Silas
Marner
:
the
Weaver
of
Raveloe
:
By
George
Eliot
"
A
child
,
more
than
all
other
gifts
That
earth
can
offer
to
declining
man
,
Brings
hope
with
it
,
and
forward-looking
thoughts
.
"
Wordsworth
.
PART
I
.
CHAPTER
I
.
In
the
days
when
the
spinning-wheels
hummed
busily
in
the
farmhouses
—
and
even
great
ladies
,
clothed
in
silk
and
thread-lace
,
had
their
toy
spinning-wheels
of
polished
oak
—
there
might
be
seen
,
in
districts
far
away
among
the
lanes
,
or
deep
in
the
bosom
of
the
hills
,
certain
pallid
undersized
men
,
who
,
by
the
side
of
the
brawny
country-folk
,
looked
like
the
remnants
of
a
disinherited
race
.
The
shepherd
's
dog
barked
fiercely
when
one
of
these
alien-looking
men
appeared
on
the
upland
,
dark
against
the
early
winter
sunset
;
for
what
dog
likes
a
figure
bent
under
a
heavy
bag
?
—
and
these
pale
men
rarely
stirred
abroad
without
that
mysterious
burden
.
The
shepherd
himself
,
though
he
had
good
reason
to
believe
that
the
bag
held
nothing
but
flaxen
thread
,
or
else
the
long
rolls
of
strong
linen
spun
from
that
thread
,
was
not
quite
sure
that
this
trade
of
weaving
,
indispensable
though
it
was
,
could
be
carried
on
entirely
without
the
help
of
the
Evil
One
.
In
that
far-off
time
superstition
clung
easily
round
every
person
or
thing
that
was
at
all
unwonted
,
or
even
intermittent
and
occasional
merely
,
like
the
visits
of
the
pedlar
or
the
knife-grinder
.
No
one
knew
where
wandering
men
had
their
homes
or
their
origin
;
and
how
was
a
man
to
be
explained
unless
you
at
least
knew
somebody
who
knew
his
father
and
mother
?
To
the
peasants
of
old
times
,
the
world
outside
their
own
direct
experience
was
a
region
of
vagueness
and
mystery
:
to
their
untravelled
thought
a
state
of
wandering
was
a
conception
as
dim
as
the
winter
life
of
the
swallows
that
came
back
with
the
spring
;
and
even
a
settler
,
if
he
came
from
distant
parts
,
hardly
ever
ceased
to
be
viewed
with
a
remnant
of
distrust
,
which
would
have
prevented
any
surprise
if
a
long
course
of
inoffensive
conduct
on
his
part
had
ended
in
the
commission
of
a
crime
;
especially
if
he
had
any
reputation
for
knowledge
,
or
showed
any
skill
in
handicraft
.
All
cleverness
,
whether
in
the
rapid
use
of
that
difficult
instrument
the
tongue
,
or
in
some
other
art
unfamiliar
to
villagers
,
was
in
itself
suspicious
:
honest
folks
,
born
and
bred
in
a
visible
manner
,
were
mostly
not
overwise
or
clever
—
at
least
,
not
beyond
such
a
matter
as
knowing
the
signs
of
the
weather
;
and
the
process
by
which
rapidity
and
dexterity
of
any
kind
were
acquired
was
so
wholly
hidden
,
that
they
partook
of
the
nature
of
conjuring
.
In
this
way
it
came
to
pass
that
those
scattered
linen-weavers
—
emigrants
from
the
town
into
the
country
—
were
to
the
last
regarded
as
aliens
by
their
rustic
neighbours
,
and
usually
contracted
the
eccentric
habits
which
belong
to
a
state
of
loneliness
.
In
the
early
years
of
this
century
,
such
a
linen-weaver
,
named
Silas
Marner
,
worked
at
his
vocation
in
a
stone
cottage
that
stood
among
the
nutty
hedgerows
near
the
village
of
Raveloe
,
and
not
far
from
the
edge
of
a
deserted
stone-pit
.
The
questionable
sound
of
Silas
's
loom
,
so
unlike
the
natural
cheerful
trotting
of
the
winnowing
machine
,
or
the
simpler
rhythm
of
the
flail
,
had
a
half-fearful
fascination
for
the
Raveloe
boys
,
who
would
often
leave
off
their
nutting
or
birds'-nesting
to
peep
in
at
the
window
of
the
stone
cottage
,
counterbalancing
a
certain
awe
at
the
mysterious
action
of
the
loom
,
by
a
pleasant
sense
of
scornful
superiority
,
drawn
from
the
mockery
of
its
alternating
noises
,
along
with
the
bent
,
tread-mill
attitude
of
the
weaver
.
But
sometimes
it
happened
that
Marner
,
pausing
to
adjust
an
irregularity
in
his
thread
,
became
aware
of
the
small
scoundrels
,
and
,
though
chary
of
his
time
,
he
liked
their
intrusion
so
ill
that
he
would
descend
from
his
loom
,
and
,
opening
the
door
,
would
fix
on
them
a
gaze
that
was
always
enough
to
make
them
take
to
their
legs
in
terror
.
For
how
was
it
possible
to
believe
that
those
large
brown
protuberant
eyes
in
Silas
Marner
's
pale
face
really
saw
nothing
very
distinctly
that
was
not
close
to
them
,
and
not
rather
that
their
dreadful
stare
could
dart
cramp
,
or
rickets
,
or
a
wry
mouth
at
any
boy
who
happened
to
be
in
the
rear
?
They
had
,
perhaps
,
heard
their
fathers
and
mothers
hint
that
Silas
Marner
could
cure
folks
'
rheumatism
if
he
had
a
mind
,
and
add
,
still
more
darkly
,
that
if
you
could
only
speak
the
devil
fair
enough
,
he
might
save
you
the
cost
of
the
doctor
.
Such
strange
lingering
echoes
of
the
old
demon-worship
might
perhaps
even
now
be
caught
by
the
diligent
listener
among
the
grey-haired
peasantry
;
for
the
rude
mind
with
difficulty
associates
the
idea
of
power
and
benignity
.
A
shadowy
conception
of
power
that
by
much
persuasion
can
be
induced
to
refrain
from
inflicting
harm
,
is
the
shape
most
easily
taken
by
the
sense
of
the
Invisible
in
the
minds
of
men
who
have
always
been
pressed
close
by
primitive
wants
,
and
to
whom
a
life
of
hard
toil
has
never
been
illuminated
by
any
enthusiastic
religious
faith
.
To
them
pain
and
mishap
present
a
far
wider
range
of
possibilities
than
gladness
and
enjoyment
:
their
imagination
is
almost
barren
of
the
images
that
feed
desire
and
hope
,
but
is
all
overgrown
by
recollections
that
are
a
perpetual
pasture
to
fear
.
"
Is
there
anything
you
can
fancy
that
you
would
like
to
eat
?
"
I
once
said
to
an
old
labouring
man
,
who
was
in
his
last
illness
,
and
who
had
refused
all
the
food
his
wife
had
offered
him
.
"
No
,
"
he
answered
,
"
I
've
never
been
used
to
nothing
but
common
victual
,
and
I
ca
n't
eat
that
.
"
Experience
had
bred
no
fancies
in
him
that
could
raise
the
phantasm
of
appetite
.
And
Raveloe
was
a
village
where
many
of
the
old
echoes
lingered
,
undrowned
by
new
voices
.
Not
that
it
was
one
of
those
barren
parishes
lying
on
the
outskirts
of
civilisation
—
inhabited
by
meagre
sheep
and
thinly-scattered
shepherds
:
on
the
contrary
,
it
lay
in
the
rich
central
plain
of
what
we
are
pleased
to
call
Merry
England
,
and
held
farms
which
,
speaking
from
a
spiritual
point
of
view
,
paid
highly-desirable
tithes
.
