“Owd Sammy” glanced down at him with condescending tolerance. He had been talking himself, and the greeting had broken in upon his eloquence.
“Which on us,” he asked dryly; “which on us said it wur na?”
A few paces from the group of idlers Joan Lowrie stood at work. Some of the men had noted her presence when they lounged by, but in the enjoyment of their gossip, they had forgotten her again. She had seen Grace too; she had heard his greeting and the almost brutal laugh that followed it; and, added to this, she had caught a passing glimpse of the Curate's face. She dropped her work, and, before the laugh had died out, stood up confronting the loungers.
“If theer is a mon among yo' as he has harmed,” she said; “if theer's one among yo' as he's ivver done a wrong to, let that mon speak up.”
It was “Owd Sammy” who was the first to recover himself. Probably he remembered the power he prided himself upon wielding over the weaker sex. He laid aside his pipe for a moment and tried sarcasm,—an adaptation of the same sarcasm he had tried upon the Curate.
“Which on us said theer wur?” he asked.
Joan turned her face, pale with repressed emotion, toward him.
“There be men here as I would scarce ha' believed could ha' had much agen him. I see one mon here as has a wife as lay nigh death a month or so ago, an' it were the Parson as went to see her day after day, an' tuk her help and comfort. Theer's another mon here as had a little un to dee, an' when it deed, it wur th' Parson as knelt by its bed an' held its hond an' talkt to it when it were feart. Theer's other men here as had help fro' him as they did na know of, an' it wur help from a mon as wur na far fro' a-bein' as poor an' hard worked i' his way as they are i' theirs. Happen th' mon I speak on dunnot know much about th' sick wife, an' deein choild, an' what wur done for 'em, an' if they dunnot, it's th' Parson's fault.”
“Why!” broke in “Owd Sammy.” “Blame me, if tha art na turned Methody! Blame me,” in amazement, “if tha art na!”
“Nay,” her face softening; “it is na Methody so much. Happen I'm turnin' woman, fur I conna abide to see a hurt gi'en to them as has na earned it. That wur why I spoke. I ha' towd yo' th' truth o' th' little chap yo' jeered at an' throw'd his words back to.”