 Book 7, Chapter 2 of the Mill on the Floss This is LibriVox Recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox LibriVox.org Recording by Paradise Camouflage The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot Book 7, The Final Rescue Chapter 2, Saint Augs Passes Judgment It was soon known throughout Saint Augs that Miss Tulliver was come back. She had not then eloped in order to be married to Mr Stephen Guest. At all events, Mr Stephen Guest had not married her, which came to the same thing so far as her culpability was concerned. We judge others according to results. How else? Not knowing the process by which results are arrived at, if Miss Tulliver, after a few months of well chosen travel, had returned as Mrs Stephen Guest, with the postmarital trousseau, and all the advantages possessed even by the most unwelcome wife of an only son, public opinion, which at Saint Augs, as elsewhere, always knew what to think, would have judged in strict consistency with those results. Public opinion in these cases is always of the fern and gender, not the world, but the world's wife. And she would have seen that two handsome young people, the gentlemen of quite the first family of Saint Augs, having found themselves in a false position, had been led into a course which, to say the least of it, was highly injudicious and productive of sad pain and disappointment, especially to that sweet young thing, Miss Dean. Master Stephen Guest had certainly not behaved well, but then young men were liable to those sudden infatuated attachments. And, bad as it may seem in Mrs Stephen Guest, to admit the faintest advances from her cousin's lover, indeed it had been said that she was actually engaged to young Wacom, old Wacom himself had mentioned it. Still, she was very young and a deformed young man, you know, and young Guest saw against her will, what could she do? She couldn't come back then. No one would have spoken to her, and how very well that maze-coloured satinette becomes her complexion. It seems as if the folds in front were quite common, several of her dresses are made so. They say he thinks nothing too handsome to buy for her. Poor Miss Dean, she's very pitiable, but then there was no positive engagement, and the air at the coast will do her good. After all, if young Guest felt no more for her than that, it was better for her not to marry him. What a wonderful marriage for a girl like Miss Tulliver. Quite romantic. Why young Guest will put up for the borrow with the next election. Nothing like commerce nowadays. That young Wacom nearly went out of his mind. He always was rather queer, but now he's gonna broaden again to be out of the way. Quite the best thing for a deformed young man. Miss Unit declares she will never visit Mr. and Mrs. Guest. Such nonsense, but pretending to be better than other people. Society couldn't be carried on if we inquired into private contact in that way, and Christianity tells us to thank no evil, and my belief is that Miss Unit had no card centre. But the results, as we know, were not of a kind to warrant this extenuation of the past. Maggie had returned without a trousseau, without a husband, in that degraded and outcast condition to which error is well known to lead, and the world's wife, with that fine instinct which is given her for the preservation of society, saw at once that Miss Tulliver's contact had been of the most aggravated kind. Could anything be more detestable? A girl so much indebted to her friends, whose mother as well as herself had received so much kindness from the deans, to lay the design in winning a young man's affections away from her own cousin, who behaved like a sister to her? Winning his affections? That was not the phrase for such a girl as Miss Tulliver. It would have been more correct to say that she had been actuated by mere, unwomanly boldness and unbridled passion. There was always something questionable about her. The connection with young Wapen, which they said had been carried on for years looked very ill, disgusting in fact, but with a girl of that disposition. To the world's wife, there had always been something in Miss Tulliver's very physique that a refined instinct felt to be prophetic of harm. And for poor Mr. Stephen Gaste, he was rather pettable than otherwise. A young man of five and twenty is not to be too severely judged in these cases. He is really very much the mercy of a designing bold girl. And it was clear that he had given way in spite of himself. He had shaken her off as soon as he could. Indeed, they're having parted so soon, looked very black indeed, for her. To be sure he had written a letter weighing all the blame on himself and telling the story in a romantic fashion, so to try and make her appear quite innocent. Of course he would do that. But the refined instinct of the world's wife was not to be deceived, providentially. Else what would become of society? Why her own brother had turned her from his doer. He had seen enough, you might be sure, before he would do that. A truly irrespectable young man, Mr. Tom Tulliver, quite likely to rise in the world. His sister's disgrace was naturally a heavy blow to him. It was to be hoped that she would go out of the neighborhood, to America or elsewhere, so as to purify the air of St. Augs from the stain of her presence. Extremely dangerous to daughters there. No good could happen to her. It was only to be hoped that she would repent and that God would have mercy on her. He had not the care of society on his hands as the world's wife had. It required nearly a fortnight for fine instinct to assure itself of these inspirations. Indeed it was a whole week before Stephen Sledder came, telling his father the facts and adding that he was gone across to Holland. Had drawn upon the agent at Mudport for money, was incapable of any resolution at present. Maggie, all this while, was too entirely filled with a more agonizing anxiety to spend any thought of the view that was being taken of her conduct by the world of St. Augs. Anxiety about Stephen, Lucy, Philip beat on her poor heart in a hard driving, ceaseless storm of mingled love, remorse and pity. If she had thought of rejection and injustice at all, it would have seemed to her that they had done their worst, that she could hardly feel any stroke from them intolerable since the words she had heard from her brother's lips. Across all her anxiety for the loved and the injured, those words shot again and again like a horrible pine that would have brought misery and dread even to a heaven of delights. The idea of ever recovering happiness never glimmered in her mind for a moment. It seemed as if every sensitive fiber in her were too entirely preoccupied by pain ever to vibrate again to another influence. Life stretched before her as one act of penitence, and all she craved as she dwelt on her future lord was something to guarantee her from more falling. Her own weakness haunted her like a vision of hideous possibilities that made no peace conceivable, except such as lay in the sense of a sure refuge. But she was not without practical intentions. The love of independence was too strong an inheritance and a habit for her not to remember that she must get her bread, and when other projects looked vague, she fell back on that of returning to her plain sewing and so getting enough to pay for her lodging at Bobs. She meant to persuade her mother to return to the mill by and by and love with Tom again, and somehow or other she would maintain herself with St. Oaks. Dr. Ken would perhaps help her and advise her. She remembered his parting words at the bazaar. She remembered the momentary feeling of reliance that had sprung in her when he was talking with her, and she waited with yearning expectation for the opportunity of confiding everything to him. Her mother called every day at Mr. Deans to learn how loose he was. The report was always sad. Nothing had yet roused her from the feeble passivity which had come on with the first shock. But of Philip, Mrs. Tulliver had learned nothing. Naturally, no one whom she met would speak to her about what related to her daughter. But at last she summoned courage to go and see Sister Glegg, who of course would know everything, and who had been even to see Tom at the mill in Mrs. Tulliver's absence, though he had said nothing of what happened on the occasion. As soon as her mother was gone, Maggie put on her bonnet. She had resolved on walking to the rectory and asking to see Dr. Ken. He was in deep grief, but the grief of another does not jar upon us in such circumstances. It was the first time she had been beyond the door since her return. Nevertheless, her mind was so bent on the purpose of her work that the unpleasantness of meeting people on the way and being stared at did not occur to her. But she had no sooner passed beyond the narrowest streets which she had to tread from Bob's dwelling than she became aware of unusual glances cast at her, and this consciousness made her hurry and were all nervously afraid to look to left or right. Presently, however, she came full on Mrs. and Mrs. Huntville, old acquaintances of the family. They both looked at her strangely and turned a little aside without speaking. All hard looks were pain to Maggie, but her self-report was too strong for