But
it
was
nestled
in
a
snug
well-wooded
hollow
,
quite
an
hour
's
journey
on
horseback
from
any
turnpike
,
where
it
was
never
reached
by
the
vibrations
of
the
coach-horn
,
or
of
public
opinion
.
It
was
an
important-looking
village
,
with
a
fine
old
church
and
large
churchyard
in
the
heart
of
it
,
and
two
or
three
large
brick-and-stone
homesteads
,
with
well-walled
orchards
and
ornamental
weathercocks
,
standing
close
upon
the
road
,
and
lifting
more
imposing
fronts
than
the
rectory
,
which
peeped
from
among
the
trees
on
the
other
side
of
the
churchyard
;
—
a
village
which
showed
at
once
the
summits
of
its
social
life
,
and
told
the
practised
eye
that
there
was
no
great
park
and
manor-house
in
the
vicinity
,
but
that
there
were
several
chiefs
in
Raveloe
who
could
farm
badly
quite
at
their
ease
,
drawing
enough
money
from
their
bad
farming
,
in
those
war
times
,
to
live
in
a
rollicking
fashion
,
and
keep
a
jolly
Christmas
,
Whitsun
,
and
Easter
tide
.
It
was
fifteen
years
since
Silas
Marner
had
first
come
to
Raveloe
;
he
was
then
simply
a
pallid
young
man
,
with
prominent
,
short-sighted
brown
eyes
,
whose
appearance
would
have
had
nothing
strange
for
people
of
average
culture
and
experience
,
but
for
the
villagers
near
whom
he
had
come
to
settle
it
had
mysterious
peculiarities
which
corresponded
with
the
exceptional
nature
of
his
occupation
,
and
his
advent
from
an
unknown
region
called
"
North'ard
.
"
So
had
his
way
of
life
:
—
he
invited
no
comer
to
step
across
his
door-sill
,
and
he
never
strolled
into
the
village
to
drink
a
pint
at
the
Rainbow
,
or
to
gossip
at
the
wheel-wright
's
:
he
sought
no
man
or
woman
,
save
for
the
purposes
of
his
calling
,
or
in
order
to
supply
himself
with
necessaries
;
and
it
was
soon
clear
to
the
Raveloe
lasses
that
he
would
never
urge
one
of
them
to
accept
him
against
her
will
—
quite
as
if
he
had
heard
them
declare
that
they
would
never
marry
a
dead
man
come
to
life
again
.
This
view
of
Marner
's
personality
was
not
without
another
ground
than
his
pale
face
and
unexampled
eyes
;
for
Jem
Rodney
,
the
mole-catcher
,
averred
that
,
one
evening
as
he
was
returning
homeward
,
he
saw
Silas
Marner
leaning
against
a
stile
with
a
heavy
bag
on
his
back
,
instead
of
resting
the
bag
on
the
stile
as
a
man
in
his
senses
would
have
done
;
and
that
,
on
coming
up
to
him
,
he
saw
that
Marner
's
eyes
were
set
like
a
dead
man
's
,
and
he
spoke
to
him
,
and
shook
him
,
and
his
limbs
were
stiff
,
and
his
hands
clutched
the
bag
as
if
they
'd
been
made
of
iron
;
but
just
as
he
had
made
up
his
mind
that
the
weaver
was
dead
,
he
came
all
right
again
,
like
,
as
you
might
say
,
in
the
winking
of
an
eye
,
and
said
"
Good-night
,
"
and
walked
off
.
All
this
Jem
swore
he
had
seen
,
more
by
token
,
that
it
was
the
very
day
he
had
been
mole-catching
on
Squire
Cass
's
land
,
down
by
the
old
saw-pit
.
Some
said
Marner
must
have
been
in
a
"
fit
,
"
a
word
which
seemed
to
explain
things
otherwise
incredible
;
but
the
argumentative
Mr
Macey
,
clerk
of
the
parish
,
shook
his
head
,
and
asked
if
anybody
was
ever
known
to
go
off
in
a
fit
and
not
fall
down
.
A
fit
was
a
stroke
,
was
n't
it
?
and
it
was
in
the
nature
of
a
stroke
to
partly
take
away
the
use
of
a
man
's
limbs
and
throw
him
on
the
parish
,
if
he
'd
got
no
children
to
look
to
.
No
,
no
;
it
was
no
stroke
that
would
let
a
man
stand
on
his
legs
,
like
a
horse
between
the
shafts
,
and
then
walk
off
as
soon
as
you
can
say
"
Gee
!
"
But
there
might
be
such
a
thing
as
a
man
's
soul
being
loose
from
his
body
,
and
going
out
an
in
,
like
a
bird
out
of
its
nest
and
back
;
and
that
was
how
folks
got
over-wise
,
for
they
went
to
school
in
this
shell-less
state
to
those
who
could
teach
them
more
than
their
neighbours
could
learn
with
their
five
senses
and
the
parson
.
And
where
did
Master
Marner
get
his
knowledge
of
herbs
from
—
and
charms
,
too
,
if
he
liked
to
give
them
away
?
Jem
Rodney
's
story
was
no
more
than
what
might
have
been
expected
by
anybody
who
had
seen
how
Marner
had
cured
Sally
Oates
,
and
made
her
sleep
like
a
baby
,
when
her
heart
had
been
beating
enough
to
burst
her
body
,
for
two
months
and
more
,
while
she
had
been
under
the
doctor
's
care
.
He
might
cure
more
folks
if
he
would
;
but
he
was
worth
speaking
fair
,
if
it
was
only
to
keep
him
from
doing
you
a
mischief
.
It
was
partly
to
this
vague
fear
that
Marner
was
indebted
for
protecting
him
from
the
persecution
that
his
singularities
might
have
drawn
upon
him
,
but
still
more
to
the
fact
that
,
the
old
linen-weaver
in
the
neighbouring
parish
of
Tarley
being
dead
,
his
handicraft
made
him
a
highly
welcome
settler
to
the
richer
housewives
of
the
district
,
and
even
to
the
more
provident
cottagers
,
who
had
their
little
stock
of
yarn
at
the
year
's
end
;
and
their
sense
of
his
usefulness
would
have
counteracted
any
repugnance
or
suspicion
which
was
not
confirmed
by
a
deficiency
in
the
quality
or
the
tale
of
the
cloth
he
wove
for
them
.
And
the
years
had
rolled
on
without
producing
any
change
in
the
impressions
of
the
neighbours
concerning
Marner
,
except
the
change
from
novelty
to
habit
.
At
the
end
of
fifteen
years
the
Raveloe
men
said
just
the
same
things
about
Silas
Marner
as
at
the
beginning
:
they
did
not
say
them
quite
so
often
,
but
they
believed
them
much
more
strongly
when
they
did
say
them
.
There
was
only
one
important
addition
which
the
years
had
brought
:
it
was
,
that
Master
Marner
had
laid
by
a
fine
sight
of
money
somewhere
,
and
that
he
could
buy
up
"
bigger
men
"
than
himself
.
But
while
opinion
concerning
him
had
remained
nearly
stationary
,
and
his
daily
habits
had
presented
scarcely
any
visible
change
,
Marner
's
inward
life
had
been
a
history
and
a
metamorphosis
,
as
that
of
every
fervid
nature
must
be
when
it
has
fled
,
or
been
condemned
,
to
solitude
.
His
life
,
before
he
came
to
Raveloe
,
had
been
filled
with
the
movement
,
the
mental
activity
,
and
the
close
fellowship
,
which
,
in
that
day
as
in
this
,
marked
the
life
of
an
artisan
early
incorporated
in
a
narrow
religious
sect
,
where
the
poorest
layman
has
the
chance
of
distinguishing
himself
by
gifts
of
speech
,
and
has
,
at
the
very
least
,
the
weight
of
a
silent
voter
in
the
government
of
his
community
.
