"If every one did this ... but we cannot do it alone."
"Have you thought what will become of our business?"
And again and yet again: "It is not so that it was done in the old time."
And when the most would have none of it, Matthew made his way sadly through the throng—of whom were many who smiled (kindly!)—to the edge of the common, where stood a woman, trembling.
"Come," he said.
She went with him, and she with many little frightened breaths, but he had no pity, for he read deep within and saw that it was written that she wanted none. When they reached her own house, she would have entered.
"Go we in here," she besought him, "I will show you the rooms where I go about and the lamps that I light."
"We are past all that now," said Matthew, gently, "I will not go on living where you do not live."
He took her to his own house, through the garden that he had planted. He made her look from his window, sit by his table, open his books; and he bade her to a little task at the cupboard and laughed for joy that she performed it.