‘And if she has,’ said he — and then he paused for a moment — then went on: ‘I’m not a lad, to be cowed by a proud look from a woman, or to care for her misunderstanding me and my position. I can laugh at it!’
‘To be sure! and at her too, with her fine notions and haughty tosses!’
‘I only wonder why you talk so much about her, then,’ said Fanny.
‘I’m sure, I’m tired enough of the subject.’
‘Well!’ said her brother, with a shade of bitterness. ‘Suppose we find some more agreeable subject. What do you say to a strike, by way of something pleasant to talk about?’
‘Have the hands actually turned out?’ asked Mrs. Thornton, with vivid interest.
‘Hamper’s men are actually out. Mine are working out their week, through fear of being prosecuted for breach of contract I’d have had every one of them up and punished for it, that left his work before his time was out.’
‘The law expenses would have been more than the hands them selves were worth — a set of ungrateful naughts!’ said his mother.
‘To be sure. But I’d have shown them how I keep my word, and how I mean them to keep theirs. They know me by this time. Slickson’s men are off — pretty certain he won’t spend money in getting them punished. We’re in for a turn-out, mother.’
‘I hope there are not many orders in hand?’
‘Of course there are. They know that well enough. But they don’t quite understand all, though they think they do.’
‘What do you mean, John?’
Candles had been brought, and Fanny had taken up her interminable piece of worsted-work, over which she was yawning; throwing herself back in her chair, from time to time, to gaze at vacancy, and think of nothing at her ease.
‘Why,’ said he, ‘the Americans are getting their yarns so into the general market, that our only chance is producing them at a lower rate. If we can’t, we may shut up shop at once, and hands and masters go alike on tramp. Yet these fools go back to the prices paid three years ago — nay, some of their leaders quote Dickinson’s prices now — though they know as well as we do that, what with fines pressed out of their wages as no honourable man would extort them, and other ways which I for one would scorn to use, the real rate of wage paid at Dickinson’s is less than at ours. Upon my word, mother, I wish the old combination-laws were in force. It is too bad to find out that fools — ignorant wayward men like these — just by uniting their weak silly heads, are to rule over the fortunes of those who bring all the wisdom that knowledge and experience, and often painful thought and anxiety, can give. The next thing will be — indeed, we’re all but come to it now — that we shall have to go and ask — stand hat in hand — and humbly ask the secretary of the Spinner’ Union to be so kind as to furnish us with labour at their own price. That’s what they want — they, who haven’t the sense to see that, if we don’t get a fair share of the profits to compensate us for our wear and tear here in England, we can move off to some other country; and that, what with home and foreign competition, we are none of us likely to make above a fair share, and may be thankful enough if we can get that, in an average number of years.’
‘Can’t you get hands from Ireland? I wouldn’t keep these fellows a day. I’d teach them that I was master, and could employ what servants I liked.’
‘Yes! to be sure, I can; and I will, too, if they go on long. It will be trouble and expense, and I fear there will be some danger; but I will do it, rather than give in.’
‘If there is to be all this extra expense, I’m sorry we’re giving a dinner just now.’
‘So am I, — not because of the expense, but because I shall have much to think about, and many unexpected calls on my time. But we must have had Mr. Horsfall, and he does not stay in Milton long. And as for the others, we owe them dinners, and it’s all one trouble.’
He kept on with his restless walk — not speaking any more, but drawing a deep breath from time to time, as if endeavouring to throw off some annoying thought. Fanny asked her mother numerous small questions, all having nothing to do with the subject, which a wiser person would have perceived was occupying her attention. Consequently, she received many short answers. She was not sorry when, at ten o’clock, the servants filed in to prayers. These her mother always read, — first reading a chapter. They were now working steadily through the Old Testament. When prayers were ended, and his mother had wished him goodnight, with that long steady look of hers which conveyed no expression of the tenderness that was in her heart, but yet had the intensity of a blessing, Mr. Thornton continued his walk. All his business plans had received a check, a sudden pull-up, from this approaching turn-out. The forethought of many anxious hours was thrown away, utterly wasted by their insane folly, which would injure themselves even more than him, though no one could set any limit to the mischief they were doing. And these were the men who thought themselves fitted to direct the masters in the disposal of their capital! 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 XIX
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, onl
y 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.’
