Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

“ The sum Ben offered for the house was a fair one; not too much, not too little; and Jonathan was glad to be able to please so old and dear a friend.
"Thou can have the house and welcome," he wrote, "at thy own price, and I am glad above everything that thou art thinking of a home of thy own. Married or not married home is a full cup. I wish thou would get thee a wife, Ben; there are a lot of women good enough, if thou could only think so, but I am feared thou will never be wise enough for that." And Ben laughed grimly when he thought how astonished Jonathan would be. ”

“ Jonathan was greatly impressed with all he saw. Aske's was evidently the eye of the diligent and kind master. In the gardens, the hot-houses, the park, the most beautiful profusion and the most beautiful order reigned. The great court, surrounded by the stables and barns and granaries, was a place for men to linger delightedly in. Aske was fond of horses, and he knew a great deal about them, but that day Jonathan Burley amazed him. He looked at the cotton-spinner with admiration, and the cotton-spinner keenly enjoyed his little triumph. ”

“ Hope is something more than a blessing, it is a duty and a virtue, and Jonathan, dimly conscious of this fact, kept his heart turned to the light, both as regarded his daughter and Sarah Benson. He knew how essential to his own happiness a regular, well-established groove of life was, and he thought, that Eleanor's restlessness and dissatisfaction might well enough arise from the unfamiliarity of the circumstances attending so radical a change as marriage. ”

“ He drove rapidly until he entered the park; then he walked the horse under the great elms, and let his thoughts wander back to the village, back to the beautiful woman who had become so dear to his heart. The brooding darkness on his brow cleared as he remembered the light and peace of Sarah's face, and when he lifted his eyes to his many-windowed, stately home, he thought of her as its mistress, and felt that his life without the hope would be a very sombre one indeed. ”

“ She went to Germany, however, without further resistance, but Aske undoubtedly had the worst of the discipline he had planned for his wife. She no longer complained, she expressed neither content nor discontent, but she convinced him thoroughly that a silent woman who does not eat, and who regards life with a vacant unconcern that nothing can stir, may be ten times more aggravating than the veriest scold.
Jonathan dreaded to see a letter from her, and yet if letters did not come he was restless and anxious, and completely taken possession of by the absent child whom he so dearly loved. ”

“ Such a Christmas-eve!" he kept saying over and over, as he sat smoking and musing in his own room, for the last few hours had completely altered the tenor of his strongest feelings. He was like a man that had been suddenly and rudely awakened out of a weird, uneasy dream.
During his visit to Jonas Shuttleworth he had been constantly and steadily abusing Aske. He had talked of nothing else but the wrong Aske had done him, and the means and conditions of his revenge on Aske. He had stimulated his hatred until it had become the ruling passion of his life. ”

“ In these days it is not hard to shrug away a man's credit, and Burley had been made to frequently smart over wrongs too intangible for a denial, even if denial had been wise. But hard as it was to do, he had generally followed Ben Holden's advice, and Ben always said, "Never thee chase a lie, Jonathan. It will chase itself to death. Thou can work out a good name far better than Sykes can lie thee out of it." ”

“ He made an effort, and carried his memory further back, to that lonely lane, and the sad-faced woman he had met in it, and from whom he had fled in such a whirl of passions as made him a ready prey for the two cowardly assassins who had been waiting behind the wall for him. Back a little further, and with a great rush of hot blood came a vivid, chafing remembrance of his quarrel with Burley, and of the evil fruit it had brought forth.
When Eleanor returned to him, radiant in ruby-colored silk and fine lace, she was almost frightened at the expression on his face ”

“ Suddenly the door was quickly opened, and Eleanor, in a passion of weeping, flung herself at his feet, and laying her hand on his breast, sobbed out, "Oh, father! father! father! Anthony—struck me!"
Then Jonathan dashed his pipe upon the hearth, and shattered it to pieces. He raised the weeping woman in his arms, and he whispered fiercely below his breath, "I'll horsewhip him for it!"
The natural man, and the unpolished, uneducated man, asserted himself at this crisis, and would not listen to reason. "Go thee back to thy old rooms," he said, sternly; "thou shalt niver enter Aske Hall again. ”

“ Oh, how well he knew her! It was his Eleanor, his wife! The woman still tenderly beloved. A perfect tempest was in his heart. If he had been strong enough, he would have lifted her to his saddle, and carried her back to his home. He could not determine whether to stop and speak to her, or to pass her by unless she spoke to him, and while he was trying to decide, he found himself close to her.
Then Eleanor looked up and recognized the proud, handsome face gazing so intently into hers. ”

“ The last two miles were through the shady beech woods and fine parks of the Aske Manor, and the effect upon Burley's temper was a beneficial one. The man who inherited such a grand old mansion and such rich lands through twelve generations of gentlemen was not one to be rated like a cotton-spinner. He told himself that Aske might have rights peculiarly his own, and that any woman would owe something to the love which had selected her from all the world to share such an honorable position.
Aske had also been peculiarly generous about Eleanor's fortune. ”

“ The road between Barton Chapel and Burley House was a lonely bit of highway, running along the edge of the moor, with Barton Woods on one side of it. Men in groups of two or three passed him at intervals; they were mill-hands, with the loud, grating voices of men leading a hard life, so he easily gathered from their conversation that they had been to the weekly prayer-meeting. ”

“ Some men like to look at whatever hurts them, and Sykes, following out some internal impulse, walked down by the stream towards Burley's mill. It had already an unusual look of prosperity. Poverty and trouble have some impalpable atmosphere that their dwelling-place, even if it be a palace, cannot escape. From Burley's mill this atmosphere had suddenly vanished. Sykes was aware of a change, a change too subtle for him to understand, but he felt it. As he swaggered past the gates Jonas Shuttleworth turned the corner of the mill and came towards him. ”

