Faith and Mary were just enough to send a man off his head, as they stood in their veils, and even Martha looked comely, for love put its halo about her head. Mr. Coates couldn’t keep his eyes off Mary and Faith, for I reckon he didn’t see two such pictures every day, and when we went into the vestry to sign th’ register:
“The Rose,” says he, handing the quill pen for Mary to sign her name. “And the lily,” he added, with a smile and a courtly bow, like the gentleman he was, to Faith.
“Nay, sir,” said Mary, with a happy laugh, “Nay, sir, the lilies come fra Golcar.”
And now, my children, my story is told. You know more about the Luddites, perhaps, than when you began to read it. You know how vain was their attempt to stop the introduction of machinery. And no doubt machinery has been a great boon. Why, I myself, as you know, run my own mill by it.
But don’t tell me the Luds were a bad lot—misguided, short–sighted, ignorant, if you like, but rogues, and idle, dissolute n’er–do–weels——No! and still no!
[THE END.]