"Isn't it a pretty thing?--If only I have set it up right--if it will but work."His hands shook--his cheeks were burning--little Edwin came peering about at his knee;but he pushed the child hastily away;then he found some slight fault with the machinery,and while the workmen rectified it stood watching them,breathless with anxiety.His wife came to his side.
"Don't speak to me,--don't,Ursula.If it fails I am ruined.""John!"--she just whispered his name,and the soft,firm fold of her fingers closed round his,strengthening,cheering.Her husband faintly smiled.
"Here!"--He unlocked the door,and called to the people outside.
"Come in,two of you fellows,and see how my devils work.Now then!
Boys,keep out of the way;my little girl"--his voice softened--"my pet will not be frightened?Now,my men--ready?"He opened the valve.
With a strange noise,that made the two Enderley men spring back as if the six devils were really let loose upon them,the steam came rushing into the cylinder.There was a slight motion of the piston-rod.
"All's right!it will work?"
No,it stopped.
John drew a deep breath.
It went on again,beginning to move slowly up and down,like the strong right arm of some automaton giant.Greater and lesser cog-wheels caught up the motive power,revolving slowly and majestically,and with steady,regular rotation,or whirling round so fast you could hardly see that they stirred at all.Of a sudden a soul had been put into that wonderful creature of man's making,that inert mass of wood and metal,mysteriously combined.The monster was alive!
Speechless,John stood watching it.Their trial over,his energies collapsed;he sat down by his wife's side,and taking Muriel on his knee,bent his head over hers.
"Is all right,father?"the child whispered.
"All quite right,my own."
"You said you could do it,and you have done it,"cried his wife,her eyes glowing with triumph,her head erect and proud.
John dropped his lower,lower still."Yes,"he murmured;"yes,thank God."Then he opened the door,and let all the people in to see the wondrous sight.
They crowded in by dozens,staring about in blank wonder,gaping curiosity,ill-disguised alarm.John took pains to explain the machinery,stage by stage,till some of the more intelligent caught up the principle,and made merry at the notion of "devils."But they all looked with great awe at the master,as if he were something more than man.They listened open-mouthed to every word he uttered,cramming the small engine-room till it was scarcely possible to breathe,but keeping at a respectful distance from the iron-armed monster,that went working,working on,as if ready and able to work on to everlasting.
John took his wife and children out into the open air.Muriel,who had stood for the last few minutes by her father's side,listening with a pleasing look to the monotonous regular sound,like the breathing of the demon,was unwilling to go.
"I am very glad I was with you to-day,--very glad,father,"she kept saying.
He said,as often--twice as often--that next summer,when he came back to Enderley,she should be with him at the mills every day,and all day over,if she liked.
There was now nothing to be done but to hasten as quickly and as merrily as possible to our well-beloved Longfield.
Waiting for the post-chaise,Mrs.Halifax and the boys sat down on the bridge over the defunct and silenced water-fall,on the muddy steps of which,where the stream used to dash musically over,weeds and long grasses,mingled with the drooping water-fern,were already beginning to grow.
"It looks desolate,but we need not mind that now,"said Mrs.
Halifax.
"No,"her husband answered."Steam power once obtained,I can apply it in any way I choose.My people will not hinder;they trust me,they like me.""And,perhaps,are just a little afraid of you.No matter,it is wholesome fear.I should not like to have married a man whom nobody was afraid of."John smiled;he was looking at the horseman riding towards us along the high road."I do believe that is Lord Luxmore.I wonder whether he has heard of my steam-engine.Love,will you go back into the mill or not?""Certainly not."The mother seated herself on the bridge,her boys around her;John avouched,with an air like the mother of the Gracchi,or like the Highland woman who trained one son after another to fight and slay their enemy--their father's murderer.