His perfect silence
touched all about him. Miss Anne hid her face in her hands, and some of
the men groaned aloud.
'The old pit ought to have been bricked up years ago,' said Cole; 'the
child's death will be upon the master's head.'
'It'll all go to one reckoning,' muttered Black Thompson. But Stephen
seemed not to hear their words. Still, with the child clasped tightly to
him, he waited for the lowering of the skip, and when it descended, he
seated himself in it without lifting up his head, which was bent over the
dead child. Miss Anne and Tim took their places beside him, and they were
drawn up to the broad, glittering light of day on the surface, where a
crowd of eager bystanders was waiting for Stephen's appearance.
'Don't speak to me, please,' he murmured, without looking round; and they
made way for him in his deep, silent grief, as he passed on homewards,
followed by Miss Anne. Once she saw him look up to the hills, where, at
Fern's Hollow, the new house stood out conspicuously against the snow;
and when they passed the shaft, he shuddered visibly; but yet he was
silent, and scarcely seemed to know that she was walking beside him.
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