resentment. No wonder they will not speak to me, she thought. They are very fond of Lucy. But now she knew that she was about to pass a group of gentlemen who were standing at the door of the billiard rooms, and she could not help saying young Tory step out a little with his glass at his eye and bow to her with that air of nonchalance, which he might have bestowed on a friendly barmaid. Maggie's pride was too intense for her not to feel that sting, even in the midst of her sorrow, and for the first time the thought took strong hold of her that she would have another obliquely cast on her, besides that which was felt to be due to her breach of faith towards Lucy. But she was at the rectory now. There, perhaps, she would find something else than retribution. Retribution may come from any voice, the hardest, cruelest, most embruted archin at the street corner can inflict it. Surely, help and pithier rare are things more needful for the righteous to bestow. She was shown up at once after being announced into Dr Ken's study, where she sat amongst piled up books for which he had little appetite, leaning his cheek against the head of his youngest child, a girl of three. The child was sent away at the servant, and when the door was closed, Dr Ken said, placing a cheer for Maggie. I was coming to see you, Ms. Toliver. You've anticipated me. I'm glad you did. Maggie looked at him with her childlike directness as she had done at the bazaar, and said, I won't tell you everything. But her eyes fell fast with tears as she said it, and all the pent-up excitement of her humiliating walk would have its vent before she could say more. Do tell me everything. Dr Ken said, with quiet kindness and his grave firm voice, think of me as one to whom a long experience has been granted, which may enable him to help you. And rather broke his sentences and with some effort at first, but soon with the greater ease that came from a sense of relief and the confidence, Maggie told a brief story of a struggle that must be the beginning of a long sorrow. Only the day before, Dr Ken had been made acquainted with the contents of Stephen's letter, and he had believed them at once without the confirmation of Maggie's statement. That involuntary plaintiff was, oh, I must go, had remained with him as the sign that she was undergoing some inward conflict. Maggie dwelt the longest on the feeling which had made her come back to her mother and brother, which made her cling to all the memories of the past. When she had ended, Dr Ken was silent for some minutes. It was a difficulty on his mind. He rose and walked up and down the hearth with his hands behind him. At last he seated himself again and said, looking at Maggie, you're prompting to go to your nearest friends, to remain where all the ties of your life have been formed. Is it true prompting to which the church in its original constitution and discipline response, opening its arms to the penitent, watching over its children to the last, never abandoning them to layer hopelessly reprobate? And the church ought to represent the feeling of the community, so that every power should be like a family knit together by Christian brotherhood under a spiritual father. But the ideas of discipline and Christian fraternity are entirely relaxed. They can hardly be said to exist in the public mind. They hardly survive except in the partial, contradictory form they have taken in the narrow community of schismatics. And if I were not supported by the firm faith that the church must ultimately recover the full force of that constitution, which is alone fitted to human needs, I should often lose heart at observing the want of fellowship and sense of mutual responsibility among my own flock. At present everything seems tending towards the relaxation of ties, towards the substitution of wayward choice for the adherence to obligation, which has its roots in the past. Your conscience and your heart have given you true light on this point, Mr. Oliver, and I have said all this that you may know what my wish about you, what my advice to you would be if they sprang from my own feeling an opinion unmodified by counteracting circumstances. Mr. Ken paused a little while. There was an entire absence of effusive benevolence in this manner. There was something almost cold in the gravity of his luke and voice. If Maggie had not known that his benevolence was persevering in proportion to its reserve, she might have been chilled and frightened. As it was, she listened expectantly, quite sure that there would be some effective help in his words. He went on. Your inexperience of the world, Mr. Oliver, prevents you from anticipating fully the very unjust conceptions that will probably be formed concerning your content, conceptions which will have a baneful effect, even in spite of known evidence to disprove them. Oh, I do. I begin to see, said Maggie, unable to repress the suddence of a recent spain. I know I shall be insulted. I shall be thought worse than I am. You perhaps do not yet know, said Dr. Ken, with a touch of more personal pity, that a letter has come which ought to satisfy everyone who is known anything of you, that you chose the steep and difficult path of a return to right, and a moment when that return was most of all difficult. Oh, where is he? said poor Maggie, with a flush and tremor that no presence could have hindered. He has gone abroad. He is written of all that passed to his father. He has vindicated you to the utmost, and I hope the communication of that letter to your cousin will have a beneficial effect on her. Dr. Ken waited for her to get calm again before he went on. That letter, as I said, ought to suffice to prevent false impressions concerning you. But I am bound to tell you, Ms. Tulliver, that not only the experience of my whole life, but my observation within the last three days makes me fear that there is hardly any evidence which will save you from the painful effect of false imputations. The persons who are the most incapable of a conscientious struggle such as yours are precisely those who will be likely to shrink from you because they will not believe in your struggle. I feel your life here will be attended not only with much pain, but with many obstructions. For this reason, and for this only, I ask you to consider whether it will not perhaps be better for you to take a situation at a distance according to your former intention. I will exert myself at once to obtain one for you. Oh, if I could but stop here, said Maggie, I have no heart to begin a strange life again. I should have no stay. I should feel like a lonely wanderer cut off from the past. I have written to the lady who offered me a situation to excuse myself. If I remain here, I could perhaps atone in some way to Lucy, to others. I could convince them that I'm sorry. And she added with some of the old, proud fire flashing out, I will not go away because people say false things of me. They shall learn to attract them. If I must go away at last, because, because others wish it, I will not go now. Well, said Dr. Ken, after some consideration, if you determine on that, Miss Tulliver, you may rely on all the influence my position gives me. I am bound to aid and countenance you by the very duties of my office as a parish priest. I will add that personally, I have a deep interest in your peace of mind and welfare. The only thing I want is some occupation that will enable me to get my bread and be independent, said Maggie. I should not want much. I can go enlarging where I am. I must think over the subject maturely, said Dr. Ken, and in a few days I shall be better able to ascertain the general feeling. I shall come to see you, I shall bear you constantly in mind. When Maggie had left him, Dr. Ken stood ruminating with his hands behind him and his eyes fixed on the carpet under a painful sense of doubt and difficulty. The tone of Stephen's letter, which he had read, and the actual relations of all the persons concerned, forced upon him powerfully the idea of an ultimate marriage between Stephen and Maggie as the least evil, and the impossibility of their proximity in St. Auguste on any other supposition, until after years of suppression through an insurmountable prospect of difficulty, over Maggie's stay there. On the other hand, he entered with all the comprehension of a man who had known spiritual conflict and had through years of devoted service to his fellow men into that state of Maggie's heart and conscience, which made the consent to her marriage a desegregation to her. Her conscience must not be tampered with. The principle on which she had acted was a safer guide than any balancing of consequences. His experience told him that intervention was too dubious a responsibility to be lightly encouraged. The possible ensue either of an endeavour to restore the former relations of Lucian Philip or of counselling submission to this eruption of a new filling was hidden in a darkness all the more impenetrable because each immediate step was clogged with evil. The great problem of the shifting relation between passion and duty is clear to no man who is capable of apprehending it. The question whether the moment has come in which a man has fallen below the possibility of her enunciation that will carry any efficacy and