'Ay!' said he. 'I've seen and heerd too much on him.' 'He refused you, then?' said Margaret, sorrowfully.

'To be sure. I knew he'd do it all long. It's no good expecting

marcy at the hands o' them measters. Yo're a stranger and a

foreigner, and aren't likely to know their ways; but I knowed

it.' 'I am sorry I asked you. Was he angry? He did not speak to you as

Hamper did, did he?' 'He weren't o'er-civil!' said Nicholas, spinning the penny again,

as much for his own amusement as for that of the children. 'Never

yo' fret, I'm only where I was. I'll go on tramp to-morrow. I

gave him as good as I got. I telled him, I'd not that good

opinion on him that I'd ha' come a second time of mysel'; but

yo'd advised me for to come, and I were beholden to yo'.' 'You told him I sent you?' 'I dunno' if I ca'd yo' by your name. I dunnot think I did. I

said, a woman who knew no better had advised me for to come and

see if there was a soft place in his heart.' 'And he--?' asked Margaret.

'Said I were to tell yo' to mind yo'r own business.--That's the

longest spin yet, my lads.--And them's civil words to what he

used to me. But ne'er mind. We're but where we was; and I'll

break stones on th' road afore I let these little uns clem.' Margaret put the struggling Johnnie out of her arms, back into

his former place on the dresser.

'I am sorry I asked you to go to Mr. Thornton's. I am

disappointed in him.' There was a slight noise behind her. Both she and Nicholas turned

round at the same moment, and there stood Mr. Thornton, with a

look of displeased surprise upon his face. Obeying her swift

impulse, Margaret passed out before him, saying not a word, only

bowing low to hide the sudden paleness that she felt had come

over her face. He bent equally low in return, and then closed the

door after her. As she hurried to Mrs. Boucher's, she heard the

clang, and it seemed to fill up the measure of her mortification.

He too was annoyed to find her there. He had tenderness in his

heart--'a soft place,' as Nicholas Higgins called it; but he had

some pride in concealing it; he kept it very sacred and safe, and

was jealous of every circumstance that tried to gain admission.

But if he dreaded exposure of his tenderness, he was equally

desirous that all men should recognise his justice; and he felt

that he had been unjust, in giving so scornful a hearing to any

one who had waited, with humble patience, for five hours, to

speak to him. That the man had spoken saucily to him when he had

the opportunity, was nothing to Mr. Thornton. He rather liked him

for it; and he was conscious of his own irritability of temper at

the time, which probably made them both quits. It was the five

hours of waiting that struck Mr. Thornton. He had not five hours

to spare himself; but one hour--two hours, of his hard

penetrating intellectual, as well as bodily labour, did he give

up to going about collecting evidence as to the truth of

Higgins's story, the nature of his character, the tenor of his

life. He tried not to be, but was convinced that all that Higgins

had said was true. And then the conviction went in, as if by

some spell, and touched the latent tenderness of his heart; the

patience of the man, the simple generosity of the motive (for he

had learnt about the quarrel between Boucher and Higgins), made

him forget entirely the mere reasonings of justice, and overleap

them by a diviner instinct. He came to tell Higgins he would give

him work; and he was more annoyed to find Margaret there than by

hearing her last words, for then he understood that she was the

woman who had urged Higgins to come to him; and he dreaded the

admission of any thought of her, as a motive to what he was doing

solely because it was right.




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