The Argosy — page 103: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Village Blacksmath. gI sorry I shan’t be able to go with you, but the Lord has work for me to do here. Mark Brown has decided to be baptised to-morrow. His was a hard heart to win, but it only shows the power of grace to melt the very hardest hearts.” True, Reuben, but the grace that melted Mark’s heart was Janet’s beauty. If Janet herself suspected this she was careful not to say so; but the revulsion of feeling occasioned by the sudden knowledge that the obstacle was removed which had threatened to mar her happiness, coupled with the strain the excitement she was feeling caused her, was too much for her, and she burst into tears. Reuben, however, attri- buted it to disappointment at his inability to accompany her, and did his best to comfort her by offering to see her off from the station. Which he did. Mrs. Canter’s new home was about fifty miles from Woodford ; a quiet country village named Marling, the scene of Mr. Ryot Tempest’s first incumbency. Norah had lived there with the Tempests for ten years, so she was well known in the place, and anticipated no difficulty in obtaining work. Some indeed had been already promised her before she left Woodford, which place reminded her at every turn of her late husband so painfully that she could not make up her mind to remain in it. Some of Canter’s relations lived at Marling, and Mrs. Canter had no difficulty in getting them to look after her children on Whit-Monday while she went up to London, ostensibly for a day’s outing ; in reality, as we know, for Janet’s marriage. It was Norah’s first visit to London, and if she pleased herself it would certainly be her last, as she informed the lovers, who, however, were far too much occupied with themselves to pay any attention to her criticisms of the Metropolis. According to Mrs. Canter, who looked at the great city chiefly from a professional point of view, it had not a redeeming feature. The only decent drying ground she saw during her flying visit of a few hours’ duration was Hyde Park, and that, Rex informed her, was not available for the purpose. The blacks, she declared, would break any laundress’s heart who took a proper pride in her work ; while as for washing, it would be a downnght waste of time to attempt it in such an atmosphere of fog and smuts; the things would be black before they had time to dry. Her opinion of London did not rise when she saw how the ceremony of marriage was performed there: for Rex, thinking with Rory O’Moore that ‘‘there is safety in numbers,” had chosen to be married in a church where a whole batch of couples were made happy, or miserable, at the same time. If that was the proper way to marry people, she, a widow with six children, had never been married; and if she were to mix the quality’s shirts and petticoats as the parson and clerk mixed up those couples, her linen would never get back to its nghtful owners, and her prestige as an honest laundress would be gone. However, she managed to keep a sharp look-out on Rex and Janet, and was pre- COnmicloooel —_— SS (CO