must accept a sway of a passion against which he had struggled as a trespass is one for which we have no master key that will fit all cases. The casualists have become a byword of reproach but their perverted spirit of minute discrimination was a shadow of a truth to which eyes and hearts are too often fatally sealed. The truth that moral judgments may remain false and hollow unless they are checked and enlightened with a perpetual reference to the special circumstances that mark the individual vote. All people of broad strong sense have an instinctive repugnance to the men of maxims because such people early discern that the mysterious complexity of our life is not to be embraced by maxims and that to lace ourselves up in formulas of that sort is to repress all the divine promptings and inspirations that spring from growing insight and sympathy and the man of maxims is the popular representative of the minds that are guided in their moral judgment solely by general rules thinking that these will lead them to justice by a ready made patent method without the trouble of exerting patience discrimination impartiality without any care to assure themselves whether they have the insight that comes from a hardly earned estimate of temptation or from a life vivid and intense enough to create a wide fellow feeling with all that is human. End of book seven chapter two recording by Andrew from Inveron in Scotland. Book seven chapter three of the Mill on the Floors. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox that's L-I-B-R-I-V-O-X dot org recording by Paradise Camouflage. The Mill on the Floors by George Elliot. Book seven The Final Rescue chapter three showing that old acquaintances are capable of surprising us. When Maggie was at home again her mother bought her news of an unexpected line of conduct in Aunt Gleig. As long as Maggie had not been heard of Mrs. Gleig had half closed her shutters and drawn down her blinds. She felt assured that Maggie was drowned that was far more probable than that her niece and Legity should have done anything to ruin the family honour in the tenderest point. When at last she learned from Tom that Maggie had come home and gathered from him what was her explanation of her absence she burst forth in severe reproof of Tom for admitting the worst of his sister until he was compelled. If you're not to stand by your kin as long as there was a shred of honourable attributable to them pray what were you to stand by lightly to admit conduct in one of your own family that would force you to alter your will had never been the way of the Dodsons and though Mrs. Gleig had always argued ill of Maggie's future at a time when other people were perhaps less clear-sighted yet fair play was a due and it was not for her own friends to help to rob the girl of her fair fame and to cast her out of from family shelter to the scorn of the outer world until she had become unequivocally a family discreet. The circumstances were unprecedented in Mrs. Gleig's experience nothing of that kind had happened amongst the Dodsons before but it was a case in which her hereditary rectitude and personal strength of character found a common channel along with her fundamental ideas of clanship as they did in her lifelong regard to equity in money matters. She quarreled with Mr. Gleig whose kindness flowing entirely into compassion for Lucy made him as hard in his judgment of Maggie as Mr. Dean himself was and fuming against her sister Tulliver because she did not at once come to her for advice and help shut herself up in her own room with Baxter's saints rest from morning till night denying herself to all visages till Mr. Gleig brought from Mr. Dean the news of Steven's letter. Then Mrs. Gleig felt that she had adequate fighting ground then she laid aside Baxter and was ready to meet all comers. While Mrs. Pullock could do nothing but shake her head and cry and wish that Cousin Abbott had died or any number of funerals had happened rather than this which had never happened before so that there was no knowing how to act and Mrs. Pullock could never enter St. Augustine again because acquaintances knew of it all Mrs. Gleig only hoped that Mrs. Woo or anyone else would come to her with their false tales about her own niece and she would know what to say to that ill-advised person. Again she had a scene of remonstrance with Tom all the more severe in proportion to the greater strength of her present position but Tom like other immovable things seemed only the more rigidly fixed under that attempt to seek him. Poor Tom he judged by what he had been able to see and the judgement was painful enough to himself. He thought he had the demonstration of facts observed through years by his own eyes which gave no warning of their imperfection that Maggie's nature was utterly untrustworthy and too strongly marked with evil tendencies to be safely treated with leniency. He would act on that demonstration at any cost but the thought of it made his days bitter to him. Tom like any one of us was imprisoned within the limits of his own nature and his education had simply glided over him leaving a slight deposit of polish. If you are inclined to be severe on his severity remember that the responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision. There had arisen in Tom a repulsion towards Maggie that derived its very intensity from their early childish love in the time when they had clasped tiny fingers together and their later sense of nearness in a common duty and a common sorrow. The sight of her as he had told her was hateful to him. In this branch of the Dotson family and Clegg found a stronger nature than her own a nature in which family feeling had lost the character clanship by taking on a doubly deep dye of personal pride. Mrs. Clegg allowed that Maggie ought to be punished. She was not a woman to deny that she knew what conduct was but punished in proportion to the misdeeds proved against her not to those which were cast upon her by people outside her own family who might wish to show that their own can were better. Your act like scolded me so as never was my dear, said poor Mrs. Tulliver when she came back to Maggie as I didn't go to see her before. She said it wasn't for her to come to me first but she spoke like a sister too having she always was and was hard to please oh dear but she said the kindest word as has ever been spoke by you yet my child for she says for all she's been so set again having one extra in the house and making extra spoons and things and putting her about in her ways you shall have a shelter in her house if you'll go to her dutiful and she'll uphold you against folks I say harm of you when they've no call and I told her I thought you couldn't bear to see anybody but me you were so beat down with trouble but she said I won't throw well words at her as them out of the family you'll be ready enough to do that but I'll give her good advice and she must be humble it's wonderful of Jane for I'm sure she used to throw everything I did wrong at me if it was the raisin wine as turned as bad or the pie's too hot whatever it was oh mother said poor Maggie shrinking from the thought of all the contact her bruised mind would have to be her tell her I'm very grateful I'll go to see her as soon as I can but I can't see anyone just yet except dr. can I mean to him he will advise me and help me to get some occupation I can't live with anyone I'll be dependent on them tell I'm like I must get my own bread but did you hear nothing of Philip Philip wake up have you never seen anyone that has mentioned him no my dear but I mean to Lucy's and I saw your uncle and he says they got her to listen to the letter and she took notice of misguest and asked questions and the doctor thinks she's on the turn to be better what a world this is what trouble oh dear the law was the first beginning and it's gone from bad to worse all of a sudden just when the look seemed on the turn this was the first lamentation that Mrs. Tulliver had let slip to Maggie but old habit had been revived by the interview with sister leg my poor poor mother Maggie burst out cut to the heart with pity and compunction and throwing her arms around her mother's neck I was always naughty and troublesome to you and how he might have been happy if it hadn't been for me hey my dear said Mrs. Tulliver leaning toward the warm young cheek I must put up with me children I shall never have no more and if they bring me bad luck I must be fond of it there's nothing else much to be fond on for my furniture went longer ago and you've got to be very good once I can't think how it's turned out the wrong way so still two or three more days passed Maggie heard nothing of Philip anxiety about him was becoming her predominant trouble and she summoned courage at last to inquire about him of Dr. Ken on his next visit to her he did not even know if Philip was at home the elder wake him was made moody by an accumulation of annoyance the disappointment in this young Jetson to whom apparently he was a good deal attached had been followed close by the catastrophe to his son's hopes after he had done violence to his own strong feeling by conceding to them and had unconsciously mentioned this concession in St. Augs and he was almost fierce in his brusqueness