Marner
was
highly
thought
of
in
that
little
hidden
world
,
known
to
itself
as
the
church
assembling
in
Lantern
Yard
;
he
was
believed
to
be
a
young
man
of
exemplary
life
and
ardent
faith
;
and
a
peculiar
interest
had
been
centred
in
him
ever
since
he
had
fallen
,
at
a
prayer-meeting
,
into
a
mysterious
rigidity
and
suspension
of
consciousness
,
which
,
lasting
for
an
hour
or
more
,
had
been
mistaken
for
death
.
To
have
sought
a
medical
explanation
for
this
phenomenon
would
have
been
held
by
Silas
himself
,
as
well
as
by
his
minister
and
fellow-members
,
a
wilful
self-exclusion
from
the
spiritual
significance
that
might
lie
therein
.
Silas
was
evidently
a
brother
selected
for
a
peculiar
discipline
,
and
though
the
effort
to
interpret
this
discipline
was
discouraged
by
the
absence
,
on
his
part
,
of
any
spiritual
vision
during
his
outward
trance
,
yet
it
was
believed
by
himself
and
others
that
its
effect
was
seen
in
an
accession
of
light
and
fervour
.
A
less
truthful
man
than
he
might
have
been
tempted
into
the
subsequent
creation
of
a
vision
in
the
form
of
resurgent
memory
;
a
less
sane
man
might
have
believed
in
such
a
creation
;
but
Silas
was
both
sane
and
honest
,
though
,
as
with
many
honest
and
fervent
men
,
culture
had
not
defined
any
channels
for
his
sense
of
mystery
,
and
so
it
spread
itself
over
the
proper
pathway
of
inquiry
and
knowledge
.
He
had
inherited
from
his
mother
some
acquaintance
with
medicinal
herbs
and
their
preparation
—
a
little
store
of
wisdom
which
she
had
imparted
to
him
as
a
solemn
bequest
—
but
of
late
years
he
had
had
doubts
about
the
lawfulness
of
applying
this
knowledge
,
believing
that
herbs
could
have
no
efficacy
without
prayer
,
and
that
prayer
might
suffice
without
herbs
;
so
that
the
inherited
delight
he
had
in
wandering
in
the
fields
in
search
of
foxglove
and
dandelion
and
clotsfoot
,
began
to
wear
to
him
the
character
of
a
temptation
.
Among
the
members
of
his
church
there
was
one
young
man
,
a
little
older
than
himself
,
with
whom
he
had
long
lived
in
such
close
friendship
that
it
was
the
custom
of
their
Lantern
Yard
brethren
to
call
them
David
and
Jonathan
.
The
real
name
of
the
friend
was
William
Dane
,
and
he
,
too
,
was
regarded
as
a
shining
instance
of
youthful
piety
,
though
somewhat
given
to
over-severity
towards
weaker
brethren
,
and
to
be
so
dazzled
by
his
own
light
as
to
hold
himself
wiser
than
his
teachers
.
But
whatever
blemishes
others
might
discern
in
William
,
to
his
friend
's
mind
he
was
faultless
;
for
Marner
had
one
of
those
impressible
self-doubting
natures
which
,
at
an
inexperienced
age
,
admire
imperativeness
and
lean
on
contradiction
.
The
expression
of
trusting
simplicity
in
Marner
's
face
,
heightened
by
that
absence
of
special
observation
,
that
defenceless
,
deer-like
gaze
which
belongs
to
large
prominent
eyes
,
was
strongly
contrasted
by
the
self-complacent
suppression
of
inward
triumph
that
lurked
in
the
narrow
slanting
eyes
and
compressed
lips
of
William
Dane
.
One
of
the
most
frequent
topics
of
conversation
between
the
two
friends
was
Assurance
of
salvation
:
Silas
confessed
that
he
could
never
arrive
at
anything
higher
than
hope
mingled
with
fear
,
and
listened
with
longing
wonder
when
William
declared
that
he
had
possessed
unshaken
assurance
ever
since
,
in
the
period
of
his
conversion
,
he
had
dreamed
that
he
saw
the
words
"
calling
and
election
sure
"
standing
by
themselves
on
a
white
page
in
the
open
Bible
.
Such
colloquies
have
occupied
many
a
pair
of
pale-faced
weavers
,
whose
unnurtured
souls
have
been
like
young
winged
things
,
fluttering
forsaken
in
the
twilight
.
It
had
seemed
to
the
unsuspecting
Silas
that
the
friendship
had
suffered
no
chill
even
from
his
formation
of
another
attachment
of
a
closer
kind
.
For
some
months
he
had
been
engaged
to
a
young
servant-woman
,
waiting
only
for
a
little
increase
to
their
mutual
savings
in
order
to
their
marriage
;
and
it
was
a
great
delight
to
him
that
Sarah
did
not
object
to
William
's
occasional
presence
in
their
Sunday
interviews
.
It
was
at
this
point
in
their
history
that
Silas
's
cataleptic
fit
occurred
during
the
prayer-meeting
;
and
amidst
the
various
queries
and
expressions
of
interest
addressed
to
him
by
his
fellow-members
,
William
's
suggestion
alone
jarred
with
the
general
sympathy
towards
a
brother
thus
singled
out
for
special
dealings
.
He
observed
that
,
to
him
,
this
trance
looked
more
like
a
visitation
of
Satan
than
a
proof
of
divine
favour
,
and
exhorted
his
friend
to
see
that
he
hid
no
accursed
thing
within
his
soul
.
Silas
,
feeling
bound
to
accept
rebuke
and
admonition
as
a
brotherly
office
,
felt
no
resentment
,
but
only
pain
,
at
his
friend
's
doubts
concerning
him
;
and
to
this
was
soon
added
some
anxiety
at
the
perception
that
Sarah
's
manner
towards
him
began
to
exhibit
a
strange
fluctuation
between
an
effort
at
an
increased
manifestation
of
regard
and
involuntary
signs
of
shrinking
and
dislike
.
He
asked
her
if
she
wished
to
break
off
their
engagement
;
but
she
denied
this
:
their
engagement
was
known
to
the
church
,
and
had
been
recognised
in
the
prayer-meetings
;
it
could
not
be
broken
off
without
strict
investigation
,
and
Sarah
could
render
no
reason
that
would
be
sanctioned
by
the
feeling
of
the
community
.
At
this
time
the
senior
deacon
was
taken
dangerously
ill
,
and
,
being
a
childless
widower
,
he
was
tended
night
and
day
by
some
of
the
younger
brethren
or
sisters
.
Silas
frequently
took
his
turn
in
the
night-watching
with
William
,
the
one
relieving
the
other
at
two
in
the
morning
.
The
old
man
,
contrary
to
expectation
,
seemed
to
be
on
the
way
to
recovery
,
when
one
night
Silas
,
sitting
up
by
his
beside
,
observed
that
his
usually
audible
breathing
had
ceased
.
The
candle
was
burning
low
,
and
he
had
to
lift
it
to
see
the
patient
's
face
distinctly
.
Examination
convinced
him
that
the
deacon
was
dead
—
had
been
dead
some
time
,
for
the
limbs
were
rigid
.
Silas
asked
himself
if
he
had
been
asleep
,
and
looked
at
the
clock
:
it
was
already
four
in
the
morning
.
How
was
it
that
William
had
not
come
?
In
much
anxiety
he
went
to
seek
for
help
,
and
soon
there
were
several
friends
assembled
in
the
house
,
the
minister
among
them
,
while
Silas
went
away
to
his
work
,
wishing
he
could
have
met
William
to
know
the
reason
of
his
non-appearance
.
But
at
six
o'clock
,
as
he
was
thinking
of
going
to
seek
his
friend
,
William
came
,
and
with
him
the
minister
.
They
came
to
summon
him
to
Lantern
Yard
,
to
meet
the
church
members
there
;
and
to
his
inquiry
concerning
the
cause
of
the
summons
the
only
reply
was
,
"
You
will
hear
.
