“Did I understand, that, being rejected by one employer, he would probably be rejected by all? I thought he said as much?”

“The chances are very small, young lady⁠—next to nothing⁠—for a man who gets a bad name among them.”

“What shall I understand that you mean by a bad name?”

“The name of being troublesome.”

“Then, by the prejudices of his own class, and by the prejudices of the other, he is sacrificed alike? Are the two so deeply separated in this town, that there is no place whatever for an honest workman between them?”

Rachael shook her head in silence.

“He fell into suspicion,” said Louisa, “with his fellow-weavers, because⁠—he had made a promise not to be one of them. I think it must have been to you that he made that promise. Might I ask you why he made it?”