was silent some moments. In spite of other feelings +dominant in him this evening, his pride winced under Adam's mode +of treating him. Wasn't he himself suffering? Was not he too +obliged to renounce his most cherished hopes? It was now as it +had been eight months ago--Adam was forcing Arthur to feel more +intensely the irrevocableness of his own wrong-doing. He was +presenting the sort of resistance that was the most irritating to +Arthur's eager ardent nature. But his anger was subdued by the +same influence that had subdued Adam's when they first confronted +each other--by the marks of suffering in a long familiar face. +The momentary struggle ended in the feeling that he could bear a +great deal from Adam, to whom he had been the occasion of bearing +so much; but there was a touch of pleading, boyish vexation in his +tone as he said, "But people may make injuries worse by +unreasonable conduct--by giving way to anger and satisfying that +for the moment, instead of thinking what will be the effect in the +future. + +"If I were going to stay here and act as landlord," he added +presently, with still more eagerness--"if I were careless about +what I've done--what I've been the cause of, you would have some +excuse, Adam, for going away and encouraging others to go. You +would have some excuse then for trying to make the evil worse. +But when I tell you I'm going away for years--when you know what +that means for me, how it cuts off every plan of happiness I've +ever formed--it is impossible for a sensible man like you to +believe that there is any real ground for the Poysers refusing to +remain. I know their feeling about disgrace--Mr. Irwine has told +me all; but he is of opinion that they might be persuaded out of +this idea that they are disgraced in the eyes of their neighbours, +and that they can't remain on my estate, if you would join him in +his efforts--if you would stay yourself and go on managing the old +woods." + +Arthur paused a moment and then added, pleadingly, "You know +that's a good work to do for the sake of other people, besides the +owner. And you don't know but that they may have a better owner +soon, whom you will like to work for. If I die, my cousin +Tradgett will have the estate and take my name. He is a good +fellow." + +Adam could not help being moved: it was impossible for him not to +feel that this was the voice of the honest warm-hearted Arthur +whom he had loved and been proud of in old days; but nearer +memories would not be thrust away. He was silent; yet Arthur saw +an answer in his face that induced him to go on, with growing +earnestness. + +"And then, if you would talk to the Poysers--if you would talk the +matter over with Mr. Irwine--he means to see you to-morrow--and +then if you would join your arguments to his to prevail on them +not to go....I know, of course, that they would not accept any +favour from me--I mean nothing of that kind--but I'm sure they +would suffer less in the end. Irwine thinks so too. And Mr. +Irwine is to have the chief authority on the estate--he has +consented to undertake that. They will really be under no man but +one whom they respect and like. It would be the same with you, +Adam, and it could be nothing but a desire to give me worse pain +that could incline you to go." + +Arthur was silent again for a little while, and then said, with +some agitation in his voice, "I wouldn't act so towards you, I +know. If you were in my place and I in yours, I should try to +help you to do the best." + +Adam made a hasty movement on his chair and looked on the ground. +Arthur went on, "Perhaps you've never done anything you've had +bitterly to repent of in your life, Adam; if you had, you would be +more generous. You would know then that it's worse for me than +for you." + +Arthur rose from his seat with the last words, and went to one of +the windows, looking out and turning his back on Adam, as he +continued, passionately, "Haven't I loved her too? Didn't I see +her yesterday? Shan't I carry the thought of her about with me as +much as you will? And don't you think you would suffer more if +you'd been in fault?" + +There was silence for several minutes, for the struggle in Adam's +mind was not easily decided. Facile natures, whose emotions have +little permanence, can hardly understand how much inward +resistance he overcame before he rose from his seat and turned +towards Arthur. Arthur heard the movement, and turning round, met +the sad but softened look with which Adam said, "It's true what +you say, sir. I'm hard--it's in my nature. I was too hard with +my father, for doing wrong. I've been a bit hard t' everybody but +her. I felt as if nobody pitied her enough--her suffering cut +into me so; and when I thought the folks at the farm were too hard +with her, I said I'd never be hard to anybody myself again. But +feeling overmuch about her has perhaps made me unfair to you. +I've known what it is in my life to repent and feel it's too late. +I felt I'd been too harsh to my father when he was gone from me--I +feel it now, when I think of him. I've no right to be hard +towards them as have done wrong and repent." + +Adam spoke these words with the firm distinctness of a man who is +resolved to leave nothing unsaid that he is bound to say; but he +went on with more hesitation. + +"I wouldn't shake hands with you once, sir, when you asked me--but +if you're willing to do it now, for all I refused then..." + +Arthur's white hand was in Adam's large grasp in an instant, and +with that action there was a strong rush, on both sides, of the +old, boyish affection. + +"Adam," Arthur said, impelled to full confession now, "it would +never have happened if I'd known you loved her. That would have +helped to save me from it. And I did struggle. I never meant to +injure her. I deceived you afterwards--and that led on to worse; +but I thought it was forced upon me, I thought it was the best +thing I could do. And in that letter I told her to let me know if +she were in any trouble: don't think I would not have done +everything I could. But I was all wrong from the very first, and +horrible wrong has come of it. God knows, I'd give my life if I +could undo it." + +They sat down again opposite each other, and Adam said, +tremulously, "How did she seem when you left her, sir?" + +"Don't ask me, Adam," Arthur said; "I feel sometimes as if I +should go mad with thinking of her looks and what she said to me, +and then, that I couldn't get a full pardon--that I couldn't save +her from that wretched fate of being transported--that I can do +nothing for her all those years; and she may die under it, and +never know comfort any more." + +"Ah, sir," said Adam, for the first time feeling his own pain +merged in sympathy for Arthur, "you and me'll often be thinking o' +the same thing, when we're a long way off one another. I'll pray +God to help you, as I pray him to help me." + +"But there's that sweet woman--that Dinah Morris," Arthur said, +pursuing his own thoughts and not knowing what had been the sense +of Adam's words, "she says she shall stay with her to the very +last moment--till she goes; and the poor thing clings to her as if +she found some comfort in her. I could worship that woman; I +don't know what I should do if she were not there. Adam, you will +see her when she comes back. I could say nothing to her +yesterday--nothing of what I felt towards her. Tell her," Arthur +went on hurriedly, as if he wanted to hide the emotion with which +he spoke, while he took off his chain and watch, "tell her I asked +you to give her this in remembrance of me--of the man to whom she +is the one source of comfort, when he thinks of...I know she +doesn't care about such things--or anything else I can give her +for its own sake. But she will use the watch--I shall like to +think of her using it." + +"I'll give it to her, sir," Adam said, "and tell her your words. +She told me she should come back to the people at the Hall Farm." + +"And you will persuade the Poysers to stay, Adam?" said Arthur, +reminded of the subject which both of them had forgotten in the +first interchange of revived friendship. "You will stay yourself, +and help Mr. Irwine to carry out the repairs and improvements on +the estate?" + +"There's one thing, sir, that perhaps you don't take account of," +said Adam, with hesitating gentleness, "and that was what made me +hang back longer. You see, it's the same with both me and the +Poysers: if we stay, it's for our own worldly interest, and it +looks as if we'd put up with anything for the sake o' that. I +know that's what they'll feel, and I can't help feeling a little +of it myself. When folks have got an honourable independent +spirit, they don't like to do anything that might make 'em seem +base-minded." + +"But no one who knows you will think that, Adam. That is not a +reason strong enough against a course that is really more +generous, more unselfish than the other. And it will be known--it +shall be made known, that both you and the Poysers stayed at my +entreaty. Adam, don't try to make things worse for me; I'm +punished enough without that." + +"No, sir, no," Adam said, looking at Arthur with mournful +affection. "God forbid I should make things worse for you. I +used to wish I could do it, in my passion--but that was when I +thought you didn't feel enough. I'll stay, sir, I'll do the best +I can. It's all I've got to think of now--to do my work well and +make the world a bit better place for them as can enjoy it." + +"Then we'll part now, Adam. You will see Mr. Irwine to-morrow, +and consult with him about everything." + +"Are you going soon, sir?" said Adam. + +"As soon as possible--after I've made the necessary arrangements. +Good-bye, Adam. I shall think of you going about the old place." + +"Good-bye, sir. God bless you." + +The hands were clasped once more, and Adam left the Hermitage, +feeling that sorrow was more bearable now hatred was gone. + +As soon as the door was closed behind him, Arthur went to the +waste-paper basket and took out the little pink silk handkerchief. + + + +Book Six + + + +Chapter XLIX + +At the Hall Farm + + +THE first autumnal afternoon sunshine of 1801--more than eighteen +months after that parting of Adam and Arthur in the Hermitage--was +on the yard at the Hall Farm; and the bull-dog was in one of his +most excited moments, for it was that hour of the day when the +cows were being driven into the yard for their afternoon milking. +No wonder the patient beasts ran confusedly into the wrong places, +for the alarming din of the bull-dog was mingled with more distant +sounds which the timid feminine creatures, with pardonable +superstition, imagined also to have some relation to their own +movements--with the tremendous crack of the waggoner's whip, the +roar of his voice, and the booming thunder of the waggon, as it +left the rick-yard empty of its golden load. + +The milking of the cows was a sight Mrs. Poyser loved, and at this +hour on mild days she was usually standing at the house door, with +her knitting in her hands, in quiet contemplation, only heightened +to a keener interest when the vicious yellow cow, who had once +kicked over a pailful of precious milk, was about to undergo the +preventive punishment of having her hinder-legs strapped. + +To-day, however, Mrs. Poyser gave but a divided attention to the +arrival of the cows, for she was in eager discussion with Dinah, +who was stitching Mr. Poyser's shirt-collars, and had borne +patiently to have her thread broken three times by Totty pulling +at her arm with a sudden insistence that she should look at +"Baby," that is, at a large wooden doll with no legs and a long +skirt, whose bald head Totty, seated in her small chair at Dinah's +side, was caressing and pressing to her fat cheek with much +fervour. Totty is larger by more than two years' growth than when +you first saw her, and she has on a black frock under her +pinafore. Mrs. Poyser too has on a black gown, which seems to +heighten the family likeness between her and Dinah. In other +respects there is little outward change now discernible in our old +friends, or in the pleasant house-place, bright with polished oak +and pewter. + +"I never saw the like to you, Dinah," Mrs. Poyser was saying, +"when you've once took anything into your head: there's no more +moving you than the rooted tree. You may say what you like, but I +don't believe that's religion; for what's the Sermon on the Mount +about, as you're so fond o' reading to the boys, but doing what +other folks 'ud have you do? But if it was anything unreasonable +they wanted you to do, like taking your cloak off and giving it to +'em, or letting 'em slap you i' the face, I daresay you'd be ready +enough. It's only when one 'ud have you do what's plain common +sense and good for yourself, as you're obstinate th' other way." + +"Nay, dear Aunt," said Dinah, smiling slightly as she went on with +her work, "I'm sure your wish 'ud be a reason for me to do +anything that I didn't feel it was wrong to do." + +"Wrong! You drive me past bearing. What is there wrong, I should +like to know, i' staying along wi' your own friends, as are th' +happier for having you with 'em an' are willing to provide for +you, even if your work didn't more nor pay 'em for the bit o' +sparrow's victual y' eat and the bit o' rag you put on? An' who +is it, I should like to know, as you're bound t' help and comfort +i' the world more nor your own flesh and blood--an' me th' only +aunt you've got above-ground, an' am brought to the brink o' the +grave welly every winter as comes, an' there's the child as sits +beside you 'ull break her little heart when you go, an' the +grandfather not been dead a twelvemonth, an' your uncle 'ull miss +you so as never was--a-lighting his pipe an' waiting on him, an' +now I can trust you wi' the butter, an' have had all the trouble +o' teaching you, and there's all the sewing to be done, an' I must +have a strange gell out o' Treddles'on to do it--an' all because +you must go back to that bare heap o' stones as the very crows fly +over an' won't stop at." + +"Dear Aunt Rachel," said Dinah, looking up in Mrs. Poyser's face, +"it's your kindness makes you say I'm useful to you. You don't +really want me now, for Nancy and Molly are clever at their work, +and you're in good health now, by the blessing of God, and my +uncle is of a cheerful countenance again, and you have neighbours +and friends not a few--some of them come to sit with my uncle +almost daily. Indeed, you will not miss me; and at Snowfield +there are brethren and sisters in great need, who have none of +those comforts you have around you. I feel that I am called back +to those amongst whom my lot was first cast. I feel drawn again +towards the hills where I used to be blessed in carrying the word +of life to the sinful and desolate." + +"You feel! Yes," said Mrs. Poyser, returning from a parenthetic +glance at the cows, "that's allays the reason I'm to sit down wi', +when you've a mind to do anything contrairy. What do you want to +be preaching for more than you're preaching now? Don't you go +off, the Lord knows where, every Sunday a-preaching and praying? +An' haven't you got Methodists enow at Treddles'on to go and look +at, if church-folks's faces are too handsome to please you? An' +isn't there them i' this parish as you've got under hand, and +they're like enough to make friends wi' Old Harry again as soon as +your back's turned? There's that Bessy Cranage--she'll be +flaunting i' new finery three weeks after you're gone, I'll be +bound. She'll no more go on in her new ways without you than a +dog 'ull stand on its hind-legs when there's nobody looking. But +I suppose it doesna matter so much about folks's souls i' this +country, else you'd be for staying with your own aunt, for she's +none so good but what you might help her to be better." + +There was a certain something in Mrs. Poyser's voice just then, +which she did not wish to be noticed, so she turned round hastily +to look at the clock, and said: "See there! It's tea-time; an' if +Martin's i' the rick-yard, he'll like a cup. Here, Totty, my +chicken, let mother put your bonnet on, and then you go out into +the rick-yard and see if Father's there, and tell him he mustn't +go away again without coming t' have a cup o' tea; and tell your +brothers to come in too." + +Totty trotted off in her flapping bonnet, while Mrs. Poyser set +out the bright oak table and reached down the tea-cups. + +"You talk o' them gells Nancy and Molly being clever i' their +work," she began again; "it's fine talking. They're all the same, +clever or stupid--one can't trust 'em out o' one's sight a minute. +They want somebody's eye on 'em constant if they're to be kept to +their work. An' suppose I'm ill again this winter, as I was the +winter before last? Who's to look after 'em then, if you're gone? +An' there's that blessed child--something's sure t' happen to her-- +they'll let her tumble into the fire, or get at the kettle wi' +the boiling lard in't, or some mischief as 'ull lame her for life; +an' it'll be all your fault, Dinah." + +"Aunt," said Dinah, "I promise to come back to you in the winter +if you're ill. Don't think I will ever stay away from you if +you're in real want of me. But, indeed, it is needful for my own +soul that I should go away from this life of ease and luxury in +which I have all things too richly to enjoy--at least that I +should go away for a short space. No one can know but myself what +are my inward needs, and the besetments I am most in danger from. +Your wish for me to stay is not a call of duty which I refuse to +hearken to because it is against my own desires; it is a +temptation that I must resist, lest the love of the creature +should become like a mist in my soul shutting out the heavenly +light." + +"It passes my cunning to know what you mean by ease and luxury," +said Mrs. Poyser, as she cut the bread and butter. "It's true +there's good victual enough about you, as nobody shall ever say I +don't provide enough and to spare, but if there's ever a bit o' +odds an' ends as nobody else 'ud eat, you're sure to pick it +out...but look there! There's Adam Bede a-carrying the little un +in. I wonder how it is he's come so early." + +Mrs. Poyser hastened to the door for the pleasure of looking at +her darling in a new position, with love in her eyes but reproof +on her tongue. + +"Oh for shame, Totty! Little gells o' five year old should be +ashamed to be carried. Why, Adam, she'll break your arm, such a +big gell as that; set her down--for shame!" + +"Nay, nay," said Adam, "I can lift her with my hand--I've no need +to take my arm to it." + +Totty, looking as serenely unconscious of remark as a fat white +puppy, was set down at the door-place, and the mother enforced her +reproof with a shower of kisses. + +"You're surprised to see me at this hour o' the day," said Adam. + +"Yes, but come in," said Mrs. Poyser, making way for him; "there's +no bad news, I hope?" + +"No, nothing bad," Adam answered, as he went up to Dinah and put +out his hand to her. She