mbe had died in her arms--"at five after five," as she said.

Mary Dinnett was an excitable and pessimistic person. She always leapt
to meet trouble half way and invariably lost her nerve upon the least
opportunity to do so. The peace of 'The Magnolias' had long offered her
a fitting sanctum, for here life moved with the utmost simplicity and
regularity; but, though as old as he was, Mary looked ahead to the time
when Mr. Churchouse might fall, and could always win an ample misery
from the reflection that she must then be at the mercy of an unfriendly
world.

Sabina heard the full story of her grandmother's decease with every
detail of the passing, but it was the face of a young man, not the
countenance of an old woman, that flitted through her thoughts as she
went to sleep that night.

CHAPTER V

IN THE MILL

John Best was taking Raymond Ironsyde round the spinning mill, but the
foreman had his own theory and proposed to initiate the young man by
easy stages.

"You've seen the storehouses and the hacklers," he said. "Now if you
just look into the works and get a general idea of the scheme of things,
that's enough for one day."

In the great building two sounds deafened an unfamiliar ear: a steady
roar, deep and persistent, and through it, like a staccato pulse, a
louder, more painful, more penetrating din. The bass to this harsh
treble arose from humming belts and running wheels; the crash that
punctuated their deep-mouthed riot broke from the drawing heads of the
machines.

A lofty, open roof, full of large sky-lights, covered the operating
room, and in its uplifted dome supports and struts leapt this way and
that, while, at the height of the walls, ran rods supporting rows of
silver-bright wheels from which the power descended, through endless
bands, to the machinery beneath. The floor was of stone, and upon it
were disposed the various machine systems--the Card and Spreader, the
Drawing Frames, Roving Frames, Gill Spinners and Spinning Frames.

The general blurred effect in Raymond's mind was one of disagreeable
sound, which made speech almost impossible. The din drove at him from
above and below; and it was accompanied by a thousand unfamiliar
movements of flying bands and wheels and squat masses of machinery that
convulsed and heaved and palpitated round him. From nearly all the
machines there streamed away continuous bright ribbons of hemp or flax,
that caught the light and shone. This was the