The master had grown aged in that one night, and he gazed helplessly about him, as if for some one to direct and guide him.

He no longer refused to quit the place, only he would not trust himself anywhere near Botfield; and as soon as a carriage could be procured, he and Miss Anne were driven off to Longville.

There was nothing more to wait for now; and Stephen went quietly home to breakfast in the cinder-hill cabin.
It was a good deal later than usual that morning when the engineman at the works sent down the first skip-load of colliers into the pit.

Four of their number were absent, but that excited no surprise after the events of the night; and even Bess Thompson supposed her father had gone off to the public-house with the others.

But what was the amazement of the colliers when they found Tim at the bottom of the shaft, fiercely hungry after his night's fasting, and as fiercely anxious to hear what had been taking place overhead.