'Why, Hester, where have you been ?' he asked, as they drew near.
Hester reddened a little, and then replied, in her slow, quiet way-- 'I've been sitting with Betsy Darley--her that is bed-ridden.

It were lonesome for her when the others were away at the burying.' And she made as though she would have passed; but Sylvia, all her sympathies alive for the relations of the murdered man, wanted to ask more questions, and put her hand on Hester's arm to detain her a moment.

Hester suddenly drew back a little, reddened still more, and then replied fully and quietly to all Sylvia asked.
In the agricultural counties, and among the class to which these four persons belonged, there is little analysis of motive or comparison of characters and actions, even at this present day of enlightenment.

Sixty or seventy years ago there was still less.

I do not mean that amongst thoughtful and serious people there was not much reading of such books as _Mason_ on _Self-Knowledge_ and _Law's Serious Call_, or that there were not the experiences of the Wesleyans, that were related at class-meeting for the edification of the hearers.