"Well I nivver! But I'm fain and glad! And as for trouble, I'll not
fear it. Why should I, wi' t' love o' God and t' love o' man to help
me?"
"When did it happen, Martha?"
"Last night, Miss Hallam. My Ben and Jonathan Clough wern't as good
friends as might be. There's a lass at t' bottom o' t' trouble; there's
allays that. She's a good lass enough, but good 'uns mak' as much
trouble as t' bad 'uns sometimes, I think. It's Jonathan's daughter,
Mary. She's ta'en Ben's fancy, and she's ta'en Bill Laycock's fancy,
too. T' lass likes my Ben, and Clough he liked Laycock; for Laycock
is t' blacksmith now, and owns t' forge, and t' house behind it. My
Ben is nobbut Clough's overlooker."
"It is a pity he stopped at Clough's mill, if there was ill-feeling
between them."
"T' lad's none to blame for that. Clough is makkin' some new kind o'
figured goods, and t' men are all hired by t' twelvemonth, and bound
over to keep a quiet tongue i' their mouths about t' new looms as does
t' work. Two days ago Clough found out that Tim Bingley hed told t'
secret to Booth; and Clough wer' neither to hold nor bind. He put
Bingley out o' t' mill, and wouldn't pay him t' balance o' t' year,
and somehow he took t' notion that Ben was in t' affair. Ben's none
so mean as that, I'm sure."
"But Bingley is a very bad man.
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