elements of chemistry at
the bottom of a dyeing vat, that therefore you're a neglected man of
science; and you need not to suppose that because the course of trade
does not always run smooth, and you, and such as you, are sometimes
short of work and of bread, that therefore your class are martyrs, and
that the whole form of government under which you live is wrong. And,
moreover, you need not for a moment to insinuate that the virtues have
taken refuge in cottages and wholly abandoned slated houses. Let me tell
you, I particularly abominate that sort of trash, because I know so well
that human nature is human nature everywhere, whether under tile or
thatch, and that in every specimen of human nature that breathes, vice
and virtue are ever found blended, in smaller or greater proportions,
and that the proportion is not determined by station. I have seen
villains who were rich, and I have seen villains who were poor, and I
have seen villains who were neither rich nor poor, but who had realized
Agar's wish, and lived in fair and modest competency. The clock is going
to strike six. Away with you, Joe, and ring the mill bell."

It was now the middle of the month of February; by six o'clock therefore
dawn was just beginning to steal on night, to penetrate with a pale ray
its brown obscurity, and give a demi-translucence to its opaque shadows.
Pale enough that ray was on this particular morning: no colour tinged
the east, no flush warmed it. To see what a heavy lid day slowly lifted,
what a wan glance she flung along the hills, you would have thought the
sun's fire quenched in last night's floods. The breath of this morning
was chill as its aspect; a raw wind stirred the mass of night-cloud, and
showed, as it slowly rose, leaving a colourless, silver-gleaming ring
all round the horizon, not blue sky, but a stratum of paler vapour
beyond. It had ceased to rain, but the earth was sodden, and the pools
and rivulets were full.

The mill-windows were alight, the bell still rung loud, and now the
little children came running in, in too great a hurry, let us hope, to
feel very much nipped by the inclement air; and indeed, by contrast,
perhaps the morning appeared rather favourable to them than otherwise,
for they had often come to their work that winter through snow-storms,
through heavy rain, through hard frost.

Mr. Moore stood at the entrance to watch them pass. He counted them as
they went by. To those who came rather late he s