Page:Gaskell - North and South, vol. I, 1855.djvu/263

 "Don't you find such close neighbourhood to the mill rather unpleasant at times?"

She drew herself up:

"Never. I am not become so fine as to desire to forget the source of my son's wealth and power. Besides, there is not such another factory in Milton. One room alone is two hundred and twenty square yards."

"I meant that the smoke and the noise—the constant going out and coming in of the work-people, might be annoying!"

"I agree with you, Mr. Hale!" said Fanny. "There is a continual smell of steam, and oily machinery—and the noise is perfectly deafening."

"I have heard noise that was called music far more deafening. The engine-room is at the street-end of the factory; we hardly hear it, except in summer weather, when all the windows are open; and as for the continual murmur of the work-people, it disturbs me no more than the humming of a hive of bees. If I think of it at all, I connect it with my son, and feel how all belongs to him, and that his is the head that directs it. Just now, there are no sounds to come from the mill; the hands have been ungrateful enough to turn out, as perhaps you have heard. But the very business (of which I spoke, when you entered), had reference to the steps he is going to take to make them learn their place." The expression on her face, always stern, deepened into dark anger, as she said this. Nor did it clear away when Mr. Thornton entered the room; for she saw, in an instant, the weight of care and anxiety which he could not shake off, although his guests received