ONE:There lived, at this time, at the distance of nearly a mile beyond the town, a man named Giles Gray; and about ten years previous to the time of which we write, there were few round Winchcombe of whom it might with more reason be imagined that his days would pass amidst peace and plenty. Possessed of a farm, which, if not the most extensive in the parish, was well cultivated and fruitful, and sufficiently ample to place him among the class of respectable yeoman; with a little gentle wife, two fine rosy children, and an exuberance of animal spirits, he seemed placed above the chances of fortune. But his wife fell into a consumptive illness, which, rendering her incapable of attending to the domestic affairs, her sister, a pretty, active, young woman, kindly left her home, at Campden, to take charge of the family. In less than a twelve-month the wife died, and Jane, the sister, still continued to superintend, and much was she praised for her management and for the attention she paid the little orphans. However, many months had not elapsed, ere strange whisperings went through the neighbourhood;groups might be seen conversing earnestly together;and, if it chanced that Gray's sister-in-law passed, every eye was turned up, and every head significantly shook, and Gray was at length compelled, in vindication of Jane, to produce a certificate, setting forth that they were married at St. Crypt's Church, in the city of Gloucester, about six months previously."Oh, oh!"screamed Harry"Oh, oh, oh!"
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ONE:"Ah," said the youth in the open-work socks approvingly. "That's very like an episode in 'Meryon's House,' you knowthat glorious scene in which Jennifer the Prostitute goes down to the New Forest with Meryon and suddenly begins dancing in a glade."
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ONE:The next year came the great unionist collapse. The Government which had bumped perilously through the South African war, went on the rocks of an indignant peacewrecked by Tariff Reform with the complication of Chinese Labour and the Education Bill. Once more Reuben took prominent part in a general election. The circumstances were alteredno one threw dead cats at him at meetings, though the common labouring men had a way of asking questions which they had not had in '65.
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ONE:"You said you were coming at eleven. I'm afraid father's out again.""D?an't talk nonsense. How can I sit here and see my land messed about by a fool, jest because he happens to have married my darter?and ag?unst my wish, too. I'm sorry fur you, Tilly, but you're still young enough to work. I'm eighty-five, and I ?un't stopped working yet, so d?an't go saying you're too old. Your gals can go out to service ... and this liddle chap here ..."
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ONE:The eyes of the spectators, which, during this strange scenethis trial of strength between the lay and ecclesiastical dignitarieshad alternately wandered to each, were now anxiously directed to Skipwith alone, who hastily concluded his charge, and turned to the jury, as the arbiters of Edith's fate. Calverley, among the rest, cast a look at the jury-box: and Black Jack, turning to his companions, proceeded, in the usual manner, to ask their opinions. Ten, after a minute's consultation, decided that the prisoner was guilty; but the eleventh, the stranger who had endeavoured to screen himself from observation, and whose changing aspect and agitation had betrayed the deep interest he took in the trial, positively refused to return a verdict of guilty. Black Jack cast an intimidating glance on the non-content, but he heeded him not; and as the jury-box, exposed to the eyes of the whole court, was not a place for further debate, the foreman declared, that as one of his brethren would not agree with the rest, they must withdraw.
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