m almost every
side-turning, so that it could not be the exhilarating motion of motoring
that she liked so much.

'Everything! Seeing all those people and hearing people talk Yorkshire,'
cried Horatia.

'The people are just like poor people anywhere, only rather dirtier; and
I don't like their way of speaking--they have such rough, loud voices,'
replied Sarah.

'I think that kind of sing-song they have is musical, and they are not a
bit like our villagers; I don't know how, but they are not,' said
Horatia, glancing about her, and almost jumping up and down in her
eagerness to see all there was to be seen, as they drove slowly along the
narrow, and at this time crowded, streets of the grimy manufacturing
town.

'Oh, oh, look, Nanny, at that lovely river all purple!' she cried
enthusiastically.

'Well, really, Miss Horatia, I can't say that I do admire that. It looks
shocking dirty,' said the maid.

'It is. It's lovely before it gets to Ousebank; but it's so polluted by
the mills turning all their horrid dyes and things into it that fish
can't live in it,' observed Sarah in tones of disgust.

'Well, I call it a lovely colour. Just think how delightful--when you get
tired of a dress one colour, you have just got to dip it into the river
when the water's the colour you want, and, hey, presto! there you are
with a new dress!'

Even the chauffeur on the seat in front let his face relax into a smile
at Horatia's chatter; but Sarah, though she laughed, said decidedly, 'I'd
rather send my dresses to proper dyers than put them into that dirty
water; and I'd rather see the river clean, and so would you if you lived
here.'

They had got clear of the town now, and Horatia, having nothing to look
at except an ugly row of cottages, in which even she could not find
anything to admire, turned her attention to the car, which she declared
most luxurious, and ever so much better than her father's.

'We can go out in it as much as you like, if you like motoring, and go
for picnics in the country,' suggested Sarah.

'That will be very nice; but I want to see your mill first,' said
Horatia. 'Is it near the house?'

'No; we passed it just now, when you said, "What a big stream of
people"!' answered Sarah.

'But they didn't know you,' objected the other.

'Oh yes, they did--by sight, I mean. But what difference would that make?
You don't expect them to nod to me, do you?'

'All our villagers do to me, even though I don't kn