That Lass O'Lowrie's E-Book

Frances Hodgson Burnett

• Herausgeber: Jazzybee Verlag
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 343

Beschreibung

The conception of this book is admirable, and it embodies in a most impressive manner a thought, or rather a sentiment, which is not new, but which is widespread and strong, and which has never before been born into flesh and blood. The existence of such a noble soul and such noble beauty as Joan Lowrie's, in a condition of life so low and so coarsening as that of a Lancashire coal-pit girl, has doubtless occurred to other minds as among the possibilities; but it has been reserved for Mrs. Burnett to show us the workings of such a woman's soul, to make us feel the influence of such a woman's beauty, to develop her before us by varied influences into a thoughtful, gentle woman, to let us see her love for a man so much above her that she deems herself hardly fit to speak to him grow into the one absorbing passion of her life, which she yet sacrifices in mute agony rather than put him to shame.

Leseprobe

THAT LASS O'LOWRIE'S

That Lass O'Lowrie's, F. Hodgson Burnett

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9

Deutschland

ISBN: 9783849648923

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

[email protected]

CONTENTS:

CHAPTER I.1

CHAPTER II.9

CHAPTER III.16

CHAPTER IV.24

CHAPTER V.28

CHAPTER VI.35

CHAPTER VII.40

CHAPTER VIII.42

CHAPTER IX.47

CHAPTER X.50

CHAPTER XI.52

CHAPTER XII.54

CHAPTER XIII.58

CHAPTER XIV.63

CHAPTER XV.67

CHAPTER XVI.70

CHAPTER XVII.76

CHAPTER XVIII.79

CHAPTER XIX.81

CHAPTER XX.85

CHAPTER XXI.89

CHAPTER XXII.92

CHAPTER XXIII.96

CHAPTER XXIV.101

CHAPTER XXV.104

CHAPTER XXVI.110

CHAPTER XXVII.116

CHAPTER XXVIII.119

CHAPTER XXIX.123

CHAPTER XXX.125

CHAPTER XXXI.128

CHAPTER XXXII.133

CHAPTER XXXIII.135

CHAPTER XXXIV.139

CHAPTER XXXV.145

CHAPTER XXXVI.147

CHAPTER XXXVII.150

CHAPTER XXXVIII.152

CHAPTER XXXIX.155

CHAPTER XL.158

CHAPTER XLI.160

CHAPTER XLII.164

CHAPTER XLIII.166

CHAPTER I.

THEY did not look like women, or at least a stranger new to the district might easily have been misled by their appearance, as they stood together in a group by the pit's mouth. There were about a dozen of them – all "pit girls," as they were called; women who wore a dress more than half masculine, and who talked loudly and laughed discordantly, and some of whom, God knows, had faces as hard and brutal as the hardest of their collier brothers and husbands and sweethearts. They had lived their lives among the coal-pits, and had worked early and late at the "mouth," ever since they had been old enough to take part in the heavy labour. It was not to be wondered at that they had lost all bloom of womanly modesty and gentleness. Their mothers had been "pit girls" in their time, their grandmothers in theirs; they had been born in coarse homes; they had fared hardly, and worked hard; they had breathed in the dust and grime of coal, and, somehow or other, it seemed to stick to them and reveal itself in their natures as it did in their bold, unwashed faces. At first one shrank from them, but one's shrinking could not fail to change to pity. There was not an element of softness to rule or even influence them in their half savage existence.

On the particular evening of which I speak, the group at the pit's mouth were even more than usually noisy. They were laughing, gossiping, and joking – coarse enough jokes – and now and then a listener might have heard an oath flung out carelessly, and as if all were well used to the sound. Most of them were young women, though there were a few older ones among them, and the principal figure in the group – the centre figure about whom the rest clustered – was a young woman. But she differed from the rest in two or three respects. The others seemed somewhat stunted in growth; she was tall enough to be imposing. She was as roughly clad as the poorest of them, but she wore her uncouth garb differently. The man's jacket of fustian, open at the neck, bared a handsome, sun-browned throat. The man's hat shaded a face with dark eyes that had a sort of animal beauty, and a well-moulded chin. It was at this girl that all the rough jokes seemed to be directed.

"I'll tell thee, Joan," said one woman, "we'st ha' thee sweetheartin' wi' him afore th' month's out."

"Aye," laughed her fellows, "so we shall. Tha'st ha' to turn soft after aw. Tha conna stond out again' th' Lunnon chap. We'st ha' thee sweetheartin', Joan, i' th' face o' aw tha'st said."

Joan Lowrie faced them defiantly.

