lothing.

An evil-minded, worldly or unconverted person might possibly sum up the
matter thus: these people required this work done: they employed this
woman to do it, taking advantage of her poverty to impose upon her
conditions of price and labour that they would not have liked to endure
themselves. Although she worked very hard, early and late, the money
they paid her as wages was insufficient to enable her to provide
herself with the bare necessaries of life. Then her employers, being
good, kind, generous, Christian people, came to the rescue and bestowed
charity, in the form of cast-off clothing and broken victuals.

Should any such evil-minded, worldly or unconverted persons happen to
read these lines, it is a sufficient answer to their impious and
malicious criticisms to say that no such thoughts ever entered the
simple mind of Mrs White herself: on the contrary, this very afternoon
as she knelt in the Chapel, wearing an old mantle that some years
previously had adorned the obese person of the saintly Mrs Starvem, her
heart was filled with gratitude towards her generous benefactors.

During the prayer the door was softly opened: a gentleman in clerical
dress entered on tiptoe and knelt down next to Mr Didlum. He came in
very softly, but all the same most of those present heard him and
lifted their heads or peeped through their fingers to see who it was,
and when they recognized him a sound like a sigh swept through the hall.

At the end of the prayer, amid groans and cries of 'Amen', the balloon
slowly descended from the platform, and collapsed into one of the
seats, and everyone rose up from the floor. When all were seated and
the shuffling, coughing and blowing of noses had ceased Mr Didlum stood
up and said:

'Before we sing the closin' 'ymn, the gentleman hon my left, the Rev.
Mr John Starr, will say a few words.'

An expectant murmur rippled through the hall. The ladies lifted their
eyebrows and nodded, smiled and whispered to each other; the gentlemen
assumed various attitudes and expressions; the children were very
quiet. Everyone was in a state of suppressed excitement as John Starr
rose from his seat and, stepping up on to the platform, stood by the
side of the table, facing them.

He was about twenty-six years of age, tall and slenderly built. His
clean-cut, intellectual face, with its lofty forehead, and his air of
refinement and culture were in striking contrast to the coarse
appearance