He had told his servants not to talk of his affairs, but they did not heed him; while Hester Floyd, whom no one could control, discussed the matter freely, so that by noon the little town was rife with rumors of every kind, and knots of people gathered at the corners of the street, while in front of the cotton mill a vast concourse had assembled even before the bell rang for twelve, and instead of going home to the dinner they would hardly have found prepared that day, they stood talking of the strange news, which had come to them in so many different forms. That there had been some undue influence brought to bear upon Squire Irving, they knew; and that the mother of the new heir was the guilty party who had slandered the Squire’s unfortunate young wife, they also knew; and many and loud were their imprecations against the woman whose proud haughty bearing had never impressed them favorably, and whom they now disliked with all the unrestrained bitterness common to their class. All had heard of Jessie Irving, and a few remembered her as she was when she first came among them, in her bright, girlish beauty, with those great, sad blue eyes, which always smiled kindly upon her husband’s employes when she met with them. As people will do, they had repeated her story many times, and the mothers had blamed her sorely for deserting her child, while a few envious ones, when speaking of “the grand doings at Millbank,” had hinted that the original stock was “no better than it should be,” and that the Irving name was stained like many others. But this was all forgotten now. Jessie Irving was declared a saint, and an angel, and a martyr, while nothing was too severe to say against the woman who had maligned her, and influenced the jealous old Squire to do a thing which would deprive the working classes in Belvidere of the kindest, most considerate, and liberal of masters. The factory hands could _not_ work after they heard of it, and one by one they stole out upon the green in front of the large manufactory, where they were joined by other hands from the shoe-shop, until the square was full of excited men and boys, and girls, the murmur of their voices swelling louder and louder as, encouraged by each other, they grew more and more indignant toward the “new lords,” as they called Frank and his mother, and more enthusiastic in their praises of Roger. One of their number proposed sending for him to come himself and tell them if what they had heard was true, and to hear their protest against it; and three of the more prominent men were deputed to wait upon him.