as it
is for myself in the long run. When you tell them, explain that I'm not
a philanthropist--only a man of business in future. But before all
things fair and straight. I mean to be fair to them and to the
machinery, too. And to the machinery I look to make all our fortunes. I
should have done a little more to start with--for the people I mean; but
the death duties are the devil. In fact, I start crippled by them. Tell
them that and make them understand what they mean on an enterprise of
this sort."

They went through the works together presently and it was clear that the
new owner fixed a gulf between the past and the future. His old easy
manner had vanished--and, while friendly enough, he made it quite clear
that a vast alteration had come into his mind and manners. It seemed
incredible that six months before Raymond was chaffing the girls and
bringing them fruit. He called them by their names as of yore; but they
knew in a moment he had moved with his fortunes and their own manner
instinctively altered.

He was kind and pleasant, but far more interested in their work than
them; and they drew conclusions from the fact. They judged his attitude
with gloom and were the more agreeably surprised when they learned what
advantages had been planned for them. Levi Baggs and Benny Cogle, the
engineman, grumbled that more was not done; but the women, who judged
Raymond from his treatment of Sabina and hoped nothing from his old
promises, were gratified and astonished at what they heard. An improved
sentiment towards the new master was manifest. The instinct to judge
people at your own tribunal awoke, and while Sally Groves and old Mrs.
Chick held out for morals, the other women did not. Already they had
realised that the idle youth they could answer was gone. And with him
had gone the young man who amused himself with a spinner. Of course, he
could not be expected to marry Sabina. Such things did not happen out of
story books; and if you tried to be too clever for your situation, this
was the sort of thing that befell you.

So argued Nancy Buckler and Mercy Gale; nor did Sarah Northover much
differ from them. None had been fiercer for Sabina than Nancy, yet her
opinion, before the spectacle of Raymond himself and after she heard his
intentions, was modified. To see him so alert, so aloof from the girls,
translated to a higher interest, had altered Nancy. Despite her asperity
and apparent independence of thought, her mind