Grace came in, that moment, with a superb air. She settled herself on the sofa.  
“Now, it is my turn, if you please. Pray, sir, do you think your life will be any safer for your insuring it? Insuring does not mean that you are not to be killed; but that, when you ARE, for your obstinacy², somebody else will get paid some money, to dance with over your grave.”
 
“I beg your pardon, Grace,” said Mr. Carden, entering with some printed papers in his hand. “That is not the only use of an insurance. He may want to marry, or to borrow a sum of money to begin business; and then a policy of insurance, with two or three premiums³ paid, smooths the difficulty. Everybody should make a will, and everybody should insure his life.”
 
“Well then, sir, I will do both.”
 
“Stop!” said Mr. Carden, who could now afford to be candid⁵. “First of all, you ought to satisfy yourself of the flourishing condition of the company.” He handed him a prospectus⁶. “This will show you our capital, and our disbursements last year, and the balance of profit declared. And this gives the balance sheet of the 'Vulture' and the 'Falcon,' which have assigned their business to us, and are now incorporated in the 'Gosshawk.'”
 
“Oh, what a voracious⁷ bird!” observed Grace. “I hope these other chickabiddies will not prove indigestible. Were they plucked first, papa? or did the 'Gosshawk' swallow them feathers and all?”
 
Little laughed heartily⁸ at this pert sally, but Mr. Carden winced⁹ under it.
 
Then Grace saw she was not quite weaponless, and added, “After such a meal, as that, Mr. Little, you will go down like a crumb¹⁰.”
 
“Grace, that is enough,” said Mr. Carden, rather severely¹¹.
 
Grace held her tongue directly, and the water came into her eyes. Anything like serious remonstrance¹² was a novelty to her.
 
When Henry had read the papers, Mr. Carden asked him, rather carelessly, what sum he wished to be insured for.
 
Now Henry had so little wish about the matter, that he had not given it a thought, and the question took him quite aback. He looked helplessly at Jael. To his surprise, she decided¹³ on the sum for him, without a moment's hesitation¹⁴, and conveyed the figure with that dexterity¹⁵ which the simplest of her sex can command whenever telegraphy is wanted. She did it with two unbroken movements; she put up all the fingers of her right hand to her brow, and that meant five: then she turned her hand rapidly, so as to hide her mouth from the others, who were both on her right hand, and she made the word thousand clear, with her lips and tongue, especially the “th.”
 
But the sum staggered Henry; and made him think he must be misinterpreting her.
 
He hesitated, to gain time. “Hum!” said he, “the sum?”
 
Jael repeated her pantomime as before.
 
Still Henry doubted, and, to feel his way, said, half interrogatively, “Five—thou—sand?”
 
Jael nodded.
 
“Five thousand pounds,” said Henry, as bold as brass¹⁶.
 
“Five thousand pounds!” cried Mr. Carden. “A workman insure his life for five thousand pounds!”
 
“Well, a man's life is worth five thousand pounds, or it is worth nothing. And, sir, how long do you think I shall be a workman, especially in Hillsborough, where from workman to master is no more than hopping¹⁷ across a gutter¹⁸?”
 
Mr. Carden smiled approval. “But five thousand pounds! The annual premium⁴ will be considerable. May I ask about how much you make a year?”
 
“Oh, papa!”
 
“Well, sir, Mr. Cheetham pays me L300 a year, at the rate of, and I can make another L100 by carving¹⁹ at odd times. But, if you doubt my ability, let us stay as we are, sir. It was your proposal, not mine, you know.”
 
“Young man,” said Mr. Carden, “never be peppery in business.” He said this so solemnly and paternally²⁰, it sounded like the eleventh commandment.
 
To conclude, it was arranged Henry should take the higher class of insurance, which provided for accidents, voyages, everything, and should be insured for L5000, provided the physician appointed by the company should pronounce him free from disease.
 
Henry then rose, and said, sorrowfully, to Grace, “You will not see me here very often now; and never on Saturday afternoon or Monday morning. I am not going to have some blackguard tracking me, and flinging a can of gunpowder²² in at your window. When I do come, it will be in the morning, and on a working day; and I shall perhaps go ten miles round to get here. It must be diamond cut diamond, for many a month to come, between the Trades and me.” He uttered these words with manly²³ gravity, as one who did not underrate the peril²⁴ he was resolved to face; and left them with a respectful bow.
 