when anyone asked a question about his son but Philip could hardly have been ill or it would have been known through the calling in of the medical man it was probable that he was gone out of town for a little while Maggie sickened under the suspense and her imagination began to live more and more persistently in what Philip was enduring what did he believe about her at last Bob brought her later without a postmark directed in a hand what she knew familiarly in the letters of her own name a hand in which her name had been written long ago in a pocket Shakespeare which he possessed her mother was in the room and Maggie in violent agitation hurried upstairs that she may read the letter in solitude she read it with a throbbing bra Maggie I believe in you I know you never meant to deceive me I know you tried to keep faith to me into all I believe this before I had any other evidence than your own nature the night after I last parted from you I suffered torments I had seen what convinced me that you were not free it was another whose presence had a power over you which mine never possessed but through all the suggestions almost murderous suggestions of rage and jealousy my mind made its way to believe in your truthfulness I was sure that you meant to cleave to me as you had said that you had rejected him that you struggled for an answer for Lucy's second for mine but I could see no issue that was not fatal for you and that dread shut out the very thought of resignation I foresaw that he would not relinquish you and I believe then as I believe now the strong attraction which drew you together proceeded only from one side of your characters and belonged to that partial divided action of our nature which makes half the tragedy of the human lot I have felt the vibration of cords in your nature that I've continually felt the want of it is but perhaps I am wrong perhaps I feel about you as the artist does about the scene of which his soul has pruded with love he would tremble to see it confided to other hands he would never believe that it could bear for another all the meaning and the beauty it bears for him I dare not trust myself to see you that morning I was filled with selfish passion I was shattered by an eye of conscious delirium I told you long ago that I had never been resigned even to the mediocrity of my powers how could I be resigned to the loss of the one thing which had ever come to me on earth with the promise of such deep joys would give a new and blessed meaning to the foregoing pain the promise of another self that would lift my aching affection into the divine rapture of an ever-springing ever satisfying one but the miseries of that night have prepared me for what came before the next it was no surprise to me I was certain that he had prevailed on you to sacrifice everything to him and I waited with equal certainty to hear of your marriage I measured your love and his by my own but I was wrong Maggie there is something stronger in you than your love for him I will not tell you what I went through that but even in its utmost agony even those terrible throws which love must suffer before it can be disembodied of selfish desire my love for you sufficed to withhold me from suicide without the aid of any other motive in the midst of my egoism I yet could not bear to come like a death shadow across the feast of your joy I could not bear to forsake the world in which you still lived and might need me it was part of the faith I had vowed to you to wait and endure Maggie that is a proof of what I will write now to assure you of that no anguish I've had to bear on your account has been too heavy a price to pay for the new life into which I have entered in loving you I want you to put aside all grief because of the grief you have caused me I was nurtured in a sense of provision I never expected happiness and in knowing you in loving you I have had and still have what reconciles me to life you have been to my affections what light what color is to my eyes what music is to the inward ear you have raised a dim unrest into a vivid consciousness the new life I have found in caring for your joy and sorrow more than for what is directly my own has transformed the spirit of rebellious murmuring into that willing endurance which is the birth of strong sympathy I think nothing but such complete and intense love could have initiated me into that enlarged life which grows and grows by appropriating the life of others for before I was always dragged back from it by ever-present painful self-consciousness I even think sometimes that this gift of transferred life which has come to me in loving you may be a new power to me then in spite of it all you've been the blessing of my life let no self reproach weigh on you because of me it is I who should rather reproach myself for having urged my feelings upon you and horrid you into words that you have felt as venets you meant to be true to those words you have been true I can measure your sacrifice by what I have known in only one half hour of your presence with me when I dreamed that you might hold me best but Maggie I have no just claim on you for more than affectionate remembrance for some time I have shrunk from writing to you because I have shrunk even from the appearance of wishing to thrust myself before you and so repeating my original error but you will not misconstrue me I know that we must keep apart for a long while cruel tongues would force us apart if nothing else did but I shall not go away the place where you are is the one where my mind must live wherever I might travel and remember that I am unchangeably yours yours not with selfish wishes but with a devotion that excludes such wishes God comfort you my loving large soul Maggie if everyone has misconceived you remember that you have never been doubted by him whose heart recognized you 10 years ago do not believe anyone who says that I am ill because I am not seen out of Doris I've only had nervous headaches no worse than I have sometimes had them before but the overpowering heat inclines me to be perfectly quiescent in the daytime I'm strong enough to obey any word which shall tell me that I can serve you by word or deed yours to the last Philip Waken as Maggie knelt by the bed sobbing that letter pressed under her her feelings again and again gathered themselves in a whispered cry always in the same words oh god is there any happiness and love that would make me forget their pale end of book seven chapter three recorded by Andrew and for w w w dot m e l y s dot w s book seven chapter four of the mill on the floors this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by paradise camouflage the mill on the floor by George Elliott book seven the final rescue chapter four Maggie and Lucy by the end of the week Dr. Ken had made up his mind that there was only one way in which he could secure to Maggie a suitable living at St. Augs even with his 20 years experience as a parish priest he was aghast at the obstinate continuance of imputations against her in the face of evidence hitherto he had been rather more adored and appealed to than was quite agreeable to him but now in attempting to open the ears of women to reason and their consciences to justice on behalf of Maggie Tulliver he suddenly found himself was powerless as he was aware he would have been if he had attempted to influence the shape of bonnets Dr. Ken could not be contradicted he was listened to in silence but when he left the room a comparison of opinions among his hearers yielded much the same result as before Ms. Tulliver had undeniably acted an unblameable man even Dr. Ken did not deny that how then could he think so lightly of her as to put that favorable interpretation on everything she had done even on the supposition that required the utmost stretch of belief namely that none of the things said about Ms. Tulliver were true still since they had been said about her they had cast an odor around her which must cause her to be shrunk from by every woman who had to take care of her own reputation and of society to have taken Maggie by the hand and said I will not believe vampir of evil view my lips shall not utter it my ears shall be closed against it I too am an air and mortal liable to stumble up to come short of my most earnest efforts your lot has been harder than mine your temptation greater let us help each other to stand and walk without more falling to have done this would have demanded courage deep pity self-knowledge generous trust would have demanded a mind that tasted no frequency in evil speaking that felt no self-exaltation condemning that cheated itself with no large words into belief that life can have any moral end any high religion which excludes the striving after perfect truth justice and love towards the individual men and women who come across our own path the latest of saint oaks were not beguiled by any wide speculative conceptions but they had their favorite abstraction called society which served to make their consciousness perfectly easy and doing what satisfied their own egoism thinking and speaking the worst of Maggie to deliver and turning their backs upon her it was naturally disappointing to dr ken after two years of super flows incense from his feminine parishioners to find them suddenly