The Parson O' Dumford

The last speaker looked up savagely from the block of stone on which he was seated, and the questioner looked down from where he stood on the rough track. There was a quiet, hal...

"Because," said John Maine, speaking slowly, as he stopped leaning on his thick staff in the middle of the road, "I'm not glad to see you, and I don't want to speak."

Banks, the foreman, stayed late at the foundry on the night of the disturbance. His master remained in the counting-house smoking cigars till he was very white and ill, feelings...

His way out lay through the room appropriated by the objects of his thoughts, and on opening the door it was to find Mr Simeon Slee's toilet still in progress. In fact, that gen...

The street was getting pretty full of people as the vicar walked sharply back towards his house, but they were all remarkably quiet. Sim Slee was there, but he turned off down a...

"Here, just hap me up a bit," said Sim Slee to his wife, as he lay down on a rough kind of couch in their little keeping-room, as the half sitting-room, half kitchen was called;...

The vicar used to look sadly at his church every Sunday, at the damp-stained walls, the unpainted high deal pews, with their straw-plaited cushions and hassocks, dotted with exc...

Tea had been waiting for some time at the house before Richard Glaire made his appearance--for he had of late insisted upon oversetting the old-fashioned homely customs of his b...

"He's a strange good man," said Mrs Slee, grimly, as she watched the vicar down the path; "and he must hev a vast o' money, giving away as he is raight and left. Well, I won't h...

Mrs Glaire lived in a great blank-looking red-brick house in the main street, two ugly steep stone steps coming down from the front door on to the narrow kidney pebble path, and...

There was a rush back for the entrance, but the vicar stood firm, and, taking one of the policemen's lanterns, he cautiously stepped forward, tracing the train, and scattering i...

There was no newspaper in Dumford, only those which came from Ramford and Lindum, but news flew quite fast enough without, and by breakfast-time on the morning of the day follow...

As Richard Glaire followed Daisy Banks and reached the works, he made for the great gates, took a rapid glance up and down the dark street to see that it was quite forsaken, and...

It was the day of the plot concocted by Sim's Brotherhood, the members of which body had been perfectly quiet, holding no meeting, and avoiding one another as they brooded over...

"I always said he would, lads," cried Sim. "I always said it. He's seen the error of his ways, and come to join the brotherhood, and clasp the honest horny hand o' labour. He's...

The day following that on which the scoundrels who had made the attempt on the vicarage had been sent off to the county town, the vicar was in his garden musing on his future, a...

The old troubles of the strike were over and forgotten, and the town's intent on this day was to give itself up to feasting, with its ordinary accompaniment of more drink than w...

"Hallo, Harry," said Tom, quietly, at least as quietly as he could, for the words were jerked out of his mouth by the tremendous clap on the shoulder administered by the big ham...

As Daisy Banks ran from the house, wild almost with horror and affright, she made straight for the works, feeling that she might yet be in time to warn Richard Glaire of his per...

As the days passed, and no information could be obtained respecting Daisy Banks, and the efforts of the police to trace the two strangers proved utterly fruitless, John Maine wa...

On reaching the vicarage, Murray Selwood found one of the rooms made bright and comfortable with the furniture that had been sent in, and the table spread ready for a composite...

Richard Glaire made the most of his short time for scolding, and sulked to a great extent with his cousin for the next few days, and then the tables were turned, for it came to...

He was about to speak, to say some words of congratulation--words that he had won a great prize, and that his duty to her was to make amends for the past--but the words would no...

Many of Richard Glaire's workmen belonged to one of the regular trades' unions, from which they received counsel and assistance, and these men held Sim Slee's movements in the m...

The chalk pit naturally formed the great attraction, and on reaching it, the spots were pointed out where basket and shawl were found; but though a careful search was made by a...

Poor Mrs Glaire was in trouble about her fowls, who seemed possessed of a great deal of nature strongly resembling the human. She had a fine collection of noble-looking young Br...

Matters did not improve at Dumford as the days went on, and Murray Selwood found that he could not have arrived at a worse time, so far as his own comfort was concerned, though...

"A lungeing villain," muttered Joe Banks to himself, "he knows nowt but nastiness. Strange thing that a man can't make up to a pretty girl wi'out people putting all sorts o' bad...

The brick, as the vicar called it, was only another piece of slag; but he did not turn his head, only smiled, and began thinking that Dumford quite equalled the report he had he...