had laid down her work and stood up, +instinctively, as he approached her. A faint blush died away from +her pale cheek as she put her hand in his and looked up at him +timidly. + +"It's an errand to you brought me, Dinah," said Adam, apparently +unconscious that he was holding her hand all the while; "mother's +a bit ailing, and she's set her heart on your coming to stay the +night with her, if you'll be so kind. I told her I'd call and ask +you as I came from the village. She overworks herself, and I +can't persuade her to have a little girl t' help her. I don't +know what's to be done." + +Adam released Dinah's hand as he ceased speaking, and was +expecting an answer, but before she had opened her lips Mrs. +Poyser said, "Look there now! I told you there was folks enow t' +help i' this parish, wi'out going further off. There's Mrs. Bede +getting as old and cas'alty as can be, and she won't let anybody +but you go a-nigh her hardly. The folks at Snowfield have learnt +by this time to do better wi'out you nor she can." + +"I'll put my bonnet on and set off directly, if you don't want +anything done first, Aunt," said Dinah, folding up her work. + +"Yes, I do want something done. I want you t' have your tea, +child; it's all ready--and you'll have a cup, Adam, if y' arena in +too big a hurry." + +"Yes, I'll have a cup, please; and then I'll walk with Dinah. I'm +going straight home, for I've got a lot o' timber valuations to +write out." + +"Why, Adam, lad, are you here?" said Mr. Poyser, entering warm and +coatless, with the two black-eyed boys behind him, still looking +as much like him as two small elephants are like a large one. +"How is it we've got sight o' you so long before foddering-time?" + +"I came on an errand for Mother," said Adam. "She's got a touch +of her old complaint, and she wants Dinah to go and stay with her +a bit." + +"Well, we'll spare her for your mother a little while," said Mr. +Poyser. "But we wonna spare her for anybody else, on'y her +husband." + +"Husband!" said Marty, who was at the most prosaic and literal +period of the boyish mind. "Why, Dinah hasn't got a husband." + +"Spare her?" said Mrs. Poyser, placing a seed-cake on the table +and then seating herself to pour out the tea. "But we must spare +her, it seems, and not for a husband neither, but for her own +megrims. Tommy, what are you doing to your little sister's doll? +Making the child naughty, when she'd be good if you'd let her. +You shanna have a morsel o' cake if you behave so." + +Tommy, with true brotherly sympathy, was amusing himself by +turning Dolly's skirt over her bald head and exhibiting her +truncated body to the general scorn--an indignity which cut Totty +to the heart. + +"What do you think Dinah's been a-telling me since dinner-time?" +Mrs. Poyser continued, looking at her husband. + +"Eh! I'm a poor un at guessing," said Mr. Poyser. + +"Why, she means to go back to Snowfield again, and work i' the +mill, and starve herself, as she used to do, like a creatur as has +got no friends." + +Mr. Poyser did not readily find words to express his unpleasant +astonishment; he only looked from his wife to Dinah, who had now +seated herself beside Totty, as a bulwark against brotherly +playfulness, and was busying herself with the children's tea. If +he had been given to making general reflections, it would have +occurred to him that there was certainly a change come over Dinah, +for she never used to change colour; but, as it was, he merely +observed that her face was flushed at that moment. Mr. Poyser +thought she looked the prettier for it: it was a flush no deeper +than the petal of a monthly rose. Perhaps it came because her +uncle was looking at her so fixedly; but there is no knowing, for +just then Adam was saying, with quiet surprise, "Why, I hoped +Dinah was settled among us for life. I thought she'd given up the +notion o' going back to her old country." + +"Thought! Yes," said Mrs. Poyser, "and so would anybody else ha' +thought, as had got their right end up'ards. But I suppose you +must be a Methodist to know what a Methodist 'ull do. It's ill +guessing what the bats are flying after." + +"Why, what have we done to you. Dinah, as you must go away from +us?" said Mr. Poyser, still pausing over his tea-cup. "It's like +breaking your word, welly, for your aunt never had no thought but +you'd make this your home." + +"Nay, Uncle," said Dinah, trying to be quite calm. "When I first +came, I said it was only for a time, as long as I could be of any +comfort to my aunt." + +"Well, an' who said you'd ever left off being a comfort to me?" +said Mrs. Poyser. "If you didna mean to stay wi' me, you'd better +never ha' come. Them as ha' never had a cushion don't miss it." + +"Nay, nay," said Mr. Poyser, who objected to exaggerated views. +"Thee mustna say so; we should ha' been ill off wi'out her, Lady +day was a twelvemont'. We mun be thankful for that, whether she +stays or no. But I canna think what she mun leave a good home +for, to go back int' a country where the land, most on't, isna +worth ten shillings an acre, rent and profits." + +"Why, that's just the reason she wants to go, as fur as she can +give a reason," said Mrs. Poyser. "She says this country's too +comfortable, an' there's too much t' eat, an' folks arena +miserable enough. And she's going next week. I canna turn her, +say what I will. It's allays the way wi' them meek-faced people; +you may's well pelt a bag o' feathers as talk to 'em. But I say +it isna religion, to be so obstinate--is it now, Adam?" + +Adam saw that Dinah was more disturbed than he had ever seen her +by any matter relating to herself, and, anxious to relieve her, if +possible, he said, looking at her affectionately, "Nay, I can't +find fault with anything Dinah does. I believe her thoughts are +better than our guesses, let 'em be what they may. I should ha' +been thankful for her to stay among us, but if she thinks well to +go, I wouldn't cross her, or make it hard to her by objecting. We +owe her something different to that." + +As it often happens, the words intended to relieve her were just +too much for Dinah's susceptible feelings at this moment. The +tears came into the grey eyes too fast to be hidden and she got up +hurriedly, meaning it to be understood that she was going to put +on her bonnet. + +"Mother, what's Dinah crying for?" said Totty. "She isn't a +naughty dell." + +"Thee'st gone a bit too fur," said Mr. Poyser. "We've no right t' +interfere with her doing as she likes. An' thee'dst be as angry +as could be wi' me, if I said a word against anything she did." + +"Because you'd very like be finding fault wi'out reason," said +Mrs. Poyser. "But there's reason i' what I say, else I shouldna +say it. It's easy talking for them as can't love her so well as +her own aunt does. An' me got so used to her! I shall feel as +uneasy as a new sheared sheep when she's gone from me. An' to +think of her leaving a parish where she's so looked on. There's +Mr. Irwine makes as much of her as if she was a lady, for all her +being a Methodist, an' wi' that maggot o' preaching in her head-- +God forgi'e me if I'm i' the wrong to call it so." + +"Aye," said Mr. Poyser, looking jocose; "but thee dostna tell Adam +what he said to thee about it one day. The missis was saying, +Adam, as the preaching was the only fault to be found wi' Dinah, +and Mr. Irwine says, 'But you mustn't find fault with her for +that, Mrs. Poyser; you forget she's got no husband to preach to. +I'll answer for it, you give Poyser many a good sermon.' The +parson had thee there," Mr. Poyser added, laughing unctuously. "I +told Bartle Massey on it, an' he laughed too." + +"Yes, it's a small joke sets men laughing when they sit a-staring +at one another with a pipe i' their mouths," said Mrs. Poyser. +"Give Bartle Massey his way and he'd have all the sharpness to +himself. If the chaff-cutter had the making of us, we should all +be straw, I reckon. Totty, my chicken, go upstairs to cousin +Dinah, and see what she's doing, and give her a pretty kiss." + +This errand was devised for Totty as a means of checking certain +threatening symptoms about the corners of the mouth; for Tommy, no +longer expectant of cake, was lifting up his eyelids with his +forefingers and turning his eyeballs towards Totty in a way that +she felt to be disagreeably personal. + +"You're rare and busy now--eh, Adam?" said Mr. Poyser. "Burge's +getting so bad wi' his asthmy, it's well if he'll ever do much +riding about again." + +"Yes, we've got a pretty bit o' building on hand now," said Adam, +"what with the repairs on th' estate, and the new houses at +Treddles'on." + +"I'll bet a penny that new house Burge is building on his own bit +o' land is for him and Mary to go to," said Mr. Poyser. "He'll be +for laying by business soon, I'll warrant, and be wanting you to +take to it all and pay him so much by th' 'ear. We shall see you +living on th' hill before another twelvemont's over." + +"Well," said Adam, "I should like t' have the business in my own +hands. It isn't as I mind much about getting any more money. +We've enough and to spare now, with only our two selves and +mother; but I should like t' have my own way about things--I could +try plans then, as I can't do now." + +"You get on pretty well wi' the new steward, I reckon?" said Mr. +Poyser. + +"Yes, yes; he's a sensible man enough; understands farming--he's +carrying on the draining, and all that, capital. You must go some +day towards the Stonyshire side and see what alterations they're +making. But he's got no notion about buildings. You can so +seldom get hold of a man as can turn his brains to more nor one +thing; it's just as if they wore blinkers like th' horses and +could see nothing o' one side of 'em. Now, there's Mr. Irwine has +got notions o' building more nor most architects; for as for th' +architects, they set up to be fine fellows, but the most of 'em +don't know where to set a chimney so as it shan't be quarrelling +with a door. My notion is, a practical builder that's got a bit +o' taste makes the best architect for common things; and I've ten +times the pleasure i' seeing after the work when I've made the +plan myself." + +Mr. Poyser listened with an admiring interest to Adam's discourse +on building, but perhaps it suggested to him that the building of +his corn-rick had been proceeding a little too long without the +control of the master's eye, for when Adam had done speaking, he +got up and said, "Well, lad, I'll bid you good-bye now, for I'm +off to the rick-yard again." + +Adam rose too, for he saw Dinah entering, with her bonnet on and a +little basket in her hand, preceded by Totty. + +"You're ready, I see, Dinah," Adam said; "so we'll set off, for +the sooner I'm at home the better." + +"Mother," said Totty, with her treble pipe, "Dinah was saying her +prayers and crying ever so." + +"Hush, hush," said the mother, "little gells mustn't chatter." + +Whereupon the father, shaking with silent laughter, set Totty on +the white deal table and desired her to kiss him. Mr. and Mrs. +Poyser, you perceive, had no correct principles of education. + +"Come back to-morrow if Mrs. Bede doesn't want you, Dinah," said +Mrs. Poyser: "but you can stay, you know, if she's ill." + +So, when the good-byes had been said, Dinah and Adam left the Hall +Farm together. + + + +Chapter L + +In the Cottage + + +ADAM did not ask Dinah to take his arm when they got out into the +lane. He had never yet done so, often as they had walked +together, for he had observed that she never walked arm-in-arm +with Seth, and he thought, perhaps, that kind of support was not +agreeable to her. So they walked apart, though side by side, and +the close poke of her little black bonnet hid her face from him. + +"You can't be happy, then, to make the Hall Farm your home, +Dinah?" Adam said, with the quiet interest of a brother, who has +no anxiety for himself in the matter. "It's a pity, seeing +they're so fond of you." + +"You know, Adam, my heart is as their heart, so far as love for +them and care for their welfare goes, but they are in no present +need. Their sorrows are healed, and I feel that I am called back +to my old work, in which I found a blessing that I have missed of +late in the midst of too abundant worldly good. I know it is a +vain thought to flee from the work that God appoints us, for the +sake of finding a greater blessing to our own souls, as if we +could choose for ourselves where we shall find the fulness of the +Divine Presence, instead of seeking it where alone it is to be +found, in loving obedience. But now, I believe, I have a clear +showing that my work lies elsewhere--at least for a time. In the +years to come, if my aunt's health should fail, or she should +otherwise need me, I shall return." + +"You know best, Dinah," said Adam. "I don't believe you'd go +against the wishes of them that love you, and are akin to you, +without a good and sufficient reason in your own conscience. I've +no right to say anything about my being sorry: you know well +enough what cause I have to put you above every other friend I've +got; and if it had been ordered so that you could ha' been my +sister, and lived with us all our lives, I should ha' counted it +the greatest blessing as could happen to us now. But Seth tells +me there's no hope o' that: your feelings are different, and +perhaps I'm taking too much upon me to speak about it." + +Dinah made no answer, and they walked on in silence for some +yards, till they came to the stone stile, where, as Adam had +passed through first and turned round to give her his hand while +she mounted the unusually high step, she could not prevent him +from seeing her face. It struck him with surprise, for the grey +eyes, usually so mild and grave, had the bright uneasy glance +which accompanies suppressed agitation, and the slight flush in +her cheeks, with which she had come downstairs, was heightened to +a deep rose-colour. She looked as if she were only sister to +Dinah. Adam was silent with surprise and conjecture for some +moments, and then he said, "I hope I've not hurt or displeased you +by what I've said, Dinah. Perhaps I was making too free. I've no +wish different from what you see to be best, and I'm satisfied for +you to live thirty mile off, if you think it right. I shall think +of you just as much as I do now, for you're bound up with what I +can no more help remembering than I can help my heart beating." + +Poor Adam! Thus do men blunder. Dinah made no answer, but she +presently said, "Have you heard any news from that poor young man, +since we last spoke of him?" + +Dinah always called Arthur so; she had never lost the image of him +as she had seen him in the prison. + +"Yes," said Adam. "Mr. Irwine read me part of a letter from him +yesterday. It's pretty certain, they say, that there'll be a +peace soon, though nobody believes it'll last long; but he says he +doesn't mean to come home. He's no heart for it yet, and it's +better for others that he should keep away. Mr. Irwine thinks +he's in the right not to come. It's a sorrowful letter. He asks +about you and the Poysers, as he always does. There's one thing +in the letter cut me a good deal: 'You can't think what an old +fellow I feel,' he says; 'I make no schemes now. I'm the best +when I've a good day's march or fighting before me.'" + +"He's of a rash, warm-hearted nature, like Esau, for whom I have +always felt great pity," said Dinah. "That meeting between the +brothers, where Esau is so loving and generous, and Jacob so timid +and distrustful, notwithstanding his sense of the Divine favour, +has always touched me greatly. Truly, I have been tempted +sometimes to say that Jacob was of a mean spirit. But that is our +trial: we must learn to see the good in the midst of much that is +unlovely." + +"Ah," said Adam, "I like to read about Moses best, in th' Old +Testament. He carried a hard business well through, and died when +other folks were going to reap the fruits. A man must have +courage to look at his life so, and think what'll come of it after +he's dead and gone. A good solid bit o' work lasts: if it's only +laying a floor down, somebody's the better for it being done well, +besides the man as does it." + +They were both glad to talk of subjects that were not personal, +and in this way they went on till they passed the bridge across +the Willow Brook, when Adam turned round and said, "Ah, here's +Seth. I thought he'd be home soon. Does he know of you're going, +Dinah?" + +"Yes, I told him last Sabbath." + +Adam remembered now that Seth had come home much depressed on +Sunday evening, a circumstance which had been very unusual with +him of late, for the happiness he had in seeing Dinah every week +seemed long to have outweighed the pain of knowing she would never +marry him. This evening he had his habitual air of dreamy +benignant contentment, until he came quite close to Dinah and saw +the traces of tears on her delicate eyelids and eyelashes. He +gave one rapid glance at his brother, but Adam was evidently quite +outside the current of emotion that had shaken Dinah: he wore his +everyday look of unexpectant calm. Seth tried not to let Dinah +see that he had noticed her face, and only said, "I'm thankful +you're come, Dinah, for Mother's been hungering after the sight of +you all day. She began to talk of you the first thing in the +morning." + +When they entered the cottage, Lisbeth was seated in her arm- +chair, too tired with setting out the evening meal, a task she +always performed a long time beforehand, to go and meet them at +the door as usual, when she heard the approaching footsteps. + +"Coom, child, thee't coom at last," she said, when Dinah went +towards her. "What dost mane by lavin' me a week an' ne'er +coomin' a-nigh me?" + +"Dear friend," said Dinah, taking her hand, "you're not well. If +I'd known it sooner, I'd have come." + +"An' how's thee t' know if thee dostna coom? Th' lads on'y know +what I tell 'em. As long as ye can stir hand and foot the men +think ye're hearty. But I'm none so bad, on'y a bit of a cold +sets me achin'. An' th' lads tease me so t' ha' somebody wi' me +t' do the work--they make me ache worse wi' talkin'. If thee'dst +come and stay wi' me, they'd let me alone. The Poysers canna want +thee so bad as I do. But take thy bonnet off, an' let me look at +thee." + +Dinah was moving away, but Lisbeth held her fast, while she was +taking off her bonnet, and looked at her face as one looks into a +newly gathered snowdrop, to renew the old impressions of purity +and gentleness. + +"What's the matter wi' thee?" said Lisbeth, in astonishment; +"thee'st been a-cryin'." + +"It's only a grief that'll pass away," said Dinah, who did not +wish just now to call forth Lisbeth's remonstrances by disclosing +her intention to leave Hayslope. "You shall know about it +shortly--we'll talk of it to-night. I shall stay with you to- +night." + +Lisbeth was pacified by this prospect. And she had the whole +evening to talk with Dinah alone; for there was a new room in the +cottage, you remember, built