"Tha'st noan ha' me sweetheartin' wi' siss an a foo'," she said, "I amna ower fond, o' men folk at no time. I've had my fill on 'em; and I'm noan loike to tak' up wi' such loike as this un. An' he's no an a Lunnoner neither. He's on'y fro' th' South. An' th' South is na Lunnon."

"He's gettin' London ways tho'," put in another. "Choppin' his words up and mincin' 'em smo'. He's noan Lancashire, ony gowk could tell."

"I dunnot see as he miches so," said Joan roughly. "He dunnot speak our loike, but he's well enow i' his way."

A boisterous peal of laughter interrupted her.

"I thow't tha' ca'ed him a foo' a minute sin'," cried two or three voices at once. "Eh, Joan, lass, tha'st goin' t' change thy moind, I see."

The girl's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Theer's others I could ca' foo's," she said, "I need na go far to foind foo's. Foo' huntin's th' best sport out, an' th' safest. Leave th' engineer alone an' leave me alone too. It'll be th' best fur yo'."

She turned round and strode out of the group. Another burst of derisive laughter followed her, but she took no notice of it. She took no notice of anything – not even of the two men who at that very moment passed her, and, passing, turned to look at her as she went by.

"A fine creature!" said one of them.

"A fine creature!" echoed the other. "Yes, and you see that is precisely it, Derrick. 'A fine creature' – and nothing else. Do you wonder at my dissatisfaction?"

They were the young civil engineer and his friend the Reverend Paul Grace, curate of the parish. There were never two men more unlike, physically and mentally, and yet it would have been a hard task to find two natures more harmonious and sympathetic. Still, most people wondered at and failed to comprehend their friendship. The mild, nervous little Oxonian barely reached Derrick's shoulder; his finely cut face was singularly feminine and innocent; the mild eyes beaming from behind his small spectacles had an absent, dreamy look. One could not fail to see at the first glance that this refined, restless, conscientious little gentleman was hardly the person to cope successfully with Riggan. Derrick strode by his side like a young son of Anak – brains and muscle evenly balanced and fully developed.

He turned his head over his shoulder to look at Joan Lowrie once again before replying to Grace's remark.

"No, I do not," he said after the second glance; "I am equally dissatisfied myself."

Grace warmed at once. Being all nerve and brain, he was easily moved, especially where his sense of duty was touched.

"That girl," said he, "has worked at the pit's mouth from her childhood; her mother was a pit girl until she died – of hard work, privation, and ill-treatment. Her father is a collier, and lives as most of them do – drinking, rioting, fighting. Their home is such a home as you have seen dozens of since you came here; the girl could not better it if she tried, and would not know how to begin if she felt inclined. She has borne, they tell me, such treatment as would have killed most women. She has been beaten, bruised, felled to the earth by this father of hers, who is said to be a perfect fiend in his cups. And yet she holds to her place in their wretched hovel, and makes herself a slave to the fellow, with a dogged, stubborn determination. What can I do with such a case as that, Derrick?"

"You have tried to make friends with the girl?" said Derrick.

Grace coloured sensitively.

"There is not a man, woman, or child in the parish," he answered, "with whom I have not conscientiously tried to make friends, and there is scarcely one, I think, with whom I have succeeded. Why can I not succeed? Why do I always fail? The fault must be with myself – "

"A mistake that at the outset," interposed Derrick. "There is no 'fault' in the matter; there is simply misfortune. Your parishioners are so unfortunate as not to be able to understand you, and on your part you are so unfortunate as to fail at first to place yourself on the right footing with them. I say 'at first,' you observe. Give yourself time, Grace, and give them time too."

"Thank you," said the Reverend Paul. "But speaking of this girl – 'That lass o' Lowrie's,' as she is always called – Joan I believe her name is. Joan Lowrie is, I can assure you, a weight upon me. I cannot help her, and I cannot rid my mind of her. She stands apart from her fellows. She has most of the faults of her class, but none of their follies; and she has the reputation of being half feared, half revered. The man who dared to approach her with the coarse love-making which is the fashion among them would rue it to the last day of his life, She seems to defy all the world."

"And it is impossible to win upon her?"

"More than impossible. The first time I went to her with sympathy, I felt myself a child in her hands. She never laughed nor jeered at me as the rest do. She stood before me like a rock, listening until I had finished speaking. 'Parson,' she said, 'if tha'lt leave me alone, I'll leave thee alone,' and then turned about and walked into the house. I am nothing but 'th' parson' to these people, and 'th' parson' is one for whom they have little respect and no sympathy."