‘And you don’t think we’re quite the first folk in Milton, eh, Bessy?’ Bessy’s cheeks flushed a little at her thought being thus easily read.
‘Well,’ said she, ‘yo’ see, they thinken a deal o’ money here and
I reckon yo’ve not getten much.’
‘No,’ said Margaret, ‘that’s very true. But we are educated people, and have lived amongst educated people. Is there anything so wonderful, in our being asked out to dinner by a man who owns himself inferior to my father by coming to him to be instructed? I don’t mean to blame Mr. Thornton. Few drapers’ assistants, as he was once, could have made themselves what he is.’
‘But can yo’ give dinners back, in yo’r small house? Thornton’s house is three times as big.’
‘Well, I think we could manage to give Mr. Thornton a dinner back, as you call it. Perhaps not in such a large room, nor with so many people. But I don’t think we’ve thought about it at all in that way.’
‘I never thought yo’d be dining with Thorntons,’ repeated I
Bessy. ‘Why, the mayor hissel’ dines there; and the members of
Parliament and all.’
‘I think I could support the honour of meeting the mayor of
Milton.
‘But them ladies dress so grand!’ said Bessy, with an anxious look at Margaret’s print gown, which her Milton eyes appraised at sevenpence a yard. Margaret’s face dimpled up into a merry laugh. ‘Thank You, Bessy, for thinking so kindly about my looking nice among all the smart people. But I’ve plenty of grand gowns, — a week ago, I should have said they were far too grand for anything I should ever want again. But as I’m to dine at Mr. Thornton’s, and perhaps to meet the mayor, I shall put on my very best gown, you may be sure.’
‘What win yo’ wear?’ asked Bessy, somewhat relieved.
‘White silk,’ said Margaret. ‘A gown I had for a cousin’s wedding, a year ago.
‘That’ll do!’ said Bessy, falling back in her chair. ‘I should be loth to have yo’ looked down upon.
‘Oh! I’ll be fine enough, if that will save me from being looked down upon in Milton.’
‘I wish I could see you dressed up,’ said Bessy. ‘I reckon, yo’re not what folk would ca’ pretty; yo’ve not red and white enough for that. But dun yo’ know, I ha’ dreamt of yo’, long afore ever I seed yo’.’
‘Nonsense, Bessy!’
‘Ay, but I did. Yo’r very face, — looking wi’ yo’r clear steadfast eyes out o’ th’ darkness, wi’ yo’r hair blown off from yo’r brow, and going out like rays round yo’r forehead, which was just as smooth and as straight as it is now, — and yo’ always came to give me strength, which I seemed to gather out o’ yo’r deep comforting eyes, — and yo’ were drest in shining raiment — just as yo’r going to be drest. So, yo’ see, it was yo’!’
‘Nay, Bessy,’ said Margaret, gently, ‘it was but a dream.’
‘And why might na I dream a dream in my affliction as well as others? Did not many a one i’ the Bible? Ay, and see visions too! Why, even my father thinks a deal o’ dreams! I tell yo’ again, I saw yo’ as plainly, coming swiftly towards me, wi’ yo’r hair blown back wi’ the very swiftness o’ the motion, just like the way it grows, a little standing off like; and the white shining dress on yo’ve getten to wear. Let me come and see yo’ in it. I want to see yo’ and touch yo’ as in very deed yo’ were in my dream.’
‘My dear Bessy, it is quite a fancy of yours.’
‘Fancy or no fancy, — yo’ve come, as I knew yo’ would, when I saw yo’r movement in my dream, — and when yo’re here about me, I reckon I feel easier in my mind, and comforted, just as a fire comforts one on a dree day. Yo’ said it were on th’ twenty-first; please God, I’ll come and see yo’.’
‘Oh Bessy! you may come and welcome; but don’t talk so — it really makes me sorry. It does indeed.’
‘Then I’ll keep it to mysel’, if I bite my tongue out. Not but what it’s true for all that.’
Margaret was silent. At last she said,
‘Let us talk about it sometimes, if you think it true. But not now. Tell me, has your father turned out?’