nearly two years ago, in the +expectation of a new inmate; and here Adam always sat when he had +writing to do or plans to make. Seth sat there too this evening, +for he knew his mother would like to have Dinah all to herself. + +There were two pretty pictures on the two sides of the wall in the +cottage. On one side there was the broad-shouldered, large- +featured, hardy old woman, in her blue jacket and buff kerchief, +with her dim-eyed anxious looks turned continually on the lily +face and the slight form in the black dress that were either +moving lightly about in helpful activity, or seated close by the +old woman's arm-chair, holding her withered hand, with eyes lifted +up towards her to speak a language which Lisbeth understood far +better than the Bible or the hymn-book. She would scarcely listen +to reading at all to-night. "Nay, nay, shut the book," she said. +"We mun talk. I want t' know what thee was cryin' about. Hast +got troubles o' thy own, like other folks?" + +On the other side of the wall there were the two brothers so like +each other in the midst of their unlikeness: Adam with knit brows, +shaggy hair, and dark vigorous colour, absorbed in his "figuring"; +Seth, with large rugged features, the close copy of his brother's, +but with thin, wavy, brown hair and blue dreamy eyes, as often as +not looking vaguely out of the window instead of at his book, +although it was a newly bought book--Wesley's abridgment of Madame +Guyon's life, which was full of wonder and interest for him. Seth +had said to Adam, "Can I help thee with anything in here to-night? +I don't want to make a noise in the shop." + +"No, lad," Adam answered, "there's nothing but what I must do +myself. Thee'st got thy new book to read." + +And often, when Seth was quite unconscious, Adam, as he paused +after drawing a line with his ruler, looked at his brother with a +kind smile dawning in his eyes. He knew "th' lad liked to sit +full o' thoughts he could give no account of; they'd never come t' +anything, but they made him happy," and in the last year or so, +Adam had been getting more and more indulgent to Seth. It was +part of that growing tenderness which came from the sorrow at work +within him. + +For Adam, though you see him quite master of himself, working hard +and delighting in his work after his inborn inalienable nature, +had not outlived his sorrow--had not felt it slip from him as a +temporary burden, and leave him the same man again. Do any of us? +God forbid. It would be a poor result of all our anguish and our +wrestling if we won nothing but our old selves at the end of it-- +if we could return to the same blind loves, the same self- +confident blame, the same light thoughts of human suffering, the +same frivolous gossip over blighted human lives, the same feeble +sense of that Unknown towards which we have sent forth +irrepressible cries in our loneliness. Let us rather be thankful +that our sorrow lives in us as an indestructible force, only +changing its form, as forces do, and passing from pain into +sympathy--the one poor word which includes all our best insight +and our best love. Not that this transformation of pain into +sympathy had completely taken place in Adam yet. There was still +a great remnant of pain, and this he felt would subsist as long as +her pain was not a memory, but an existing thing, which he must +think of as renewed with the light of every new morning. But we +get accustomed to mental as well as bodily pain, without, for all +that, losing our sensibility to it. It becomes a habit of our +lives, and we cease to imagine a condition of perfect ease as +possible for us. Desire is chastened into submission, and we are +contented with our day when we have been able to bear our grief in +silence and act as if we were not suffering. For it is at such +periods that the sense of our lives having visible and invisible +relations, beyond any of which either our present or prospective +self is the centre, grows like a muscle that we are obliged to +lean on and exert. + +That was Adam's state of mind in this second autumn of his sorrow. +His work, as you know, had always been part of his religion, and +from very early days he saw clearly that good carpentry was God's +will--was that form of God's will that most immediately concerned +him. But now there was no margin of dreams for him beyond this +daylight reality, no holiday-time in the working-day world, no +moment in the distance when duty would take off her iron glove and +breast-plate and clasp him gently into rest. He conceived no +picture of the future but one made up of hard-working days such as +he lived through, with growing contentment and intensity of +interest, every fresh week. Love, he thought, could never be +anything to him but a living memory--a limb lopped off, but not +gone from consciousness. He did not know that the power of loving +was all the while gaining new force within him; that the new +sensibilities bought by a deep experience were so many new fibres +by which it was possible, nay, necessary to him, that his nature +should intertwine with another. Yet he was aware that common +affection and friendship were more precious to him than they used +to be--that he clung more to his mother and Seth, and had an +unspeakable satisfaction in the sight or imagination of any small +addition to their happiness. The Poysers, too--hardly three or +four days passed but he felt the need of seeing them and +interchanging words and looks of friendliness with them. He would +have felt this, probably, even if Dinah had not been with them, +but he had only said the simplest truth in telling Dinah that he +put her above all other friends in the world. Could anything be +more natural? For in the darkest moments of memory the thought of +her always came as the first ray of returning comfort. The early +days of gloom at the Hall Farm had been gradually turned into soft +moonlight by her presence; and in the cottage, too, for she had +come at every spare moment to soothe and cheer poor Lisbeth, who +had been stricken with a fear that subdued even her querulousness +at the sight of her darling Adam's grief-worn face. He had become +used to watching her light quiet movements, her pretty loving ways +to the children, when he went to the Hall Farm; to listen for her +voice as for a recurrent music; to think everything she said and +did was just right, and could not have been better. In spite of +his wisdom, he could not find fault with her for her +overindulgence of the children, who had managed to convert Dinah +the preacher, before whom a circle of rough men had often trembled +a little, into a convenient household slave--though Dinah herself +was rather ashamed of this weakness, and had some inward conflict +as to her departure from the precepts of Solomon. Yes, there was +one thing that might have been better; she might have loved Seth +and consented to marry him. He felt a little vexed, for his +brother's sake, and he could not help thinking regretfully how +Dinah, as Seth's wife, would have made their home as happy as it +could be for them all--how she was the one being that would have +soothed their mother's last days into peacefulness and rest. + +"It's wonderful she doesn't love th' lad," Adam had said sometimes +to himself, "for anybody 'ud think he was just cut out for her. +But her heart's so taken up with other things. She's one o' those +women that feel no drawing towards having a husband and children +o' their own. She thinks she should be filled up with her own +life then, and she's been used so to living in other folks's +cares, she can't bear the thought of her heart being shut up from +'em. I see how it is, well enough. She's cut out o' different +stuff from most women: I saw that long ago. She's never easy but +when she's helping somebody, and marriage 'ud interfere with her +ways--that's true. I've no right to be contriving and thinking it +'ud be better if she'd have Seth, as if I was wiser than she is-- +or than God either, for He made her what she is, and that's one o' +the greatest blessings I've ever had from His hands, and others +besides me." + +This self-reproof had recurred strongly to Adam's mind when he +gathered from Dinah's face that he had wounded her by referring to +his wish that she had accepted Seth, and so he had endeavoured to +put into the strongest words his confidence in her decision as +right--his resignation even to her going away from them and +ceasing to make part of their life otherwise than by living in +their thoughts, if that separation were chosen by herself. He +felt sure she knew quite well enough how much he cared to see her +continually--to talk to her with the silent consciousness of a +mutual great remembrance. It was not possible she should hear +anything but self-renouncing affection and respect in his +assurance that he was contented for her to go away; and yet there +remained an uneasy feeling in his mind that he had not said quite +the right thing--that, somehow, Dinah had not understood him. + +Dinah must have risen a little before the sun the next morning, +for she was downstairs about five o'clock. So was Seth, for, +through Lisbeth's obstinate refusal to have any woman-helper in +the house, he had learned to make himself, as Adam said, "very +handy in the housework," that he might save his mother from too +great weariness; on which ground I hope you will not think him +unmanly, any more than you can have thought the gallant Colonel +Bath unmanly when he made the gruel for his invalid sister. Adam, +who had sat up late at his writing, was still asleep, and was not +likely, Seth said, to be down till breakfast-time. Often as Dinah +had visited Lisbeth during the last eighteen months, she had never +slept in the cottage since that night after Thias's death, when, +you remember, Lisbeth praised her deft movements and even gave a +modified approval to her porridge. But in that long interval +Dinah had made great advances in household cleverness, and this +morning, since Seth was there to help, she was bent on bringing +everything to a pitch of cleanliness and order that would have +satisfied her Aunt Poyser. The cottage was far from that standard +at present, for Lisbeth's rheumatism had forced her to give up her +old habits of dilettante scouring and polishing. When the kitchen +was to her mind, Dinah went into the new room, where Adam had been +writing the night before, to see what sweeping and dusting were +needed there. She opened the window and let in the fresh morning +air, and the smell of the sweet-brier, and the bright low-slanting +rays of the early sun, which made a glory about her pale face and +pale auburn hair as she held the long brush, and swept, singing to +herself in a very low tone--like a sweet summer murmur that you +have to listen for very closely--one of Charles Wesley's hymns: + + +Eternal Beam of Light Divine, + Fountain of unexhausted love, +In whom the Father's glories shine, + Through earth beneath and heaven above; + +Jesus! the weary wanderer's rest, + Give me thy easy yoke to bear; +With steadfast patience arm my breast, + With spotless love and holy fear. + +Speak to my warring passions, "Peace!" + Say to my trembling heart, "Be still!" +Thy power my strength and fortress is, + For all things serve thy sovereign will. + + +She laid by the brush and took up the duster; and if you had ever +lived in Mrs. Poyser's household, you would know how the duster +behaved in Dinah's hand--how it went into every small corner, and +on every ledge in and out of sight--how it went again and again +round every bar of the chairs, and every leg, and under and over +everything that lay on the table, till it came to Adam's papers +and rulers and the open desk near them. Dinah dusted up to the +very edge of these and then hesitated, looking at them with a +longing but timid eye. It was painful to see how much dust there +was among them. As she was looking in this way, she heard Seth's +step just outside the open door, towards which her back was +turned, and said, raising her clear treble, "Seth, is your brother +wrathful when his papers are stirred?" + +"Yes, very, when they are not put back in the right places," said +a deep strong voice, not Seth's. + +It was as if Dinah had put her hands unawares on a vibrating +chord. She was shaken with an intense thrill, and for the instant +felt nothing else; then she knew her cheeks were glowing, and +dared not look round, but stood still, distressed because she +could not say good-morning in a friendly way. Adam, finding that +she did not look round so as to see the smile on his face, was +afraid she had thought him serious about his wrathfulness, and +went up to her, so that she was obliged to look at him. + +"What! You think I'm a cross fellow at home, Dinah?" he said, +smilingly. + +"Nay," said Dinah, looking up with timid eyes, "not so. But you +might be put about by finding things meddled with; and even the +man Moses, the meekest of men, was wrathful sometimes." + +"Come, then," said Adam, looking at her affectionately, "I'll help +you move the things, and put 'em back again, and then they can't +get wrong. You're getting to be your aunt's own niece, I see, for +particularness." + +They began their little task together, but Dinah had not recovered +herself sufficiently to think of any remark, and Adam looked at +her uneasily. Dinah, he thought, had seemed to disapprove him +somehow lately; she had not been so kind and open to him as she +used to be. He wanted her to look at him, and be as pleased as he +was himself with doing this bit of playful work. But Dinah did +not look at him--it was easy for her to avoid looking at the tall +man--and when at last there was no more dusting to be done and no +further excuse for him to linger near her, he could bear it no +longer, and said, in rather a pleading tone, "Dinah, you're not +displeased with me for anything, are you? I've not said or done +anything to make you think ill of me?" + +The question surprised her, and relieved her by giving a new +course to her feeling. She looked up at him now, quite earnestly, +almost with the tears coming, and said, "Oh, no, Adam! how could +you think so?" + +"I couldn't bear you not to feel as much a friend to me as I do to +you," said Adam. "And you don't know the value I set on the very +thought of you, Dinah. That was what I meant yesterday, when I +said I'd be content for you to go, if you thought right. I meant, +the thought of you was worth so much to me, I should feel I ought +to be thankful, and not grumble, if you see right to go away. You +know I do mind parting with you, Dinah?" + +"Yes, dear friend," said Dinah, trembling, but trying to speak +calmly, "I know you have a brother's heart towards me, and we +shall often be with one another in spirit; but at this season I am +in heaviness through manifold temptations. You must not mark me. +I feel called to leave my kindred for a while; but it is a trial-- +the flesh is weak." + +Adam saw that it pained her to be obliged to answer. + +"I hurt you by talking about it, Dinah," he said. "I'll say no +more. Let's see if Seth's ready with breakfast now." + +That is a simple scene, reader. But it is almost certain that +you, too, have been in love--perhaps, even, more than once, though +you may not choose to say so to all your feminine friends. If so, +you will no more think the slight words, the timid looks, the +tremulous touches, by which two human souls approach each other +gradually, like two little quivering rain-streams, before they +mingle into one--you will no more think these things trivial than +you will think the first-detected signs of coming spring trivial, +though they be but a faint indescribable something in the air and +in the song of the birds, and the tiniest perceptible budding on +the hedge-row branches. Those slight words and looks and touches +are part of the soul's language; and the finest language, I +believe, is chiefly made up of unimposing words, such as "light," +"sound," "stars," "music"--words really not worth looking at, or +hearing, in themselves, any more than "chips" or "sawdust." It is +only that they happen to be the signs of something unspeakably +great and beautiful. I am of opinion that love is a great and +beautiful thing too, and if you agree with me, the smallest signs +of it will not be chips and sawdust to you: they will rather be +like those little words,"light" and "music," stirring the long- +winding fibres of your memory and enriching your present with your +most precious past. + + + +Chapter LI + +Sunday Morning + + +LISBETH'S touch of rheumatism could not be made to appear serious +enough to detain Dinah another night from the Hall Farm, now she +had made up her mind to leave her aunt so soon, and at evening the +friends must part. "For a long while," Dinah had said, for she +had told Lisbeth of her resolve. + +"Then it'll be for all my life, an' I shall ne'er see thee again," +said Lisbeth. "Long while! I'n got no long while t' live. An' I +shall be took bad an' die, an' thee canst ne'er come a-nigh me, +an' I shall die a-longing for thee." + +That had been the key-note of her wailing talk all day; for Adam +was not in the house, and so she put no restraint on her +complaining. She had tried poor Dinah by returning again and +again to the question, why she must go away; and refusing to +accept reasons, which seemed to her nothing but whim and +"contrairiness"; and still more, by regretting that she "couldna' +ha' one o' the lads" and be her daughter. + +"Thee couldstna put up wi' Seth," she said. "He isna cliver +enough for thee, happen, but he'd ha' been very good t' thee--he's +as handy as can be at doin' things for me when I'm bad, an' he's +as fond o' the Bible an' chappellin' as thee art thysen. But +happen, thee'dst like a husband better as isna just the cut o' +thysen: the runnin' brook isna athirst for th' rain. Adam 'ud ha' +done for thee--I know he would--an' he might come t' like thee +well enough, if thee'dst stop. But he's as stubborn as th' iron +bar--there's no bending him no way but's own. But he'd be a fine +husband for anybody, be they who they will, so looked-on an' so +cliver as he is. And he'd be rare an' lovin': it does me good +on'y a look o' the lad's eye when he means kind tow'rt me." + +Dinah tried to escape from Lisbeth's closest looks and questions +by finding little tasks of housework that kept her moving about, +and as soon as Seth came home in the evening she put on her bonnet +to go. It touched Dinah keenly to say the last good-bye, and +still more to look round on her way across the fields and see the +old woman still standing at the door, gazing after her till she +must have been the faintest speck in the dim aged eyes. "The God +of love and peace be with them," Dinah prayed, as she looked back +from the last stile. "Make them glad according to the days +wherein thou hast afflicted them, and the years wherein they have +seen evil. It is thy will that I should part from them; let me +have no will but thine." + +Lisbeth turned into the house at last