“That's a rising man,” said Mr. Carden; “and may draw a hundred of his class to the 'Gosshawk.' It was a good stroke of business, quite out of the common.”
 
Grace said not a word, but she shook her head and looked pained and ill at ease. Jael watched her fixedly²⁵.
 
Henry called at the works that night, and examined the new defenses, with Mr. Cheetham. He also bought a powerful magnifying-glass; and next morning he came to the factory, examined the cinders²⁶, and everything else, with the magnifier, lighted his forge, and resumed his work.
 
At dinner-time he went out and had his chop, and read the Liberal; it contained a letter from Jobson, in reply to the editor.
 
Jobson deplored²⁷ the criminal act, admitted that the two unions had decided no individual could be a forger²⁸, a handler, and a cutler; such an example was subversive²⁹ of all the unions in the city, based, as they were, on subdivision of crafts. “But,” said Mr Jobson, “we were dealing³⁰ with the matter in a spirit quite inconsistent with outrages³¹, and I am so anxious to convince the public of this, that I have asked a very experienced gentleman to examine our minute-books, and report accordingly.”
 
This letter was supplemented by one from Mr. Grotait, secretary of the Saw-Grinders, which ran thus:—“Messrs. Parkin and Jobson have appealed to me to testify to certain facts. I was very reluctant to interfere³², for obvious reasons; but was, at last, prevailed on to examine the minute-books of those two unions, and they certainly do prove that on the very evening before the explosion, those trades had fully²¹ discussed Mr. ——'s case” (the real name was put, but altered by the editor), “and had disposed of it as follows. They agreed, and this is entered accordingly, to offer him his traveling expenses (first class) to London, and one pound per week, from their funds, until such time as he should obtain employment. I will only add, that both these secretaries spoke³³ kindly³⁴ to me of Mr. ——; and, believing them to be sincere, I ventured to advise them to mark their disapproval³⁵ of the criminal act, by offering him two pounds per week, instead of one pound; which advice they have accepted very readily.”
 
Henry was utterly³⁶ confounded by these letters.
 
Holdfast commented on them thus:
 
“Messrs. Jobson and Parkin virtually say that if A, for certain reasons, pushes a man violently out of Hillsborough, and B draws him gently out of Hillsborough for the same reasons, A and B can not possibly be co-operating. Messrs. Parkin and Jobson had so little confidence in this argument, which is equivalent to saying there is no such thing as cunning in trade, that they employed a third party to advance it with all the weight of his popularity and seeming impartiality³⁷. But who is this candid person that objects to assume the judge, and assumes the judge? He is the treasurer³⁸ and secretary of an union that does not number three hundred persons; yet in that small union, of which he is dictator, there has been as much rattening, and more shooting, and blowing-up wholesale³⁹ and retail⁴⁰, with the farcical accompaniment of public repudiation⁴¹, than in all the other unions put together. We consider the entrance of this ingenuous⁴² personage on the scene a bad omen¹, and shall watch all future proceedings⁴³ with increased suspicion.”
 
Henry had hardly done reading this, when a man came into the works, and brought him his fifteen pounds back from Mr. Jobson, and a line, offering him his expenses to London, and two pounds per week, from the Edge-Tool Forgers' box, till he should find employment. Henry took his money, and sent back word that the proposal came too late; after the dastardly attempt to assassinate⁴⁴ him, he should defy the unions, until they accepted his terms. Jobson made no reply. And Henry defied the unions.
 
The unions lay still, like some great fish at the bottom of a pool, and gave no sign of life or animosity. This did not lull⁴⁵ Henry into a false security. He never relaxed a single precaution. He avoided “Woodbine Villa;” he dodged⁴⁶ and doubled like a hare, to hide his own abode⁴⁷. But he forged, handled, and finished, in spite of the unions.
 
The men were civil to him in the yard, and he had it all his own way, apparently⁴⁸.
 
He was examined by a surgeon, and reported healthy. He paid the insurance premium, and obtained the policy. So now he felt secure, under the aegis⁴⁹ of the Press, and the wing of the “Gosshawk.” By-and-by, that great fish I have mentioned gave a turn of its tail, and made his placid⁵⁰ waters bubble a little.
 
A woman ............