"
Nothing
further
was
said
until
Silas
was
seated
in
the
vestry
,
in
front
of
the
minister
,
with
the
eyes
of
those
who
to
him
represented
God
's
people
fixed
solemnly
upon
him
.
Then
the
minister
,
taking
out
a
pocket-knife
,
showed
it
to
Silas
,
and
asked
him
if
he
knew
where
he
had
left
that
knife
?
Silas
said
,
he
did
not
know
that
he
had
left
it
anywhere
out
of
his
own
pocket
—
but
he
was
trembling
at
this
strange
interrogation
.
He
was
then
exhorted
not
to
hide
his
sin
,
but
to
confess
and
repent
.
The
knife
had
been
found
in
the
bureau
by
the
departed
deacon
's
bedside
—
found
in
the
place
where
the
little
bag
of
church
money
had
lain
,
which
the
minister
himself
had
seen
the
day
before
.
Some
hand
had
removed
that
bag
;
and
whose
hand
could
it
be
,
if
not
that
of
the
man
to
whom
the
knife
belonged
?
For
some
time
Silas
was
mute
with
astonishment
:
then
he
said
,
"
God
will
clear
me
:
I
know
nothing
about
the
knife
being
there
,
or
the
money
being
gone
.
Search
me
and
my
dwelling
:
you
will
find
nothing
but
three
pound
five
of
my
own
savings
,
which
William
Dane
knows
I
have
had
these
six
months
.
"
At
this
William
groaned
,
but
the
minister
said
,
"
The
proof
is
heavy
against
you
,
brother
Marner
.
The
money
was
taken
in
the
night
last
past
,
and
no
man
was
with
our
departed
brother
but
you
,
for
William
Dane
declares
to
us
that
he
was
hindered
by
sudden
sickness
from
going
to
take
his
place
as
usual
,
and
you
yourself
said
that
he
had
not
come
;
and
,
moreover
,
you
neglected
the
dead
body
.
"
"
I
must
have
slept
,
"
said
Silas
.
Then
,
after
a
pause
,
he
added
,
"
Or
I
must
have
had
another
visitation
like
that
which
you
have
all
seen
me
under
,
so
that
the
thief
must
have
come
and
gone
while
I
was
not
in
the
body
,
but
out
of
the
body
.
But
,
I
say
again
,
search
me
and
my
dwelling
,
for
I
have
been
nowhere
else
.
"
The
search
was
made
,
and
it
ended
—
in
William
Dane
's
finding
the
well-known
bag
,
empty
,
tucked
behind
the
chest
of
drawers
in
Silas
's
chamber
!
On
this
William
exhorted
his
friend
to
confess
,
and
not
to
hide
his
sin
any
longer
.
Silas
turned
a
look
of
keen
reproach
on
him
,
and
said
,
"
William
,
for
nine
years
that
we
have
gone
in
and
out
together
,
have
you
ever
known
me
tell
a
lie
?
But
God
will
clear
me
.
"
"
Brother
,
"
said
William
,
"
how
do
I
know
what
you
may
have
done
in
the
secret
chambers
of
your
heart
,
to
give
Satan
an
advantage
over
you
?
"
Silas
was
still
looking
at
his
friend
.
Suddenly
a
deep
flush
came
over
his
face
,
and
he
was
about
to
speak
impetuously
,
when
he
seemed
checked
again
by
some
inward
shock
,
that
sent
the
flush
back
and
made
him
tremble
.
But
at
last
he
spoke
feebly
,
looking
at
William
.
"
I
remember
now
—
the
knife
was
n't
in
my
pocket
.
"
William
said
,
"
I
know
nothing
of
what
you
mean
.
"
The
other
persons
present
,
however
,
began
to
inquire
where
Silas
meant
to
say
that
the
knife
was
,
but
he
would
give
no
further
explanation
:
he
only
said
,
"
I
am
sore
stricken
;
I
can
say
nothing
.
God
will
clear
me
.
"
On
their
return
to
the
vestry
there
was
further
deliberation
.
Any
resort
to
legal
measures
for
ascertaining
the
culprit
was
contrary
to
the
principles
of
the
Church
:
prosecution
was
held
by
them
to
be
forbidden
to
Christians
,
even
if
it
had
been
a
case
in
which
there
was
no
scandal
to
the
community
.
But
they
were
bound
to
take
other
measures
for
finding
out
the
truth
,
and
they
resolved
on
praying
and
drawing
lots
.
This
resolution
can
be
a
ground
of
surprise
only
to
those
who
are
unacquainted
with
that
obscure
religious
life
which
has
gone
on
in
the
alleys
of
our
towns
.
Silas
knelt
with
his
brethren
,
relying
on
his
own
innocence
being
certified
by
immediate
divine
interference
,
but
feeling
that
there
was
sorrow
and
mourning
behind
for
him
even
then
—
that
his
trust
in
man
had
been
cruelly
bruised
.
The
lots
declared
that
Silas
Marner
was
guilty
.
He
was
solemnly
suspended
from
church-membership
,
and
called
upon
to
render
up
the
stolen
money
:
only
on
confession
,
as
the
sign
of
repentance
,
could
he
be
received
once
more
within
the
fold
of
the
church
.
Marner
listened
in
silence
.
At
last
,
when
every
one
rose
to
depart
,
he
went
towards
William
Dane
and
said
,
in
a
voice
shaken
by
agitation
—
"
The
last
time
I
remember
using
my
knife
,
was
when
I
took
it
out
to
cut
a
strap
for
you
.
I
do
n't
remember
putting
it
in
my
pocket
again
.
You
stole
the
money
,
and
you
have
woven
a
plot
to
lay
the
sin
at
my
door
.
But
you
may
prosper
,
for
all
that
:
there
is
no
just
God
that
governs
the
earth
righteously
,
but
a
God
of
lies
,
that
bears
witness
against
the
innocent
.
"
There
was
a
general
shudder
at
this
blasphemy
.
William
said
meekly
,
"
I
leave
our
brethren
to
judge
whether
this
is
the
voice
of
Satan
or
not
.
I
can
do
nothing
but
pray
for
you
,
Silas
.
"
Poor
Marner
went
out
with
that
despair
in
his
soul
—
that
shaken
trust
in
God
and
man
,
which
is
little
short
of
madness
to
a
loving
nature
.
In
the
bitterness
of
his
wounded
spirit
,
he
said
to
himself
,
"
She
will
cast
me
off
too
.
"
And
he
reflected
that
,
if
she
did
not
believe
the
testimony
against
him
,
her
whole
faith
must
be
upset
,
as
his
was
.
To
people
accustomed
to
reason
about
the
forms
in
which
their
religious
feeling
has
incorporated
itself
,
it
is
difficult
to
enter
into
that
simple
,
untaught
state
of
mind
in
which
the
form
and
the
feeling
have
never
been
severed
by
an
act
of
reflection
.
We
are
apt
to
think
it
inevitable
that
a
man
in
Marner
's
position
should
have
begun
to
question
the
validity
of
an
appeal
to
the
divine
judgment
by
drawing
lots
;
but
to
him
this
would
have
been
an
effort
of
independent
thought
such
as
he
had
never
known
;
and
he
must
have
made
the
effort
at
a
moment
when
all
his
energies
were
turned
into
the
anguish
of
disappointed
faith
.
If
there
is
an
angel
who
records
the
sorrows
of
men
as
well
as
their
sins
,
he
knows
how
many
and
deep
are
the
sorrows
that
spring
from
false
ideas
for
which
no
man
is
culpable
.
Marner
went
home
,
and
for
a
whole
day
sat
alone
,
stunned
by
despair
,
without
any
impulse
to
go
to
Sarah
and
attempt
to
win
her
belief
in
his
innocence
.