and sat down in the workshop +near Seth, who was busying himself there with fitting some bits of +turned wood he had brought from the village into a small work-box, +which he meant to give to Dinah before she went away. + +"Thee't see her again o' Sunday afore she goes," were her first +words. "If thee wast good for anything, thee'dst make her come in +again o' Sunday night wi' thee, and see me once more." + +"Nay, Mother," said Seth. "Dinah 'ud be sure to come again if she +saw right to come. I should have no need to persuade her. She +only thinks it 'ud be troubling thee for nought, just to come in +to say good-bye over again." + +"She'd ne'er go away, I know, if Adam 'ud be fond on her an' marry +her, but everything's so contrairy," said Lisbeth, with a burst of +vexation. + +Seth paused a moment and looked up, with a slight blush, at his +mother's face. "What! Has she said anything o' that sort to +thee, Mother?" he said, in a lower tone. + +"Said? Nay, she'll say nothin'. It's on'y the men as have to +wait till folks say things afore they find 'em out." + +"Well, but what makes thee think so, Mother? What's put it into +thy head?" + +"It's no matter what's put it into my head. My head's none so +hollow as it must get in, an' nought to put it there. I know +she's fond on him, as I know th' wind's comin' in at the door, an' +that's anoof. An' he might be willin' to marry her if he know'd +she's fond on him, but he'll ne'er think on't if somebody doesna +put it into's head." + +His mother's suggestion about Dinah's feeling towards Adam was not +quite a new thought to Seth, but her last words alarmed him, lest +she should herself undertake to open Adam's eyes. He was not sure +about Dinah's feeling, and he thought he was sure about Adam's. + +"Nay, Mother, nay," he said, earnestly, "thee mustna think o' +speaking o' such things to Adam. Thee'st no right to say what +Dinah's feelings are if she hasna told thee, and it 'ud do nothing +but mischief to say such things to Adam. He feels very grateful +and affectionate toward Dinah, but he's no thoughts towards her +that 'ud incline him to make her his wife, and I don't believe +Dinah 'ud marry him either. I don't think she'll marry at all." + +"Eh," said Lisbeth, impatiently. "Thee think'st so 'cause she +wouldna ha' thee. She'll ne'er marry thee; thee mightst as well +like her t' ha' thy brother." + +Seth was hurt. "Mother," he said, in a remonstrating tone, "don't +think that of me. I should be as thankful t' have her for a +sister as thee wouldst t' have her for a daughter. I've no more +thoughts about myself in that thing, and I shall take it hard if +ever thee say'st it again." + +"Well, well, then thee shouldstna cross me wi' sayin' things arena +as I say they are." + +"But, Mother," said Seth, "thee'dst be doing Dinah a wrong by +telling Adam what thee think'st about her. It 'ud do nothing but +mischief, for it 'ud make Adam uneasy if he doesna feel the same +to her. And I'm pretty sure he feels nothing o' the sort." + +"Eh, donna tell me what thee't sure on; thee know'st nought about +it. What's he allays goin' to the Poysers' for, if he didna want +t' see her? He goes twice where he used t' go once. Happen he +knowsna as he wants t' see her; he knowsna as I put salt in's +broth, but he'd miss it pretty quick if it warna there. He'll +ne'er think o' marrying if it isna put into's head, an' if +thee'dst any love for thy mother, thee'dst put him up to't an' not +let her go away out o' my sight, when I might ha' her to make a +bit o' comfort for me afore I go to bed to my old man under the +white thorn." + +"Nay, Mother," said Seth, "thee mustna think me unkind, but I +should be going against my conscience if I took upon me to say +what Dinah's feelings are. And besides that, I think I should +give offence to Adam by speaking to him at all about marrying; and +I counsel thee not to do't. Thee may'st be quite deceived about +Dinah. Nay, I'm pretty sure, by words she said to me last +Sabbath, as she's no mind to marry." + +"Eh, thee't as contrairy as the rest on 'em. If it war summat I +didna want, it 'ud be done fast enough." + +Lisbeth rose from the bench at this, and went out of the workshop, +leaving Seth in much anxiety lest she should disturb Adam's mind +about Dinah. He consoled himself after a time with reflecting +that, since Adam's trouble, Lisbeth had been very timid about +speaking to him on matters of feeling, and that she would hardly +dare to approach this tenderest of all subjects. Even if she did, +he hoped Adam would not take much notice of what she said. + +Seth was right in believing that Lisbeth would be held in +restraint by timidity, and during the next three days, the +intervals in which she had an opportunity of speaking to Adam were +too rare and short to cause her any strong temptation. But in her +long solitary hours she brooded over her regretful thoughts about +Dinah, till they had grown very near that point of unmanageable +strength when thoughts are apt to take wing out of their secret +nest in a startling manner. And on Sunday morning, when Seth went +away to chapel at Treddleston, the dangerous opportunity came. + +Sunday morning was the happiest time in all the week to Lisbeth, +for as there was no service at Hayslope church till the afternoon, +Adam was always at home, doing nothing but reading, an occupation +in which she could venture to interrupt him. Moreover, she had +always a better dinner than usual to prepare for her sons--very +frequently for Adam and herself alone, Seth being often away the +entire day--and the smell of the roast meat before the clear fire +in the clean kitchen, the clock ticking in a peaceful Sunday +manner, her darling Adam seated near her in his best clothes, +doing nothing very important, so that she could go and stroke her +hand across his hair if she liked, and see him look up at her and +smile, while Gyp, rather jealous, poked his muzzle up between +them--all these things made poor Lisbeth's earthly paradise. + +The book Adam most often read on a Sunday morning was his large +pictured Bible, and this morning it lay open before him on the +round white deal table in the kitchen; for he sat there in spite +of the fire, because he knew his mother liked to have him with +her, and it was the only day in the week when he could indulge her +in that way. You would have liked to see Adam reading his Bible. +He never opened it on a weekday, and so he came to it as a holiday +book, serving him for history, biography, and poetry. He held one +hand thrust between his waistcoat buttons, and the other ready to +turn the pages, and in the course of the morning you would have +seen many changes in his face. Sometimes his lips moved in semi- +articulation--it was when he came to a speech that he could fancy +himself uttering, such as Samuel's dying speech to the people; +then his eyebrows would be raised, and the corners of his mouth +would quiver a little with sad sympathy--something, perhaps old +Isaac's meeting with his son, touched him closely; at other times, +over the New Testament, a very solemn look would come upon his +face, and he would every now and then shake his head in serious +assent, or just lift up his hand and let it fall again. And on +some mornings, when he read in the Apocrypha, of which he was very +fond, the son of Sirach's keen-edged words would bring a delighted +smile, though he also enjoyed the freedom of occasionally +differing from an Apocryphal writer. For Adam knew the Articles +quite well, as became a good churchman. + +Lisbeth, in the pauses of attending to her dinner, always sat +opposite to him and watched him, till she could rest no longer +without going up to him and giving him a caress, to call his +attention to her. This morning he was reading the Gospel +according to St. Matthew, and Lisbeth had been standing close by +him for some minutes, stroking his hair, which was smoother than +usual this morning, and looking down at the large page with silent +wonderment at the mystery of letters. She was encouraged to +continue this caress, because when she first went up to him, he +had thrown himself back in his chair to look at her affectionately +and say, "Why, Mother, thee look'st rare and hearty this morning. +Eh, Gyp wants me t' look at him. He can't abide to think I love +thee the best." Lisbeth said nothing, because she wanted to say +so many things. And now there was a new leaf to be turned over, +and it was a picture--that of the angel seated on the great stone +that has been rolled away from the sepulchre. This picture had +one strong association in Lisbeth's memory, for she had been +reminded of it when she first saw Dinah, and Adam had no sooner +turned the page, and lifted the book sideways that they might look +at the angel, than she said, "That's her--that's Dinah." + +Adam smiled, and, looking more intently at the angel's face, said, +"It is a bit like her; but Dinah's prettier, I think." + +"Well, then, if thee think'st her so pretty, why arn't fond on +her?" + +Adam looked up in surprise. "Why, Mother, dost think I don't set +store by Dinah?" + +"Nay," said Lisbeth, frightened at her own courage, yet feeling +that she had broken the ice, and the waters must flow, whatever +mischief they might do. "What's th' use o' settin' store by +things as are thirty mile off? If thee wast fond enough on her, +thee wouldstna let her go away." + +"But I've no right t' hinder her, if she thinks well," said Adam, +looking at his book as if he wanted to go on reading. He foresaw +a series of complaints tending to nothing. Lisbeth sat down again +in the chair opposite to him, as she said: + +"But she wouldna think well if thee wastna so contrairy." Lisbeth +dared not venture beyond a vague phrase yet. + +"Contrairy, mother?" Adam said, looking up again in some anxiety. +"What have I done? What dost mean?" + +"Why, thee't never look at nothin', nor think o' nothin', but thy +figurin, an' thy work," said Lisbeth, half-crying. "An' dost +think thee canst go on so all thy life, as if thee wast a man cut +out o' timber? An' what wut do when thy mother's gone, an' nobody +to take care on thee as thee gett'st a bit o' victual comfortable +i' the mornin'?" + +"What hast got i' thy mind, Mother?" said Adam, vexed at this +whimpering. "I canna see what thee't driving at. Is there +anything I could do for thee as I don't do?" + +"Aye, an' that there is. Thee might'st do as I should ha' +somebody wi' me to comfort me a bit, an' wait on me when I'm bad, +an' be good to me." + +"Well, Mother, whose fault is it there isna some tidy body i' th' +house t' help thee? It isna by my wish as thee hast a stroke o' +work to do. We can afford it--I've told thee often enough. It +'ud be a deal better for us." + +"Eh, what's the use o' talking o' tidy bodies, when thee mean'st +one o' th' wenches out o' th' village, or somebody from +Treddles'on as I ne'er set eyes on i' my life? I'd sooner make a +shift an' get into my own coffln afore I die, nor ha' them folks +to put me in." + +Adam was silent, and tried to go on reading. That was the utmost +severity he could show towards his mother on a Sunday morning. +But Lisbeth had gone too far now to check herself, and after +scarcely a minute's quietness she began again. + +"Thee mightst know well enough who 'tis I'd like t' ha' wi' me. +It isna many folks I send for t' come an' see me. I reckon. An' +thee'st had the fetchin' on her times enow." + +"Thee mean'st Dinah, Mother, I know," said Adam. "But it's no use +setting thy mind on what can't be. If Dinah 'ud be willing to +stay at Hayslope, it isn't likely she can come away from her +aunt's house, where they hold her like a daughter, and where she's +more bound than she is to us. If it had been so that she could +ha' married Seth, that 'ud ha' been a great blessing to us, but we +can't have things just as we like in this life. Thee must try and +make up thy mind to do without her." + +"Nay, but I canna ma' up my mind, when she's just cut out for +thee; an' nought shall ma' me believe as God didna make her an' +send her there o' purpose for thee. What's it sinnify about her +bein' a Methody! It 'ud happen wear out on her wi' marryin'." + +Adam threw himself back in his chair and looked at his mother. He +understood now what she had been aiming at from the beginning of +the conversation. It was as unreasonable, impracticable a wish as +she had ever urged, but he could not help being moved by so +entirely new an idea. The chief point, however, was to chase away +the notion from his mother's mind as quickly as possible. + +"Mother," he said, gravely, "thee't talking wild. Don't let me +hear thee say such things again. It's no good talking o' what can +never be. Dinah's not for marrying; she's fixed her heart on a +different sort o' life." + +"Very like," said Lisbeth, impatiently, "very like she's none for +marr'ing, when them as she'd be willin' t' marry wonna ax her. I +shouldna ha' been for marr'ing thy feyther if he'd ne'er axed me; +an' she's as fond o' thee as e'er I war o' Thias, poor fellow." + +The blood rushed to Adam's face, and for a few moments he was not +quite conscious where he was. His mother and the kitchen had +vanished for him, and he saw nothing but Dinah's face turned up +towards his. It seemed as if there were a resurrection of his +dead joy. But he woke up very speedily from that dream (the +waking was chill and sad), for it would have been very foolish in +him to believe his mother's words--she could have no ground for +them. He was prompted to express his disbelief very strongly-- +perhaps that he might call forth the proofs, if there were any to +be offered. + +"What dost say such things for, Mother, when thee'st got no +foundation for 'em? Thee know'st nothing as gives thee a right to +say that." + +"Then I knowna nought as gi'es me a right to say as the year's +turned, for all I feel it fust thing when I get up i' th' morning. +She isna fond o' Seth, I reckon, is she? She doesna want to marry +HIM? But I can see as she doesna behave tow'rt thee as she daes +tow'rt Seth. She makes no more o' Seth's coming a-nigh her nor if +he war Gyp, but she's all of a tremble when thee't a-sittin' down +by her at breakfast an' a-looking at her. Thee think'st thy +mother knows nought, but she war alive afore thee wast born." + +"But thee canstna be sure as the trembling means love?" said Adam +anxiously. + +"Eh, what else should it mane? It isna hate, I reckon. An' what +should she do but love thee? Thee't made to be loved--for where's +there a straighter cliverer man? An' what's it sinnify her bein' +a Methody? It's on'y the marigold i' th' parridge." + +Adam had thrust his hands in his pockets, and was looking down at +the book on the table, without seeing any of the letters. He was +trembling like a gold-seeker who sees the strong promise of gold +but sees in the same moment a sickening vision of disappointment. +He could not trust his mother's insight; she had seen what she +wished to see. And yet--and yet, now the suggestion had been made +to him, he remembered so many things, very slight things, like the +stirring of the water by an imperceptible breeze, which seemed to +him some confirmation of his mother's words. + +Lisbeth noticed that he was moved. She went on, "An' thee't find +out as thee't poorly aff when she's gone. Thee't fonder on her +nor thee know'st. Thy eyes follow her about, welly as Gyp's +follow thee." + +Adam could sit still no longer. He rose, took down his hat, and +went out into the fields. + +The sunshine was on them: that early autumn sunshine which we +should know was not summer's, even if there were not the touches +of yellow on the lime and chestnut; the Sunday sunshine too, which +has more than autumnal calmness for the working man; the morning +sunshine, which still leaves the dew-crystals on the fine gossamer +webs in the shadow of the bushy hedgerows. + +Adam needed the calm influence; he was amazed at the way in which +this new thought of Dinah's love had taken possession of him, with +an overmastering power that made all other feelings give way +before the impetuous desire to know that the thought was true. +Strange, that till that moment the possibility of their ever being +lovers had never crossed his mind, and yet now, all his longing +suddenly went out towards that possibility. He had no more doubt +or hesitation as to his own wishes than the bird that flies +towards the opening through which the daylight gleams and the +breath of heaven enters. + +The autumnal Sunday sunshine soothed him, but not by preparing him +with resignation to the disappointment if his mother--if he +himself--proved to be mistaken about Dinah. It soothed him by +gentle encouragement of his hopes. Her love was so like that calm +sunshine that they seemed to make one presence to him, and he +believed in them both alike. And Dinah was so bound up with the +sad memories of his first passion that he was not forsaking them, +but rather giving them a new sacredness by loving her. Nay, his +love for her had grown out of that past: it was the noon of that +morning. + +But Seth? Would the lad be hurt? Hardly; for he had seemed quite +contented of late, and there was no selfish jealousy in him; he +had never been jealous of his mother's fondness for Adam. But had +he seen anything of what their mother talked about? Adam longed +to know this, for he thought he could trust Seth's observation +better than his mother's. He must talk to Seth before he went to +see Dinah, and, with this intention in his mind, he walked back to +the cottage and said to his mother, "Did Seth say anything to thee +about when he was coming home? Will he be back to dinner?" + +"Aye, lad, he'll be back for a wonder. He isna gone to +Treddles'on. He's gone somewhere else a-preachin' and a-prayin'." + +"Hast any notion which way he's gone?" said Adam. + +"Nay, but he aften goes to th' Common. Thee know'st more o's +goings nor I do." + +Adam wanted to go and meet Seth, but he must content himself with +walking about the near fields and getting sight of him as soon as +possible. That would not be for more than an hour to come, for +Seth would scarcely be at home much before their dinner-time, +which was twelve o'clock. But Adam could not sit down to his +reading again, and he sauntered along by the brook and stood +leaning against the stiles, with eager intense eyes, which looked +as if they saw something very vividly; but it was not the brook or +the willows, not the fields or the sky. Again and again his +vision was interrupted by wonder at the strength of his own +feeling, at the strength and sweetness of this new love--almost +like the wonder a man feels at the added power he finds in himself +for an art which he had laid aside for a space. How is it that +the poets have said so many fine things about our first love, so +few about our later love? Are their first poems their best? Or +are not those the best which come from their fuller thought, their +larger experience, their deeper-rooted affections? The boy's +flutelike voice has its own spring charm; but the