He feared no outbreak then, and the distress in '39 was
severe."
"Well," said Gerard, "the wages have been dropping ever since.
The people exist, but you can scarcely say they live. But
they are cowed I fancy. An empty belly is sometimes as apt to
dull the heart as inflame the courage. And then they have
lost their leaders, for I was away you see, and have been
quiet enough since I came out; and Warner is broken: he has
suffered more from his time than I did; which is strange, for
he had his pursuits; whereas I was restless enough, and that's
the truth, and had it not been for Sybil's daily visit I
think, though I may never be allowed to live in a castle, I
should certainly have died in one."
"And how is Morley?"
"Right well; the same as you left him: I saw not a straw's
change when I came out. His paper spreads. He still preaches
moral force, and believes that we shall all end in living in
communities. But as the only community of which I have
personal experience is a gaol, I am not much more inclined to
his theory than heretofore."
Book 6 Chapter 6
The reader may not have altogether forgotten Mr Nixon and his
comates, the miners and colliers of that district not very
remote from Mowbray, which Morley had visited at the
commencement of this history, in order to make fruitless
researches after a gentleman whom he subsequently so
unexpectedly stumbled upon.
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