[CHAPTER III.]
THE LAW OF LOVE.
SPRINGCLIFFE is a long straggling village, stretching inland for nearly a mile in length, and consisting of but one principal street, in many parts of which the houses are but very thinly scattered. The lower village, or that portion of it which is near the sea, presents all the well-known peculiarities of a fishing village; whilst in the upper portion, everything wears an agricultural aspect. Springcliffe church is in the upper village; it is a plain stone structure, with a Norman tower, and a sweet peal of bells.
A stream runs through some rich pasture meadows on its way to the sea; and in its course works a large flour-mill, belonging to the proprietor of one of the large farms in the neighbourhood, who thus combines the trade of farmer and miller. In the mill cottage, close to the stream, lived Frank Hardy's parents and their numerous family. On the other side of the stream, steep wooded hills rise almost perpendicularly from the water's edge; and from the summit of the hills the eye wanders far away over a richly-wooded country, a great proportion of which is the property of Squire Forbes, Oak Glen.
John Hardy and his wife had a large family of children, of whom Frank was the eldest. They had lived for many years in the mill cottage; for, although Hardy was by no means a steady man, and did not bear the best of characters in the place, his master kept him on out of kindly feeling towards his wife, who had lived many years as servant at the farm before she married John Hardy. Then she had been an active, bright-looking girl, full of life and spirits; now, she was a poor, sickly, slatternly woman, finding it hard work to get food for herself and her nine children.
Had John Hardy been steady and industrious, he might, long since, have been foreman at the mill; but, more than once, he had seen younger but steadier men promoted to the post, whilst he remained in the same position he had held for years.
There was a roadside public-house, called "The Plough," not far from the mill; and there John Hardy spent a good part of his weekly earning. Whether, in former days, Mrs. Hardy had done her best to make her husband's home comfortable, whether she had at all times remembered that "a soft answer turneth away wrath," is very doubtful; but at the time of which we are writing, John Hardy rarely spent an evening at home, and his wife and children were frequently without food.
It was Mr. Giles, the farmer and miller, who had apprenticed Frank to Mr. King, and who paid for the schooling of the elder children; always upon condition, however, that they should be sent regularly to the Sunday-school and to church. Hardy and his wife were seldom seen in God's house; and it is not to be wondered at if very little of that charity which "suffereth long, and is kind," was to be found in such a godless home.
"Whatever brawls disturb the streets," says good Dr. Watts, "there should be peace at home;" but there was little peace at the mill cottage. Both parents were very passionate, and it was scarcely to be expected that their children would be otherwise. Never taught to control their tempers, the young Hardys were notorious in the village as quarrelsome, disobedient, noisy children. There was one exception, and that was little Grace Hardy, or "blind Gracie," as she was generally called. When only two or three years old, she had been thrown down by her father, who had stumbled against her as he entered his cottage in a fit of intoxication. The child fell against the sharp edge of the fender, and received such severe injury in the eyes that, after much suffering, she became totally blind.
At the time when the accident happened, Mrs. White lived in a small cottage near the Hardys. It was shortly after her husband's death, and she had not yet been set up in her little shop. Always kind-hearted, and clever at nursing, she had assisted Mrs. Hardy in her care of poor Gracie, and the child became much attached both to her and to Walter, who would sit for the hour together, endeavouring to amuse the blind child.