The
second
day
he
took
refuge
from
benumbing
unbelief
,
by
getting
into
his
loom
and
working
away
as
usual
;
and
before
many
hours
were
past
,
the
minister
and
one
of
the
deacons
came
to
him
with
the
message
from
Sarah
,
that
she
held
her
engagement
to
him
at
an
end
.
Silas
received
the
message
mutely
,
and
then
turned
away
from
the
messengers
to
work
at
his
loom
again
.
In
little
more
than
a
month
from
that
time
,
Sarah
was
married
to
William
Dane
;
and
not
long
afterwards
it
was
known
to
the
brethren
in
Lantern
Yard
that
Silas
Marner
had
departed
from
the
town
.
CHAPTER
II
.
Even
people
whose
lives
have
been
made
various
by
learning
,
sometimes
find
it
hard
to
keep
a
fast
hold
on
their
habitual
views
of
life
,
on
their
faith
in
the
Invisible
—
nay
,
on
the
sense
that
their
past
joys
and
sorrows
are
a
real
experience
,
when
they
are
suddenly
transported
to
a
new
land
,
where
the
beings
around
them
know
nothing
of
their
history
,
and
share
none
of
their
ideas
—
where
their
mother
earth
shows
another
lap
,
and
human
life
has
other
forms
than
those
on
which
their
souls
have
been
nourished
.
Minds
that
have
been
unhinged
from
their
old
faith
and
love
,
have
perhaps
sought
this
Lethean
influence
of
exile
,
in
which
the
past
becomes
dreamy
because
its
symbols
have
all
vanished
,
and
the
present
too
is
dreamy
because
it
is
linked
with
no
memories
.
But
even
their
experience
may
hardly
enable
them
thoroughly
to
imagine
what
was
the
effect
on
a
simple
weaver
like
Silas
Marner
,
when
he
left
his
own
country
and
people
and
came
to
settle
in
Raveloe
.
Nothing
could
be
more
unlike
his
native
town
,
set
within
sight
of
the
wide-spread
hill-sides
than
this
low
,
wooded
region
,
where
he
felt
hidden
even
from
the
heavens
by
the
screening
trees
and
hedgerows
.
There
was
nothing
here
,
when
he
rose
in
the
deep
morning
quiet
and
looked
out
on
the
dewy
brambles
and
rank
tufted
grass
,
that
seemed
to
have
any
relation
with
that
life
centering
in
Lantern
Yard
,
which
had
once
been
to
him
the
altar-place
of
high
dispensations
.
The
white-washed
walls
;
the
little
pews
where
well-known
figures
entered
with
a
subdued
rustling
,
and
where
first
one
well-known
voice
and
then
another
,
pitched
in
a
peculiar
key
of
petition
,
uttered
phrases
at
once
occult
and
familiar
,
like
the
amulet
worn
on
the
heart
;
the
pulpit
where
the
minister
delivered
unquestioned
doctrine
,
and
swayed
to
and
fro
,
and
handled
the
book
in
a
long-accustomed
manner
;
the
very
pauses
between
the
couplets
of
the
hymn
,
as
it
was
given
out
,
and
the
recurrent
swell
of
voices
in
song
:
these
things
had
been
the
channel
of
divine
influences
to
Marner
—
they
were
the
fostering
home
of
his
religious
emotions
—
they
were
Christianity
and
God
's
kingdom
upon
earth
.
A
weaver
who
finds
hard
words
in
his
hymn-book
knows
nothing
of
abstractions
;
as
the
little
child
knows
nothing
of
parental
love
,
but
only
knows
one
face
and
one
lap
towards
which
it
stretches
its
arms
for
refuge
and
nurture
.
And
what
could
be
more
unlike
that
Lantern
Yard
world
than
the
world
in
Raveloe
?
—
orchards
looking
lazy
with
neglected
plenty
;
the
large
church
in
the
wide
churchyard
,
which
men
gazed
at
lounging
at
their
own
doors
in
service-time
;
the
purple-faced
farmers
jogging
along
the
lanes
or
turning
in
at
the
Rainbow
;
homesteads
,
where
men
supped
heavily
and
slept
in
the
light
of
the
evening
hearth
,
and
where
women
seemed
to
be
laying
up
a
stock
of
linen
for
the
life
to
come
.
There
were
no
lips
in
Raveloe
from
which
a
word
could
fall
that
would
stir
Silas
Marner
's
benumbed
faith
to
a
sense
of
pain
.
In
the
early
ages
of
the
world
,
we
know
,
it
was
believed
that
each
territory
was
inhabited
and
ruled
by
its
own
divinities
,
so
that
a
man
could
cross
the
bordering
heights
and
be
out
of
the
reach
of
his
native
gods
,
whose
presence
was
confined
to
the
streams
and
the
groves
and
the
hills
among
which
he
had
lived
from
his
birth
.
And
poor
Silas
was
vaguely
conscious
of
something
not
unlike
the
feeling
of
primitive
men
,
when
they
fled
thus
,
in
fear
or
in
sullenness
,
from
the
face
of
an
unpropitious
deity
.
It
seemed
to
him
that
the
Power
in
which
he
had
vainly
trusted
among
the
streets
and
in
the
prayer-meetings
,
was
very
far
away
from
this
land
in
which
he
had
taken
refuge
,
where
men
lived
in
careless
abundance
,
knowing
and
needing
nothing
of
that
trust
,
which
,
for
him
,
had
been
turned
to
bitterness
.
The
little
light
he
possessed
spread
its
beams
so
narrowly
,
that
frustrated
belief
was
a
curtain
broad
enough
to
create
for
him
the
blackness
of
night
.
His
first
movement
after
the
shock
had
been
to
work
in
his
loom
;
and
he
went
on
with
this
unremittingly
,
never
asking
himself
why
,
now
he
was
come
to
Raveloe
,
he
worked
far
on
into
the
night
to
finish
the
tale
of
Mrs
Osgood
's
table-linen
sooner
than
she
expected
—
without
contemplating
beforehand
the
money
she
would
put
into
his
hand
for
the
work
.
He
seemed
to
weave
,
like
the
spider
,
from
pure
impulse
,
without
reflection
.
Every
man
's
work
,
pursued
steadily
,
tends
in
this
way
to
become
an
end
in
itself
,
and
so
to
bridge
over
the
loveless
chasms
of
his
life
.
Silas
's
hand
satisfied
itself
with
throwing
the
shuttle
,
and
his
eye
with
seeing
the
little
squares
in
the
cloth
complete
themselves
under
his
effort
.
Then
there
were
the
calls
of
hunger
;
and
Silas
,
in
his
solitude
,
had
to
provide
his
own
breakfast
,
dinner
,
and
supper
,
to
fetch
his
own
water
from
the
well
,
and
put
his
own
kettle
on
the
fire
;
and
all
these
immediate
promptings
helped
,
along
with
the
weaving
,
to
reduce
his
life
to
the
unquestioning
activity
of
a
spinning
insect
.
He
hated
the
thought
of
the
past
;
there
was
nothing
that
called
out
his
love
and
fellowship
toward
the
strangers
he
had
come
amongst
;
and
the
future
was
all
dark
,
for
there
was
no
Unseen
Love
that
cared
for
him
.
Thought
was
arrested
by
utter
bewilderment
,
now
its
old
narrow
pathway
was
closed
,
and
affection
seemed
to
have
died
under
the
bruise
that
had
fallen
on
its
keenest
nerves
.
But
at
last
Mrs
Osgood
's
table-linen
was
finished
,
and
Silas
was
paid
in
gold
.
His
earnings
in
his
native
town
,
where
he
worked
for
a
wholesale
dealer
,
had
been
after
a
lower
rate
;
he
had
been
paid
weekly
,
and
of
his
weekly
earnings
a
large
proportion
had
gone
to
objects
of
piety
and
charity
.
Now
,
for
the
first
time
in
his
life
,
he
had
five
bright
guineas
put
into
his
hand
;
no
man
expected
a
share
of
them
,
and
he
loved
no
man
that
he
should
offer
him
a
share
.