maintaining their views in opposition to his but then they maintained them in opposition to a higher authority which they had venerated longer that authority had furnished a very explicit answer to persons who might inquire where their social duties began and might be inclined to take wide views as to the starting point the answer had not turned on the ultimate good of society but on a certain man who was found in trouble by the wayside not the saint oaks was empty of women with some tenderness of heart and conscience probably it had as fair proportion of human goodness in it as any other small trading town of that day but until every good man is brave we must expect to find many good women timid too timid even to believe in the correctness of their own best products when these would place them in a minority and the men at saint oaks were not all brave by any means some of them were even formed of scandal and to an extent might have given their conversation in a feminine character if it had not been distinguished by masculine jokes and by an occasional shrug of the soldiers at the mutual hatred of women it was the general feeling of the masculine minded saint oaks that women were not to be interfered with in their treatment of each other and thus every direction in which Dr Ken had turned in the hope of procuring some kind recognition and some employment for Maggie proved a disappointment to him Mrs James Tory could not think of taking Maggie as a nursery governess even temporarily a young woman about whom such things have been said and about whom gentlemen joked and Mrs Kirk who had a spiral complaint and wanted a reader and companion felt quite sure that Maggie's mind must be of a quality with which she for her part could not risk any contact why did not miss Oliver accept the shelter offered her by her aunt leg it did not become a girl like her to refuse it or else why did she not go out of the neighborhood and get a situation where she was not known it was not apparently of so much importance that she should carry her dangerous tendencies into strange families unknown at saint oaks she must be very bold and hardened to wish to stay in a parish where she was so much stared at and whispered about Dr Ken having great natural firmness began in the presence of this opposition as every fair man would have done to contract a certain strength of determination over and above what would have been called forth by the end in view he himself wanted a daily governess for his younger children and though he had hesitated in the first instance to offer this position to Maggie the resolution to protest with the utmost force of his personal and priestly character against her being crushed and driven away by slander was now decisive Maggie gratefully accepted an appointment that gave her duties as well as his support her days would be filled now and solitary evenings would be a welcome rest she no longer needed the sacrifice her mother made in staying with her and Mrs Tulliver was persuaded to go back to the mill but now it began to be discovered that Dr Ken exemplary as he had hitherto appeared had his crotchets possibly his weaknesses the masculine mind of saint oaks smiled pleasantly and did not wonder that Ken liked to see a fine pair of eyes daily or that he was inclined to take so lenient of you the past the feminine mind regarded at that period as less powerful took a more melancholy view of the case if Dr Ken should be beguiled into marrying that Miss Tulliver it was not safe to be too confident even about the best of men an apostle had fallen and wept bitterly afterwards and though Peter's denial was not a close president his repentance was likely to be Maggie had not taken her daily walks to the rectory for many weeks before the dreadful possibility of her sometime or other becoming the rectors wife had been talked of so often in confidence that ladies were beginning to discuss how they should behave to her in that position for Dr Ken it had been understood had sat in the school room half an hour one morning when Miss Tulliver was giving her lessons nay he had sat there every morning he had once walked home with her he almost always walked home with her and if not he went to see her in the evening what an artful creature she was what a mother for those children it was enough to make poor Mrs Ken turn in her grave that they should be put under the care of this girl only a few weeks after her death would he be so lost to propriety as to marry her before the year was out the masculine mind was sarcastic and thought not the misguess saw an alleviation to the sorrow of witnessing a folly in the rector at least their brother would be safe and their knowledge of Stevens to nasty was a constant ground of alarm to them lest he should come back in marry Maggie they were not among those who disbelieve their brother's letter but they had no confidence in Maggie's adherence to her renunciation of him they suspected that she had shrunk rather from the allotment than from the marriage and that she lingered in st. Org's relying on his return to her they had always thought her disagreeable they now thought her artful and proud having quite as good grounds for that judgment as you and I probably have for many strong opinions of the same kind formerly they had not altogether delighted in the contemplated match with Lucy but now their dread of a marriage between Stephen and Maggie added its momentum to their genuine pity and indignation on behalf of the gentle forsaken girl in making them desire that he should return to her as soon as Lucy was able to leave home she was to seek relief from the oppressive heat of this august by going to the coast with the misguests and it was in their plans that Stephen should be induced to join them on the very first tent of gossip concerning Maggie and dr. Ken the report was conveyed in this guest letter to her brother Maggie had frequent tidings through her mother or aunt leg or dr. Ken of Lucy's gradual progress toward recovery and her thoughts tended continually towards her uncle Dean's house she hunkered for an interview with Lucy if it were only for five minutes to utter a word of penitence to be assured by Lucy's own eyes and lips that she did not believe in this willing treachery of those whom she had loved and trusted but she knew that even if her uncle's indignation had not closed his house against her the agitation of such an interview would have been forbidden to Lucy only to have seen her without speaking would have been some relief for Maggie was haunted by a face cruel in its very gentleness a face that had been turned on hers with glad sweet looks of trust and love from the twilight time of memory changed now to a sad and weary face by a first heart stroke and as the days passed on that pale image became more and more distinct the picture grew and grew into more speaking definiteness under the avenging hand of remorse the soft hazel eyes and their look of pain were bent forever on Maggie and pierced her the more because she could see no anger in them but Lucy was not yet able to go to church or any place where Maggie could see her and even the hope of that departed when the news was told her by Aunt Glig that Lucy was really going away in a few days to Scarborough with the misguests who had been heard to say that they expected their brother to meet them there only those who have known what hardest inward conflict is can know what Maggie felt as she sat in her loneliness the evening after hearing that news from mrs. Glig only those who have known what it is to dread their own selfish desires as the watching mother could dread the sleeping potion that was to steal her own pain she sat without candle in the twilight with the window wide open toward the river the sense of oppressive heat adding itself undistinguishably to the burden of her lot seated on a chair against the window with her arm on the window sill she was looking blankly at the flowing river swift with the backward rushing tide struggling to see still the sweet face in its unapproaching sadness that seemed now from moment to moment to sink away and be hidden behind a form that thrust itself between and made darkness hearing the door open she thought mrs. jaykin was coming in with her supper as usual and with that repugnance to trivial speech which comes with languor and richness she shrank from turning around and saying she wanted nothing good little mrs. jaykin would be sure to make some well meant remarks but the next moment without her having discerned the sound of a footsteps she felt a light hand on her shoulder and heard a voice close to her saying Maggie the face was there changed but all the sweeter the haze lies where they are with their heart piercing tenderness Maggie the soft voice said Lucy answered a voice with a sharp ring of anguish in it and Lucy threw her arms round Maggie's neck and leaned her pale cheek against the burning brow I still out said Lucy almost on a whisper when she sat down close to Maggie and held her hand when papa and the rest were away Alice has come with me I asked her to help me but I must only stay a little while because it is so late it was easier to say that at first to say anything else they sat looking at each other it seemed as if the interview must end without