Hamper had said, only this very day, that if he were ruined by the strike, he would start life again, comforted by the conviction that those who brought it on were in a worse predicament than he himself,—for he had head as well as hands, while they had only hands; and if they drove away their market, they could not follow it, nor turn to anything else.
But this thought was no consolation to Mr. Thornton.
It might be that revenge gave him no pleasure; it might be that he valued the position he had earned with the sweat of his brow, so much that he keenly felt its being endangered by the ignorance or folly of others,—so keenly that he had no thoughts to spare for what would be the consequences of their conduct to themselves.
He paced up and down, setting his teeth a little now and then.
At last it struck two.
The candles were flickering in their sockets.
He lighted his own, muttering to himself:
'Once for all, they shall know whom they have got to deal with.
I can give them a fortnight,—no more.
If they don't see their madness before the end of that time, I must have hands from Ireland.
I believe it's Slickson's doing,—confound him and his dodges!
He thought he was overstocked; so he seemed to yield at first, when the deputation came to him,—and of course, he only confirmed them in their folly, as he meant to do.
That's where it spread from.'
Chapter 19 Angel Visits
'As angels in some brighter dreams
Call to the soul when man doth sleep,
So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes,
And into glory peep.'
HENRY VAUGHAN.
Mrs. Hale was curiously amused and interested by the idea of the Thornton dinner party.
She kept wondering about the details, with something of the simplicity of a little child, who wants to have all its anticipated pleasures described beforehand.
But the monotonous life led by invalids often makes them like children, inasmuch as they have neither of them any sense of proportion in events, and seem each to believe that the walls and curtains which shut in their world, and shut out everything else, must of necessity be larger than anything hidden beyond.
Besides, Mrs. Hale had had her vanities as a girl; had perhaps unduly felt their mortification when she became a poor clergyman's wife;—they had been smothered and kept down; but they were not extinct; and she liked to think of seeing Margaret dressed for a party, and discussed what she should wear, with an unsettled anxiety that amused Margaret, who had been more accustomed to society in her one in Harley Street than her mother in five and twenty years of Helstone.
'Then you think you shall wear your white silk.
Are you sure it will fit?
It's nearly a year since Edith was married!'
'Oh yes, mamma!
Mrs. Murray made it, and it's sure to be right; it may be a straw's breadth shorter or longer-waisted, according to my having grown fat or thin.
But I don't think I've altered in the least.'
'Hadn't you better let Dixon see it?
It may have gone yellow with lying by.'
'If you like, mamma.
But if the worst comes to the worst, I've a very nice pink gauze which aunt Shaw gave me, only two or three months before Edith was married.
That can't have gone yellow.'
'No! but it may have faded.'
'Well! then I've a green silk.
I feel more as if it was the embarrassment of riches.'
'I wish I knew what you ought to wear,' said Mrs. Hale, nervously.
Margaret's manner changed instantly.
'Shall I go and put them on one after another, mamma, and then you could see which you liked best?'
'But—yes! perhaps that will be best.'
So off Margaret went.
She was very much inclined to play some pranks when she was dressed up at such an unusual hour; to make her rich white silk balloon out into a cheese, to retreat backwards from her mother as if she were the queen; but when she found that these freaks of hers were regarded as interruptions to the serious business, and as such annoyed her mother, she became grave and sedate.
What had possessed the world (her world) to fidget so about her dress, she could not understand; but that very after noon, on naming her engagement to Bessy Higgins apropos of the servant that Mrs. Thornton had promised to inquire about), Bessy quite roused up at the intelligence.
'Dear! and are you going to dine at Thornton's at Marlborough Mills?'
'Yes, Bessy.
Why are you so surprised?'
'Oh, I dunno.
But they visit wi' a' th' first folk in Milton.'