The Professor

I hurried down the steep and now icy street which descended from Mrs. King’s to the Close. The factory workpeople had preceded me by nearly an hour, and the mill was all lighted

umb; I could not write till they had regained vitality, so I went on thinking, and still the theme of

you! Letter-copying till noon, solitary dinner at your lodgings, letter-copying till evening, solitude; for you neither find pleasure in Brown’s, nor Smith’s, nor Nicholl’s, nor Eccle’s company; and as to Hunsden, you fancied there was pleasure to be derived from his society — he! he! how did you like the taste you had of him last night? was it sweet? Yet he is a talented, an original-minded man, and even he does not like you; your self-respect defies you to like him; he has always seen you to disadvantage; he always will see you to disadvantage; your positions are unequal, and were they on the same level your minds could n

work, it will do no good,” I growled; but nevertheless I drew out a packet of letters and commenced my task — task thankless and bitter as

f, to hang up his mackintosh, stand a minute with his back to the fire, and then walk out. Today he did not deviate from his usual habits; the only difference was that when he loo

parted, desiring me to lock the counting-house door, and take the key with me. I was tying up a bundle of papers, and putting

eep, brutal voice, while his nostrils disten

ng that forgot the difference of position; I put away deferenc

me,” I said, turning

ted. “And take your hand off t

cause is there for cha

! What have you been about —?” He was going on in the same breath, when an abru

now,” I replied. “There is the

solence! What hav

and have d

, I believe, purely —-shire, and alludes to the horn of black, rancid whale-oil,

ounts. I have now given your service three months’ trial, and I find it the

at least for your wages.” He took down the h

er or hide. His fury boiled up, and when he had sworn half-a-dozen vulgar,

u mean, whining lickspittle! What have you been

nclination nor temptat

e at my hands. You have gone and told it far and near that I give you low wages and knock you about like a dog. I wish you wer

thrill ran through my veins, my blood seemed to give abound, and then raced fast and

aid I, “and explain this

whom are y

have been calumniating you — complaining of your low wages

I sternly demanded an explanation, h

n the question under discussion, by allusions to my private affairs; by cant about monsters without natural affection, family despots, and such trash; and when I rose to answer, I was met by a shout from the filthy mob, where the mention of your name enabled me at once to detect the

ou, he did quite right. You deserve popular execration; for a worse man,

h; and to complete his apostrophe, he

n two pieces, and throw it under the grate. He mad

ave you up before the

se he saw I meant what I said. After an odd and long stare at me, at once bull-like and amazed, he seemed to bethink himself that, after all, his money gave him suffic

pauper: beg, steal, starve, get transported, do what you like; but at your peril venture again into my si

on can I have to return to them? I leave a prison, I leave a tyrant; I leave wh

ke you!” exclai

s contents as were my own property, put them in my po

nded the millowner. “Leave all behind in its pl

hat, drew on my gloves, and walked leisurely out of th

no longer was its horizon limited by the high black wall surrounding Crimsworth’s mill. Two hours had elapsed before my sensations had so far subsided as to leave me calm enough to remark for what wider and clearer boundaries I had exchanged that sooty girdle. When I did look up, lo! straight before me lay Grovetown, a village of villas about five miles out of X——. The short winter day, as I perceived from the far-declined sun, was already approaching its close; a chill frost-mist was rising from the river on which X—— stands, and along whose banks the road I had taken lay; it dimmed the earth, but did not obscure the clear icy blue of the January sky. There was a great stillness near and far; the time of the day favoured tranquillity, as the people were all employed within-doors, the hour of evening release from t