The cart started off, and Mrs.Thornburgh was left staring into the receding eyes of 'Jim the Noodle,' who, from his seat on the near shaft, regarded her with a gaze which had passed from benevolence into a preternatural solemnity.
'He's sparin' ov 'is speach, is John Backhouse,' said Sarah grimly, as her mistress returned to her.

'Maybe ee's aboot reet.

It's a bad business au' ee'll not mend it wi' taakin.' Mrs.Thornburgh, however, could not apply herself to the case of Mary Backhouse.

At any other moment it would have excited in her breast the shuddering interest, which, owing to certain peculiar attendant circumstances, it, awakened in every other woman in Long Whindale.

But her mind--such are the limitations of even clergymen's wives--was now absorbed by her own misfortune.