"Now," cried Ivan, with friendly encouragement, "to-day is a Sunday. Does nothing occur to you, my friend?"
The man sprang to his feet.
"Service has not yet begun," went on Ivan; "the congregation have not all arrived at the church yet. I think there would be time for you to catch up your bride and go with her to the clergyman."
Peter said no word to this proposal, but he began to run; his legs were long, and he was soon out of sight. He was bareheaded; he had forgotten his hat upon the seat. Ivan saw it, and took it into his house to keep, but he stood looking after the fleet lover until he had disappeared behind the stone wall at the turning. Then he went in, with Saffran's hat in his hand.
"How happy he is!" he thought, and sighed.
When he was in his room he wrote in his day-book that from the following day, Monday, he had engaged Peter Saffran as a first-class pitman with the usual wages, and that in his place another day-laborer should be taken on. When he had closed the book, his heart whispered—
"My cruel master, art thou content?"
But Ivan had his misgivings, and answered his heart thus—
"I don't believe in you, since I have seen how easy it was for you to slip on the ice. I must for the future watch closely. I am not sure of the purity of my own motives even now. God knows what lies under this apparent abnegation. Perhaps you think as a young wife—But I shall watch you closely, traitorous heart of mine; you shall lead me into no more pitfalls."
Again he consulted his account-book, and found that the increase in this year's income allowed him to take on an overseer at a very fair salary. He wrote out the proper advertisement, and despatched it that very evening to different papers for insertion. In this way he would not be thrown into daily contact with his work-people.