more speech for speech was very difficult each felt that there would be something scorching in the words that would recall the irretrievable wrong but soon as Maggie looked every distinct thought began to be overflowed by a wave of loving penitence and words burst forth with a sob God bless you for coming Lucy the sobs came thick on each other after that Maggie dear be comforted said Lucy now putting her cheek against Maggie's again don't grieve and she sat still hoping to soothe Maggie with a gentle caress I didn't mean to deceive you Lucy said Maggie as soon as she could speak it always made me wretched that I felt what I didn't like you to know it was because I thought it would all be conquered and you might never see anything to wound you I know dear said Lucy I know you never meant to make me unhappy it is a trouble that has come on us all you have more to bear than I have and you gave him up when you did what it must have been very hard to do they were silent again for a little while sitting with clasped hands and cheeks leaned together Lucy Maggie began again he struggled too he wanted to be true to you he will come back to you forgive him he will be happy then these words were wrung forth from Maggie's deeper with an effort like the convulse crutch of a drowning man Lucy trembled and was silent a gentle knock came at the door it was Alice the maid who entered and said I don't stay any longer Miss Dean they'll find it out and they'll be such anger that you're coming out so late Lucy rose and said very well Alice in a minute I'm to go away on Friday Maggie she said when Alice had closed the door again when I come back and I'm strong they will let me do as I like I shall come to you when I please then Lucy said Maggie with another great effort I pray to God continually that I may never be the cause of sorrow to you anymore she pressed the little hand that she held between hers and looked up into the face that was bent over her Lucy never forgot that look Maggie she said in a love voice that had the solemnity of confession that you're better than I am I can't she broke off there and said no more but they clasped each other again in a last embrace end of book seven chapter four recording by Andy from Inverton Scotland M E L Y S dot W S book seven the final rescue chapter five the last conflict this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or how to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Mill on the Floss by George Elliott book seven the final rescue chapter five the last conflict in the second week of September Maggie was again sitting in her lonely room battling with the old shadowy enemies that were forever slain and rising again it was past midnight and the rain was beating heavily against the window driven with fitful force by the rushing loud moaning wind for the day after Lucy's visit there had been a sudden change in the weather the heat and drought had given way to cold variable winds and heavy falls of rain at intervals and she had been forbidden to risk the contemplated journey until the weather should become more settled in the counties higher up the floss the rains had been continuous and the completion of the harvest had been arrested and now for the last two days the rains on the slower course of the river had been incessant so that the old men had shaken their heads and talked of 60 years ago when the same sort of weather happening about the equinox brought on the great floods which swept the which swept the bridge away and reduced the town to great misery but the younger generation who had seen several small floods thought lightly of these somber recollections and forebodings and Bob Jacob naturally prone to take a hopeful view of his own luck laughed at his mother when she regretted their having taken a house by the riverside observing that before that they would have had no boats which were the most lucky of possessions in case of a flood that obliged them to go to a distance for food but the careless and the fearful were alike sleeping in their beds now there was hope that the rain would abate by the morrow threatenings of a worst kind from sudden thaws after falls of snow had often passed off in the experience of the younger ones and at the very worst the banks would be sure to break lower down the river when the tide came in with violence and so the waters would be carried off without causing more than temporary inconvenience and losses that would be felt only by the poorer sort whom charity would relieve all were in their beds now for it was past midnight all except some solitary watchers such as Maggie she was seated in her little parlor toward the river with one candle that left everything dim in the room except a letter which lay before her on the table that letter which had come to her today was one of the causes that had kept her up far on into the night unconscious how the hours were going careless of seeking rest with no image of rest coming across her mind except of that far far off rest from which there would be no more waking for her into this struggling earthly life two days before Maggie received that letter she had been to the rectory for the last time the heavy rain would have prevented her from going since but there was another reason Dr. Ken at first enlightened only by a few hints as to the new turn which gossip and slander had taken in relation to Maggie had recently been made more fully aware of it by an earnest remonstrance from one of his male parishioners against the indiscretion of persisting in the attempt to overcome the prevalent feeling in the parish by a course of resistance Dr. Ken having a conscious void of offense in this matter was still inclined to persevere was still a verse to give way before a public sentiment that was odious and contemptible but he was finally wrought upon by the consideration of the peculiar responsibility attached to his office of avoiding the appearance of evil and appearance that is always dependent on the average quality of surrounding minds where these minds are low and gross the area of that appearance is proportionately widened perhaps he was in danger of acting from obstinacy perhaps it was his duty to succumb conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course and to recede was always painful to Dr. Ken he made up his mind that he must advise Maggie to go away from St. Augs for a time and he performed that difficult task with as much delicacy as he could only stating in vague terms that he found his attempt to countenance first day was a source of discord between himself and his parishioners that was likely to obstruct his usefulness as a clergyman he begged her to allow him to write to a clerical friend of his who might possibly take her into his own family as governess and if not would probably know of some other available position for a young woman in whose welfare Dr. Ken felt a strong interest poor Maggie listened with a trembling lip she could say nothing but a faint thank you I shall be grateful and she walked back to her lodgings through the driving rain with a new sense of desolation she must be a lonely wanderer she must go out among fresh faces that would look at her wanderingly because the days did not seem joyful to her she must begin a new life in which she would have to rouse herself to receive new impressions and she was so unspeakably sickeningly weary there was no home no help for the airing even those who pitied were constrained to hardness but ought she to complain ought she to shrink in this way from the long penance of life which was all the possibility she had of lightning the load to some other sufferers and so changing that passionate error into a new force of unselfish human love all the next day she sat in her lonely room with a window darkened by the cloud and the driving rain thinking of that future and wrestling for patience for what repose could poor Maggie ever win except by wrestling and on the third day this day of which she had just sat out the clothes the letter had come which was lying on the table before her the letter was from Stephen he was come back from Holland he was at Mudportican unknown to any of his friends and had written to her from that place and closing the letter to a person whom he trusted in Saint Hogs from beginning to end it was a passionate cry of reproach and appeal against her useless sacrifice of him of herself against that perverted notion of right which led her to crush all his hopes for the sake of a mere idea and not any substantial good his hopes whom she loved and who loved her with that single overpowering passion that worship which a man never gives to a woman more than once in his life they have written to me that you are to marry Ken and if I should believe that perhaps they have told you some such fables about me perhaps they tell you I've been traveling my body has been dragged about somewhere but I have never traveled from the hideous place where you left me where I started up from the stupor of helpless rage to find you gone Maggie whose pain can have been like mine whose injury is like mine who besides me has met that long look of love that has burnt itself into my soul so that no other image can come there Maggie call me back to you call me back to life and goodness I am banished from