But
what
were
the
guineas
to
him
who
saw
no
vista
beyond
countless
days
of
weaving
?
It
was
needless
for
him
to
ask
that
,
for
it
was
pleasant
to
him
to
feel
them
in
his
palm
,
and
look
at
their
bright
faces
,
which
were
all
his
own
:
it
was
another
element
of
life
,
like
the
weaving
and
the
satisfaction
of
hunger
,
subsisting
quite
aloof
from
the
life
of
belief
and
love
from
which
he
had
been
cut
off
.
The
weaver
's
hand
had
known
the
touch
of
hard-won
money
even
before
the
palm
had
grown
to
its
full
breadth
;
for
twenty
years
,
mysterious
money
had
stood
to
him
as
the
symbol
of
earthly
good
,
and
the
immediate
object
of
toil
.
He
had
seemed
to
love
it
little
in
the
years
when
every
penny
had
its
purpose
for
him
;
for
he
loved
the
purpose
then
.
But
now
,
when
all
purpose
was
gone
,
that
habit
of
looking
towards
the
money
and
grasping
it
with
a
sense
of
fulfilled
effort
made
a
loam
that
was
deep
enough
for
the
seeds
of
desire
;
and
as
Silas
walked
homeward
across
the
fields
in
the
twilight
,
he
drew
out
the
money
,
and
thought
it
was
brighter
in
the
gathering
gloom
.
About
this
time
an
incident
happened
which
seemed
to
open
a
possibility
of
some
fellowship
with
his
neighbours
.
One
day
,
taking
a
pair
of
shoes
to
be
mended
,
he
saw
the
cobbler
's
wife
seated
by
the
fire
,
suffering
from
the
terrible
symptoms
of
heart-disease
and
dropsy
,
which
he
had
witnessed
as
the
precursors
of
his
mother
's
death
.
He
felt
a
rush
of
pity
at
the
mingled
sight
and
remembrance
,
and
,
recalling
the
relief
his
mother
had
found
from
a
simple
preparation
of
foxglove
,
he
promised
Sally
Oates
to
bring
her
something
that
would
case
her
,
since
the
doctor
did
her
no
good
.
In
this
office
of
charity
,
Silas
felt
,
for
the
first
time
since
he
had
come
to
Raveloe
,
a
sense
of
unity
between
his
past
and
present
life
,
which
might
have
been
the
beginning
of
his
rescue
from
the
insect-like
existence
into
which
his
nature
had
shrunk
.
But
Sally
Oates
's
disease
had
raised
her
into
a
personage
of
much
interest
and
importance
among
the
neighbours
,
and
the
fact
of
her
having
found
relief
from
drinking
Silas
Marner
's
"
stuff
"
became
a
matter
of
general
discourse
.
When
Doctor
Kimble
gave
physic
,
it
was
natural
that
it
should
have
an
effect
;
but
when
a
weaver
,
who
came
from
nobody
knew
where
,
worked
wonders
with
a
bottle
of
brown
waters
,
the
occult
character
of
the
process
was
evident
.
Such
a
sort
of
thing
had
not
been
known
since
the
Wise
Woman
at
Tarley
died
;
and
she
had
charms
as
well
as
"
stuff
:
"
everybody
went
to
her
when
their
children
had
fits
.
Silas
Marner
must
be
a
person
of
the
same
sort
,
for
how
did
he
know
what
would
bring
back
Sally
Oates
's
breath
,
if
he
did
n't
know
a
fine
sight
more
than
that
?
The
Wise
Woman
had
words
that
she
muttered
to
herself
,
so
that
you
could
n't
hear
what
they
were
,
and
if
she
tied
a
bit
of
red
thread
round
the
child
's
toe
the
while
,
it
would
keep
off
the
water
in
the
head
.
There
were
women
in
Raveloe
,
at
that
present
time
,
who
had
worn
one
of
the
Wise
Woman
's
little
bags
round
their
necks
,
and
,
in
consequence
,
had
never
had
an
idiot
child
,
as
Ann
Coulter
had
.
Silas
Marner
could
very
likely
do
as
much
,
and
more
;
and
now
it
was
all
clear
how
he
should
have
come
from
unknown
parts
,
and
be
so
"
comical-looking
.
"
But
Sally
Oates
must
mind
and
not
tell
the
doctor
,
for
he
would
be
sure
to
set
his
face
against
Marner
:
he
was
always
angry
about
the
Wise
Woman
,
and
used
to
threaten
those
who
went
to
her
that
they
should
have
none
of
his
help
any
more
.
Silas
now
found
himself
and
his
cottage
suddenly
beset
by
mothers
who
wanted
him
to
charm
away
the
hooping-cough
,
or
bring
back
the
milk
,
and
by
men
who
wanted
stuff
against
the
rheumatics
or
the
knots
in
the
hands
;
and
,
to
secure
themselves
against
a
refusal
,
the
applicants
brought
silver
in
their
palms
.
Silas
might
have
driven
a
profitable
trade
in
charms
as
well
as
in
his
small
list
of
drugs
;
but
money
on
this
condition
was
no
temptation
to
him
:
he
had
never
known
an
impulse
towards
falsity
,
and
he
drove
one
after
another
away
with
growing
irritation
,
for
the
news
of
him
as
a
wise
man
had
spread
even
to
Tarley
,
and
it
was
long
before
people
ceased
to
take
long
walks
for
the
sake
of
asking
his
aid
.
But
the
hope
in
his
wisdom
was
at
length
changed
into
dread
,
for
no
one
believed
him
when
he
said
he
knew
no
charms
and
could
work
no
cures
,
and
every
man
and
woman
who
had
an
accident
or
a
new
attack
after
applying
to
him
,
set
the
misfortune
down
to
Master
Marner
's
ill-will
and
irritated
glances
.
Thus
it
came
to
pass
that
his
movement
of
pity
towards
Sally
Oates
,
which
had
given
him
a
transient
sense
of
brotherhood
,
heightened
the
repulsion
between
him
and
his
neighbours
,
and
made
his
isolation
more
complete
.
Gradually
the
guineas
,
the
crowns
,
and
the
half-crowns
,
grew
to
a
heap
,
and
Marner
drew
less
and
less
for
his
own
wants
,
trying
to
solve
the
problem
of
keeping
himself
strong
enough
to
work
sixteen
hours
a-day
on
as
small
an
outlay
as
possible
.
Have
not
men
,
shut
up
in
solitary
imprisonment
,
found
an
interest
in
marking
the
moments
by
straight
strokes
of
a
certain
length
on
the
wall
,
until
the
growth
of
the
sum
of
straight
strokes
,
arranged
in
triangles
,
has
become
a
mastering
purpose
?
Do
we
not
wile
away
moments
of
inanity
or
fatigued
waiting
by
repeating
some
trivial
movement
or
sound
,
until
the
repetition
has
bred
a
want
,
which
is
incipient
habit
?
That
will
help
us
to
understand
how
the
love
of
accumulating
money
grows
an
absorbing
passion
in
men
whose
imaginations
,
even
in
the
very
beginning
of
their
hoard
,
showed
them
no
purpose
beyond
it
.
Marner
wanted
the
heaps
of
ten
to
grow
into
a
square
,
and
then
into
a
larger
square
;
and
every
added
guinea
,
while
it
was
itself
a
satisfaction
,
bred
a
new
desire
.
In
this
strange
world
,
made
a
hopeless
riddle
to
him
,
he
might
,
if
he
had
had
a
less
intense
nature
,
have
sat
weaving
,
weaving
—
looking
towards
the
end
of
his
pattern
,
or
towards
the
end
of
his
web
,
till
he
forgot
the
riddle
,
and
everything
else
but
his
immediate
sensations
;
but
the
money
had
come
to
mark
off
his
weaving
into
periods
,
and
the
money
not
only
grew
,
but
it
remained
with
him
.