He was not far wrong. The stolid, heavy-natured colliers openly looked down upon "th' parson." A "bit of a whipper-snapper," even the best-natured called him in sovereign contempt for his insignificant physical proportions. Truly the sensitive little gentleman's lines had not fallen in pleasant places. And this was not all. There was another sort of discouragement with which he had to battle in secret, though of this he would have felt it almost dishonour to complain. But Derrick's keen eyes had seen it long ago, and, understanding it well, he sympathised with his friend accordingly. Yet, despite the many rebuffs the curate had met with, he was not conquered by any means. His was not an easily subdued nature, after all. He was very warm on the subject of Joan Lowrie this evening – so warm indeed, that the interest the mere sight of the girl had awakened in Derrick's mind was considerably heightened. They were still speaking of her when they stopped before the door of Grace's modest lodgings.

"You will come in, of course?" said Paul.

"Yes," Derrick answered, "for a short time. I am tired, and shall feel all the better for a cup of Mrs. Burnie's tea," pushing the hair restlessly back from his forehead, as he had a habit of doing when a little excited.

He made the small parlour appear smaller than ever when he entered it. He was obliged to bend his head when he passed through the door, and it was not until he had thrown himself into the largest easy-chair that the trim apartment seemed to regain its countenance.

Grace paused at the table, and, with a sudden sensitive flush, took up a letter that lay there among two or three uninteresting-looking epistles.

"It is a note from Miss Anice," he said, coming to the hearth and applying his penknife in a gentle way to the small square envelope.

"Not a letter, Grace?" said Derrick with a half smile.

"A letter! Oh dear, no! She has never written me a letter. They are always notes with some sort of business object. She has very decided views on the subject of miscellaneous letter-writing."

He read the note himself and then handed it to Derrick.

It was a compact, decided hand, free from the least suspicion of an unnecessary curve.

"DEAR MR. GRACE, –

"Many thanks for the book. You are very kind indeed. Pray let us hear something more about your people. I am afraid papa must find them very discouraging, but I cannot help feeling interested. Grandmamma wishes to be remembered to you.

"With more thanks,                    

"Believe me your friend,          

"ANICE BARHOLM."

Derrick refolded the note and handed it back to his friend. To tell the truth, it did not impress him very favourably. A girl not yet twenty years old, who could write such a note as this to a man who loved her, must be rather too self-contained and well-balanced.

"You have never told me much of this story of yours, Grace," he said.

"There is not much to tell," answered the curate, flushing again of course. "She is the Rector's daughter, and is unlike any other girl in the world. I have known her three years. You remember I wrote to you about meeting her while you were in India. As for the rest, I do not exactly understand myself how it is that I have gone so far, having so – so little encouragement – in fact, having had no encouragement at all; but, however that is, it has grown upon me, Derrick – my feeling for her has grown into my life – and there it all lies. She has never cared for me. I am quite sure of that, you see. Indeed, I could hardly expect it. It is not her way to care for men as they are likely to care for her, though it will come some day, I suppose – with the coming man," half smiling. "She is simply what she signs herself here, my friend Anice Barholm, and I am thankful for that much. She would not write even that if she did not mean it."

"Bless my soul," broke in Derrick, tossing back his head impatiently, "and she is only nineteen yet, you say?"

"Only nineteen," said the curate, with simple trustfulness in his friend's sympathy, "but different, you know, from any other woman in the world."

The tea and toast came in then, and they sat down together to partake of it. Derrick knew Anice quite well before the meal was ended, and yet he had not asked many questions. He knew how Grace had met her at her father's house – an odd, self-reliant, singularly pretty and youthful-looking little creature, with the force and decision of half a dozen ordinary women hidden in her small frame; how she had seemed to like him, how their intimacy had grown, how his gentle, deep-rooted passion had grown with it, how he had learned to understand that he had nothing to hope for – all the simple history, in fact, with a hundred minor points that floated to the surface as they talked.

"I am a little fearful for the result of her first visit here," said Grace, pushing his cup aside and looking troubled. "I. cannot bear to think of her being disappointed and disturbed by the half savage state in which these people live. She knows nothing of the mining districts. She has never been in Lancashire, and they have always lived in the South. She is in Kent now, with Mrs. Barholm's mother. And though I have tried, in my short letters to her, to prepare her for the rough side of life she will be obliged to see, I am afraid it is impossible for her to realise it, and it may be a sort of a shock to her when she comes."

"She is coming to Riggan then?" said Derrick.

"In a few weeks. She has been visiting Mrs. Galloway since the Rector gave up his living at Ashley-Wold, and Mrs. Barholm told me to-day that she spoke in her last letter of coming to them."

