“Never to that old-wife-trade?” cried the blacksmith. “Look here, Richard!” he said, and bared his upper arm, “there’s what the anvil does!” Then he bent his shoulders, and began to wheeze. “And there’s what the bookbinding does!” he continued. “No, no, you turn in with me, and we’ll show them a sight!—a gentleman that can make his living with his own hands! The country shall see sir Wilton Lestrange’s heir a blacksmith because he wouldn’t be a snob and deny his own flesh and blood!—‘I saw your son to-day, sir Wilton—at the anvil with his grandfather! What a fine fellow he is! Lord, how he does make the sparks fly!’—If I had him, the old sinner, he should see sparks that came from somewhere else than the anvil!—You come work with me, Richard, and do work fit for a man!”

“Grandfather,” answered Richard, “I couldn’t do your work so well as my own.”

“Yes, you could. In six weeks you’ll be a better smith than ever you’d be a bookbinder. There’s no good or bad in that sort of soft thing! I’ll make you a better blacksmith than myself.”

“But don’t you think it better not to irritate my father more than I must? I oughtn’t to torment him. As long as I was here he would fancy me taunting him. When I am out of sight, he may think of me again and want to see me. There is more chance of his getting over it, if I don’t trouble him with sight or sound of me.”

“Well, perhaps you’re right!” said Simon. “Off with you to your woman’s work! and God bless you!”

54. Baronet and Blacksmith

— Fifty-Four —

Baronet and Blacksmith

Richard took Barbara home, and the same night started for London. Barbara begged him to take what money she had, but he said that by going in the third class he would have something over, and, once there, would begin to earn money immediately.

His aunt was beside herself with surprise and delight at seeing him. When she heard his story, however, she plainly took part with his father, though she was too glad to see her boy again to say so. His uncle, too, was sincerely glad. Work had not been the same since Richard left.

He settled to his work as if he had never been away from it, and in two weeks could work faster and better than before. Soon he had as much in the way of mending as he was able to do, for almost all his old employers again sought him. His story being now no secret, they wondered he should return to his trade, but no one thought he had chosen to be a workman because he was not a gentleman.