He
began
to
think
it
was
conscious
of
him
,
as
his
loom
was
,
and
he
would
on
no
account
have
exchanged
those
coins
,
which
had
become
his
familiars
,
for
other
coins
with
unknown
faces
.
He
handled
them
,
he
counted
them
,
till
their
form
and
colour
were
like
the
satisfaction
of
a
thirst
to
him
;
but
it
was
only
in
the
night
,
when
his
work
was
done
,
that
he
drew
them
out
to
enjoy
their
companionship
.
He
had
taken
up
some
bricks
in
his
floor
underneath
his
loom
,
and
here
he
had
made
a
hole
in
which
he
set
the
iron
pot
that
contained
his
guineas
and
silver
coins
,
covering
the
bricks
with
sand
whenever
he
replaced
them
.
Not
that
the
idea
of
being
robbed
presented
itself
often
or
strongly
to
his
mind
:
hoarding
was
common
in
country
districts
in
those
days
;
there
were
old
labourers
in
the
parish
of
Raveloe
who
were
known
to
have
their
savings
by
them
,
probably
inside
their
flock-beds
;
but
their
rustic
neighbours
,
though
not
all
of
them
as
honest
as
their
ancestors
in
the
days
of
King
Alfred
,
had
not
imaginations
bold
enough
to
lay
a
plan
of
burglary
.
How
could
they
have
spent
the
money
in
their
own
village
without
betraying
themselves
?
They
would
be
obliged
to
"
run
away
"
—
a
course
as
dark
and
dubious
as
a
balloon
journey
.
So
,
year
after
year
,
Silas
Marner
had
lived
in
this
solitude
,
his
guineas
rising
in
the
iron
pot
,
and
his
life
narrowing
and
hardening
itself
more
and
more
into
a
mere
pulsation
of
desire
and
satisfaction
that
had
no
relation
to
any
other
being
.
His
life
had
reduced
itself
to
the
mere
functions
of
weaving
and
hoarding
,
without
any
contemplation
of
an
end
towards
which
the
functions
tended
.
The
same
sort
of
process
has
perhaps
been
undergone
by
wiser
men
,
when
they
have
been
cut
off
from
faith
and
love
—
only
,
instead
of
a
loom
and
a
heap
of
guineas
,
they
have
had
some
erudite
research
,
some
ingenious
project
,
or
some
wellknit
theory
.
Strangely
Marner
's
face
and
figure
shrank
and
bent
themselves
into
a
constant
mechanical
relation
to
the
objects
of
his
life
,
so
that
he
produced
the
same
sort
of
impression
as
a
handle
or
a
crooked
tube
,
which
has
no
meaning
standing
apart
.
The
prominent
eyes
that
used
to
look
trusting
and
dreamy
,
now
looked
as
if
they
had
been
made
to
see
only
one
kind
of
thing
that
was
very
small
,
like
tiny
grain
,
for
which
they
hunted
everywhere
:
and
he
was
so
withered
and
yellow
,
that
,
though
he
was
not
yet
forty
,
the
children
always
called
him
"
Old
Master
Marner
.
"
Yet
even
in
this
stage
of
withering
a
little
incident
happened
,
which
showed
that
the
sap
of
affection
was
not
all
gone
.
It
was
one
of
his
daily
tasks
to
fetch
his
water
from
a
well
a
couple
of
fields
off
,
and
for
this
purpose
,
ever
since
he
came
to
Raveloe
,
he
had
had
a
brown
earthenware
pot
,
which
he
held
as
his
most
precious
utensil
,
among
the
very
few
conveniences
he
had
granted
himself
.
It
had
been
his
companion
for
twelve
years
,
always
standing
on
the
same
spot
,
always
lending
its
handle
to
him
in
the
early
morning
,
so
that
its
form
had
an
expression
for
him
of
willing
helpfulness
,
and
the
impress
of
its
handle
on
his
palm
gave
a
satisfaction
mingled
with
that
of
having
the
fresh
clear
water
.
One
day
as
he
was
returning
from
the
well
,
he
stumbled
against
the
step
of
the
stile
,
and
his
brown
pot
,
falling
with
force
against
the
stones
that
overarched
the
ditch
below
him
,
was
broken
in
three
pieces
.
Silas
picked
up
the
pieces
and
carried
them
home
with
grief
in
his
heart
.
The
brown
pot
could
never
be
of
use
to
him
any
more
,
but
he
stuck
the
bits
together
and
propped
the
ruin
in
its
old
place
for
a
memorial
.
This
is
the
history
of
Silas
Marner
until
the
fifteenth
year
after
he
came
to
Raveloe
.
The
livelong
day
he
sat
in
his
loom
,
his
ear
filled
with
its
monotony
,
his
eyes
bent
close
down
on
the
slow
growth
of
sameness
in
the
brownish
web
,
his
muscles
moving
with
such
even
repetition
that
their
pause
seemed
almost
as
much
a
constraint
as
the
holding
of
his
breath
.
But
at
night
came
his
revelry
:
at
night
he
closed
his
shutters
,
and
made
fast
his
doors
,
and
drew
out
his
gold
.
Long
ago
the
heap
of
coins
had
become
too
large
for
the
iron
pot
to
hold
them
,
and
he
had
made
for
them
two
thick
leather
bags
,
which
wasted
no
room
in
their
resting-place
,
but
lent
themselves
flexibly
to
every
corner
.
How
the
guineas
shone
as
they
came
pouring
out
of
the
dark
leather
mouths
!
The
silver
bore
no
large
proportion
in
amount
to
the
gold
,
because
the
long
pieces
of
linen
which
formed
his
chief
work
were
always
partly
paid
for
in
gold
,
and
out
of
the
silver
he
supplied
his
own
bodily
wants
,
choosing
always
the
shillings
and
sixpences
to
spend
in
this
way
.
He
loved
the
guineas
best
,
but
he
would
not
change
the
silver
—
the
crowns
and
half-crowns
that
were
his
own
earnings
,
begotten
by
his
labour
;
he
loved
them
all
.
He
spread
them
out
in
heaps
and
bathed
his
hands
in
them
;
then
he
counted
them
and
set
them
up
in
regular
piles
,
and
felt
their
rounded
outline
between
his
thumb
and
fingers
,
and
thought
fondly
of
the
guineas
that
were
only
half-earned
by
the
work
in
his
loom
,
as
if
they
had
been
unborn
children
—
thought
of
the
guineas
that
were
coming
slowly
through
the
coming
years
,
through
all
his
life
,
which
spread
far
away
before
him
,
the
end
quite
hidden
by
countless
days
of
weaving
.
No
wonder
his
thoughts
were
still
with
his
loom
and
his
money
when
he
made
his
journeys
through
the
fields
and
the
lanes
to
fetch
and
carry
home
his
work
,
so
that
his
steps
never
wandered
to
the
hedge-banks
and
the
lane-side
in
search
of
the
once
familiar
herbs
:
these
too
belonged
to
the
past
,
from
which
his
life
had
shrunk
away
,
like
a
rivulet
that
has
sunk
far
down
from
the
grassy
fringe
of
its
old
breadth
into
a
little
shivering
thread
,
that
cuts
a
groove
for
itself
in
the
barren
sand
.
But
about
the
Christmas
of
that
fifteenth
year
,
a
second
great
change
came
over
Marner
's
life
,
and
his
history
became
blent
in
a
singular
manner
with
the
life
of
his
neighbours
.
CHAPTER
III
.
The
greatest
man
in
Raveloe
was
Squire
Cass
,
who
lived
in
the
large
red
house
,
with
the
handsome
flight
of
stone
steps
in
front
and
the
high
stables
behind
it
,
nearly
opposite
the
church
.