both now I have no motives I am indifferent to everything two months have only deepened the certainty that I can never care for life without you write me one word say come in two days I should be with you Maggie have you forgotten what it was to be together to be within reach of a look to be within hearing of each other's voice when Maggie first read this letter she felt as if her real temptation had only just begun at the entrance of the chill dark cavern we turn with unworn courage from the warm light but how when we have trodden far in the damp darkness and have begun to be faint and weary how if there is a sudden opening above us and we are invited back again to the life nourishing day the leap of natural longing from under the pressure of pain is so strong that all less immediate motives are likely to be forgotten till the pain has been escaped from for hours Maggie felt as if her struggle had been in vain for hours every other thought she had strove to summon was thrust aside by the image of Steven waiting for the single word that would bring him to her she did not read the letter she heard him uttering it and the voice shook her with its old strange power all the day before she had been filled with the vision of a lonely future through which she must carry the burden of regret upheld only by clinging faith and here close within her reach urging itself upon her even as a claim was another future in which hard endurance and effort were to be exchanged for easy delicious leaning on another's loving strength and yet the promise of joy in the place of sadness did not make the dire force of the temptation to Maggie it was Steven's tone of misery it was the doubt in the justice of her own resolve that made the balance tremble and made her one start from her seat to reach the pen and paper and write come but close upon that decisive act her mind recoiled and the sense of contradiction with her past self in her moments of strength and clearness came upon her like a paying of conscious degradation no she must wait she must pray the light that had forsaken her would come again she would feel again what she had felt when she had fled away under an inspiration strong enough to conquer agony to conquer love she would feel again what she had felt when Lucy stood by her when Philip's letter had stirred all the fibers that bound her to the calmer past she sat quite still far on into the night with no impulse to change her attitude without active force enough even for the mental act of prayer only waiting for the light that would surely come again it came with the memories that no passion could long quench the long past came back to her and with it the fountains of self renouncing pity and affection of faithfulness and resolve the words that were marked by the quiet hand in the little old book that she had long ago learned by heart rushed even to her lips and found a vent for themselves in a low murmur that was quite lost in the loud driving of the rain against the window and the loud moan and roar of the wind i have received the cross i have received it from my hand i will bear it and bear it till death as thou had slayed it upon me but soon other words rose that could find no utterance but in a sob forgive me steven it will pass away you will come back to her she took up the letter held it to the candle and let it burn slowly on the hearth tomorrow she would write to him the last word of parting i will bear it and bear it till death but how long will it be before death comes i am so young so healthy how shall i have patience and strength am i to struggle and fall and repent again has life other trials is hard for me still with that cry of self despair maggie fell in her knees against the table and buried her sorrow-stricken face her soul went out to the unseen pity that would be with her to the end surely there was something being taught her by this experience of great need and she must be learning a secret of human tenderness and long suffering that the less airing could hardly know oh god if my life is to be long let me live to bless and comfort at that moment maggie felt a startling sensation of sudden cold about her knees and feet it was water flowing under her she started up the stream was flowing under the door that led into the passage she was not bewildered for an instant she knew it was the flood the tumult of emotion she had been enduring for the last 12 hours seemed to have left a great calm in her without screaming she hurried with the candle upstairs to bob jaykins room the door was a jar she went in and shook him by the shoulder bob the flood has come it is in the house let us see if we can make the boat safe she lighted his candle while the poor wife snatching up her baby burst into screams and then she hurried down again to see if the waters were rising fast there was a step down into the room at the door leading from the staircase she saw that the water was already on a level with the step while she was looking something came with the tremendous crash against the window and sent the leaden pains and the old wooden framework inward in shivers the water pouring in after it it is the boat cried maggie bob come down to get the boats and without a moment's shutter of fear she plunged through the water which was rising fast to her knees and by the glimmering light of the candle she had left on the stairs she mounted onto the windowsill and crept into the boat which was left with the prow lodging and protruding through the window bob was not long after her hurrying without shoes or stockings but with the lantern in his hand why they're both here both the boats said bob as he got into the one where maggie was it's wonderful this fastening isn't broke too as well as the mooring in the excitement of getting into the other boat unfastening it and mastering an ore bob was not struck with the danger maggie incurred we are not apt to fear for the fearless when we are companions in their danger and bob's mind was absorbed in possible expedience for the safety of the helpless indoors the fact that maggie had been up had waked him and had taken the lead in activity gave bob a vague impression of her as one who would help to protect not need to be protected she too had got possession of an ore and had pushed off as to release the boat from the overhanging window frame the waters rising so fast said bob i doubt it'll be in at the chambers before long the house is so low i've more mind to get prissy and the child and the mother into the boat if i couldn't trust into the water for the old house is not so safe and if i let go of the boat but you he exclaimed suddenly lifting the light of his lantern on maggie as she stood in the rain with the ore in her hand and her black hair streaming maggie had no time to answer for a new title current swept along the line of the houses and drove both the boats out onto the wide water with a force that carried them far past the meeting current of the river in the first moments maggie felt nothing thought of nothing but that she had suddenly passed away from at life which she had been dreading it was the transition of death without its agony and she was alone in the darkness with god the whole thing had been so rapid so dreamlike that the threads of ordinary association were broken she sank down on the seat clutching the ore mechanically and for a long while had no distinct conception of her position the first thing that waked her to fuller consciousness was the cessation of rain and the perception that the darkness was divided by the faintest light which parted the overhanging gloom from the immeasurable watery level below she was driven out upon the flood that awful visitation of god which her father used to talk of which had made the nightmare of her childish dreams and with that thought there rushed in the vision of the old home and tom and her mother that they all listened together oh god where am i which is the way home she cried out in the dim loneliness what was happening to them at the mill the flood had once nearly destroyed it they might be in danger in distress her mother and her brother alone there beyond reach of help her whole soul was straining now on that thought and she saw the long loved faces looking for help into the darkness and finding none she was floating in smooth water now perhaps far on the over flooded fields there was no sense of present danger to check the outgoing of her mind to the old home and she strained her eyes against the curtain of gloom that she might seize the first sight of her whereabout that she might catch some faint suggestion of the spot toward which all her anxieties tended oh how welcome the widening of that dismal watery level the gradual uplifting of the cloudy firmament that slow defining blackness of objects above the glassy dark yes she must be out on the fields those were the tops of hedgerow trees which way did the river lie looking behind her she saw the lines of black trees looking before her there were none then the river lay before her she seized an ore and began to paddle the boat forward with the energy of awakening hope the dawning seemed to advance more swiftly now she was in action and she could soon see the poor dumb beasts crowding piteously on a mound where they had taken refuge onward she