man should yield +a richer deeper music. + +At last, there was Seth, visible at the farthest stile, and Adam +hastened to meet him. Seth was surprised, and thought something +unusual must have happened, but when Adam came up, his face said +plainly enough that it was nothing alarming. + +"Where hast been?" said Adam, when they were side by side. + +"I've been to the Common," said Seth. "Dinah's been speaking the +Word to a little company of hearers at Brimstone's, as they call +him. They're folks as never go to church hardly--them on the +Common--but they'll go and hear Dinah a bit. She's been speaking +with power this forenoon from the words, 'I came not to call the +righteous, but sinners to repentance.' And there was a little +thing happened as was pretty to see. The women mostly bring their +children with 'em, but to-day there was one stout curly headed +fellow about three or four year old, that I never saw there +before. He was as naughty as could be at the beginning while I +was praying, and while we was singing, but when we all sat down +and Dinah began to speak, th' young un stood stock still all at +once, and began to look at her with's mouth open, and presently he +ran away from's mother and went to Dinah, and pulled at her, like +a little dog, for her to take notice of him. So Dinah lifted him +up and held th' lad on her lap, while she went on speaking; and he +was as good as could be till he went to sleep--and the mother +cried to see him." + +"It's a pity she shouldna be a mother herself," said Adam, "so +fond as the children are of her. Dost think she's quite fixed +against marrying, Seth? Dost think nothing 'ud turn her?" + +There was something peculiar in his brother's tone, which made +Seth steal a glance at his face before he answered. + +"It 'ud be wrong of me to say nothing 'ud turn her," he answered. +"But if thee mean'st it about myself, I've given up all thoughts +as she can ever be my wife. She calls me her brother, and that's +enough." + +"But dost think she might ever get fond enough of anybody else to +be willing to marry 'em?" said Adam rather shyly. + +"Well," said Seth, after some hesitation, "it's crossed my mind +sometimes o' late as she might; but Dinah 'ud let no fondness for +the creature draw her out o' the path as she believed God had +marked out for her. If she thought the leading was not from Him, +she's not one to be brought under the power of it. And she's +allays seemed clear about that--as her work was to minister t' +others, and make no home for herself i' this world." + +"But suppose," said Adam, earnestly, "suppose there was a man as +'ud let her do just the same and not interfere with her--she might +do a good deal o' what she does now, just as well when she was +married as when she was single. Other women of her sort have +married--that's to say, not just like her, but women as preached +and attended on the sick and needy. There's Mrs. Fletcher as she +talks of." + +A new light had broken in on Seth. He turned round, and laying +his hand on Adam's shoulder, said, "Why, wouldst like her to marry +THEE, Brother?" + +Adam looked doubtfully at Seth's inquiring eyes and said, "Wouldst +be hurt if she was to be fonder o' me than o' thee?" + +"Nay," said Seth warmly, "how canst think it? Have I felt thy +trouble so little that I shouldna feel thy joy?" + +There was silence a few moments as they walked on, and then Seth +said, "I'd no notion as thee'dst ever think of her for a wife." + +"But is it o' any use to think of her?" said Adam. "What dost +say? Mother's made me as I hardly know where I am, with what +she's been saying to me this forenoon. She says she's sure Dinah +feels for me more than common, and 'ud be willing t' have me. But +I'm afraid she speaks without book. I want to know if thee'st +seen anything." + +"It's a nice point to speak about," said Seth, "and I'm afraid o' +being wrong; besides, we've no right t' intermeddle with people's +feelings when they wouldn't tell 'em themselves." + +Seth paused. + +"But thee mightst ask her," he said presently. "She took no +offence at me for asking, and thee'st more right than I had, only +thee't not in the Society. But Dinah doesn't hold wi' them as are +for keeping the Society so strict to themselves. She doesn't mind +about making folks enter the Society, so as they're fit t' enter +the kingdom o' God. Some o' the brethren at Treddles'on are +displeased with her for that." + +"Where will she be the rest o' the day?" said Adam. + +"She said she shouldn't leave the farm again to-day," said Seth, +"because it's her last Sabbath there, and she's going t' read out +o' the big Bible wi' the children." + +Adam thought--but did not say--"Then I'll go this afternoon; for +if I go to church, my thoughts 'ull be with her all the while. +They must sing th' anthem without me to-day." + + + +Chapter LII + +Adam and Dinah + + +IT was about three o'clock when Adam entered the farmyard and +roused Alick and the dogs from their Sunday dozing. Alick said +everybody was gone to church "but th' young missis"--so he called +Dinah--but this did not disappoint Adam, although the "everybody" +was so liberal as to include Nancy the dairymaid, whose works of +necessity were not unfrequently incompatible with church-going. + +There was perfect stillness about the house. The doors were all +closed, and the very stones and tubs seemed quieter than usual. +Adam heard the water gently dripping from the pump--that was the +only sound--and he knocked at the house door rather softly, as was +suitable in that stillness. + +The door opened, and Dinah stood before him, colouring deeply with +the great surprise of seeing Adam at this hour, when she knew it +was his regular practice to be at church. Yesterday he would have +said to her without any difficulty, "I came to see you, Dinah: I +knew the rest were not at home." But to-day something prevented +him from saying that, and he put out his hand to her in silence. +Neither of them spoke, and yet both wished they could speak, as +Adam entered, and they sat down. Dinah took the chair she had +just left; it was at the corner of the table near the window, and +there was a book lying on the table, but it was not open. She had +been sitting perfectly still, looking at the small bit of clear +fire in the bright grate. Adam sat down opposite her, in Mr. +Poyser's three-cornered chair. + +"Your mother is not ill again, I hope, Adam?" Dinah said, +recovering herself. "Seth said she was well this morning." + +"No, she's very hearty to-day," said Adam, happy in the signs of +Dinah's feeling at the sight of him, but shy. + +"There's nobody at home, you see," Dinah said; "but you'll wait. +You've been hindered from going to church to-day, doubtless." + +"Yes," Adam said, and then paused, before he added, "I was +thinking about you: that was the reason." + +This confession was very awkward and sudden, Adam felt, for he +thought Dinah must understand all he meant. But the frankness of +the words caused her immediately to interpret them into a renewal +of his brotherly regrets that she was going away, and she answered +calmly, "Do not be careful and troubled for me, Adam. I have all +things and abound at Snowfield. And my mind is at rest, for I am +not seeking my own will in going." + +"But if things were different, Dinah," said Adam, hesitatingly. +"If you knew things that perhaps you don't know now...." + +Dinah looked at him inquiringly, but instead of going on, he +reached a chair and brought it near the corner of the table where +she was sitting. She wondered, and was afraid--and the next +moment her thoughts flew to the past: was it something about those +distant unhappy ones that she didn't know? + +Adam looked at her. It was so sweet to look at her eyes, which +had now a self-forgetful questioning in them--for a moment he +forgot that he wanted to say anything, or that it was necessary to +tell her what he meant. + +"Dinah," he said suddenly, taking both her hands between his, "I +love you with my whole heart and soul. I love you next to God who +made me." + +Dinah's lips became pale, like her cheeks, and she trembled +violently under the shock of painful joy. Her hands were cold as +death between Adam's. She could not draw them away, because he +held them fast. + +"Don't tell me you can't love me, Dinah. Don't tell me we must +part and pass our lives away from one another." + +The tears were trembling in Dinah's eyes, and they fell before she +could answer. But she spoke in a quiet low voice. + +"Yes, dear Adam, we must submit to another Will. We must part." + +"Not if you love me, Dinah--not if you love me," Adam said +passionately. "Tell me--tell me if you can love me better than a +brother?" + +Dinah was too entirely reliant on the Supreme guidance to attempt +to achieve any end by a deceptive concealment. She was recovering +now from the first shock of emotion, and she looked at Adam with +simple sincere eyes as she said, "Yes, Adam, my heart is drawn +strongly towards you; and of my own will, if I had no clear +showing to the contrary, I could find my happiness in being near +you and ministering to you continually. I fear I should forget to +rejoice and weep with others; nay, I fear I should forget the +Divine presence, and seek no love but yours." + +Adam did not speak immediately. They sat looking at each other in +delicious silence--for the first sense of mutual love excludes +other feelings; it will have the soul all to itself. + +"Then, Dinah," Adam said at last, "how can there be anything +contrary to what's right in our belonging to one another and +spending our lives together? Who put this great love into our +hearts? Can anything be holier than that? For we can help one +another in everything as is good. I'd never think o' putting +myself between you and God, and saying you oughtn't to do this and +you oughtn't to do that. You'd follow your conscience as much as +you do now." + +"Yes, Adam," Dinah said, "I know marriage is a holy state for +those who are truly called to it, and have no other drawing; but +from my chilhood upwards I have been led towards another path; all +my peace and my joy have come from having no life of my own, no +wants, no wishes for myself, and living only in God and those of +his creatures whose sorrows and joys he has given me to know. +Those have been very blessed years to me, and I feel that if I was +to listen to any voice that would draw me aside from that path, I +should be turning my back on the light that has shone upon me, and +darkness and doubt would take hold of me. We could not bless each +other, Adam, if there were doubts in my soul, and if I yearned, +when it was too late, after that better part which had once been +given me and I had put away from me." + +"But if a new feeling has come into your mind, Dinah, and if you +love me so as to be willing to be nearer to me than to other +people, isn't that a sign that it's right for you to change your +life? Doesn't the love make it right when nothing else would?" + +"Adam, my mind is full of questionings about that; for now, since +you tell me of your strong love towards me, what was clear to me +has become dark again. I felt before that my heart was too +strongly drawn towards you, and that your heart was not as mine; +and the thought of you had taken hold of me, so that my soul had +lost its freedom, and was becoming enslaved to an earthly +affection, which made me anxious and careful about what should +befall myself. For in all other affection I had been content with +any small return, or with none; but my heart was beginning to +hunger after an equal love from you. And I had no doubt that I +must wrestle against that as a great temptation, and the command +was clear that I must go away." + +"But now, dear, dear Dinah, now you know I love you better than +you love me...it's all different now. You won't think o' going. +You'll stay, and be my dear wife, and I shall thank God for giving +me my life as I never thanked him before." + +"Adam, it's hard to me to turn a deaf ear...you know it's hard; +but a great fear is upon me. It seems to me as if you were +stretching out your arms to me, and beckoning me to come and take +my ease and live for my own delight, and Jesus, the Man of +Sorrows, was standing looking towards me, and pointing to the +sinful, and suffering, and afflicted. I have seen that again and +again when I have been sitting in stillness and darkness, and a +great terror has come upon me lest I should become hard, and a +lover of self, and no more bear willingly the Redeemer's cross." + +Dinah had closed her eyes, and a faint shudder went through her. +"Adam," she went on, "you wouldn't desire that we should seek a +good through any unfaithfulness to the light that is in us; you +wouldn't believe that could be a good. We are of one mind in +that." + +"Yes, Dinah," said Adam sadly, "I'll never be the man t' urge you +against your conscience. But I can't give up the hope that you +may come to see different. I don't believe your loving me could +shut up your heart--it's only adding to what you've been before, +not taking away from it. For it seems to me it's the same with +love and happiness as with sorrow--the more we know of it the +better we can feel what other people's lives are or might be, and +so we shall only be more tender to 'em, and wishful to help 'em. +The more knowledge a man has, the better he'll do's work; and +feeling's a sort o' knowledge." + +Dinah was silent; her eyes were fixed in contemplation of +something visible only to herself. Adam went on presently with +his pleading, "And you can do almost as much as you do now. I +won't ask you to go to church with me of a Sunday. You shall go +where you like among the people, and teach 'em; for though I like +church best, I don't put my soul above yours, as if my words was +better for you to follow than your own conscience. And you can +help the sick just as much, and you'll have more means o' making +'em a bit comfortable; and you'll be among all your own friends as +love you, and can help 'em and be a blessing to 'em till their +dying day. Surely, Dinah, you'd be as near to God as if you was +living lonely and away from me." + +Dinah made no answer for some time. Adam was still holding her +hands and looking at her with almost trembling anxiety, when she +turned her grave loving eyes on his and said, in rather a sad +voice, "Adam there is truth in what you say, and there's many of +the brethren and sisters who have greater strength than I have, +and find their hearts enlarged by the cares of husband and +kindred. But I have not faith that it would be so with me, for +since my affections have been set above measure on you, I have had +less peace and joy in God. I have felt as it were a division in +my heart. And think how it is with me, Adam. That life I have +led is like a land I have trodden in blessedness since my +childhood; and if I long for a moment to follow the voice which +calls me to another land that I know not, I cannot but fear that +my soul might hereafter yearn for that early blessedness which I +had forsaken; and where doubt enters there is not perfect love. I +must wait for clearer guidance. I must go from you, and we must +submit ourselves entirely to the Divine Will. We are sometimes +required to lay our natural lawful affections on the altar." + +Adam dared not plead again, for Dinah's was not the voice of +caprice or insincerity. But it was very hard for him; his eyes +got dim as he looked at her. + +"But you may come to feel satisfied...to feel that you may come to +me again, and we may never part, Dinah?" + +"We must submit ourselves, Adam. With time, our duty will be made +clear. It may be when I have entered on my former life, I shall +find all these new thoughts and wishes vanish, and become as +things that were not. Then I shall know that my calling is not +towards marriage. But we must wait." + +"Dinah," said Adam mournfully, "you can't love me so well as I +love you, else you'd have no doubts. But it's natural you +shouldn't, for I'm not so good as you. I can't doubt it's right +for me to love the best thing God's ever given me to know." + +"Nay, Adam. It seems to me that my love for you is not weak, for +my heart waits on your words and looks, almost as a little child +waits on the help and tenderness of the strong on whom it depends. +If the thought of you took slight hold of me, I should not fear +that it would be an idol in the temple. But you will strengthen +me--you will not hinder me in seeking to obey to the uttermost." + +"Let us go out into the sunshine, Dinah, and walk together. I'll +speak no word to disturb you." + +They went out and walked towards the fields, where they would meet +the family coming from church. Adam said, "Take my arm, Dinah," +and she took it. That was the only change in their manner to each +other since they were last walking together. But no sadness in +the prospect of her going away--in the uncertainty of the issue-- +could rob the sweetness from Adam's sense that Dinah loved him. +He thought he would stay at the Hall Farm all that evening. He +would be near her as long as he could. + +"Hey-day! There's Adam along wi' Dinah," said Mr. Poyser, as he +opened the far gate into the Home Close. "I couldna think how he +happened away from church. Why," added good Martin, after a +moment's pause, "what dost think has just jumped into my head?" + +"Summat as hadna far to jump, for it's just under our nose. You +mean as Adam's fond o' Dinah." + +"Aye! hast ever had any notion of it before?" + +"To be sure I have," said Mrs. Poyser, who always declined, if +possible, to be taken by surprise. "I'm not one o' those as can +see the cat i' the dairy an' wonder what she's come after." + +"Thee never saidst a word to me about it." + +"Well, I aren't like a bird-clapper, forced to make a rattle when +the wind blows on me. I can keep my own counsel when there's no +good i' speaking." + +"But Dinah 'll ha' none o' him. Dost think she will?" + +"Nay," said Mrs. Poyser, not sufficiently on her guard against a +possible surprise, "she'll never marry anybody, if he isn't a +Methodist and a cripple." + +"It 'ud ha' been a pretty thing though for 'em t' marry," said +Martin, turning his head on one side, as if in pleased +contemplation of his new idea. "Thee'dst ha' liked it too, +wouldstna?" + +"Ah! I should. I should ha' been sure of her then, as she +wouldn't go away from me to Snowfield, welly thirty mile off, and +me not got a creatur to look to, only neighbours, as are no kin to +me, an' most of 'em women as I'd be ashamed to show my face, if my +dairy things war like their'n. There may well be streaky butter +i' the market. An' I should be glad to see the poor thing settled +like a Christian woman, with a house of her own over her head; and +we'd stock her well wi' linen and feathers, for I love her next to +my own children. An' she makes one feel safer when she's i' the +house, for she's like the driven snow: anybody might sin for two +as had her at their elbow." + +"Dinah," said Tommy, running forward to meet her, "mother says +you'll never marry anybody but a Methodist cripple. What a silly +you must be!" a comment which Tommy followed up by seizing Dinah +with both arms, and dancing along by her side with incommodious +fondness. + +"Why, Adam, we missed you i' the singing to-day," said Mr. Poyser. +"How was it?" + +"I wanted to see Dinah--she's going away so soon," said Adam. + +"Ah, lad! Can you persuade her to stop somehow? Find her a good +husband somewhere i' the parish. If you'll do that, we'll forgive +you for missing church. But, anyway, she isna going before the +harvest supper o' Wednesday, and you must come then. There's +Bartle Massey comin', an' happen Craig. You'll be sure an' come, +now, at seven? The missis wunna have it a bit later." + +"Aye," said Adam, "I'll come if I can. But I can't often say what +I'll do beforehand, for the work often holds me longer than I +expect. You'll stay till the end o' the week, Dinah?" + +"Yes, yes!" said Mr. Poyser. "We'll have no nay." + +"She's no call to be in a hurry," observed Mrs. Poyser. +"Scarceness o' victual 'ull keep: there's no need to be hasty wi' +the cooking. An' scarceness is what there's the biggest stock of +i' that country." + +Dinah smiled, but gave no promise to stay, and they talked of +other things through the rest of the walk, lingering in the +sunshine to look at the great flock of geese grazing, at the new +corn-ricks, and at the surprising abundance of fruit on the old +pear-tree; Nancy and Molly having already hastened home, side by +side, each holding, carefully wrapped in her pocket-handkerchief, +a prayer-book, in which she could read little beyond the large +letters and the Amens. + +Surely all other leisure is hurry compared with a sunny walk +through the fields from "afternoon church"--as such walks used to +be in those old leisurely times, when the boat, gliding sleepily +along the canal, was the newest locomotive wonder; when Sunday +books had most of them old brown-leather covers, and opened with +remarkable precision always in one place. Leisure is gone--gone +where the spinning-wheels are gone, and the pack-horses, and the +slow waggons, and the pedlars, who brought bargains to the door on +sunny afternoons. Ingenious philosophers tell you, perhaps, that +the great work of the steam-engine is to create leisure for +mankind. Do not believe them: it only creates a vacuum for eager +thought to rush in. Even idleness is eager now--eager for +amusement; prone to excursion-trains, art museums, periodical +literature, and exciting novels; prone even to scientific +theorizing and cursory peeps through microscopes. Old Leisure was +quite a different personage. He only read one newspaper, innocent +of leaders, and was free from that periodicity of sensations which +we call post-time. He was a contemplative, rather stout +gentleman, of excellent digestion; of quiet perceptions, +undiseased by hypothesis; happy in his inability to know the +causes of things, preferring the things themselves. He lived +chiefly in the country, among pleasant seats and homesteads, and +was fond of sauntering by the fruit-tree wall and scenting the +apricots when they were warmed by the morning sunshine, or of +sheltering himself under the orchard boughs at noon, when the +summer pears were falling. He knew nothing of weekday services, +and thought none the worse of the Sunday sermon if it allowed him +to sleep from the text to the blessing; liking the afternoon +service best, because the prayers were the shortest, and not +ashamed to say so; for he had an easy, jolly conscience, broad- +backed like himself, and able to carry a great deal of beer or +port-wine, not being made squeamish by doubts and qualms and lofty +aspirations. Life was not a task to him, but a sinecure. He +fingered the guineas in his pocket, and ate his dinners, and slept +the sleep of the irresponsible, for had he not kept up his +character by going to church on the Sunday afternoons? + +Fine old Leisure! Do not be severe upon him, and judge him by our +modern standard. He never went to Exeter Hall, or heard a popular +preacher, or read Tracts for the Times or Sartor Resartus. + + + +Chapter LIII + +The Harvest Supper + + +As Adam was going homeward, on Wednesday evening, in the six +o'clock sunlight, he saw in the distance the last load of barley +winding its way towards the yard-gate of the Hall Farm, and heard +the chant of "Harvest Home!" rising and sinking like a wave. +Fainter and fainter, and more musical through the growing +distance, the falling dying sound still reached him, as he neared +the Willow Brook. The low westering sun shone right on the +shoulders of the old Binton Hills, turning the unconscious sheep +into bright spots of light; shone on the windows of the cottage +too, and made them a-flame with a glory beyond that of amber or +amethyst. It was enough to make Adam feel that he was in a great +temple, and that the distant chant was a sacred song. + +"It's wonderful," he thought, "how that sound goes to one's heart +almost like a funeral bell, for all it tells one o' the joyfullest +time o' the year, and the time when men are mostly the +thankfullest. I suppose it's a bit hard to us to think anything's +over and gone in our lives; and there's a parting at the root of +all our joys. It's like what I feel about Dinah. I should never +ha' come to know that her love 'ud be the greatest o' blessings to +me, if what I counted a blessing hadn't been wrenched and torn +away from me, and left me with a greater need, so as I could crave +and hunger for a greater and a better comfort." + +He expected to see Dinah again this evening, and get leave to +accompany her as far as Oakbourne; and then he would ask her to +fix some time when he might go to Snowfield, and learn whether the +last best hope that had been born to him must be resigned like the +rest. The work he had to do at home, besides putting on his best +clothes, made it seven before he was on his way again to the Hall +Farm, and it was questionable whether, with his longest and +quickest strides, he should be there in time even for the roast +beef, which came after the plum pudding, for Mrs. Poyser's supper +would be punctual. + +Great was the clatter of knives and pewter plates and tin cans +when Adam entered the house, but there was no hum of voices to +this accompaniment: the eating of excellent roast beef, provided +free of expense, was too serious a business to those good farm- +labourers to be performed with a divided attention, even if they +had had anything to say to each other--which they had not. And +Mr. Poyser, at the head of the table, was too busy with his +carving to listen to Bartle Massey's or Mr. Craig's ready talk. + +"Here, Adam," said Mrs. Poyser, who was standing and looking on to +see that Molly and Nancy did their duty as waiters, "here's a +place kept for you between Mr. Massey and the boys. It's a poor +tale you couldn't come to see the pudding when it was whole." + +Adam looked anxiously round for a fourth woman's figure, but Dinah +was not there. He was almost afraid of asking about her; besides, +his attention was claimed by greetings, and there remained the +hope that Dinah was in the house, though perhaps disinclined to +festivities on the eve of her departure. + +It was a goodly sight--that table, with Martin Poyser's round +good-humoured face and large person at the head of it helping his +servants to the fragrant roast beef and pleased when the empty +plates came again. Martin, though usually blest with a good +appetite, really forgot to finish his own beef to-night--it was so +pleasant to him to look on in the intervals of carving and see how +the others enjoyed their supper; for were they not men who, on all +the days of the year except Christmas Day and Sundays, ate their +cold dinner, in a makeshift manner, under the hedgerows, and drank +their beer out of wooden bottles--with relish certainly, but with +their mouths towards the zenith, after a fashion more endurable to +ducks than to human bipeds. Martin Poyser had some faint +conception of the flavour such men must find in hot roast beef and +fresh-drawn ale. He held his head on one side and screwed up his +mouth, as he nudged Bartle Massey, and watched half-witted Tom +Tholer, otherwise known as "Tom Saft," receiving his second +plateful of beef. A grin of delight broke over Tom's face as the +plate was set down before him, between his knife and fork, which +he held erect, as if they had been sacred tapers. But the delight +was too strong to continue smouldering in a grin--it burst out the +next instant in a long-drawn "haw, haw!" followed by a sudden +collapse into utter gravity, as the knife and fork darted down on +the prey. Martin Poyser's large person shook with his silent +unctuous laugh. He turned towards Mrs. Poyser to see if she too +had been observant of Tom, and the eyes of husband and wife met in +a glance of good-natured amusement. + +"Tom Saft" was a great favourite on the farm, where he played the +part of the old jester, and made up for his practical deficiencies +by his success in repartee. His hits, I imagine, were those of +the flail, which falls quite at random, but nevertheless smashes +an insect now and then. They were much quoted at sheep-shearing +and haymaking times, but I refrain from recording them here, lest +Tom's wit should prove to be like that of many other bygone +jesters eminent in their day--rather of a temporary nature, not +dealing with the deeper and more lasting relations of things. + +Tom excepted, Martin Poyser had some pride in his servants and +labourers, thinking with satisfaction that they were the best +worth their pay of any set on the estate. There was Kester Bale, +for example (Beale, probably, if the truth were known, but he was +called Bale, and was not conscious of any claim to a fifth +letter), the old man with the close leather cap and the network of +wrinkles on his sun-browned face. Was there any man in Loamshire +who knew better the "natur" of all farming work? He was one of +those invaluable labourers who can not only turn their hand to +everything, but excel in everything they turn their hand to. It +is true Kester's knees were much bent outward by this time, and he +walked with a perpetual curtsy, as if he were among the, most +reverent of men. And so he was; but I am obliged to admit that +the object of his reverence was his own skill, towards which he +performed some rather affecting acts of worship. He always +thatched the ricks--for if anything were his forte more than +another, it was thatching--and when the last touch had been put to +the last beehive rick, Kester, whose home lay at some distance +from the farm, would take a walk to the rick-yard in his best +clothes on a Sunday morning and stand in the lane, at a due +distance, to contemplate his own thatching walking about to get +each rick from the proper point of view. As he curtsied along, +with his eyes upturned to the straw knobs imitative of golden +globes at the summits of the beehive ricks, which indeed were gold +of the best sort, you might have imagined him to be engaged in +some pagan act of adoration. Kester was an old bachelor and +reputed to have stockings full of coin, concerning which his +master cracked a joke with him every pay-night: not a new +unseasoned joke, but a good old one, that had been tried many +times before and had worn well. "Th' young measter's a merry +mon," Kester frequently remarked; for having begun his career by +frightening away the crows under the last Martin Poyser but one, +he could never cease to account the reigning Martin a young +master. I am not ashamed of commemorating old Kester. You and I +are indebted to the hard hands of such men--hands that have long +ago mingled with the soil they tilled so faithfully, thriftily +making the best they could of the earth's fruits, and receiving +the smallest share as their own wages. + +Then, at the end of the table, opposite his master, there was +Alick, the shepherd and head-man, with the ruddy face and broad +shoulders, not on the best terms with old Kester; indeed, their +intercourse was confined to an occasional snarl, for though they +probably differed little concerning hedging and ditching and the +treatment of ewes, there was a profound difference of opinion +between them as to their own respective merits. When Tityrus and +Meliboeus happen to be on the same farm, they are not +sentimentally polite to each other. Alick, indeed, was not by any +means a honeyed man. His speech had usually something of a snarl +in it, and his broad-shouldered aspect something of the bull-dog +expression--"Don't you meddle with me, and I won't meddle with +you." But he was honest even to the splitting of an oat-grain +rather than he would take beyond his acknowledged share, and as +"close-fisted" with his master's property as if it had been his +own--throwing very small handfuls of damaged barley to the +chickens, because a large handful affected his imagination +painfully with a sense of profusion. Good-tempered Tim, the +waggoner, who loved his horses, had his grudge against Alick in +the matter of corn. They rarely spoke to each other, and never +looked at each other, even over their dish of cold potatoes; but +then, as this was their usual mode of behaviour towards all +mankind, it would be an unsafe conclusion that they had more than +transient fits of unfriendliness. The bucolic character at +Hayslope, you perceive, was not of that entirely genial, merry, +broad-grinning sort, apparently observed in most districts visited +by artists. The mild radiance of a smile was a rare sight on a +field-labourer's face, and there was seldom any gradation between +bovine gravity and a laugh. Nor was every labourer so honest as +our friend Alick. At this very table, among Mr. Poyser's men, +there is that big Ben Tholoway, a very powerful thresher, but +detected more than once in carrying away his master's corn in his +pockets--an action which, as Ben was not a philosopher, could +hardly be ascribed to absence of mind. However, his master had +forgiven him, and continued to employ him, for the Tholoways had +lived on the Common time out of mind, and had always worked for +the Poysers. And on the whole, I daresay, society was not much +the worse because Ben had not six months of it at the treadmill, +for his views of depredation were narrow, and the House of +Correction might have enlarged them. As it was, Ben ate his roast +beef to-night with a serene sense of having stolen nothing more +than a few peas and beans as seed for his garden since the last +harvest supper, and felt warranted in thinking that Alick's +suspicious eye, for ever upon him, was an injury to his innocence. + +But NOW the roast beef was finished and the cloth was drawn, +leaving a fair large deal table for the bright drinking-cans, and +the foaming brown jugs, and the bright brass candlesticks, +pleasant to behold. NOW, the great ceremony of the evening was to +begin--the harvest-song, in which every man must join. He might +be in tune, if he liked to be singular, but he must not sit with +closed lips. The movement was obliged to be in triple time; the +rest was ad libitum. + +As to the origin of this song--whether it came in its actual state +from the brain of a single rhapsodist, or was gradually perfected +by a school or succession of rhapsodists, I am ignorant. There is +a stamp of unity, of individual genius upon it, which inclines me +to the former hypothesis, though I am not blind to the +consideration that this unity may rather have arisen from that +consensus of many minds which was a condition of primitive +thought, foreign to our modern consciousness. Some will perhaps +think that they detect in the first quatrain an indication of a +lost line, which later rhapsodists, failing in imaginative vigour, +have supplied by the feeble device of iteration. Others, however, +may rather maintain that this very iteration is an original +felicity, to which none but the most prosaic minds can be +insensible. + +The ceremony connected with the song was a drinking ceremony. +(That is perhaps a painful fact, but then, you know, we cannot +reform our forefathers.) During the first and second quatrain, +sung decidedly forte, no can was filled. + + +Here's a health unto our master, + The founder of the feast; +Here's a health unto our master + And to our mistress! + +And may his doings prosper, + Whate'er he takes in hand, +For we are all his servants, + And are at his command. + + +But now, immediately before the third quatrain or chorus, sung +fortissimo, with emphatic raps of the table, which gave the effect +of cymbals and drum together, Alick's can was filled, and he was +bound to empty it before the chorus ceased. + + +Then drink, boys, drink! + And see ye do not spill, +For if ye do, ye shall drink two, + For 'tis our master's will. + + +When Alick had gone successfully through this test of steady- +handed manliness, it was the turn of old Kester, at his right +hand--and so on, till every man had drunk his initiatory pint +under the stimulus of the chorus. Tom Saft--the rogue--took care +to spill a little by accident; but Mrs. Poyser (too officiously, +Tom thought) interfered to prevent the exaction of the penalty. + +To any listener outside the door it would have been the reverse of +obvious why the "Drink, boys, drink!" should have such an +immediate and often-repeated encore; but once entered, he would +have seen that all faces were at present sober, and most of them +serious--it was the regular and respectable thing for those +excellent farm-labourers to do, as much as for elegant ladies and +gentlemen to smirk and bow over their wine-glasses. Bartle +Massey, whose ears were rather sensitive, had gone out to see what +sort of evening it was at an early stage in the ceremony, and had +not finished his contemplation until a silence of five minutes +declared that "Drink, boys, drink!" was not likely to begin again +for the next twelvemonth. Much to the regret of the boys and +Totty: on them the stillness fell rather flat, after that glorious +thumping of the table, towards which Totty, seated on her father's +knee, contributed with her small might and small fist. + +When Bartle re-entered, however, there appeared to be a general +desire for solo music after the choral. Nancy declared that Tim +the waggoner knew a song and was "allays singing like a lark i' +the stable," whereupon Mr. Poyser said encouragingly, "Come, Tim, +lad, let's hear it." Tim looked sheepish, tucked down his head, +and said he couldn't sing, but this encouraging invitation of the +master's was echoed all round the table. It was a conversational +opportunity: everybody could say, "Come, Tim," except Alick, who +never relaxed into the frivolity of unnecessary speech. At last, +Tim's next neighbour, Ben Tholoway, began to give emphasis to his +speech by nudges, at which Tim, growing rather savage, said, "Let +me alooan, will ye? Else I'll ma' ye sing a toon ye wonna like." +A good-tempered waggoner's patience has limits, and Tim was not to +be urged further. + +"Well, then, David, ye're the lad to sing," said Ben, willing to +show that he was not discomfited by this check. "Sing 'My loove's +a roos wi'out a thorn.'" + +The amatory David was a young man of an unconscious abstracted +expression, which was due probably to a squint of superior +intensity rather than to any mental characteristic; for he was not +indifferent to Ben's invitation, but blushed and laughed and +rubbed his sleeve over his mouth in a way that was regarded as a +symptom of yielding. And for some time the company appeared to be +much in earnest about the desire to hear David's song. But in +vain. The lyricism of the evening was in the cellar at present, +and was not to be drawn from that retreat just yet. + +Meanwhile the conversation at the head of the table had taken a +political turn. Mr. Craig was not above talking politics +occasionally, though he piqued himself rather on a wise insight +than on specific information. He saw so far beyond the mere facts +of a case that really it was superfluous to know them. + +"I'm no reader o' the paper myself," he observed to-night, as he +filled his pipe, "though I might read it fast enough if I liked, +for there's Miss Lyddy has 'em and 's done with 'em i' no time. +But there's Mills, now, sits i' the chimney-corner and reads the +paper pretty nigh from morning to night, and when he's got to th' +end on't he's more addle-headed than he was at the beginning. +He's full o' this peace now, as they talk on; he's been reading +and reading, and thinks he's got to the bottom on't. 