Hollowmell / or, A Schoolgirl's Mission

the sorrowful circumstances it would be required. She found, as she had expected, that Mrs. Malone was dead. She died at about four o'clock in the morning, her husband info

h the book in his hand, as if he had never moved

his cruelty to her, when under the influence of drink, she might have still been alive and happy, had overcome him to such an extent that

already open, and finding the object of her search (Molly Gray) engaged in the preparation of her own bre

any emergency, and carrying her own tea with her in a can wherewith to

stricken husband swallow some tea, and a few mouthsful of bread, but she had no appetite for her own breakfast, th

sent for her absence, stating that she was confined to the house with a slight attack of influenza. Minnie's excitement of Saturday night, thus augmented by anxiety on her friend's behalf, now began to tell upon her, so much, indeed, that before the work of the school was over, every one observed its effect in her h

ffect upon her, both physically and mentally, for by the time she arrived at Mr. Chartres' door, the feverish flush was replaced by a healthy glo

ough in her opinion, she was considerably better, an

of the door, quietly though it was done, caused her to unclose them again just as Minnie looked in. She looked very pale and exhausted, but brightened up wonderfully under the in

have really no more influenza than she as herself, but she must have some reason for my being ill, and there would be no use contrad

and conjuring her to "shake herself

r two brothers, Archie and Seymour, the one of whom, Seymour

Saturday night? What mysterious traffic is going on between you and Charlie

as silent as that famous m

just dying to tell, as much as I am to hear what before-unheard of circumsta

hen I must congratulate you on being a great deal better acquainted with my state of mind than I am myself. I don't k

ymour l

on on the subject, since you seem so very much interested in it. Minnie was along

as his expectation, he was doomed to disappointment, for Seymour having delivered in these few words the full ex

notice it in his astonishment and eagerness t

"Seymour, who told you that?-I de

Hollowmell yesterday, and came home full of it. I did not know before to-day that I had a sain

he spoke to the roots of her hair, though he could only have been instin

it dawned upon him that Minnie looked, to say the least of it, uncomfortable, and stifling his cu

Minnie resolved to seize this opportunity o

ymour was here, for you know very well how he laughs at religion, and says it is all done for show, and that there is no heart in

eed with the story-or," he hastily interrupted himself, "not if

m that it would not bother her at all to tell him, as she knew h

at had taken place at Hollowmell on Saturday night, and how it

he invariably found his interest flag after drinking in the first few details of anything. "Why, if you aren't a party of complete 'bricks-' Seymour called you a saint, but

ement had subsided. "However did you manage to get Charlie into such a pie? He and Seymour go togethe

ther Ned was in or not. I'm glad now it was Charlie, for I don't think he'll look on these things with the

ose we must attend to them some time, though there's no

hat though we are young, we haven't any guarantee that we will live even one day more-there are

very unlikely. It's a rather dull sort of subject this-I think I

no effort to stop him, knowing how useless

confident expectation, indeed the life and activity with which she found herself surrounded there, and into which she was ere long s

work in consequence. Minnie, who never did anything by halves, wrought with all her energy, and denied hers

keep back her Latin translation, but there were candidates from other schools in the neighbourhood,

o be. Mona, to do her justice, had not, since the day on which she had been so ignominiously defeated about the Hollowmell scheme, troubled Minnie with any of her ordinary most

ained "in statu quo" after the examination was over,

ould be some time before the result could be communicated, these speculations wer

hs. It was still almost a month till then, but the hearts of these youthful missionaries were already growing troubled as they contemplated the ambitious nature of their undertak

ut found that their limited space forbade the carrying into effect of this amiable project. They were very loath to

h faith in the soothing effect of good-natured social intercourse with them, and a display of real and unaffected interest in the

eldom used, and this suggestion, being favourably received, would have been carried out at once, but for the unfortunate r

to be had, and so they found their good

ndomitable among them in the pursuit of anything on which she had set her heart; and on the carr

g village, and there they usually removed during the Summer months. Fired by Minnie's example, Bessie had formed the resolution of initiating something of the same kind among her father's work-people when she should be a

ne, and no fresh idea was promulgated, the meeting separated with the intention of giving the m

ubled every day, and was even now away attending one of those meetings from which he usu

ery much of late, indeed, she had not been right since the night of Mrs. Malone'

pirit among the people. She could not bear the thought of being idle while there was a vague possibility of the slightest improvement being made in the present asp

performing all sorts of impossible feats before an admiring audience, composed for the most part of miners, but among whom she could distinguish the face

, when they happened to touch each other and the result was a sudden "phiz," not a moral "phiz," such as the pupils of Miss Marsden's school were in the habit of witnessing, but a real, or rather what seemed to h

ugh, was her father in the act of drawing the cork of a lemonade bottle, while Archie poured ou

id you condescend to wake at last? Do yo

ound in half-aw

as-jets lit, and the supper on

leep so long?" asked Minni

ned you fast enough-you know my usual accomm

we all thought it a charity to let you go on. I hope it was a pl

nation, which was received with shouts of laughter, and Minnie was glad to observe that her father joined them in their

head?" He enquired curiously, w

re talking about them down in the Hollow this afternoon. I knew you were trying to satisfy

I hardly wonder at your dreaming of m

the miners may think th

ed yourself quite so much about your inability, seeing you have already

eem to be able to do nothing just now-t

nt moment," interrupted Archi

rife of one kind or another. I know that the most of my men, are perfectly well aware that they receive good wages for their work, and would be content enough if it were not for these vampires-for they seem liker that than anything else. Though I have be

and was therefore not surprised when I sat down, to see that the stolid indifference w

ho has been working in the pit for h

which had made his wife's last moments the happiest she had ever known. I cannot bring before you the grandeur of simplicity which carried such weight with it, nor the terrible sincerity of the rugged

eir children's good and theirs, and how there was scarcely one present who had not reaped the b

ter they had given three cheers in honour of the young ladies, for the sak

hen that was subdued, another miner rose and seconde

e than it takes to tell it; and so the dispute was settled, and my men go bac

minds of all being intensely occupied, each with it

r a long pause, "was, not two months ago, t

ression to any thoughts they might have on the su