The moon was shining brightly when Derrick stepped out into the street later in the evening, and though the air was somewhat chill it was by no means unpleasant. He had rather a long walk before him. He disliked the smoke and dust of the murky little town, and chose to live on its outskirts; but he was fond of sharp exercise, and regarded the distance between his lodging and the field of his daily labour as an advantage.

"I work off a great deal of superfluous steam between the two places," he said to Grace at the door. "The wind coming across Boggart Brow has a way of scattering and cooling feverish plans and restless fancies, that is good for a man. Half a mile of the Knoll Road is often sufficient to bring morbidness to reason."

To-night, by the time he reached the corner that turned him upon the Knoll Road, his mind had wandered upon an old track, but it had been drawn there by a new object – nothing other than Joan Lowrie, indeed. The impression made upon him by the story of Joan and her outcast life was one not easy to be effaced, because the hardest miseries in the lot of a class in whom he could not fail to be interested were grouped about an almost dramatic figure. He was struck, too, by a painful sense of incongruity.

"If she had been in this other girl's niche," he said, "if she had lived the life of this Anice – "

But he did not finish his sentence. Something not many yards beyond him, caught his eye – a figure seated upon the roadside near a collier's cottage – evidently a pit girl in some trouble, for her head was bowed upon her hands, and there was a dogged sort of misery expressed in her very posture.

"A woman," he said aloud. "What woman, I wonder? This is not the time for any woman to be sitting there alone."

He crossed the road at once, and going to the girl, touched her lightly on her shoulder.

"My lass," he said good-naturedly, "what ails you?"

She raised her head slowly as if she were dizzy and bewildered. Her face was disfigured by a bruise, and on one temple was a cut from which the blood trickled down her cheek; but the moonlight showed him that it was Joan. He removed his hand from her shoulder and drew back a pace.

"You have been hurt!" he exclaimed.

"Aye," she answered deliberately, "I've had a hurt – a bad un."

He did not ask her how she had been hurt. He knew, as well as if she had told him, that it had been done in one of her father's fits of drunken passion. He had seen this sort of thing before during his sojourn in the mining districts. But, shamefully repulsive as it had been to him, he had never felt the degradation of it as fiercely as he did now.

"You are Joan Lowrie?" he said.

"Aye, I'm Joan Lowrie, if it'll do yo' ony good to know."

"You must have something done to that cut upon your temple," he said next.

She put up her hand and wiped the blood away, as if impatient at his persistence.

"It'll do well enow as it is," she said.

"That is a mistake," he answered. "You are losing more blood than you imagine. Will you let me help you?"

She stirred uneasily.

But he took no notice of the objection. He drew his handkerchief from his pocket, and, after some little effort, managed to staunch the bleeding, and, having done so, bound the wound up. Perhaps something in his sympathetic silence and the quiet consideration of his manner touched Joan. Her face, upturned almost submissively, for the moment seemed tremulous, and she set her lips together. She did not speak until he had finished, and then she rose and stood before him immovable as ever.

"Thank yo'," she said in a suppressed. voice. "I canna say no more."

"Never mind that," he answered; "I could have done no less. If you could go home, now – "

"I shall na go whoam to-neet," she interrupted him, abruptly.

"You cannot remain out of doors!" he exclaimed.

"If I do, it wunnot be th' first toime," meeting his startled glance with a pride which defied him to pity or question her. But his sympathy and interest must have stirred her, for the next minute her manner softened. "I've done it often," she added, "an' nowt's nivver feared me. Yo' need na care, Mester, I'm used to it."

"But I cannot go away and leave you here," he said.

"You canna do no other," she answered.

"Have you no friends?" he ventured hesitatingly.

"No, I ha' not," she said, hardening again, and she turned away as if she meant to end the discussion. But he would not leave her. The spirit of determination was as strong in his character as in her own. He tore a leaf from his pocket-book, and, dashing off a few lines upon it, handed it to her. "If you will take that to Thwaites' wife," he said, "there will be no necessity for your remaining out of doors all night."

She took it from him mechanically; but when he finished speaking her calmness left her. Her hand began to tremble, and then her whole frame, and the next instant the note fell to the ground, and she dropped into her old place again, sobbing passionately and hiding her face on her arms.

"I wunnot tak' it!" she cried, "I wunnot go no wheer an' tell as I'm turned loike a dog into th' street."

Her misery and shame shook her like a tempest. But she subdued herself at last.

"I dunnot see as yo' need care," she protested half resentfully. "Other folk dunnot. I'm left to mysen most o' toimes." Her head fell again and she trembled all over.