'Why, Lor' +bless you, Mills,' says I, 'you see no more into this thing nor +you can see into the middle of a potato. I'll tell you what it +is: you think it'll be a fine thing for the country. And I'm not +again' it--mark my words--I'm not again' it. But it's my opinion +as there's them at the head o' this country as are worse enemies +to us nor Bony and all the mounseers he's got at 's back; for as +for the mounseers, you may skewer half-a-dozen of 'em at once as +if they war frogs.'" + +"Aye, aye," said Martin Poyser, listening with an air of much +intelligence and edification, "they ne'er ate a bit o' beef i' +their lives. Mostly sallet, I reckon." + +"And says I to Mills," continued Mr. Craig, "'Will you try to make +me believe as furriners like them can do us half th' harm them +ministers do with their bad government? If King George 'ud turn +'em all away and govern by himself, he'd see everything righted. +He might take on Billy Pitt again if he liked; but I don't see +myself what we want wi' anybody besides King and Parliament. It's +that nest o' ministers does the mischief, I tell you.'" + +"Ah, it's fine talking," observed Mrs. Poyser, who was now seated +near her husband, with Totty on her lap--"it's fine talking. It's +hard work to tell which is Old Harry when everybody's got boots +on." + +"As for this peace," said Mr. Poyser, turning his head on one side +in a dubitative manner and giving a precautionary puff to his pipe +between each sentence, "I don't know. Th' war's a fine thing for +the country, an' how'll you keep up prices wi'out it? An' them +French are a wicked sort o' folks, by what I can make out. What +can you do better nor fight 'em?" + +"Ye're partly right there, Poyser," said Mr. Craig, "but I'm not +again' the peace--to make a holiday for a bit. We can break it +when we like, an' I'm in no fear o' Bony, for all they talk so +much o' his cliverness. That's what I says to Mills this morning. +Lor' bless you, he sees no more through Bony!...why, I put him up +to more in three minutes than he gets from's paper all the year +round. Says I, 'Am I a gardener as knows his business, or arn't +I, Mills? Answer me that.' 'To be sure y' are, Craig,' says he-- +he's not a bad fellow, Mills isn't, for a butler, but weak i' the +head. 'Well,' says I, 'you talk o' Bony's cliverness; would it be +any use my being a first-rate gardener if I'd got nought but a +quagmire to work on?' 'No,' says he. 'Well,' I says, 'that's +just what it is wi' Bony. I'll not deny but he may be a bit +cliver--he's no Frenchman born, as I understand--but what's he got +at's back but mounseers?'" + +Mr. Craig paused a moment with an emphatic stare after this +triumphant specimen of Socratic argument, and then added, thumping +the table rather fiercely, "Why, it's a sure thing--and there's +them 'ull bear witness to't--as i' one regiment where there was +one man a-missing, they put the regimentals on a big monkey, and +they fit him as the shell fits the walnut, and you couldn't tell +the monkey from the mounseers!" + +"Ah! Think o' that, now!" said Mr. Poyser, impressed at once with +the political bearings of the fact and with its striking interest +as an anecdote in natural history. + +"Come, Craig," said Adam, "that's a little too strong. You don't +believe that. It's all nonsense about the French being such poor +sticks. Mr. Irwine's seen 'em in their own country, and he says +they've plenty o' fine fellows among 'em. And as for knowledge, +and contrivances, and manufactures, there's a many things as we're +a fine sight behind 'em in. It's poor foolishness to run down +your enemies. Why, Nelson and the rest of 'em 'ud have no merit +i' beating 'em, if they were such offal as folks pretend." + +Mr. Poyser looked doubtfully at Mr. Craig, puzzled by this +opposition of authorities. Mr. Irwine's testimony was not to be +disputed; but, on the other hand, Craig was a knowing fellow, and +his view was less startling. Martin had never "heard tell" of the +French being good for much. Mr. Craig had found no answer but +such as was implied in taking a long draught of ale and then +looking down fixedly at the proportions of his own leg, which he +turned a little outward for that purpose, when Bartle Massey +returned from the fireplace, where he had been smoking his first +pipe in quiet, and broke the silence by saying, as he thrust his +forefinger into the canister, "Why, Adam, how happened you not to +be at church on Sunday? Answer me that, you rascal. The anthem +went limping without you. Are you going to disgrace your +schoolmaster in his old age?" + +"No, Mr. Massey," said Adam. "Mr. and Mrs. Poyser can tell you +where I was. I was in no bad company." + +"She's gone, Adam--gone to Snowfield," said Mr. Poyser, reminded +of Dinah for the first time this evening. "I thought you'd ha' +persuaded her better. Nought 'ud hold her, but she must go +yesterday forenoon. The missis has hardly got over it. I thought +she'd ha' no sperrit for th' harvest supper." + +Mrs. Poyser had thought of Dinah several times since Adam had come +in, but she had had "no heart" to mention the bad news. + +"What!" said Bartle, with an air of disgust. "Was there a woman +concerned? Then I give you up, Adam." + +"But it's a woman you'n spoke well on, Bartle," said Mr. Poyser. +"Come now, you canna draw back; you said once as women wouldna ha' +been a bad invention if they'd all been like Dinah." + +"I meant her voice, man--I meant her voice, that was all," said +Bartle. "I can bear to hear her speak without wanting to put wool +in my ears. As for other things, I daresay she's like the rest o' +the women--thinks two and two 'll come to make five, if she cries +and bothers enough about it." + +"Aye, aye!" said Mrs. Poyser; "one 'ud think, an' hear some folks +talk, as the men war 'cute enough to count the corns in a bag o' +wheat wi' only smelling at it. They can see through a barn-door, +they can. Perhaps that's the reason THEY can see so little o' +this side on't." + +Martin Poyser shook with delighted laughter and winked at Adam, as +much as to say the schoolmaster was in for it now. + +"Ah!" said Bartle sneeringly, "the women are quick enough--they're +quick enough. They know the rights of a story before they hear +it, and can tell a man what his thoughts are before he knows 'em +himself." + +"Like enough," said Mrs. Poyser, "for the men are mostly so slow, +their thoughts overrun 'em, an' they can only catch 'em by the +tail. I can count a stocking-top while a man's getting's tongue +ready an' when he outs wi' his speech at last, there's little +broth to be made on't. It's your dead chicks take the longest +hatchin'. Howiver, I'm not denyin' the women are foolish: God +Almighty made 'em to match the men." + +"Match!" said Bartle. "Aye, as vinegar matches one's teeth. If a +man says a word, his wife 'll match it with a contradiction; if +he's a mind for hot meat, his wife 'll match it with cold bacon; +if he laughs, she'll match him with whimpering. She's such a +match as the horse-fly is to th' horse: she's got the right venom +to sting him with--the right venom to sting him with." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Poyser, "I know what the men like--a poor soft, +as 'ud simper at 'em like the picture o' the sun, whether they did +right or wrong, an' say thank you for a kick, an' pretend she +didna know which end she stood uppermost, till her husband told +her. That's what a man wants in a wife, mostly; he wants to make +sure o' one fool as 'ull tell him he's wise. But there's some men +can do wi'out that--they think so much o' themselves a'ready. An' +that's how it is there's old bachelors." + +"Come, Craig," said Mr. Poyser jocosely, "you mun get married +pretty quick, else you'll be set down for an old bachelor; an' you +see what the women 'ull think on you." + +"Well," said Mr. Craig, willing to conciliate Mrs. Poyser and +setting a high value on his own compliments, "I like a cleverish +woman--a woman o' sperrit--a managing woman." + +"You're out there, Craig," said Bartle, dryly; "you're out there. +You judge o' your garden-stuff on a better plan than that. You +pick the things for what they can excel in--for what they can +excel in. You don't value your peas for their roots, or your +carrots for their flowers. Now, that's the way you should choose +women. Their cleverness 'll never come to much--never come to +much--but they make excellent simpletons, ripe and strong- +flavoured." + +"What dost say to that?" said Mr. Poyser, throwing himself back +and looking merrily at his wife. + +"Say!" answered Mrs. Poyser, with dangerous fire kindling in her +eye. "Why, I say as some folks' tongues are like the clocks as +run on strikin', not to tell you the time o' the day, but because +there's summat wrong i' their own inside..." + +Mrs. Poyser would probably have brought her rejoinder to a further +climax, if every one's attention had not at this moment been +called to the other end of the table, where the lyricism, which +had at first only manifested itself by David's sotto voce +performance of "My love's a rose without a thorn," had gradually +assumed a rather deafening and complex character. Tim, thinking +slightly of David's vocalization, was impelled to supersede that +feeble buzz by a spirited commencement of "Three Merry Mowers," +but David was not to be put down so easily, and showed himself +capable of a copious crescendo, which was rendering it doubtful +whether the rose would not predominate over the mowers, when old +Kester, with an entirely unmoved and immovable aspect, suddenly +set up a quavering treble--as if he had been an alarum, and the +time was come for him to go off. + +The company at Alick's end of the table took this form of vocal +entertainment very much as a matter of course, being free from +musical prejudices; but Bartle Massey laid down his pipe and put +his fingers in his ears; and Adam, who had been longing to go ever +since he had heard Dinah was not in the house, rose and said he +must bid good-night. + +"I'll go with you, lad," said Bartle; "I'll go with you before my +ears are split." + +"I'll go round by the Common and see you home, if you like, Mr. +Massey," said Adam. + +"Aye, aye!" said Bartle; "then we can have a bit o' talk together. +I never get hold of you now." + +"Eh! It's a pity but you'd sit it out," said Martin Poyser. +"They'll all go soon, for th' missis niver lets 'em stay past +ten." + +But Adam was resolute, so the good-nights were said, and the two +friends turned out on their starlight walk together. + +"There's that poor fool, Vixen, whimpering for me at home," said +Bartle. "I can never bring her here with me for fear she should +be struck with Mrs. Poyser's eye, and the poor bitch might go +limping for ever after." + +"I've never any need to drive Gyp back," said Adam, laughing. "He +always turns back of his own head when he finds out I'm coming +here." + +"Aye, aye," said Bartle. "A terrible woman!--made of needles, +made of needles. But I stick to Martin--I shall always stick to +Martin. And he likes the needles, God help him! He's a cushion +made on purpose for 'em." + +"But she's a downright good-natur'd woman, for all that," said +Adam, "and as true as the daylight. She's a bit cross wi' the +dogs when they offer to come in th' house, but if they depended on +her, she'd take care and have 'em well fed. If her tongue's keen, +her heart's tender: I've seen that in times o' trouble. She's one +o' those women as are better than their word." + +"Well, well," said Bartle, "I don't say th' apple isn't sound at +the core; but it sets my teeth on edge--it sets my teeth on edge." + + + +Chapter LIV + +The Meeting on the Hill + + +ADAM understood Dinah's haste to go away, and drew hope rather +than discouragement from it. She was fearful lest the strength of +her feeling towards him should hinder her from waiting and +listening faithfully for the ultimate guiding voice from within. + +"I wish I'd asked her to write to me, though," he thought. "And +yet even that might disturb her a bit, perhaps. She wants to be +quite quiet in her old way for a while. And I've no right to be +impatient and interrupting her with my wishes. She's told me what +her mind is, and she's not a woman to say one thing and mean +another. I'll wait patiently." + +That was Adam's wise resolution, and it throve excellently for the +first two or three weeks on the nourishment it got from the +remembrance of Dinah's confession that Sunday afternoon. There is +a wonderful amount of sustenance in the first few words of love. +But towards the middle of October the resolution began to dwindle +perceptibly, and showed dangerous symptoms of exhaustion. The +weeks were unusually long: Dinah must surely have had more than +enough time to make up her mind. Let a woman say what she will +after she has once told a man that she loves him, he is a little +too flushed and exalted with that first draught she offers him to +care much about the taste of the second. He treads the earth with +a very elastic step as he walks away from her, and makes light of +all difficulties. But that sort of glow dies out: memory gets +sadly diluted with time, and is not strong enough to revive us. +Adam was no longer so confident as he had been. He began to fear +that perhaps Dinah's old life would have too strong a grasp upon +her for any new feeling to triumph. If she had not felt this, she +would surely have written to him to give him some comfort; but it +appeared that she held it right to discourage him. As Adam's +confidence waned, his patience waned with it, and he thought he +must write himself. He must ask Dinah not to leave him in painful +doubt longer than was needful. He sat up late one night to write +her a letter, but the next morning he burnt it, afraid of its +effect. It would be worse to have a discouraging answer by letter +than from her own lips, for her presence reconciled him to her +will. + +You perceive how it was: Adam was hungering for the sight of +Dinah, and when that sort of hunger reaches a certain stage, a +lover is likely to still it though he may have to put his future +in pawn. + +But what harm could he do by going to Snowfield? Dinah could not +be displeased with him for it. She had not forbidden him to go. +She must surely expect that he would go before long. By the +second Sunday in October this view of the case had become so clear +to Adam that he was already on his way to Snowfield, on horseback +this time, for his hours were precious now, and he had borrowed +Jonathan Burge's good nag for the journey. + +What keen memories went along the road with him! He had often +been to Oakbourne and back since that first journey to Snowfield, +but beyond Oakbourne the greystone walls, the broken country, the +meagre trees, seemed to be telling him afresh the story of that +painful past which he knew so well by heart. But no story is the +same to us after a lapse of time--or rather, we who read it are no +longer the same interpreters--and Adam this morning brought with +him new thoughts through that grey country, thoughts which gave an +altered significance to its story of the past. + +That is a base and selfish, even a blasphemous, spirit which +rejoices and is thankful over the past evil that has blighted or +crushed another, because it has been made a source of unforeseen +good to ourselves. Adam could never cease to mourn over that +mystery of human sorrow which had been brought so close to him; he +could never thank God for another's misery. And if I were capable +of that narrow-sighted joy in Adam's behalf, I should still know +he was not the man to feel it for himself. He would have shaken +his head at such a sentiment and said, "Evil's evil, and sorrow's +sorrow, and you can't alter it's natur by wrapping it up in other +words. Other folks were not created for my sake, that I should +think all square when things turn out well for me." + +But it is not ignoble to feel that the fuller life which a sad +experience has brought us is worth our own personal share of pain. +Surely it is not possible to feel otherwise, any more than it +would be possible for a man with cataract to regret the painful +process by which his dim blurred sight of men as trees walking had +been exchanged for clear outline and effulgent day. The growth of +higher feeling within us is like the growth of faculty, bringing +with it a sense of added strength. We can no more wish to return +to a narrower sympathy than a painter or a musician can wish to +return to his cruder manner, or a philosopher to his less complete +formula. + +Something like this sense of enlarged being was in Adam's mind +this Sunday morning, as he rode along in vivid recollection of the +past. His feeling towards Dinah, the hope of passing his life +with her, had been the distant unseen point towards which that +hard journey from Snowfield eighteen months ago had been leading +him. Tender and deep as his love for Hetty had been--so deep that +the roots of it would never be torn away--his love for Dinah was +better and more precious to him, for it was the outgrowth of that +fuller life which had come to him from his acquaintance with deep +sorrow. "It's like as if it was a new strength to me," he said to +himself, "to love her and know as she loves me. I shall look t' +her to help me to see things right. For she's better than I am-- +there's less o' self in her, and pride. And it's a feeling as +gives you a sort o' liberty, as if you could walk more fearless, +when you've more trust in another than y' have