For several miles before they reached Milton, they saw a deep

lead-coloured cloud hanging over the horizon in the direction in

which it lay. It was all the darker from contrast with the pale

gray-blue of the wintry sky; for in Heston there had been the

earliest signs of frost. Nearer to the town, the air had a faint

taste and smell of smoke; perhaps, after all, more a loss of the

fragrance of grass and herbage than any positive taste or smell.

Quick they were whirled over long, straight, hopeless streets of

regularly-built houses, all small and of brick. Here and there a

great oblong many-windowed factory stood up, like a hen among her

chickens, puffing out black 'unparliamentary' smoke, and

sufficiently accounting for the cloud which Margaret had taken to

foretell rain. As they drove through the larger and wider

streets, from the station to the hotel, they had to stop

constantly; great loaded lurries blocked up the not over-wide

thoroughfares. Margaret had now and then been into the city in

her drives with her aunt. But there the heavy lumbering vehicles

seemed various in their purposes and intent; here every van,

every waggon and truck, bore cotton, either in the raw shape in

bags, or the woven shape in bales of calico. People thronged the

footpaths, most of them well-dressed as regarded the material,

but with a slovenly looseness which struck Margaret as different

from the shabby, threadbare smartness of a similar class in

London.

'New Street,' said Mr. Hale. 'This, I believe, is the principal

street in Milton. Bell has often spoken to me about it. It was

the opening of this street from a lane into a great thoroughfare,

thirty years ago, which has caused his property to rise so much

in value. Mr. Thornton's mill must be somewhere not very far off,

for he is Mr. Bell's tenant. But I fancy he dates from his

warehouse.' 'Where is our hotel, papa?' 'Close to the end of this street, I believe. Shall we have lunch

before or after we have looked at the houses we marked in the

Milton Times?' 'Oh, let us get our work done first.' 'Very well. Then I will only see if there is any note or letter

for me from Mr. Thornton, who said he would let me know anything

he might hear about these houses, and then we will set off. We

will keep the cab; it will be safer than losing ourselves, and

being too late for the train this afternoon.' There were no letters awaiting him. They set out on their

house-hunting. Thirty pounds a-year was all they could afford to

give, but in Hampshire they could have met with a roomy house and

pleasant garden for the money. Here, even the necessary

accommodation of two sitting-rooms and four bed-rooms seemed

unattainable. They went through their list, rejecting each as

they visited it. Then they looked at each other in dismay.




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