“ An admirable reticence distinguishes the Anglo-Saxon concerning the woman he loves. A Frenchman will talk you blind about his Julia's eyes, and ride about the world with the name of his lady-love forever on the tip of his tongue; but not even to Ben Holden did Jonathan talk much of his love for Sarah Benson. ”

“ Sarah had taken the greatest pleasure in Ben and Nelly's wedding, and it was to her deft fingers Nelly owed the beauty and fitness of her marriage garments; for she thoroughly approved Ben's choice, knowing that there were far more chances for his happiness with a little lass so young and simple that submission to her pleasure was no more humiliating than submission to the whims of a child, than there would have been had he united himself to some discreet, experienced woman, whom he must have met on equal grounds, and whose opposition to his will would have been a serious offense. ”

“ It's a poor wife that stops at duty, and measures her life by that rule. Give love and patience and something higher still, self-forgetfulness. Anthony Aske isn't a bad sort, but he'll pay thee in thy own coin; most men do that. Nay, nay, my dear lass, don't thee cry, now!"
For Eleanor had hid her face in the satin cushion of the sofa on which she sat, and was weeping bitterly, and Jonathan's heart was hot and angry within him, as he moodily paced up and down the splendid room. ”

“ She made a slight negative motion of her head, and bent her face resolutely over the leaves and flowers growing with every motion of the shuttle.
Jonathan then paused at the empty loom. The work in progress was of a beautiful and intricate design, and evidently the labor of a master-hand. He admired it heartily, and catching Sarah's glance watching him, he nodded back to her his approval of it. As he left the room he looked once more at her, and most men would have done the same. ”

“ He is clever in business, and he has the reputation of being clever. Everything is in his favor. I do not believe I could injure him in that way, and I might injure myself."
"Squire, you don't see as far through a stone wall as I thought you could," and he stooped forward and said a few words in a lower voice to Anthony.
Then the squire leaped to his feet with a laugh. "Thank you, Rhodes," he cried; "the plan is capital. No one but you would ever have dreamed of such a revenge." ”

“ Aske and his wife had arrived during the afternoon, and as he entered the large and lofty vestibule he saw Anthony coming down the great stairway in dinner dress. Small and slight as he was, Jonathan could not help being struck with his aristocratic appearance: he had the manner of a man accustomed to the highest peaks of social life, mingled with that calm confidence which comes from inherited considerations. ”

“ They met at the mill every day, and Sarah always asked kindly after Joyce. There was little need, however, to do so. Steve could talk of nothing but Joyce, her likings and dislikings, her ailments, her new dresses, or the friends who had been to take a bit of supper with them. Now, it is far easier for a woman to be self-denying than to be just, and, in spite of all her efforts, Sarah did often feel it very hard to listen to him with a show of interest and good-humor. ”

“ But he saw trouble in it, even with his first glance, and as soon as they were in the closed parlor she began to complain of her husband's indifference and tyranny. "You are father and mother both," she sobbed, with her arms around his neck; and what father under such circumstances would not have been inclined to espouse his child's quarrel? Yet he knew something of Eleanor's temper, and he knew the world well enough to counsel submission and to discourage any positive act of rebellion. ”

“ The trouble with Steve was one which ruins many a promising life. Nature had made him to live with her, and to do his life's duty in some of her free, open-air workshops; and ignorance and untoward circumstances had tethered him to a Jacquard loom in a noisy mill. Sarah dimly understood something of this mistake, but thirty years ago women were not accustomed to analyze life and its conditions. ”

“ And another miracle was, that he found it difficult to recall that terrible interval during which passion had been his master instead of his slave; his memory passed it at a bound, and lingered rather among the sunshiny days of Eleanor's courtship, days in which he had thought there never was a young man so kind, and withal so prudent in his affairs and positions, as Anthony Aske. ”

“ Nature was so uncompromisingly green, the grass had such an intense color, the foliage of the beeches and elms and oaks was so lustrous and positive, the vistas of pasture-land so decidedly verdant, that their very certainty seemed to repress thought and induce sadness. He tried to lift himself into a higher atmosphere, into the blue of heaven, but all his efforts were failures; he had that chill presentiment, that stubborn bosom weight, that
"No philosophy can lift." ”

“ Now, do you love Jonathan Burley?"
"Nay, I think not. I know nothing about love, but it seems to me I hev no heart for any one but Steve."
"Then if you are the good girl I take you to be, Sarah, you will not marry a man you do not love, and you will stand by a brother you do love just as long as he needs your help to keep him out of sin and danger. Steve is not a bad lad, the things he likes are good things if he does not neglect his duty for them. Go home and do the best you can to keep him right." ”

“ Nature has made many fine fellows in her time, and she meant Jonathan Burley for one of them. He had a grand physique, good mental abilities, and a spiritual nature of quick and lofty sympathies. But when the passion of fortune-making gets hold of a man, it robs, in greater or less degree, all his faculties. So, though the hymn touched some sentiment far nobler than wool, it was wool that was in all his thoughts as his eyes wandered down the long room. ”

“ Jonathan was far too full of joy to speak for a few minutes, and when he did find words they were of that practical kind which would probably shock a young lover, who imagines that love has no element but one of poetry and romance, "Sarah," he said, "if ta was by thysen, or if it was for thysen, I'd niver dare to offer thee a half-penny, though all I have is for thee. But for that poor weakly creature and her childer thou must let me do something till Steve is able to work again."
"Ben Holden hes brought my wage."
"Thy wage isn't enough. It isn't half enough. It is for them, not thee. ”