Page:Between Two Loves.djvu/217

212 was always work waiting for thee at my mill, and niver a fault flung in thy face."

"Master, thou likes thy mill. Thou doesn't mind t' heat, and t' smell, and t' close work. I hate t' mill. I hate t' heat of it, it makes my head burn and throb. I hate t' smell of it, it turns me sick as death; and all t' time I'm deafened wi' t' noise of it, I hear t' sea in my ears, and I remember t' cool salt air, and I hev to go to it. Thou can't judge me. I want to do right and I hevn't t' power to do it."

"God forbid I should judge thee, Steve. But how about this affair of Aske's. Thou wert taken with a varry bad couple."

"I know I was. Ta sees, on Christmas-eve I hed four shillings, and I thought I would go home with it. Just below Longley's mill I met Billy Britton, and he was beating his donkey, like the brute he is, beyond iverything! I just said a few words to him about it, and then he turned on me, and he would hev given me my fairings if Yates and Todd hedn't come up. Well, master, you know yoursen you'd hev thought it right to be civil to men as hed helped you out o' Billy Britton's clutches, and when Todd said, 'Come and hev a glass at t' "Ring