eyes of Sedgehill it was as necessary to
salvation to pray at the chapel as to work at the Osierfield; and the
majority of the inhabitants would as soon have thought of worshipping at
any other sanctuary as of worshipping at the beacon, a pillar which
still marks the highest point of the highest table-land in England.

At the time when this story begins, the joint ownership of the
Osierfield and the Willows was vested in the two Miss Farringdons, the
daughters and co-heiresses of John Farringdon. John Farringdon and his
brother William had been partners, and had arranged between themselves
that William's only child, George, should marry John's eldest daughter,
Maria, and so consolidate the brothers' fortunes and their interest in
the works. But the gods--and George--saw otherwise. George was a
handsome, weak boy, who objected equally to work and to Methodism; and
as his father cared for nothing beyond those sources of interest, and
had no patience for any one who did, the two did not always see eye to
eye. Perhaps if Maria had been more unbending, things might have turned
out differently; but Methodism in its severest aspects was not more
severe than Maria Farringdon. She was a thorough gentlewoman, and
extremely clever; but tenderness was not counted among her excellencies.
George would have been fond of almost any woman who was pretty enough to
be loved and not clever enough to be feared; but his cousin Maria was
beyond even his powers of falling in love, although, to do him justice,
these powers were by no means limited. The end of it was that George
offended his father past forgiveness by running away to Australia rather
than marry Maria, and there disappeared. Years afterward a rumour
reached his people that he had married and died out there, leaving a
widow and an only son; but this rumour had not been verified, as by that
time his father and uncle were dead, and his cousins were reigning in
his stead; and it was hardly to be expected that the proud Miss
Farringdon would take much trouble concerning the woman whom her
weak-kneed kinsman had preferred to herself.

William Farringdon left all his property and his share in the works to
his niece Maria, as some reparation for the insult which his
disinherited son had offered to her; John left his large fortune between
his two daughters, as he never had a son; so Maria and Anne Farringdon
lived at the Willows, and carried on the Osierfield with the help of
Richard Sm