paddled and rode by turns in the growing twilight her wet clothes clung around her and her streaming hair was dashed about by the wind but she was hardly conscious of any bodily sensation except a sensation of strength inspired by mighty emotion along with a sense of danger and possible rescue for those long-remembered beings at the old home there was an undefined sense of reconcilement with her brother what quarrel what harshness what unbelief in each other can subsist in the presence of a great calamity when all the artificial vester of our own life is gone and we are all one with each other in primitive mortal needs vaguely Maggie felt this in the strong resurgent love toward her brother that swept away all the letter impressions of hard cruel offense and misunderstanding and left only the deep underlying unshakable memories of early union but now there was a large dark mass in the distance and near to her Maggie could discern the current of the river the dark mass must be yes it was St. Augs ah now she knew which way to look for the first glimpse of the well-known trees the gray willows the now yellowing chestnuts and above them the old roof but there was no color no shape yet all was faint and dim more and more strongly the energy seemed to come and put themselves forth as if her life were a stored of force that was being spent in this hour unneeded for any future she must get her boat into the current of the floss else she would never be able to pass the ripple and approach the house this was the thought that occurred to her as she imagined with more and more vividness the state of things round the old home but then she might be carried far down and be unable to guide her boat out of the current again for the first time distinct ideas of danger began to press upon her but there was no choice of courses no room for hesitation and she floated into the current swiftly she went now without effort more and more clearly in the lessening distance and the growing light she began to discern the objects that she knew must be the well-known trees and roofs nay she was not far off a rushing muddy current that must be the strangely altered ripple great god there were floating masses in it that might dash against her boat as she passed and cause her to perish too soon what were those masses for the first time Maggie's heart began to beat in an agony of dread she sat helpless dimly conscious that she was being floated along more intensely conscious of the anticipated clash but the horror went was transient it passed away before the oncoming warehouses of st. hogs she had passed the mouth of the ripple then now she must use all her skill and power to manage the boat and get it if possible out of the current she could see now that the bridge was broken down she could see the masts of a stranded vessel far out over the watery field but no boats were to be seen moving on the river such as had been laid hands on were employed in the flooded streets with new resolution Maggie seized her ore and stood up again to paddle but the now ebbing tide added to the swiftness of the river and she was carried along beyond the bridge she could hear shouts from the windows overlooking the river as if the people were calling to her it was not till she had passed on nearly to Tofton that she could get the boat clear of the current then with one yearning look toward her uncle Danny's house that lay further down the river she took to both her oars and rode with all her might across the watery fields back toward the mill color was beginning to awake now and as she approached the Doral caught fields she could discern the tents of the trees could see the old scotch furs far to the right and the home chestnuts oh how deep they lay in the water deeper than the trees on this side of the hill and the roof of the mill where was it those heavy fragments hurrying down the ripple what had they meant but it was not the house the house that firm drowned up to the first story but still firm or was it broken in at the end of the mill with panting joy that she was there at last joy that overcame all distress Maggie neared the front of the house at first she heard no sound she saw no object moving her boat was on a level with the upstairs window she called out in a loud piercing voice Tom where are you mother where are you here is Maggie soon from the window of the attic in the central gable she heard Tom's voice who is it have you brought a boat it is I Tom Maggie where is mother she is not here she went to garrom the day before yesterday I'll come down to the lower window alone Maggie said Tom in a voice of deep astonishment as he opened the middle window on a level with the boat yes Tom God has taken care of me to bring me to you get in quickly is there no one else no said Tom stepping into the boat I fear the man has drowned he was carried down the ripple I think when part of the mill fell with the crash of trees and stones against it I've shouted again and again and there has been no answer give me the oars Maggie it was not till Tom had pushed off and they were on the wide water he face to face with Maggie that the full meaning of what had happened rushed upon his mind it came with so overpowering a force it was such a new revelation to his spirit of the depths in his life that had laid beyond his vision which he had fancied so keen and clear that he was unable to ask a question they sat mutely gazing at each other Maggie with eyes of intense life looking out from a weary beaten face Tom pale with a certain awe and humiliation thought was busy though the lips were silent and though he could ask no questions he guessed a story of almost miraculous divinely protected effort but at last a mist gathered over the blue gray eyes and the lips found a word they could utter the old childish Magsy Maggie could make no answer but a long deep sob of that mysterious wondrous happiness that is one with pain as soon as she could speak she said we will go to Lucy Tom we will go and see if she is safe and then we can help the rest Tom rode with untired vigor and with a different speed from poor Maggie's the boat was soon in the current of the river again and soon they would be a toften parkhouse stands high about of the flood said Maggie perhaps they've got Lucy there nothing else was said a new danger was being carried toward them by the river some wooden machinery had just given way on one of the wharves and huge fragments were being floated along the sun was rising now and the wide area of watery desolation was spread out in dreadful clearness around them in dreadful clearness floated onward the hurrying threatening masses a large company in a boat that was working its way along under the toften houses observed their danger and shouted get out of the current but that could not be done at once and Tom looking before him saw death rushing on them huge fragments clinging together in fatal fellowship made one wide mass across the stream it is coming Maggie Tom said in a deep horse voice losing the oars and clasping her the next instant the boat was no longer seen upon the water and the huge mass was hurrying on in hideous triumph but soon the keel of the boat reappeared a black speck on the golden water the boat reappeared but brother and sister had gone down in an embrace never to be parted living through again in one supreme moment the days when they had clasped their little hands in love and roamed the daisied fields together conclusion nature repairs her ravages repairs them with her sunshine and with human labor the desolation wrought by that flood had left little visible trace on the face of the earth five years after the fifth autumn was rich in golden corn stacks rising in thick clusters among the distant hedgegroves the wharves and warehouses on the floss were busy again with echoes of eager voices with hopeful lading and unlading and every man and woman mentioned in this history was still alive except those whose end we know no nature repairs her ravages but not all the uptorn trees are not rooted again the parted hills are left scarred if there is a new growth the trees are not the same as the old and the hills underneath their green vester bearer the marks of the past rending to the eyes that have dwelt on the past there is no thorough repair doral caught mill was rebuilt and doral cut churchyard where the brick grave that held a father whom we know was found with the stone laid prostrate upon it after the flood had recovered all its grassy order and decent quiet near that brick grave there was a tomb erected very soon after the flood for two bodies that were found in close embrace and it was visited at different moments by two men who both felt that their keenest joy and keenest sorrow were forever buried there one of them visited the tomb again with a sweet face beside him but that was years after the other was always solitary his great companionship was among the trees of the red deeps where the buried joy seemed still to hover like a revisiting spirit the tomb bore the names of tom and maggie tulliver and below the names it was written in their death they were not divided end of book seven the final rescue chapter five the last conflict recording by erin elliott saint louis missouri end of the mill on the floss by george elliott