CHAPTER XLIV.
JOSEPH JASPER.
Another fact Mewks carried to his master--namely, that, as Mary came near the door of the house, she was met by "a rough-looking man," who came walking slowly along, as if he had been going up and down waiting for her.

He made her an awkward bow as she drew near, and she stopped and had a long conversation with him--such at least it seemed to Mewks, annoyed that he could hear nothing of it, and fearful of attracting their attention--after which the man went away, and Mary went into the house.

This report made his master grin, for, through the description Mewks gave, he suspected a thief disguised as a workman; but, his hopes being against the supposition, he dwelt the less upon it.
The man who stopped Mary, and whom, indeed, she would have stopped, was Joseph Jasper, the blacksmith.

That he was rough in appearance, no one who knew him would have wished himself able to deny, and one less like a thief would have been hard to find.

His hands were very rough and ingrained with black; his fingers were long, but chopped off square at the points, and had no resemblance to the long, tapering fingers of an artist or pickpocket.