but he little guesses what they 'll have to
show him, as soon as he enters his own door
again."

Rudd listened with painful curiosity: his
father-in-law proceeded:

"You know Bammant's girl Mary. Well,
poor thing, she's killed; killed by the mill-
sail. She was in too much of a hurry to
pass, and it dashed her brains out."

I was then too young to have had much to
grieve or shock me, and I was oppressively
grieved and shocked at hearing this dreadful
piece of news.

"What! " said I, " that pretty little child
we saw this very afternoon, coming out of the
marsh-mill where you would not let me take
shelter?"

My host slowly nodded his head in the
affirmative. I felt the room spin round; the
heat and the tobacco-smoke, before unheeded,
were now suffocating and unbearable. I was
rising to leave, when Raven perceiving it,
said,

"Excuse me, sir, but you will perhaps do
us a service by remaining quietly a few
minutes longer. You know, Robert, Jane
must hear of this, sooner or later; and after
what happened before, I thought it best to
come up at once, and let you tell her the
news yourself. As she is at present, it
might be of consequence to be told of it too
suddenly."

A slight gesture and a look of intelligence
expressed Rudd's thankfulness, as well as his
perfect acquiescence. He rose at once, and
walked to the nook where his wife and Nurse
Andrews were having their very last game
with the baby. He took the child in his
arms, kissed it, and began a conversation
inaudible to us, but to which the women listened
breathlessly. In a few minutes the tears
were running fast down Jane's fair cheeks;
she took the infant which her husband held
to her, and kissed it as if she had never before
been aware how very, very dear it was to
her.

"She 'll do now," Raven quietly observed
to me.

"That's the first judgment upon him,"
said Nurse with impressive bitterness, " and
there's more in store to follow it."

"Poor dear child! " said Jane, with a
strange kind of interest which I could not
then understand. " Her death will be a great
blow to him; perhaps it may bring him to
a proper state of mind. I am told she was
the only child that he ever cared for, or that
ever cared for him, or that seemed at all
glad to see him when he went home to his
meals."

"She 's the only one that's at all like him in
the face," remarked Nurse indignantly; " and
if she had lived, he 'd have made her just
such another as her mother and the rest of
them. He 'd have sold her, and driven her
to it, and then have been the first to publish
her shame. I say she can't go better. And
as to the man, he must know that 'tis a
judgment upon him, though he do swear that
he don't believe in either God or Devil; but
that, perhaps, is only brag."

"Did she suffer much? " asked Jane,
addressing her father.

"It was done in an instant—momentarily!"

"Thank God for that! " she replied, wiping
her eyes. " Nurse, we 'll now put baby to
bed."

"Good night, sir," said Raven, offering me
his hand. " It has gone off better than I
expected; perhaps all the more so that there
were visitors in the room."

He left, and the party broke up earlier
than usual. Some of the guests went to
learn further particulars in the village;
others to relate the particulars they had
just learned: but all seemed to look upon the
terrible end of the poor child, as something
strange, and yet not to be wondered at—
under the (to them) well-known circumstances
—in short, as a judgment. During many
subsequent visits to the waters and marshes
of Shroudham, I never heard that fatal accident
afterwards alluded to, directly or indirectly,
in Rudd's house; but I contrived
to obtain, from other sources, some little
bits of information which helped me to
understand both the scene I had witnessed,
and Raven's allusion to " what had happened
before."

You are aware that Shroudham, although
surrounded with water-courses and " broads,"
or small lakes, has no water-power, in
consequence of the peculiarity of its levels, but
rather the reverse; it is obliged to make use
of wind-power to raise the water that falls
from the clouds to the level which will enable
it to flow into the sea. Consequently there
are no water-mills; steam was not then employed
on any and every occasion, as it now
is; the population wanted their corn ground
into flour; and the result was, that Shroudham
possessed the very handsome, tall, brick-
tower windmill which I have mentioned of
I don't know how many stories, eight or nine.
It commanded, and was seen from, a very
considerable tract of country, and had business
connections over even a wider area.
It was, in short, a large and important
concern.

At this mill, John Raven had for some
years been, and still continued, foreman;
Rudd was employed there in an inferior
capacity; and an additional hand being
subsequently required, Bammant was taken in,
after some hesitation, which his previous
character inspired. Rudd was a single man,
but Raven had a daughter Jane; everybody
about the mill saw that what they called an
"acquaintance " was fast coming on between
her and Rudd, and Raven showed no objection
to its progress.

Bammant was married; and the disinclination
to take him arose as much on that