"Jane thought the change would do her good."
"Late hours, late dinners, lights, and noise, and crowded streets, and air that hes been breathed by hundreds and thousands before it reaches the poor child, and——"
"Nay, mother, that's enough. Count up no more dangers. I am miserable as it is. How goes all with you?"
"Why, John, it goes and goes, and I hardly know where it goes or how it goes, and the mischief of it all is this—some are getting so used to the Government feeding and clothing them that they'll think it a hardship when they hev to feed and clothe themselves."
"Not they, or else they are not men of this countryside. How is Harry? I heard a queer story about him and others yesterday."
"Queer it might be, but it was queer in a good way if it is set against Harry. What did you hear?"
"That Harry had trained a quartette of singers and that they had given two concerts in Harrow-gate and three in Scarborough and Halifax, and come back with nearly five hundred pounds for the starving mill-hands in Hatton District."
"That is so—and I'm thankful to say it! People were glad to give. Many were not satisfied with buying tickets; they added a few pounds or shillings
as they could spare them. Lord Thirsk went with the company as finance manager. People like a lord at the head of anything, and Thirsk is Yorkshire, well known and trusted."
"No more known and trusted than is Hatton. I think Harry might have asked me. It is a pity they did not think of this plan earlier."