"But I do care!" he returned. "I cannot leave you here, and will not. If you will trust me and do as I tell you, the people you go to need know nothing you do not chose to tell them."

It was evident that his determination made her falter, and seeing this he followed up his advantage, and so far improved it that at last, after a few more arguments, she rose slowly and picked up the fallen paper.

"If I mun go, I mun," she said, twisting it nervously in her fingers, and then there was a pause, in which she plainly lingered to say something, for she stood before him with a restrained air and down cast face. She broke the silence herself, however, suddenly looking up and fixing her large eyes full upon him.

"If I was a lady," she said, "happen I should know what to say to yo'; but bein' what I am, I dunnot. Happen as yo're a gentleman yo' know what I'd loike to say an' canna – happen yo' do."

Even as she spoke, the ever present element of defiance in her nature struggled against the finer instinct of gratitude; but the finer instinct conquered, and when her eyes fell before his, her whole being softened into a novel dignity of womanliness. He knew, however, even while recognising this, that words would not please her; so he was as brief as possible in his reply.

"We will not speak of thanks," he said. "I may need help some day, and come to you for it."

Her head went up at once – a sudden glow fell upon her.

"If yo' ivver need help at th' pit will yo' come to me?" she demanded. "I've seen th' toime as I could ha' gi'en help to th' Mesters ef I'd had th' moind. If yo'll promise that – "

"I will promise it," he answered her.

"An' I'll promise to gi' it yo'," eagerly. "So that's settled. Now I'll go my ways. Good neet to yo'."

"Good night," he returned, and uncovering with as grave a courtesy as he might have shown to the finest lady in the land, or to his own mother or sister, he stood at the road-side and watched her until she was out of sight.

CHAPTER II.

"TH' owd lad's been at his tricks again," was the rough comment made on Joan Lowrie's appearance when she came down to her work the next morning; but Joan looked neither right nor left, and went to her place without a word. Not one among them had ever heard her speak of her miseries and wrongs, or had known her to do otherwise than ignore the fact that their existence was well known among her fellow-workers.

When Derrick passed her on his way to his duties, she looked up from her task with a faint, quick colour, and replied to his courteous gesture with a curt yet not ungracious nod. It was evident that not even her gratitude would lead her to encourage any advances. But, notwithstanding this, he did not feel repelled or disappointed. He had learned enough of Joan, in their brief interview, to prepare him to expect no other manner from her. He was none the less interested in the girl because he found himself forced to regard her curiously and critically and at a distance. He watched her as she went about her work, silent, self-contained, and solitary.

"That lass' o' Lowrie's?" said a superannuated old collier once, in answer to a remark of Derrick's. "Eh! hoo's a rare un, hoo is! Th' fellys is haaf feart on her. Tha' sees hoo's getten a bit o' skoolin'. Hoo can read a bit, if tha'll believe it, Mester," with a hint of pardonable pride in the accomplishment.

"Not as th' owd chap ivver did owt fur her i' that road," the speaker went on, nothing loth to gossip with "one o' th' Mesters." "He nivver did nowt for her but spend her wages i' drink. But theer wur a neet skoo' here a few years sen', an' th' lass went her ways wi' a few o' th' steady uns, an' they say as she getten ahead on 'em aw, so as it wur a wonder. Just let her set her moind to do owt an' she'll do it."

"Here," said Derrick to Paul that night, as the engineer leaned back in his easy chair, glowering at the grate and knitting his brows – "Here," he said, "is a creature with the majesty of a Juno – a woman – really nothing but a girl in years – who rules a set of savages by the mere power of a superior will and mind, and yet a woman who works at the mouth of a coal-pit – who cannot write her own name, and who is beaten by her fiend of a father as if she were a dog. Good Heaven!" vehemently. "What is she doing here? What does it all mean?"

The Reverend Paul put up his delicate hand deprecatingly.

"My dear Fergus," he said "if I dare – if my own life and the lives of others would let me – I think I should be tempted to give it up, as one gives up other puzzles, when one is beaten by them."

Derrick looked at him, forgetting himself in a sudden sympathetic comprehension.

"You have been more than ordinarily discouraged to-day," he said. "What is it, Grace?"

"Do you know Sammy Craddock?" was the rather irrelevant reply.

"'Owd Sammy Craddock'?" said Derrick with a laugh. "Wasn't it 'Owd Sammy' who was talking to me to-day about Joan Lowrie?"

"I daresay it was," sighing. "And if you know Sammy Craddock, you know one of the principal causes of my discouragement. I went to see him this afternoon, and I have not quite – quite got over it, in fact."

