ess between
classes, and no hopeless pining and misery as there is now!"

The girl broke off, catching her breath. It excited her to say these
things to these people, to these poor tottering old things who had lived
out their lives to the end under the pressure of an iron system, and had
no lien on the future, whatever Paradise it might bring. Again the
situation had something foreseen and dramatic in it. She saw herself, as
the preacher, sitting on her stool beside the poor grate--she realised
as a spectator the figures of the women and the old man played on by the
firelight--the white, bare, damp-stained walls of the cottage, and in
the background the fragile though still comely form of Minta Hurd, who
was standing with her back to the dresser, and her head bent forward,
listening to the talk while her fingers twisted the straw she plaited
eternally from morning till night, for a wage of about 1s. 3d. a week:

Her mind was all aflame with excitement and defiance--defiance of her
father, Lord Maxwell, Aldous Raeburn. Let him come, her friend, and see
for himself what she thought it right to do and say in this miserable
village. Her soul challenged him, longed to provoke him! Well, she was
soon to meet him, and in a new and more significant relation and
environment. The fact made her perception of the whole situation the
more rich and vibrant.

Patton, while these broken thoughts and sensations were coursing through
Marcella's head, was slowly revolving what she had been saying, and the
others were waiting for him.

At last he rolled his tongue round his dry lips and delivered himself by
a final effort.

"Them as likes, miss, may believe as how things are going to happen that
way, but yer won't ketch me! Them as have got 'ull _keep_"--he let his
stick sharply down on the floor--"an' them as 'aven't got 'ull 'ave to
go without and _lump it_--as long as you're alive, miss, you mark my
words!"

"Oh, Lor', you wor allus one for makin' a poor mouth, Patton!" said Mrs.
Jellison. She had been sitting with her arms folded across her chest,
part absent, part amused, part malicious. "The young lady speaks
beautiful, just like a book she do. An' she's likely to know a deal
better nor poor persons like you and me. All _I_ kin say is,--if there's
goin' to be dividin' up of other folks' property, when I'm gone, I hope
George Westall won't get nothink ov it! He's bad enough as 'tis.
Isabella 'ud have a fine time if _ee_ took to