It was not until the week following that Haworth returned, and then he came without having given any previous warning of his intention. Ffrench, sitting in his office in a rather dejected mood one morning, was startled by his entering with even less than his usual small ceremony. "My dear Haworth," he exclaimed. "Is it possible!" His first intention had been to hold out his hand, but he did not do so. In fact he sat down again a little suddenly and uneasily. Haworth sat down too, confronting him squarely. "What have you been up to?" he demanded. "What is this row about?" "About!" echoed Ffrench. "It's the most extraordinary combination of nonsense and misunderstanding I ever heard of in my life. How it arose there is no knowing. The fellows are mad!" "Aye," angrily, "mad enow, but you can't stop 'em now they've got agate. It's a devilish lookout for us. I've heard it all over the country, and the more you say agen it the worse it is. They're set on it all through Lancashire that there's a plot agen 'em, and they're fur fettlin' it their own fashion." "You--you don't think it will be worse for us?" his partner suggested weakly. "It's struck me that--in the end--it mightn't be a bad thing--that it would change the direction of their mood." "Wait until the end comes. It's not here yet. Tell me how it happened." Upon the whole, Mr. Ffrench made a good story of it. He depicted the anxieties and dangers of the occasion very graphically. He had lost a good deal of his enthusiasm on the subject of the uncultivated virtues and sturdy determination of the manufacturing laboring classes, and he was always fluent, as has been before mentioned. He was very fluent now, and especially so in describing the incident of his daughter's presenting herself to the mob and the result of her daring. "She might have lost her life," he said at one point. "It was an insane thing to have done--an insane thing. She surprised them at first, but she could not hold them in check after Murdoch came. She will bear the mark of the stone for many a day." "They threw a stone, blast 'em, did they?" said Haworth, setting his teeth. "Yes--but not at her. Perhaps they would hardly have dared that after all. It was thrown at Murdoch." "And he stepped out of the way?" "Oh no. He did not see the man raise his arm, but she did, and was too much alarmed to reflect, I suppose--and--in fact threw herself before him." He moved back disturbedly the next instant. Haworth burst forth with a string of oaths. The veins stood out like cords on his forehead; he ground his teeth. When the outbreak was over he asked an embarrassing question. "Where were you?" "I?"--with some uncertainty of tone. "I--had not gone out. I--I did not wish to infuriate them. It seemed to me that--that--that a great deal depended upon their not being infuriated." "Aye," said Haworth, "a good deal."