‘Ay!’ said Bessy, heavily — in a manner very different from that she had spoken in but a minute or two before. ‘He and many another, — all Hamper’s men, — and many a one besides. Th’ women are as bad as th’ men, in their savageness, this time. Food is high, — and they mun have food for their childer, I reckon. Suppose Thorntons sent ‘em their dinner out, — th’ same money, spent on potatoes and meal, would keep many a crying babby quiet, and hush up its mother’s heart for a bit!’
‘Don’t speak so!’ said Margaret. ‘You’ll make me feel wicked and guilty in going to this dinner.’
‘No!’ said Bessy. ‘Some’s pre-elected to sumptuous feasts, and purple and fine linen, — may be yo’re one on ‘em. Others toil and moil all their lives long — and the very dogs are not pitiful in our days, as they were in the days of Lazarus. But if yo’ ask me to cool yo’r tongue wi’ th’ tip of my finger, I’ll come across the great gulf to yo’ just for th’ thought o’ what yo’ve been to me here.’
‘Bessy! you’re very feverish! I can tell it in the touch of your hand, as well as in what you’re saying. It won’t be division enough, in that awful day, that some of us have been beggars here, and some of us have been rich, — we shall not be judged by that poor accident, but by our faithful following of Christ.’ Margaret got up, and found some water and soaking her pocket-handkerchief in it, she laid the cool wetness on Bessy’s forehead, and began to chafe the stone-cold feet. Bessy shut her eyes, and allowed herself to be soothed. At last she said,
‘Yo’d ha’ been deaved out o’ yo’r five wits, as well as me, if yo’d had one body after another coming in to ask for father, and staying to tell me each one their tale. Some spoke o’ deadly hatred, and made my blood run cold wi’ the terrible things they said o’ th’ masters, — but more, being women, kept plaining, plaining (wi’ the tears running down their cheeks, and never wiped away, nor heeded), of the price o’ meat, and how their childer could na sleep at nights for th’ hunger.’
‘And do they think the strike will mend this?’ asked Margaret.
‘They say so,’ replied Bessy. ‘They do say trade has been good for long, and the masters has made no end o’ money; how much father doesn’t know, but, in course, th’ Union does; and, as is natural, they wanten their share o’ th’ profits, now that food is getting dear; and th’ Union says they’ll not be doing their duty if they don’t make the masters give ‘em their share. But masters has getten th’ upper hand somehow; and I’m feared th
ey’ll keep it now and evermore. It’s like th’ great battle o’ Armageddon, the way they keep on, grinning and fighting at each other, till even while they fight, they are picked off into the pit.’ Just then, Nicholas Higgins came in. He caught his daughter’s last words.
‘Ay! and I’ll fight on too; and I’ll get it this time. It’ll not take long for to make ‘em give in, for they’ve getten a pretty lot of orders, all under contract; and they’ll soon find out they’d better give us our five per cent than lose the profit they’ll gain; let alone the fine for not fulfilling the contract. Aha, my masters! I know who’ll win.’
Margaret fancied from his manner that he must have been drinking, not so much from what he said, as from the excited way in which he spoke; and she was rather confirmed in this idea by the evident anxiety Bessy showed to hasten her departure. Bessy said to her, —
‘The twenty-first — that’s Thursday week. I may come and see yo’ dressed for Thornton’s, I reckon. What time is yo’r dinner?’
Before Margaret could answer, Higgins broke out,
‘Thornton’s! Ar’ t’ going to dine at Thornton’s? Ask him to give yo’ a bumper to the success of his orders. By th’ twenty-first, I reckon, he’ll be pottered in his brains how to get ‘em done in time. Tell him, there’s seven hundred’ll come marching into Marlborough Mills, the morning after he gives the five per cent, and will help him through his contract in no time. You’ll have ‘em all there. My master, Hamper. He’s one o’ th’ oud-fashioned sort. Ne’er meets a man bout an oath or a curse; I should think he were going to die if he spoke me civil; but arter all, his bark’s waur than his bite, and yo’ may tell him one o’ his turn-outs said so, if yo’ like. Eh! but yo’ll have a lot of prize mill-owners at Thornton’s! I should like to get speech o’ them, when they’re a bit inclined to sit still after dinner, and could na run for the life on ‘em. I’d tell ‘em my mind. I’d speak up again th’ hard way they’re driving on us!’
Delphi Complete Works of Elizabeth Gaskell Page 133
