Mary Barton Page #39

Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life is the first novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1848. The story is set in the English city of Manchester between 1839 and 1842, and deals with the difficulties faced by the Victorian working class.

• Novel

								

worth like me."

Mary's listening sympathy softened her, and she went on to unburden
her heavy laden heart.

"Eh, dear, dear! No one knows what I've lost. When my poor boys went,
I thought th' Almighty had crushed me to th' ground, but I never
thought o' losing George; I did na think I could ha' borne to ha'
lived without him. And yet I'm here, and he's--" A fresh burst of
crying interrupted her speech.

"Mary,"--beginning to speak again,--"did you ever hear what a poor
creature I were when he married me? And he such a handsome fellow!
Jem's nothing to what his father were at his age."

Yes! Mary had heard, and so she said. But the poor woman's thoughts
had gone back to those days, and her little recollections came out,
with many interruptions of sighs, and tears, and shakes of the head.

"There were nought about me for him to choose me. I were just well
enough afore that accident, but at after I were downright plain. And
there was Bessy Witter as would ha' given her eyes for him; she as is
Mrs. Carson now, for she were a handsome lass, although I never could
see her beauty then; and Carson warn't so much above her, as they're
both above us all now."

Mary went very red, and wished she could help doing so, and wished
also that Mrs. Wilson would tell her more about the father and mother
of her lover; but she durst not ask, and Mrs. Wilson's thoughts soon
returned to her husband, and their early married days.

"If you'll believe me, Mary, there never was such a born goose at
house-keeping as I were; and yet he married me! I had been in a
factory sin' five years old a'most, and I knew nought about cleaning,
or cooking, let alone washing and such-like work. The day after we
were married he goes to his work at after breakfast, and says he,
'Jenny, we'll ha' th' cold beef, and potatoes, and that's a dinner
fit for a prince.' I were anxious to make him comfortable, God knows
how anxious. And yet I'd no notion how to cook a potato. I know'd
they were boiled, and I know'd their skins were taken off, and that
were all. So I tidyed my house in a rough kind o' way, and then
I looked at that very clock up yonder," pointing at one that hung
against the wall, "and I seed it were nine o'clock, so, thinks I, th'
potatoes shall be well boiled at any rate, and I gets 'em on th' fire
in a jiffy (that's to say, as soon as I could peel 'em, which were a
tough job at first), and then I fell to unpacking my boxes! and at
twenty minutes past twelve he comes home, and I had th' beef ready on
th' table, and I went to take the potatoes out o' th' pot; but oh!
Mary, th' water had boiled away, and they were all a nasty brown
mass, as smelt through all the house. He said nought, and were very
gentle; but, oh, Mary, I cried so that afternoon. I shall ne'er
forget it; no, never. I made many a blunder at after, but none that
fretted me like that."

"Father does not like girls to work in factories," said Mary.

"No, I know he doesn't; and reason good. They oughtn't to go at
after they're married, that I'm very clear about. I could reckon up"
(counting with her fingers) "ay, nine men I know, as has been driven
to th' public-house by having wives as worked in factories; good
folk, too, as thought there was no harm in putting their little ones
out at nurse, and letting their house go all dirty, and their fires
all out; and that was a place as was tempting for a husband to stay
in, was it? He soon finds out gin-shops, where all is clean and
bright, and where th' fire blazes cheerily, and gives a man a welcome
as it were."

Alice, who was standing near for the convenience of hearing, had
caught much of this speech, and it was evident the subject had
previously been discussed by the women, for she chimed in.

"I wish our Jem could speak a word to th' Queen about factory work
for married women. Eh! but he comes it strong, when once yo get him
to speak about it. Wife o' his'n will never work away fra' home."

"I say it's Prince Albert as ought to be asked how he'd like his
missis to be from home when he comes in, tired and worn, and wanting
some one to cheer him; and may be, her to come in by-and-bye, just
as tired and down in th' mouth; and how he'd like for her never to
be at home to see to th' cleaning of his house, or to keep a bright
fire in his grate. Let alone his meals being all hugger-mugger and
comfortless. I'd be bound, prince as he is, if his missis served him
so, he'd be off to a gin-palace, or summut o' that kind. So why can't
he make a law again poor folks' wives working in factories?"

Mary ventured to say that she thought the Queen and Prince Albert
could not make laws, but the answer was,

"Pooh! don't tell me it's not the Queen as makes laws; and isn't she
bound to obey Prince Albert? And if he said they mustn't, why she'd
say they mustn't, and then all folk would say, oh no, we never shall
do any such thing no more."

"Jem's getten on rarely," said Alice, who had not heard her sister's
last burst of eloquence, and whose thoughts were still running on her
nephew, and his various talents. "He's found out summut about a crank
or a tank, I forget rightly which it is, but th' master's made him
foreman, and he all the while turning off hands; but he said he could
na part wi' Jem, nohow. He's good wage now: I tell him he'll be
thinking of marrying soon, and he deserves a right down good wife,
that he does."

Mary went very red, and looked annoyed, although there was a secret
spring of joy deep down in her heart, at hearing Jem so spoken of.
But his mother only saw the annoyed look, and was piqued accordingly.
She was not over and above desirous that her son should marry. His
presence in the house seemed a relic of happier times, and she had
some little jealousy of his future wife, whoever she might be. Still
she could not bear any one not to feel gratified and flattered by
Jem's preference, and full well she knew how above all others he
preferred Mary. Now she had never thought Mary good enough for Jem,
and her late neglect in coming to see her still rankled a little in
her breast. So she determined to invent a little, in order to do away
with any idea Mary might have that Jem would choose her for "his
right down good wife," as aunt Alice called it.

"Ay, he'll be for taking a wife soon," and then, in a lower voice,
as if confidentially, but really to prevent any contradiction or
explanation from her simple sister-in-law, she added,

"It'll not be long afore Molly Gibson (that's her at th'
provision-shop round the corner) will hear a secret as will not
displease her, I'm thinking. She's been casting sheep's eyes at our
Jem this many a day, but he thought her father would not give her
to a common working man; but now he's as good as her, every bit. I
thought once he'd a fancy for thee, Mary, but I donnot think yo'd
ever ha' suited, so it's best as it is."

By an effort Mary managed to keep down her vexation, and to say, "She
hoped he'd be happy with Molly Gibson. She was very handsome, for
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