Derrick's interest in his friend's trials was stirred as usual at the first signal of distress. It was the part of his stronger and more evenly balanced nature to be constantly ready with generous sympathy and comfort.

"It has struck me, somehow or other," he said, "that Craddock is one of the institutions of Riggan. I should like to hear something definite concerning him. Why is he your principal cause of discouragement, in the first place?"

"Because he is the man of all others whom it is hard for me to deal with – because he is the shrewdest, the most irreverent, and the most disputatious old fellow in Riggan. And yet, in the face of all this, because he is so often right that I am forced into a sort of respect for him."

"Right!" repeated Derrick, raising his reflective eyebrows. "That's bad."

Grace rose from the chair, flushing up to the roots of his hair.

"Right!" he reiterated, "yes, right I say. And how, I ask you, can a man battle against the faintest element of right and truth, even when it will and must arraign itself on the side of wrong? If I could shut my eyes to the right and see only the wrong, I might leave myself at least a blind content, but I cannot – I cannot. If I could look upon these things as Barholm does – " But here he stopped, suddenly checking himself.

"Thank God you cannot," put in Derrick quietly. For a few minutes the Reverend Paul paced the room in silence.

"Among the men who were once his fellow-workers Craddock is an oracle," he went on. "His influence is not unlike Joan Lowrie's. It is the influence of a strong mind over weaker ones. His sharp sarcastic speeches are proverbs among the Rigganites; he amuses them and can make them listen to him. When he holds up 'the owd parson' to their ridicule, he sweeps all before him. He can undo in an hour what I have struggled a year to accomplish. He was a collier himself until he became superannuated, and he knows their natures, you see."

"What has he to say about Barholm?" asked Derrick, without looking at his friend, however.

"Oh!" he protested, "that is the worst side of it – that is miserable – that is wretched! I may as well speak openly. Barholm is his strong card, and that is what baffles me. He scans Barholm with the eye of an eagle, and does not spare a single weakness. He studies him – he knows his favourite phrases and gestures by heart, and has used them until there is not a Riggan collier who does not recognise them when they are presented to him, and applaud them as an audience might applaud the staple joke of a popular actor."

Explained even thus far, the case looked difficult enough; but Derrick felt no wonder at his friend's discouragement when he had heard his story to the end, and understood it fully.

The living at Riggan had never been fortunate, or happily managed. It had been presented to men who did not understand the people under their charge, and to men whom the people failed to understand; but possibly it had never before fallen into the hands of a man who was so little qualified to govern Rigganites as was the present rector, the Reverend Harold Barholm. A man who has mistaken his vocation, and who has become ever so faintly conscious of his blunder, may be a stumbling-block in another's path; but restrained as he will be by his secret pangs of conscience, he can, scarcely be an active obstructionist. But a man who, having mistaken the field of his life's labours, yet remains amiably self-satisfied, and unconscious of his unfitness, may do more harm in his serene ignorance than he might have done good if he had chosen his proper sphere. Such a man as the last was the Reverend Harold. A good-natured, broad-shouldered, tactless, self-sufficient person, he had taken up his work with a complacent feeling that no field of labour could fail to be benefited by his patronage; he was content now as always. He had been content with himself and his intellectual progress at Oxford; he had been content with his first parish at Ashley-Wold; he had been content then with the gentle-natured, soft-spoken Kentish men and women; he had never feared finding himself unequal to the guidance of their souls, and he was not at all troubled by the prospect Riggan presented to him.

"It is a different sort of thing," he said to his curate, in the best of spirits, "and new to us – new of course; but we shall get over that – we shall get over that easily enough, Grace."

So with not a shadow of doubt as to his speedy success, and with a comfortable confidence in ecclesiastical power, in whomsoever vested, he called upon his parishioners one after the other. He appeared at their cottages at all hours, and gave the same greeting to each of them. He was their new rector, and having come to Riggan with the intention of doing them good, and improving their moral condition, he intended to do them good, and improve them, in spite of themselves. They must come to church: it was their business to come to church, as it was his business to preach the gospel. All this implied in half an hour's half-friendly, half ecclesiastical conversation, garnished with a few favourite texts and theological platitudes, and the man felt that he had done his duty, and done it well.

Only one man nonplussed him, and even this man's effect upon him was temporary, only lasting as long as his call. He had been met with a dogged resentment in the majority of his visits, but when he encountered "Owd Sammy Craddock" he encountered a different sort of opposition.

