She walked on
steadily for home, scarce seeing the people that passed her. It
was clear to Mewks that she had not a suspicion of being kept in
sight. He saw her in at her own door, and went back to his
master.
CHAPTER XLIV.
JOSEPH JASPER.
Another fact Mewks carried to his master--namely, that, as Mary
came near the door of the house, she was met by "a rough-looking
man," who came walking slowly along, as if he had been going up
and down waiting for her. Ho made her an awkward bow as she drew
near, and she stopped and had a long conversation with him--such
at least it seemed to Mewks, annoyed that he could hear nothing
of it, and fearful of attracting their attention--after which the
man went away, and Mary went into the house. This report made his
master grin, for, through the description Mewks gave, he
suspected a thief disguised as a workman; but, his hopes being
against the supposition, he dwelt the less upon it.
The man who stopped Mary, and whom, indeed, she would have
stopped, was Joseph Jasper, the blacksmith. That he was rough in
appearance, no one who knew him would have wished himself able to
deny, and one less like a thief would have been hard to find. His
hands were very rough and ingrained with black; his fingers were
long, but chopped off square at the points, and had no
resemblance to the long, tapering fingers of an artist or
pickpocket.
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