cannot expect that they should lose
their fear at a time like this. We must be thankful for what they give;
and their money has been of great service, though there is no doubt that
their example would have been of more."

"One would like to look into their minds, and see how they regard my
master there."

"They regard him, no doubt, so far rightly as to consider him quite a
different sort of person from themselves, and no rule for them. So far
they are right. They do not comprehend his satisfactions and ease of
mind; and it is very likely that they have pleasures of their own which
we do not understand."

"And they are quite welcome, I am sure, my dear, as long as they do not
meddle with my master's name. That is, as he says, all over now. After
this, however, the people in Deerbrook will be more ready to trust in my
master's skill and kindness than in Sir William Hunter's grandeur and
money, which can do little to save them in time of need."

Margaret explained how ignorantly the poor in the neighbourhood had
relied on the fortune-tellers, who had only duped them; how that which
would have been religion in them if they had been early taught, and
which would have enabled them to rely on the only power which really can
save, had been degraded by ignorance into a foolish and pernicious
superstition. Morris hoped that this also was over now. She had met
some of these conjurors on the Blickley road; and seen others breaking
up their establishment in the lanes, and turning their backs upon
Deerbrook. Whether they were scared away by the mortality of the place,
or had found the tide of fortune-telling beginning to turn, mattered
nothing as long as they were gone.

The tea-table was cleared, and Morris and Margaret were admiring the
baby as he slept, when Hester and her husband returned. Mrs Howell was
very unwell, and likely to be worse. All attempts to bring Miss Miskin
to reason, and induce her to enter her friend's room, were in vain. She
bestowed abundance of tears, tremors, and foreboding on Mrs Howell's
state and prospects, but shut herself up in a fumigated apartment, where
she promised to pray for a good result, and to await it. The maid was a
hearty lass, who would sit up willingly, under Hester's promise that she
should be relieved in the morning. The girl's fear was of not being
able to satisfy her mistress, whom it was not so easy to nurse as it
might have been, from her insisting on having every