He
was
only
one
among
several
landed
parishioners
,
but
he
alone
was
honoured
with
the
title
of
Squire
;
for
though
Mr
Osgood
's
family
was
also
understood
to
be
of
timeless
origin
—
the
Raveloe
imagination
having
never
ventured
back
to
that
fearful
blank
when
there
were
no
Osgoods
—
still
,
he
merely
owned
the
farm
he
occupied
;
whereas
Squire
Cass
had
a
tenant
or
two
,
who
complained
of
the
game
to
him
quite
as
if
he
had
been
a
lord
.
It
was
still
that
glorious
war-time
which
was
felt
to
be
a
peculiar
favour
of
Providence
towards
the
landed
interest
,
and
the
fall
of
prices
had
not
yet
come
to
carry
the
race
of
small
squires
and
yeomen
down
that
road
to
ruin
for
which
extravagant
habits
and
bad
husbandry
were
plentifully
anointing
their
wheels
.
I
am
speaking
now
in
relation
to
Raveloe
and
the
parishes
that
resembled
it
;
for
our
old-fashioned
country
life
had
many
different
aspects
,
as
all
life
must
have
when
it
is
spread
over
a
various
surface
,
and
breathed
on
variously
by
multitudinous
currents
,
from
the
winds
of
heaven
to
the
thoughts
of
men
,
which
are
for
ever
moving
and
crossing
each
other
,
with
incalculable
results
.
Raveloe
lay
low
among
the
bushy
trees
and
the
rutted
lanes
,
aloof
from
the
currents
of
industrial
energy
and
Puritan
earnestness
:
the
rich
ate
and
drank
freely
,
and
accepted
gout
and
apoplexy
as
things
that
ran
mysteriously
in
respectable
families
,
and
the
poor
thought
that
the
rich
were
entirely
in
the
right
of
it
to
lead
a
jolly
life
;
besides
,
their
feasting
caused
a
multiplication
of
orts
,
which
were
the
heir-looms
of
the
poor
.
Betty
Jay
scented
the
boiling
of
Squire
Cass
's
hams
,
but
her
longing
was
arrested
by
the
unctuous
liquor
in
which
they
were
boiled
;
and
when
the
seasons
brought
round
the
great
merrymakings
,
they
were
regarded
on
all
hands
as
a
fine
thing
for
the
poor
.
For
the
Raveloe
feasts
were
like
the
rounds
of
beef
and
the
barrels
of
ale
—
they
were
on
a
large
scale
,
and
lasted
a
good
while
,
especially
in
the
winter-time
.
When
ladies
had
packed
up
their
best
gowns
and
top-knots
in
bandboxes
,
and
had
incurred
the
risk
of
fording
streams
on
pillions
with
the
precious
burden
in
rainy
or
snowy
weather
,
when
there
was
no
knowing
how
high
the
water
would
rise
,
it
was
not
to
be
supposed
that
they
looked
forward
to
a
brief
pleasure
.
On
this
ground
it
was
always
contrived
in
the
dark
seasons
,
when
there
was
little
work
to
be
done
,
and
the
hours
were
long
,
that
several
neighbours
should
keep
open
house
in
succession
.
When
Squire
Cass
's
standing
dishes
diminished
in
plenty
and
freshness
,
his
guests
had
nothing
to
do
but
to
walk
a
little
higher
up
the
village
to
Mr
Osgood
's
,
at
the
Orchards
,
and
they
found
hams
and
chines
uncut
,
porkpies
with
the
scent
of
the
fire
in
them
,
spun
butter
in
all
its
freshness
—
everything
,
in
fact
,
that
appetites
at
leisure
could
desire
,
in
perhaps
greater
perfection
,
though
not
in
greater
abundance
,
than
at
Squire
Cass
's
.
For
the
Squire
's
wife
had
died
long
ago
,
and
the
Red
House
was
without
that
presence
of
the
wife
and
mother
which
is
the
fountain
of
wholesome
love
and
fear
in
parlour
and
kitchen
;
and
this
helped
to
account
not
only
for
there
being
more
profusion
than
finished
excellence
in
the
holiday
provisions
,
but
also
for
the
frequency
with
which
the
proud
Squire
condescended
to
preside
in
the
parlour
of
the
Rainbow
rather
than
under
the
shadow
of
his
own
dark
wainscot
;
perhaps
,
also
,
for
the
fact
that
his
sons
had
turned
out
rather
ill.
Raveloe
was
not
a
place
where
moral
censure
was
severe
,
but
it
was
thought
a
weakness
in
the
Squire
that
he
had
kept
all
his
sons
at
home
in
idleness
;
and
though
some
licence
was
to
be
allowed
to
young
men
whose
fathers
could
afford
it
,
people
shook
their
heads
at
the
courses
of
the
second
son
,
Dunstan
,
commonly
called
Dunsey
Cass
,
whose
taste
for
swopping
and
betting
might
turn
out
to
be
a
sowing
of
something
worse
than
wild
oats
.
To
be
sure
,
the
neighbours
said
,
it
was
no
matter
what
became
of
Dunsey
—
a
spiteful
jeering
fellow
,
who
seemed
to
enjoy
his
drink
the
more
when
other
people
went
dry
—
always
provided
that
his
doings
did
not
bring
trouble
on
a
family
like
Squire
Cass
's
,
with
a
monument
in
the
church
,
and
tankards
older
than
King
George
.
But
it
would
be
a
thousand
pities
if
Mr
Godfrey
,
the
eldest
,
a
fine
,
open-faced
,
good-natured
young
man
,
who
was
to
come
into
the
land
some
day
,
should
take
to
going
along
the
same
road
as
his
brother
,
as
he
had
seemed
to
do
of
late
.
If
he
went
on
in
that
way
,
he
would
lose
Miss
Nancy
Lammeter
;
for
it
was
well
known
that
she
had
looked
very
shyly
on
him
ever
since
last
Whitsuntide
twelvemonth
,
when
there
was
so
much
talk
about
his
being
away
from
home
days
and
days
together
.
There
was
something
wrong
,
more
than
common
—
that
was
quite
clear
;
for
Mr
Godfrey
did
n't
look
half
so
fresh-coloured
and
open
as
he
used
to
do
.
At
one
time
everybody
was
saying
what
a
handsome
couple
he
and
Miss
Nancy
Lammeter
would
make
!
and
if
she
could
come
to
be
mistress
at
the
Red
House
,
there
would
be
a
fine
change
,
for
the
Lammeters
had
been
brought
up
in
that
way
,
that
they
never
suffered
a
pinch
of
salt
to
be
wasted
,
and
yet
everybody
in
their
household
had
of
the
best
,
according
to
his
place
.
Such
a
daughter-in-law
would
be
a
saving
to
the
old
Squire
,
if
she
never
brought
a
penny
to
her
fortune
,
for
it
was
to
be
feared
that
,
notwithstanding
his
incomings
,
there
were
more
holes
in
his
pocket
than
the
one
where
he
put
his
own
hand
in
.
But
if
Mr
Godfrey
did
n't
turn
over
a
new
leaf
,
he
might
say
"
Good-by
"
to
Miss
Nancy
Lammeter
.
It
was
the
once
hopeful
Godfrey
who
was
standing
,
with
his
hands
in
his
side-pockets
and
his
back
to
the
fire
,
in
the
dark
wainscoted
parlour
,
one
late
November
afternoon
,
in
that
fifteenth
year
of
Silas
Marner
's
life
at
Raveloe
.
The
fading
grey
light
fell
dimly
on
the
walls
decorated
with
guns
,
whips
,
and
foxes
'
brushes
,
on
coats
and
hats
flung
on
the
chairs
,
on
tankards
sending
forth
a
scent
of
flat
ale
,
and
on
a
half-choked
fire
,
with
pipes
propped
up
in
the
chimney-corners
:
signs
of
a
domestic
life
destitute
of
any
hallowing
charm
,
with
which
the
look
of
gloomy
vexation
on
Godfrey
's
blonde
face
was
in
sad