"Aye," said Owd Sammy, "an' so tha'rt th' new rector, art ta? I thowt as mich as another ud spring up as soon as th' owd un wur cut down. Tha parsens is a nettle as dunnot soon dee out. Well, I'll leave thee to th' owd lass here. Hoo's a rare un fur gab when hoo tak's th' notion, an' I'm noan so mich i' th' humour t' argufy mysen to-day." And he took his pipe from the mantelpiece and strolled out with the cool indifference of a man who was not to be influenced by prejudices.

But this was not the last of the matter. The Rector went again and again, cheerfully persisting in bringing the old sinner to a proper sense of his iniquities There would be some triumph in converting such a veteran as Sammy Craddock, and he was confident of winning this laurel for himself. But the result was scarcely what he had expected. Owd Sammy stood his ground like a stubborn ne'er-do-well as he was. The fear of man was not before his eyes, and "parsens" were his favourite game. He was as contumacious and profane as such men are apt to be, and he delighted in scattering his clerical antagonists as a task worthy of his mettle. He encountered the Reverend Harold with positive glee. He flung bold arguments at him, and bolder sarcasms. He jeered at him in public, and sneered at him in private, and held him up to the mockery of the collier men and lads with the dramatic mimicry which made him so popular a character. As Derrick had said, Sammy Craddock was a Riggan institution. In his youth, his fellows had feared his strength; in his old age they feared his wit. "Let Owd Sammy tackle him," they said, when a new-corner was disputatious, and hard to manage; "Owd Sammy's th' one to gi' him one fur his nob. Owd Sammy'll fettle him – graidely." And the fact was that Craddock's cantankerous sharpness of brain and tongue were usually efficacious. So he "tackled" Barholm, and so he "tackled" the curate. But, for some reason, he was never actually bitter against Grace. He spoke of him lightly, and rather sneered at his physical insignificance; but he did not hold him up to public ridicule.

"I hav' not quite settled i' my moind about th' little chap," he would say sententiously to his admirers. "He's noan siccan a foo' as th' owd un, for he's a graidely foo', he is, and no mistake. At any rate a little foo' is better nor a big un."

And there the matter stood. Against these tremendous odds Grace fought – against coarse and perverted natures – worse than all, against the power that should have been ranged upon his side. And added to these discouragements were the obstacles of physical delicacy, and an almost morbid conscientiousness. A man of coarser fibre might have borne the burden better – or at least with less pain to himself.

"A drop or so of Barholm's blood in Grace's veins," said Derrick, communing with himself on the Knoll Road after their interview – "a few drops of Barholm's rich, comfortable, stupid blood in Grace's veins would not harm him. And yet it would have to be but a few drops indeed," hastily. "On the whole, I think it would be better if he had more blood of his own."

The following day Anice Barholm came. Business had taken Derrick to the station in the morning, and being delayed, he was standing upon the platform when one of the London trains came in. There were generally so few passengers in such trains who were likely to stop at Riggan, that the few who did so were of some interest to the bystanders. Accordingly he stood gazing, in rather a preoccupied fashion, at the carriages, when the door of a first-class compartment opened, and a girl stepped out upon the platform near him. Before seeing her face one might have imagined her to be a child of scarcely more than fourteen or fifteen. This was Derrick's first impression; but when she turned towards him he saw at once that it was not a child. And yet it was a small face, and a singularly youthful and lovely one, with its delicate oval features, its smooth, clear skin, and the stray locks of hazel-brown hair that fell over the low forehead. She had evidently made a journey of some length, for she was encumbered with travelling wraps, and in her hands she held a little flower-pot containing a cluster of early blue violets – such violets as would not bloom as far north as Riggan for weeks to come. She stood upon the platform for a moment or so, glancing up and down as if in search of someone, and then, plainly deciding that the object of her quest had not arrived, she looked at Derrick in a business-like, questioning way. She was going to speak to him. The next minute she stepped forward without a shadow of girlish hesitation.

"May I trouble you to tell me where I can find a conveyance of some sort?" she said. "I want to go to the Rectory."

Derrick uncovered, recognising his friend's picture at once.

"I think," he said, with far more hesitancy than she had herself shown, "that this must be Miss Barholm."

"Yes," she answered, "Anice Barholm. I think," she said, "from what Mr. Grace has said to me, that you must be his friend."

"I am one of Grace's friends," he answered. "Fergus Derrick."

She managed to free one of her small hands, and held it out to him.

