llen, because she was of the weaker half
of creation, which is born to the larger share of pain in the world.
He felt that he would almost have given her up, yielded up forever
all his delight in her, to spare her; for the pain of knighthood,
which is in every true lover, awoke in his heart.

Chapter XLI

Nahum Beals was a laster in Lloyd's. Late in the autumn, when Ellen
had been in the factory a little over a year, there began to be a
subtle condition of discontent and insubordination. Men gathered in
muttering groups, of which Nahum Beals seemed always to be the
nucleus. His high, rampant voice, restrained by no fear of
consequences, always served as the key-note to the chorus of
rebellion. Ellen paid little attention to it. She was earning good
wages, and personally she had nothing of which to complain. She had
come to regard Beals as something of a chronic fanatic, but as she
knew that the lasters were fairly paid, she had not supposed it
meant anything. However, one night, going home from the factory, her
eyes were opened. Abby and Maria Atkins and Mamie Brady were with
her, and shortly after they had left the shop Abby stopped Granville
Joy, Frank Dixon, and Willy Jones, who with another young man were
swinging past without noticing the girls, strange to say. Abby
caught Joy by the arm.

"Hold on a minute, Granville Joy," said she. "I want to know what's
up with the lasters."

Granville laughed, with an uneasy, sidelong, deprecating glance at
Ellen. "Oh, nothing much," said he.

Willy Jones stood still, coloring, gazing at Abby with a
half-terrified expression. Dixon walked on, and the other young man,
Amos Lee, who was dark and slight and sinewy, stared from one to the
other with quick flashes of black eyes. He looked almost as if he
had gypsy blood in him, and he came of a family which was further on
the outskirts of society than the Louds had been.

When Granville replied "nothing much" to Abby's question, Amos Lee
frowned with a swift contraction of dissent, but did not speak until
Abby had retorted. "You needn't talk that way to me, Granville Joy,"
said she. "You can't cheat me. I know something's up."

"It ain't nothin', Abby," said Granville, but it was quite evident
that he was lying.

Then Lee spoke up, in a sudden fury of enthusiasm. "There is
somethin' up," said he, "and I don't care if you do know it.
There's--" he stopped as Granville clutched his arm violently and
whispered somet