was the only way in which it was possible for workmen to make
any advancement.

At length the crowd began to disperse. Jack started homeward; but,
before he had walked half the distance, Davy, one of the men who had
gone out in the first trouble, confronted him suddenly, seizing his
hand.

"O Mr. Darcy!" said he in a most eager tone, "are you going to form over
again? Do you think there's a chance for me to be taken back? There
hasn't been a day nor a night but what I've cursed myself for being such
a fool as to let anybody talk me out of a good job. I see just how it is
now. And, if I can get back again, I'll stand by the old ship through
thick and thin. O Mr. Darcy! please speak a good word for me!"

"That I will, Davy, if it is needed."

"Thank you, thank you, a thousand times!" cried the poor fellow
gratefully.

Yerbury had plenty of praise now. To be sure, times _had_ improved. If
every year had been like the second, it would not have been possible to
make co-operation work; but then, would it have been possible to carry
on any business with continual loss? The starting of Hope Mills had
inspired other disheartened firms, and given an impetus to Yerbury
industries that might have lain much longer in the Slough of Despond.

Fred and Sylvie came over to the Darcys to tea that evening, and
Maverick dropped in of course.

"Mrs. Darcy," he exclaimed, "I do not see why you did not have a
daughter for me to marry! Then we could all have been relations, you
see. I think it a great mistake on your part."

Mrs. Darcy glanced at her son with a peculiar light in her eyes.

Jack laughed. "She is thinking," he explained, "that if there had been
another one, I should have gone off long ago to seek my fortune. I have
learned that God may have better work for one than simply following out
his own will;" and his voice dropped to a reverential tone.

Maverick studied him with a peculiar interest. All these years there had
been growing up in Jack Darcy a plant of nobler promise than mere
worldly ambition. Not that he in any manner despised wealth: he had come
to understand its true uses. The same power that had educated the
workmen had been going on with silent, steady processes in him. He had
come to comprehend the dignity of the soul, and that God desired his
return in the deeds done for one another, in the continual progress, the
greatness, nobleness, and loyalty we offered "to one of the least of
these." Was this true