The woman with the tea began to cry loudly and ask questions. Laura rose to her feet, and touched her. "Don't cry--can't you get some brandy?" Then in her turn she felt herself caught by the arm. "Miss Fountain--Miss Laura--I can get you out of this!--there's a way out here by the back." Mason's white countenance showed over her shoulder as she turned. "Not yet--can't anyone find some brandy? Ah!" For their guide came up at the moment with a bottle in his hand. It was Laura who handed him the mug, and it was she who, stooping down, put the spirit to the lips of the fainting workman. Her mind seemed to float in a mist of horror, but her will asserted itself; she recovered her power of action sooner than the men around her. They stared at the young lady for a moment; but no more. The one hideous fact that possessed them robbed all else of meaning. "Did he see it?" said Laura to the man's friend. Her voice reached no ear but his. For they were surrounded by two uproars--the noise of the crowd of workmen, a couple of thousand men aimlessly surging and shouting to each other, and the distant thunder of the furnace. "Aye, Miss. He wor drivin the tub, an he saw Overton in front--it wor the wheel of his barrer slipped, an soomthin must ha took him--if he'd ha let goa straight theer ud bin noa harm doon--bit he mut ha tried to draw it back--an the barrer pulled him right in." "He didn't suffer?" said Laura eagerly, her face close under his. "Thank the Lord, he can ha known nowt aboot it!--nowt at aw. The gas ud throttle him, Miss, afore he felt the fire." "Is there a wife?" "Noa--he coom here a widower three weeks sen--there's a little gell----" "Aye! they be gone for her an t' passon boath," said another voice; "what's passon to do whan he cooms?" "Salve the masters' consciences!" cried a third in fury. "They'll burn us to hell first, and then quieten us with praying." Many faces turned to the speaker, a thin, wiry man one of the "agitators" of the town, and a dull groan went round. * * * * * "Make way there!" cried an imperious voice, and the crowd between them and the entrance side of the shed began to part. A gentleman came through, leading a clergyman, who walked hurriedly, with eyes downcast, holding his book against his breast. There was a flutter of caps through the vast shed. Every head stood bared, and bent. On went the parson towards the little platform with the railway. The furnace had sunk somewhat--its roar was less acute---- Laura looking at it thought of the gorged beast that falls to rest. But another parting of the throng--one sob!--the common sob of hundreds. Laura looked. "It's t' little gell, Ned! t' little gell!" said the elder workman to the youth he was supporting.