CHAPTER VIII.
A Vocation DINAH, who had risen when the gentlemen came in, but still kept hold of the sheet she was mending, curtsied respectfully when she saw Mr.Irwine looking at her and advancing towards her.

He had never yet spoken to her, or stood face to face with her, and her first thought, as her eyes met his, was, "What a well-favoured countenance! Oh that the good seed might fall on that soil, for it would surely flourish." The agreeable impression must have been mutual, for Mr.Irwine bowed to her with a benignant deference, which would have been equally in place if she had been the most dignified lady of his acquaintance.
"You are only a visitor in this neighbourhood, I think ?" were his first words, as he seated himself opposite to her.
"No, sir, I come from Snowfield, in Stonyshire.

But my aunt was very kind, wanting me to have rest from my work there, because I'd been ill, and she invited me to come and stay with her for a while." "Ah, I remember Snowfield very well; I once had occasion to go there.
It's a dreary bleak place.

They were building a cotton-mill there; but that's many years ago now.

I suppose the place is a good deal changed by the employment that mill must have brought." "It IS changed so far as the mill has brought people there, who get a livelihood for themselves by working in it, and make it better for the tradesfolks.