I leave what is worse than the worst that can lie before me, so
no fear of my coming back."

"Go, or I'll make you!" exclaimed Crimsworth.

I walked deliberately to my desk, took out such of its contents as were
my own property, put them in my pocket, locked the desk, and placed the
key on the top.

"What are you abstracting from that desk?" demanded the millowner.
"Leave all behind in its place, or I'll send for a policeman to search
you."

"Look sharp about it, then," said I, and I took down my hat, drew on my
gloves, and walked leisurely out of the counting-house--walked out of it
to enter it no more.

I recollect that when the mill-bell rang the dinner hour, before Mr.
Crimsworth entered, and the scene above related took place, I had had
rather a sharp appetite, and had been waiting somewhat impatiently to
hear the signal of feeding time. I forgot it now, however; the images
of potatoes and roast mutton were effaced from my mind by the stir and
tumult which the transaction of the last half-hour had there excited. I
only thought of walking, that the action of my muscles might harmonize
with the action of my nerves; and walk I did, fast and far. How could
I do otherwise? A load was lifted off my heart; I felt light and
liberated. I had got away from Bigben Close without a breach of
resolution; without injury to my self-respect. I had not forced
circumstances; circumstances had freed me. Life was again open to me;
no longer was its horizon limited by the high black wall surrounding
Crimsworth's mill. Two hours had elapsed before my sensations had so far
subsided as to leave me calm enough to remark for what wider and clearer
boundaries I had exchanged that sooty girdle. When I did look up, lo!
straight before me lay Grovetown, a village of villas about five miles
out of X----. The short winter day, as I perceived from the far-declined
sun, was already approaching its close; a chill frost-mist was rising
from the river on which X---- stands, and along whose banks the road I
had taken lay; it dimmed the earth, but did not obscure the clear icy
blue of the January sky. There was a great stillness near and far; the
time of the day favoured tranquillity, as the people were all employed
within-doors, the hour of evening release from the factories not being
yet arrived; a sound of full-flowing water alone pervaded the air, for
the river was deep and abundant, swelled by the melting of a late snow.
I stood awhile, leani