"
Mr. Norton, though a Royalist, was still the chief personage in that
neighbourhood, and his name produced sufficient effect on Original-
Sin to make him come forward, look at the hoof, and select a shoe
from those hung on the walls of his forge. Little Ben looked on,
highly delighted to watch the proceedings, and Steadfast, as he
waited, glanced towards the servant, a well-made young man, in a
trim, sober suit of grey cloth, with a hat a good deal slouched over
a dark swarthy face, that struck Stead as having been seen by him
before.
After all, the lady's horse was the first finished. Hopkins looked
at all the other three shoes, tapped them with his hammer, and found
them secure, received the money from the lady, but gave very slight
salutations as the pair remounted, and rode away.
Then he twisted up his features and observed, "Here is a
dispensation! As I am a living soul, this horse shoe was made at
Worcester. I know the make. My cousin was apprenticed there."
"Well, outlandish work goes against one's stomach," said one of the
bystanders, "but what of that, man?"
"Seest thou not, Jabez Holt? Is not the young man there one of them
who trouble Israel, and the lady is striving for his escape.
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