Charles Dickens

“ Nelly must have found the game a pleasant one, for she kept it up a long time, under-going herself as many changes of hue and form as a bubble blown up into the sunshine.
Frequently during his lengthy visits at the Glebe Farm, Wilfred had encountered a man, Joseph Rigby by name, a dales-yeoman, and one of considerable wealth, but no education. This man was one of the last in the world to excite jealousy; but presently Wilfred was compelled to see that Nelly gave the coarse-mannered, middle-aged Rigby, more of her attentions than consorted with her position as his promised wife. ”

“ He never lied in his days. He might have killed Rigby in a fair fight, or in hot blood; but he is not the lad to lie in wait at night, to murder his enemy and rob him! He is not a thief, this son of mine!"
The officers urged their departure. Wilfred was placed in the vehicle which had been brought for the purpose, and driven off. "I'll follow thee, Willy!" cried his mother. "Keep up thy heart; they can't touch thee! Good-bye, my poor lad!" They were out of hearing, and Hester turned back into the house, cursing Nelly Graceless in her heart. ”

“ When Wilfred was taken, he and his mother were sitting by the fireside together: she sewing, he reading. It was toward twilight, and he had not been over the threshold all day. He was very downcast and gloomy; irritable when spoken to, and short in his answers. His mother said to him that he was very strange, and added that she wished he would give over hankering after Nelly Graceless. He laughed painfully, and did not lift his eyes from his book. There was a loud knock at the door. Hester rose and opened it. ”

“ Hester almost despised her son when she heard of it.
"She is only fooling thee, lad!" said she, indignantly. "Come a richer suitor to the door, she'll throw thee over. She is only a light, false-hearted lass, not worth a whistle of thine."
Therein Hester spake truth.
Nelly played with her lover as a cat plays with a mouse. Wilfred urged their marriage. She would one day, and the next day she would not. Then arose other difficulties. Hester did not want an interloper by her fireside, and would not give up the farm to her son ”

“ He was known to have left the market-hall at Leeford with a considerable sum in gold upon his person, for his brother-in-law had remonstrated with him about carrying so much; but the doomed man made light of his warnings. The whole country-side was up, for the murder was a barbarous one. Suspicion fell at once on Hester's son. His behavior at Leeford had attracted observation. He had been seen to use angry gestures to Rigby, who had laughed at him, and had offered the young man his hand, as if wishing to be friends ”

“ Of all the large family of sons and daughters whom the old people had seen grow up to man's and woman's estate, not one survived. Their hearts began to soften toward the offending child, and they made efforts to learn if the regiment to which her husband belonged had returned to England. It had not.
One bleak and wintry night, while the solitary and bereaved couple were sitting by their silent hearth—it was a very lonely and retired spot where the house stood—a heavy step came up the little garden path. ”

“ Presently it was rumored in the country-side that Nelly Price and Mr. Rigby were to be married after the October fairs. Hester sneered, prophesied that the rich yeoman would repent his bargain before St. Mark's, and rejoiced greatly at her son's escape. Meanwhile Wilfred went about the farm and the house, silent, moody, and spiritless. He was quite changed, and, as his mother thought, for the letter. Instead of associating with his former companions, he staid much at home, and again renewed his entreaties that his mother would sell the Ings, and leave the dales together. He wanted to emigrate. ”

“ She stated that she had watched until dark, in the garden, for Wilfred's return from Leeford, and had not seen him go by. The prisoner never looked toward her, but murmured that he had gone home by the bridle-road and Low Lane to avoid passing the Glebe Farm. The former witnesses, on being recalled, said that it was on the highway, nearly a mile from the place where the lower road branched off, and nearer to the Ings, that they encountered the accused. These two decent men, being strictly cross-examined, never swerved from their first story an iota, and agreed in every particular. ”

“ Every morning during the time the judges are in the neighboring Assize town she waits in one of the streets through which they must pass to reach the court; and as the gilded coach, the noisy trumpets, and the decrepit halberdiers, go by, she scowls at them from beneath her shaggy brows, and mutters her formula of defiance. She will die saying it ”