forebodings which had preceded them,
and often established a satisfactory connection between the two.

Mrs. Caldwell always made coffee in the kitchen for breakfast in the
morning, and while she was so engaged, Harriet, busy making toast,
would begin--"Did you 'ear a noise last night, m'em?"

"No, Harriet--at least--was it about ten o'clock?"

"Yes, m'em, just about--a sort of scraping rattling noise, like a lot
of people walking over gravel."

"I did hear something of the kind. I wonder what it was," Mrs.
Caldwell would rejoin.

"Well, m'em, I think it means there are people coming to the 'ouse,
for I remember it 'appened the night before your brother come, m'em,
unexpected, and the lawyer."

If nobody came during the day, the token would be supposed to refer to
some future period; and so, by degrees, signs and portents took the
place of more substantial interests in Mrs. Caldwell's dreary life.
Such things were in the air, for the little seaside place was quite
out of the world at the time, and the people still had more faith in
an incantation than a doctor's dose. If an accident happened, or a
storm decimated the fishing-fleet, signs innumerable were always
remembered which had preceded the event. If you asked why nobody had
profited by the warning, people would shake their heads and tell you
it was to be; and if you asked what was the use of the warning then,
they would say to break the blow--in which idea there seemed to be
some sense.

"When they told Tom's wife 'e was drownded, she'd 'a' dropped down
dead 'erself and left the children, if she 'adn't 'a' knowed it all
along," Harriet explained to Beth. "Eh! lass, you mark my words,
warnin's comes for one thing, and warnin's comes for another, but they
always comes for good, an' you're forced to take notice an' act on 'em
or you're forced to leave 'em alone, just as is right, an' ye can't
'elp it yerself, choose 'ow. There's Mrs. Pettinger, she dreamed one
night 'er husband's boat was lost, an' next mornin' 'e was to go out
fishin', but she wouldn't let 'im. 'No, 'Enery John,' she ses, 'you'll
not go, not if ah 'as to 'old you,' ses she, an' 'e was that mad 'e
struck 'er an' knocked 'er down an' broke 'er arm, an' then, needs
must, 'e 'ad to fetch the doctor to set it, an' by the time that was
done, the boat 'ad gone wi'out 'im. The other men thought 'e was
drunk--'e often was--an' they wouldn't wait. Well, that boat never
came back."

"And did he beat h