Affairs were not very satisfactory at the farm, and Jessie's eyes more than once looked as if they had been red with crying. For the girl was greatly troubled at heart, since Jo...

The announcement was quite correct. Sim Slee and his companions had broken away through the ceiling, dislodged the tiles, and escaped; and when the vicar reached home, he found...

Joe Banks made his way straight through the place to the big house, where, on knocking at the front door, it was evident that he was expected, the girl saying quietly--

Matters looked very bad for the new vicar, and for him he had tried to save, for though the foreman was now ready and free to lend his aid, and Richard Glaire, stung by his posi...

There was, indeed, a calm, but to the vicar it seemed a very deceitful one, and he spent many an uneasy hour in thinking whether it was likely when the men grew excited they wou...

"I should like," he said at last, "to have a regular good stand-up fight with these scoundrels if they come; but I'm a man of peace now, Maine, and must act accordingly."

The vicar's visits to the Big House became fewer, for he could not but see that Richard Glaire, in spite of all that had passed, was more and more embittered against him. He was...

Meanwhile the vicar had missed Eve, who had taken another route, and made his way up to the big house, where he was shown into the room to find Mrs Glaire lying, very pale and w...

That same evening Eve Pelly was in the garden with Mrs Glaire--the old familiar garden where she had spent so many happy hours, while now she was sad with a sadness that made th...

"Phee-ew!" whistled Joe, softly, as he took up the pipe laid ready beside the old, grey, battered, leaden tobacco-box, filled the bowl, and lit up before speaking again, Mrs Ban...

Though Sim Slee had omitted on two occasions to convey letters to Daisy Banks making appointments for meetings in different parts of the country walks round Dumford, Daisy had h...

He was not half-way back, when he met Tom Brough, the keeper, who favoured him with a sneering, contemptuous kind of smile that made the young man's blood boil. He knew him to b...

There was a goodly meeting at the Bull and Cucumber that evening, for the discussion of the disappearance of Daisy Banks. Sim Slee was there, and one of the chief spokesmen.

The vicar was standing by the flower-stand talking to Eve, and opening out the calyx of a new orchid, a half faded blossom of which he had picked from the pot to explain some pe...

A couple of months had glided away, during which time Richard Glaire had recovered from the severe injuries he had received in the accident, and then, as he said, gone on the co...

Then Mrs Slee would tighten up her lips, look as if she would like to box her lord's ears, and end sometimes by doing it, Sim appealing to "Moother" for mercy till she went upst...

It was a very miserable breakfast at the farm the next morning, for old Bultitude was looking very black and angry, and it was quite evident that poor little Jessie had been in...

Tom Podmore walked straight away from the Big House, listening to the noise and shouting as he went to the Vicarage, where Murray Selwood was in conference with Jacky Budd, resp...

"I will, aunt," said the girl, starting up, looking flushed and eager, as she hastily dried her eyes, and speaking now indignantly; "he accused me, aunt, of encouraging Mr Selwo...

"Take my arm, Mrs Glaire," said the vicar, gently; and, the excitement past, the overstrung nerves slackened, and the woman reasserted itself, for the doting mother now realised...

There was a week clear before the plot was to have effect, and the place was wonderfully quiet. The vicar, looking very pale and anxious, was sitting in his study on the morning...

The weeks slipped rapidly by, and a great change had come over Dumford. The sky was blackened once more with smoke, the furnaces roared, there was the loud chink of metal heard,...

"Look here, parson," cried the young workman, in a voice husky with emotion; and as he spoke he dashed his cap upon the ground and began to roll up his sleeves, displaying arms...

"Two can play at that game," said Richard to himself, as he walked sharply down the hill and back into the town, where, not heeding Eve, who was in the dining-room, he hastily w...

After the storm came a calm, during which there was magisterial talk in the neighbourhood to which reports of the proceedings had extended, of sending for the military, of havin...

"Stop, stop!" he cried; "it isn't all raight yet. I want to know whether we are to have our rights as British wuckmen, and our just and righteous demands 'corded to us. What I w...

It was gala day in Dumford. The past bitter times were forgotten, and the men had rigged up an arch of evergreens. The children were in their best, and gardens had been stripped...

"Well, to put it quite plain, the missus wants her to have Tom Podmore down at the works there, but the girl hangs back, and I found out the reason. I did see Master Dick talkin...