“Squire, we thank thee with all our hearts, and we will now go and ring t’ chapel bell, and get the people together, and tell them all thou hes said would come to pass.”
“Too late to-night.”
“Not a bit too late. Even if we stop there till midnight, God loves the midnight prayer. Oh, Squire Annis, thou hes done big things for workingmen in London, and——”
“Ay, I did! I wouldn’t come home till I saw the workingmen got their rights. And I shall see that my men get all, and more, than I hev promised them. My word is my bond.”
Then the men with hearty good-bys, which is really the abbreviation of “God be with you!” went quickly down the hill and in half-an-hour the chapel bells were ringing and the squire stood at his open door and listened with a glad heart to them. His wife and daughter watched him, and then smiled at each other. They hardly knew what to say, for he was the same man, and yet far beyond the same. His child-likeness, and his pleasant bits of egotism, were, as usual, quite evident; and Annie was delighted to see and hear the expressions of his simple self-appreciation, but in other respects he was not unlike one who had just attained unto his majority. To have had his breakfast and be ready for a day’s tramp at eight o’clock in the morning was a wonderful thing for Antony Annis to promise. Yet he faithfully kept it, and had been away more than an hour when his wife and daughter came down to breakfast.
Dick soon joined them, and he was not only in high spirits, but also dressed with great care and taste. His mother regarded him critically, and then became silent. She had almost instantly divined the reason of his careful dressing. She looked inquisitively at Katherine, who dropped her eyes and began a hurried and irrelative conversation about the most trifling of subjects. Dick looked from one to the other, and said with a shrug of his shoulders, “I see I have spoiled a private conversation. I beg pardon. I will be away in a few minutes.”
“Where are you going so early, Dick?”
“I am going to Mr. Foster’s. I have a message to him from father, and I have a very important message to Faith Foster from myself.” He made the last remark with decision, drank off his coffee, and rose from the table.
“Dick, listen to your mother. Do not be in a hurry about some trivial affair, at this most important period of your father’s—of all our lives. Nothing can be lost, everything is to be gained by a little self-denial on the part of all, who fear they are being neglected. Father has the right of way at this crisis.”
“I acknowledge that as unselfishly as you do, mother. I intend to help father all I can. I could not, would not, do otherwise. Father wants to see Mr. Foster, and I want to see Miss Foster. Is there anything I can do for yourself or Kitty when I am in the village?”