I never go near it. It's called High
Shale, but it's very low really, right in a pocket of the hills, and very
unhealthy. You can see the smoke hanging over there now. The cottages are
wretched places, and the people who live in them--words fail! Ashcott,
the agent and manager of the mines, says they are quite hopeless, and so
they are. They are just like pigs in a sty."
"Poor dears!" said Juliet.
"Oh, they're horrors!" declared Mrs. Fielding. "They fling stones at the
car if we go within half-a-mile of them. And they are such a drunken set.
Go round the other way, Jack,--round by Fairharbour! Miss Moore will
enjoy that."
"Thank you," said Juliet, with her friendly smile. "I am enjoying it
very much."
They travelled forty miles before they ran back again into Little Shale,
and the children were reassembling for afternoon school as they neared
the Court gates.
"Put me down here!" Juliet said. "I can run down the hill. It isn't worth
while coming those few yards and having to turn the car."
"I want you to lunch with me," said Mrs. Fielding.
"Oh, thank you very much. Not to-day. I really must get back. I've got to
buy cakes for tea," laughed Juliet.
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