She had arrived earlier than had been expected, it turned out, and through some mysterious chance or other her letters to her friends had not preceded her, so there was no carriage in waiting, and but for Derrick she would have been thrown entirely upon her own resources. But after their mutual introduction the two were friends at once, and before he had put her into the cab Derrick had begun to understand what it was that led the Reverend Paul to think her an exceptional, girl. She knew where her trunks were, and was quite definite upon the subject of what must be done with them. Though pretty and frail-looking enough, there was not a suggestion of helplessness about her. When she was safely seated in the cab, she spoke to Derrick through the open window.

"If you will come to the Rectory to-night, and let papa thank you," she said, "we shall all be very glad. Mr. Grace will be there, you know, and I have a great many questions to ask, which I think you must be able to answer."

Derrick went back to his work, thinking about Miss Barholm, of course. She was different from other girls, he felt, not only in her fragile frame and delicate face, but with another and more subtle and less easily defined difference. There was a suggestion of the development in a child of the soul of a woman.

Going down to the mine, Derrick found on approaching it that there was some commotion among the workers at the pit's mouth, and before he turned into his office he paused upon the threshold for a few minutes to see what it meant. But it was not a disturbance with which it was easy for an outsider to interfere. A knot of women, drawn away from their work by some prevailing excitement, were gathered together around a girl – a pretty, but pale and haggard creature, with a helpless despairing face – who stood at bay in their midst clasping a child to her bosom – a target for all eyes. It was a wretched sight, and told its own story.

"Wheer ha' yo' been, Liz?" Derrick heard two or three voices exclaim at once. "What did yo' coom back for? This is what thy handsome face has browt thee to, is it?"

And then the girl, white, wild-eyed, and breathless with excitement and shame, turned on them, panting, bursting into passionate tears.

"Let me a-be!" she cried, sobbing. "There's none of yo' need to talk. Let me a-be! I did na coom back to ax nowt fro' none on you!. Eh, Joan! Joan Lowrie!"

Derrick turned to' ascertain the, meaning of this cry of appeal, but almost before he had time to do so, Joan herself had borne down upon the group; she had pushed her way through it, and was standing in the centre, confronting the girl's tormentors in a flame of wrath, and Liz was clinging to her.

"What ha' they been sayin' to yo', lass?" she demanded. "Eh! but yo're a brave lot, yo' are – women yo' ca' yo'rsens! badgering a slip o' a wench loike this."

"I did na coom back to ax nowt fro' noan o' them," sobbed the girl. "I'd rayther dee ony day nor do it! I'd rayther starve i' th' ditch – an' it's comin' to that."

"Here," said Joan, "gi' me th' choild."

She bent down and took it from her, and then stood up before them all, holding it high in her strong arms – so superb, so statuesque, and yet so womanly a figure, that a thrill shot through the heart of the man watching her.

"Lasses," she cried, her voice fairly ringing, "do yo' see this? A bit o' a helpless thing as canna answer back yo're jeers! Aye! Look at it well, aw on yo'. Some on yo's getten th' loike at whoam. An' when yo' looked at th' choild, look at th' mother. Seventeen year owd, Liz is, an' th' world's gone wrong wi' her. I wunnot say as th' world's gone ower reet wi' ony on us; but them on us as has had th' strength to howd up agen it, need na set our foot on them as has gone down. Happen theer's na so much to choose betwixt us after aw. But I've gotten this to tell yo' – them as has owt to say o' Liz, mun say it to Joan Lowrie!"

Rough and coarsely pitiless as the majority of them were, she had touched the right chord. Perhaps the bit of the dramatic in her upholding of the child, and championship of the mother, had as much to do with the success of her half-commanding appeal as anything else. But, at least, the most hardened of them faltered before her daring, scornful words, and the fire in her face. Liz would be safe enough from them henceforth, it was plain.

That evening, while arranging his papers before going home, Derrick was called from his work by a summons at the office door, and going to open it, he found Joan Lowrie standing there, looking half abashed, half determined.

"I ha' summat to ax yo'," she said briefly, declining his invitation to enter and be seated.

"If there is anything I can do for – " began Derrick.

"It is na mysen," she interrupted him. "There is a poor lass as I'm fain to help, if I could do it, but I ha' not th' power. I dunnot know of anyone as has, except yo'rsen an' th' parson, an' I know more o' yo' than I do o' th' parson, so I thowt I'd ax yo' to speak to him about th' poor wench, an' ax him if he could get her a bit o' work as ud help to keep her honest."

Derrick looked at her handsome face, gravely, curiously.

"I saw you defend this girl against some of her old companions, a few hours ago, I believe," he said.

She coloured high, but did not return his glance.

"I dunnot believe in harryin' women down th' hill," she said. "I'm a woman mysen."

And then, suddenly she raised her eyes.