in yourself. I've +always been thinking I knew better than them as belonged to me, +and that's a poor sort o' life, when you can't look to them +nearest to you t' help you with a bit better thought than what +you've got inside you a'ready." + +It was more than two o'clock in the afternoon when Adam came in +sight of the grey town on the hill-side and looked searchingly +towards the green valley below, for the first glimpse of the old +thatched roof near the ugly red mill. The scene looked less harsh +in the soft October sunshine than it had in the eager time of +early spring, and the one grand charm it possessed in common with +all wide-stretching woodless regions--that it filled you with a +new consciousness of the overarching sky--had a milder, more +soothing influence than usual, on this almost cloudless day. +Adam's doubts and fears melted under this influence as the +delicate weblike clouds had gradually melted away into the clear +blue above him. He seemed to see Dinah's gentle face assuring +him, with its looks alone, of all he longed to know. + +He did not expect Dinah to be at home at this hour, but he got +down from his horse and tied it at the little gate, that he might +ask where she was gone to-day. He had set his mind on following +her and bringing her home. She was gone to Sloman's End, a hamlet +about three miles off, over the hill, the old woman told him--had +set off directly after morning chapel, to preach in a cottage +there, as her habit was. Anybody at the town would tell him the +way to Sloman's End. So Adam got on his horse again and rode to +the town, putting up at the old inn and taking a hasty dinner +there in the company of the too chatty landlord, from whose +friendly questions and reminiscences he was glad to escape as soon +as possible and set out towards Sloman's End. With all his haste +it was nearly four o'clock before he could set off, and he thought +that as Dinah had gone so early, she would perhaps already be near +returning. The little, grey, desolate-looking hamlet, unscreened +by sheltering trees, lay in sight long before he reached it, and +as he came near he could hear the sound of voices singing a hymn. +"Perhaps that's the last hymn before they come away," Adam +thought. "I'll walk back a bit and turn again to meet her, +farther off the village." He walked back till he got nearly to +the top of the hill again, and seated himself on a loose stone, +against the low wall, to watch till he should see the little black +figure leaving the hamlet and winding up the hill. He chose this +spot, almost at the top of the hill, because it was away from all +eyes--no house, no cattle, not even a nibbling sheep near--no +presence but the still lights and shadows and the great embracing +sky. + +She was much longer coming than he expected. He waited an hour at +least watching for her and thinking of her, while the afternoon +shadows lengthened and the light grew softer. At last he saw the +little black figure coming from between the grey houses and +gradually approaching the foot of the hill. Slowly, Adam thought, +but Dinah was really walking at her usual pace, with a light quiet +step. Now she was beginning to wind along the path up the hill, +but Adam would not move yet; he would not meet her too soon; he +had set his heart on meeting her in this assured loneliness. And +now he began to fear lest he should startle her too much. "Yet," +he thought, "she's not one to be overstartled; she's always so +calm and quiet, as if she was prepared for anything." + +What was she thinking of as she wound up the hill? Perhaps she +had found complete repose without him, and had ceased to feel any +need of his love. On the verge of a decision we all tremble: hope +pauses with fluttering wings. + +But now at last she was very near, and Adam rose from the stone +wall. It happened that just as he walked forward, Dinah had +paused and turned round to look back at the village--who does not +pause and look back in mounting a hill? Adam was glad, for, with +the fine instinct of a lover, he felt that it would be best for +her to hear his voice before she saw him. He came within three +paces of her and then said, "Dinah!" She started without looking +round, as if she connected the sound with no place. "Dinah!" Adam +said again. He knew quite well what was in her mind. She was so +accustomed to think of impressions as purely spiritual monitions +that she looked for no material visible accompaniment of the +voice. + +But this second time she looked round. What a look of yearning +love it was that the mild grey eyes turned on the strong dark-eyed +man! She did not start again at the sight of him; she said +nothing, but moved towards him so that his arm could clasp her +round. + +And they walked on so in silence, while the warm tears fell. Adam +was content, and said nothing. It was Dinah who spoke first. + +"Adam," she said, "it is the Divine Will. My soul is so knit to +yours that it is but a divided life I live without you. And this +moment, now you are with me, and I feel that our hearts are filled +with the same love. I have a fulness of strength to bear and do +our heavenly Father's Will that I had lost before." + +Adam paused and looked into her sincere eyes. + +"Then we'll never part any more, Dinah, till death parts us." + +And they kissed each other with a deep joy. + +What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that +they are joined for life--to strengthen each other in all labour, +to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in +all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories +at the moment of the last parting? + + + +Chapter LV + +Marriage Bells + + +IN little more than a month after that meeting on the hill--on a +rimy morning in departing November--Adam and Dinah were married. + +It was an event much thought of in the village. All Mr. Burge's +men had a holiday, and all Mr. Poyser's, and most of those who had +a holiday appeared in their best clothes at the wedding. I think +there was hardly an inhabitant of Hayslope specially mentioned in +this history and still resident in the parish on this November +morning who was not either in church to see Adam and Dinah +married, or near the church door to greet them as they came forth. +Mrs. Irwine and her daughters were waiting at the churchyard gates +in their carriage (for they had a carriage now) to shake hands +with the bride and bridegroom and wish them well; and in the +absence of Miss Lydia Donnithorne at Bath, Mrs. Best, Mr. Mills, +and Mr. Craig had felt it incumbent on them to represent "the +family" at the Chase on the occasion. The churchyard walk was +quite lined with familiar faces, many of them faces that had first +looked at Dinah when she preached on the Green. And no wonder +they showed this eager interest on her marriage morning, for +nothing like Dinah and the history which had brought her and Adam +Bede together had been known at Hayslope within the memory of man. + +Bessy Cranage, in her neatest cap and frock, was crying, though +she did not exactly know why; for, as her cousin Wiry Ben, who +stood near her, judiciously suggested, Dinah was not going away, +and if Bessy was in low spirits, the best thing for her to do was +to follow Dinah's example and marry an honest fellow who was ready +to have her. Next to Bessy, just within the church door, there +were the Poyser children, peeping round the corner of the pews to +get a sight of the mysterious ceremony; Totty's face wearing an +unusual air of anxiety at the idea of seeing cousin Dinah come +back looking rather old, for in Totty's experience no married +people were young. + +I envy them all the sight they had when the marriage was fairly +ended and Adam led Dinah out of church. She was not in black this +morning, for her Aunt Poyser would by no means allow such a risk +of incurring bad luck, and had herself made a present of the +wedding dress, made all of grey, though in the usual Quaker form, +for on this point Dinah could not give way. So the lily face +looked out with sweet gravity from under a grey Quaker bonnet, +neither smiling nor blushing, but with lips trembling a little +under the weight of solemn feelings. Adam, as he pressed her arm +to his side, walked with his old erectness and his head thrown +rather backward as if to face all the world better. But it was +not because he was particularly proud this morning, as is the wont +of bridegrooms, for his happiness was of a kind that had little +reference to men's opinion of it. There was a tinge of sadness in +his deep joy; Dinah knew it, and did not feel aggrieved. + +There were three other couples, following the bride and +bridegroom: first, Martin Poyser, looking as cheery as a bright +fire on this rimy morning, led quiet Mary Burge, the bridesmaid; +then came Seth serenely happy, with Mrs. Poyser on his arm; and +last of all Bartle Massey, with Lisbeth--Lisbeth in a new gown and +bonnet, too busy with her pride in her son and her delight in +possessing the one daughter she had desired to devise a single +pretext for complaint. + +Bartle Massey had consented to attend the wedding at Adam's +earnest request, under protest against marriage in general and the +marriage of a sensible man in particular. Nevertheless, Mr. +Poyser had a joke against him after the wedding dinner, to the +effect that in the vestry he had given the bride one more kiss +than was necessary. + +Behind this last couple came Mr. Irwine, glad at heart over this +good morning's work of joining Adam and Dinah. For he had seen +Adam in the worst moments of his sorrow; and what better harvest +from that painful seed-time could there be than this? The love +that had brought hope and comfort in the hour of despair, the love +that had found its way to the dark prison cell and to poor Hetty's +darker soul--this strong gentle love was to be Adam's companion +and helper till death. + +There was much shaking of hands mingled with "God bless you's" and +other good wishes to the four couples, at the churchyard gate, Mr. +Poyser answering for the rest with unwonted vivacity of tongue, +for he had all the appropriate wedding-day jokes at his command. +And the women, he observed, could never do anything but put finger +in eye at a wedding. Even Mrs. Poyser could not trust herself to +speak as the neighbours shook hands with her, and Lisbeth began to +cry in the face of the very first person who told her she was +getting young again. + +Mr. Joshua Rann, having a slight touch of rheumatism, did not join +in the ringing of the bells this morning, and, looking on with +some contempt at these informal greetings which required no +official co-operation from the clerk, began to hum in his musical +bass, "Oh what a joyful thing it is," by way of preluding a little +to the effect he intended to produce in the wedding psalm next +Sunday. + +"That's a bit of good news to cheer Arthur," said Mr. Irwine to +his mother, as they drove off. "I shall write to him the first +thing when we get home." + + + +Epilogue + + +IT is near the end of June, in 1807. The workshops have been shut +up half an hour or more in Adam Bede's timber-yard, which used to +be Jonathan Burge's, and the mellow evening light is falling on +the pleasant house with the buff walls and the soft grey thatch, +very much as it did when we saw Adam bringing in the keys on that +June evening nine years ago. + +There is a figure we know well, just come out of the house, and +shading her eyes with her hands as she looks for something in the +distance, for the rays that fall on her white borderless cap and +her pale auburn hair are very dazzling. But now she turns away +from the sunlight and looks towards the door. + +We can see the sweet pale face quite well now: it is scarcely at +all altered--only a little fuller, to correspond to her more +matronly figure, which still seems light and active enough in the +plain black dress. + +"I see him, Seth," Dinah said, as she looked into the house. "Let +us go and meet him. Come, Lisbeth, come with Mother." + +The last call was answered immediately by a small fair creature +with pale auburn hair and grey eyes, little more than four years +old, who ran out silently and put her hand into her mother's. + +"Come, Uncle Seth," said Dinah. + +"Aye, aye, we're coming," Seth answered from within, and presently +appeared stooping under the doorway, being taller than usual by +the black head of a sturdy two-year-old nephew, who had caused +some delay by demanding to be carried on uncle's shoulder. + +"Better take him on thy arm, Seth," said Dinah, looking fondly at +the stout black-eyed fellow. "He's troublesome to thee so." + +"Nay, nay: Addy likes a ride on my shoulder. I can carry him so +for a bit." A kindness which young Addy acknowledged by drumming +his heels with promising force against Uncle Seth's chest. But to +walk by Dinah's side, and be tyrannized over by Dinah's and Adam's +children, was Uncle Seth's earthly happiness. + +"Where didst see him?" asked Seth, as they walked on into the +adjoining field. "I can't catch sight of him anywhere." + +"Between the hedges by the roadside," said Dinah. "I saw his hat +and his shoulder. There he is again." + +"Trust thee for catching sight of him if he's anywhere to be +seen," said Seth, smiling. "Thee't like poor mother used to be. +She was always on the look out for Adam, and could see him sooner +than other folks, for all her eyes got dim." + +"He's been longer than he expected," said Dinah, taking Arthur's +watch from a small side pocket and looking at it; "it's nigh upon +seven now." + +"Aye, they'd have a deal to say to one another," said Seth, "and +the meeting 'ud touch 'em both pretty closish. Why, it's getting +on towards eight years since they parted." + +"Yes," said Dinah, "Adam was greatly moved this morning at the +thought of the change he should see in the poor young man, from +the sickness he has undergone, as well as the years which have +changed us all. And the death of the poor wanderer, when she was +coming back to us, has been sorrow upon sorrow." + +"See, Addy," said Seth, lowering the young one to his arm now and +pointing, "there's Father coming--at the far stile." + +Dinah hastened her steps, and little Lisbeth ran on at her utmost +speed till she clasped her father's leg. Adam patted her head and +lifted her up to kiss her, but Dinah could see the marks of +agitation on his face as she approached him, and he put her arm +within his in silence. + +"Well, youngster, must I take you?" he said, trying to smile, when +Addy stretched out his arms--ready, with the usual baseness of +infancy, to give up his Uncle Seth at once, now there was some +rarer patronage at hand. + +"It's cut me a good deal, Dinah," Adam said at last, when they +were walking on. + +"Didst find him greatly altered?" said Dinah. + +"Why, he's altered and yet not altered. I should ha' known him +anywhere. But his colour's changed, and he looks sadly. However, +the doctors say he'll soon be set right in his own country air. +He's all sound in th' inside; it's only the fever shattered him +so. But he speaks just the same, and smiles at me just as he did +when he was a lad. It's wonderful how he's always had just the +same sort o' look when he smiles." + +"I've never seen him smile, poor young man," said Dinah. + +"But thee wilt see him smile, to-morrow," said Adam. "He asked +after thee the first thing when he began to come round, and we +could talk to one another. 'I hope she isn't altered,' he said, +'I remember her face so well.' I told him 'no,'" Adam continued, +looking fondly at the eyes that were turned towards his, "only a +bit plumper, as thee'dst a right to be after seven year. 'I may +come and see her to-morrow, mayn't I?' he said; 'I long to tell +her how I've thought of her all these years.'" + +"Didst tell him I'd always used the watch?" said Dinah. + +"Aye; and we talked a deal about thee, for he says he never saw a +woman a bit like thee. 'I shall turn Methodist some day,' he +said, 'when she preaches out of doors, and go to hear her.' And I +said, 'Nay, sir, you can't do that, for Conference has forbid the +women preaching, and she's given it up, all but talking to the +people a bit in their houses.'" + +"Ah," said Seth, who could not repress a comment on this point, +"and a sore pity it was o' Conference; and if Dinah had seen as I +did, we'd ha' left the Wesleyans and joined a body that 'ud put no +bonds on Christian liberty." + +"Nay, lad, nay," said Adam, "she was right and thee wast wrong. +There's no rules so wise but what it's a pity for somebody or +other. Most o' the women do more harm nor good with their +preaching--they've not got Dinah's gift nor her sperrit--and she's +seen that, and she thought it right to set th' example o' +submitting, for she's not held from other sorts o' teaching. And +I agree with her, and approve o' what she did." + +Seth was silent. This was a standing subject of difference rarely +alluded to, and Dinah, wishing to quit it at once, said, "Didst +remember, Adam, to speak to Colonel Donnithorne the words my uncle +and aunt entrusted to thee?" + +"Yes, and he's going to the Hall Farm with Mr. Irwine the day +after to-morrow. Mr. Irwine came in while we were talking about +it, and he would have it as the Colonel must see nobody but thee +to-morrow. He said--and he's in the right of it--as it'll be bad +for him t' have his feelings stirred with seeing many people one +after another. 'We must get you strong and hearty,' he said, +'that's the first thing to be done Arthur, and then you shall have +your own way. But I shall keep you under your old tutor's thumb +till then.' Mr. Irwine's fine and joyful at having him home +again." + +Adam was silent a little while, and then said, "It was very +cutting when we first saw one another. He'd never heard about +poor Hetty till Mr. Irwine met him in London, for the letters +missed him on his journey. The first thing he said to me, when +we'd got hold o' one another's hands was, 'I could never do +anything for her, Adam--she lived long enough for all the +suffering--and I'd thought so of the time when I might do +something for her. But you told me the truth when you said to me +once, "There's a sort of wrong that can never be made up for."'" + +"Why, there's Mr. and Mrs. Poyser coming in at the yard gate," +said Seth. + +"So there is," said Dinah. "Run, Lisbeth, run to meet Aunt Poyser. +Come in, Adam, and rest; it has been a hard day for thee." + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Adam Bede, by George Eliot +#2 in our series by George Eliot, pseudonym of Mary Anne Evans. + + + + + +SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY + +Other Works by George Eliot + + +Scenes of Clerical Life 1857 Stories +Adam Bede 1859 Novel +The Mill on the Floss 1860 Novel +Silas Marner 1861 Novel +Romola 1863 Novel +Felix Holt the Radical 1866 Novel +How Lisa Loved the King 1867 Poems +The Spanish Gypsy 1868 Poem +Middlemarch 1872 Novel +The Legend of Jubal 1874 Poem +Daniel Deronda 1876 Novel +Impressions of Theophrastus Such 1879 Essays +* + |