Oliver Onions

“ She began to tremble. “What is it, Arthur?” she asked quickly.
“Don't ask me, except that this is my finish with it. I'll tell you what it is I offer you now. All's closing in, and they won't stop at this; and I offer you danger for a portion, and not so much as a roof to your head it may be, and it may be, Cicely, just the same lot as hers stretched on the bed yonder. But a new man goes with it, Cis——”
“Arthur!” she cried, sharply, as if transfixed with a sudden pain; and for the first time since he had entered he looked up at her face. ”

“ All the afternoon the square had remained thronged, and at five o'clock more men began to run in, as they had done earlier in the day. At half-past five, a chaise, driven at the head of a company of soldiers, passed down the Fullergate, and in the chaise sat Jeremy Cope, his spectacles off, nodding and blinking, with one short leg curled up beneath him. ”

“ Ay, ye're away forgetting, busy and forgetting all the time; if this turn misses o' happiness, the next'll do it; and what is it that we ask in our hearts? A bite and sup, a hearth and a babe and a kiss. I wed ye unthinking, Arthur—ay, ye know I did—but I ha' thought since—the time women do think, God help 'em! You never dazzled me wi' your talk o' riches, never; but the little a woman asks is too much for a man to give, it seems. I wonder what you'd ha' thought if you'd heard Sally before she took the draught! ”

“ The heavy loom-frame filled the greater part of the room, and about it stood a dozen—a score—it was not easy to tell how many men. Immediately Murgatroyd cried in a high voice, “Ye've come, but ye'll mind that that were sattled at th' Slack!” In his hand he held a clasp-knife.
Swiftly Monjoy's eyes sought Ellah. He lay, a motionless heap, in one corner. He was dressed in his shirt only, and he was blackened from head to foot. Monjoy strode past the loom-seat and turned Ellah's face up ”

“ Monjoy took a step back. After a moment he said unsteadily, “So you're buying blood, are you?”
“Not right what ye might call 'buying'; anybody's won't do. Come in or stay out; it's all one to us.... Will ye say two for your cousin, Dick o' Dean?”
James Eastwood cried out suddenly from the corner where Ellah crouched. ”

“ Monjoy watched, stupid and fascinated. Murgatroyd set the ends neatly together and bound them loosely about with another string; and suddenly Monjoy cried out aloud:
“Stop—stop—you shall not do it——”
Every head turned, and Murgatroyd advanced with the bundle of strings.
“Weant we?” he said, the “V” of his brow deepening.
“Play and lose, and stand your stake; but no, no, that's murder!” Monjoy cried. “I'll not have it, I say! I, Arthur Monjoy—Harry—Charley—I tell you, d'you hear? He shall be warned ”

“ The man's mad!”
“He come down th' chimley jabbering it right eniff. Look here; if ye want to know, we fotched him down th' same as they fotch th' sweeper-lads down. If ye don't know how that is, ye can look at th' grate.” ”