North and South
Page 169'Nicholas, we do not want to reason; you misunderstand my father.
We do not reason--we believe; and so do you. It is the one sole
comfort in such times.' He turned round and caught her hand. 'Ay! it is, it is--(brushing
away the tears with the back of his hand).--'But yo' know, she's
lying dead at home and I'm welly dazed wi' sorrow, and at times I
hardly know what I'm saying. It's as if speeches folk ha'
made--clever and smart things as I've thought at the time--come
up now my heart's welly brossen. Th' strike's failed as well; dun
yo' know that, miss? I were coming whoam to ask her, like a
beggar as I am, for a bit o' comfort i' that trouble; and I were
were all; but that were enough for me.
Mr. Hale blew his nose, and got up to snuff the candles in order
to conceal his emotion. 'He's not an infidel, Margaret; how could
you say so?' muttered he reproachfully 'I've a good mind to read
him the fourteenth chapter of Job.' 'Not yet, papa, I think. Perhaps not at all. Let us ask him about
the strike, and give him all the sympathy he needs, and hoped to
have from poor Bessy.' So they questioned and listened. The workmen's calculations were
based (like too many of the masters') on false premises. They
reckoned on their fellow-men as if they possessed the calculable
passions getting the better of reason, as in the case of Boucher
and the rioters; and believing that the representations of their
injuries would have the same effect on strangers far away, as the
injuries (fancied or real) had upon themselves. They were
consequently surprised and indignant at the poor Irish, who had
allowed themselves to be imported and brought over to take their
places. This indignation was tempered, in some degree, by
contempt for 'them Irishers,' and by pleasure at the idea of the
bungling way in which they would set to work, and perplex their
exaggerated stories of which were already spreading through the
town. But the most cruel cut of all was that of the Milton
workmen, who had defied and disobeyed the commands of the Union
to keep the peace, whatever came; who had originated discord in
the camp, and spread the panic of the law being arrayed against
them.
'And so the strike is at an end,' said Margaret.