"I expect he's better still now he's turned religious."
"He was good enough for me before. If he'd been like some men, I might have been glad enough to see an alteration," returned Margaret, rather sharply.
"You may say that," replied her neighbour, without resenting the implied allusion to her own partner. "We're none of us so good, though, but what we might be better. I often feel as if I wanted something different, some comfort that I can't get out of my share of this world."
Margaret was not prepared to administer such, and the neighbour took her leave with the thought in her mind that Mrs. Livesey hardly knew when she was well off, specially in the matter of a husband.
It was true that Adam never grumbled. He worked with his might, was satisfied with fair wages, and he had mastered that very difficult lesson which St. Paul spoke of, and could say, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."
He had his desires and longings, but not after the good things of this world. He wanted to grow in likeness to Jesus, to be fruitful in every good work, to increase in the knowledge of God.
He could not have put his longings into these very words unless he had just read them, but he did feel like a very child, ready to be taught and led, and humbly conscious of his ignorance and weakness. He clung to what he had already gained, and thanked God for it with a rejoicing heart. And only God knew how he prayed that the partner of his life, the mother of his children, might yet share his fortune, and that they might walk to the house of God in company.
All the while Margaret, with far less to try her than of old, was making troubles both for Adam and herself. She was soon to experience a very real one.
That very morning, one of the workmen at Rutherford's placed some iron beams near a sliding gate. They were not firmly fixed, but were only intended to remain for a few minutes, and then to be gradually removed. The man was, however, called away for something else, and in the meanwhile, Mr. Drummond and another workman approached the spot, followed by Adam Livesey, who was a couple of paces behind the manager.
The workman advanced to open the gate without noticing the insecure position of the beams, the first of which was displaced by the movement, and the rest came crashing down. Adam's eye was turned in that direction, and he saw the danger, and uttered a warning cry, whilst darting forward to save Mr. Drummond, who was perfectly unconscious of the possibility of risk.