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Tis this Delegates trade for t speak, said Stephen, an hes paid for t, an he knows his work. Let him keep to t. Let him give no heed to what I ha hadn to bear. Thats not for him. Thats not for nobbody but me. There was a propriety, not to say a dignity in these words, that made the hearers yet more quiet and attentive. The same strong voice called out, Slackbridge, let the man be heern, and howd thee tongue! Then the place was wonderfully still. My brothers, said Stephen, whose low voice was distinctly heard, and my fellow-workmen for that yo are to me, though not, as I knows on, to this delegate here I ha but a word to sen, and I could sen nommore if I was to speak till Strike o day. I know weel, aw whats afore me. I know weel that yo aw resolve to ha nommore ado wi a man who is not wi yo in this matther. I know weel that if I was a lyin parisht i th road, yod feel it right to pass me by, as a forrenner and stranger. What I ha getn, I mun mak th best on. Stephen Blackpool, said the chairman, rising, think on t agen. Think ont once agen, lad, afore thourt shunned by aw owd friends. There was an universal murmur to the same effect, though no man articulated a word. Every eye was fixed on Stephens face. To repent of his determination, would be to take a load from all their minds. He looked around him, and knew that it was so. Not a grain of anger with them was in his heart; he knew them, far below their surface weaknesses and misconceptions, as no one but their fellow-labourer could. I ha thowt ont, above a bit, sir. I simply canna coom in. I mun go th way as lays afore me. I mun tak my leave o aw heer. He made a sort of reverence to them by holding up his arms, and stood for the moment in that attitude; not speaking until they slowly dropped at his sides. Monnys the pleasant word as soom heer has spokn wi me; monnys the face I see heer, as I first seen when I were yoong and lighter heartn than now. I ha never had no fratch afore, sin ever I were born, wi any o my like; Gonnows I ha none now thats o my makin. Yoll ca me traitor and that yo I mean t say, addressing Slackbridge, but tis easier to ca than mak out. So let be. He had moved away a pace or two to come down from the platform, when he remembered something he had not said, and returned again. Haply, he said, turning his furrowed face slowly about, that he might as it were individually address the whole audience, those both near and distant; haply, when this question has been takn up and discoosed, therell be a threat to turn out if Im let to work among yo. I hope I shall die ere ever such a time cooms, and I shall work solitary among yo unless it cooms truly, I mun dot, my friends; not to brave yo, but to live. I ha nobbut work to live by; and wheerever can I go, I who ha worked sin I were no heighth at aw, in Coketown heer? I mak no complaints o bein turned to the wa, o bein outcasten and overlooken fro this time forrard, but I hope I shall be let to work. If there is any right for me at aw, my friends, I think tis that. Not a word was spoken. Not a sound was audible in the building, but the slight rustle of men moving a little apart, all along the centre of the room, to open a means of passing out, to the man with whom they had all bound themselves to renounce companionship. Looking at no one, and going his way with a lowly steadiness upon him that asserted nothing and sought nothing, Old Stephen, with all his troubles on his head, left the scene. Then Slackbridge, who had kept his oratorical arm extended during the going out, as if he were repressing with infinite solicitude and by a wonderful moral power the vehement passions of the multitude, applied himself to raising their spirits. Had not the Roman Brutus, oh, my British countrymen, condemned his |
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