Fired by this advice, Daniel went straight to the works, and it was about eleven o’clock in the day when he entered his brother’s office above the Mill—­to find it empty.

Descending to the main shop, he discovered Raymond showing a visitor round the machines.  Little Estelle Waldron was paying her first visit to the spinners and, delighted at the distraction, Raymond, on whose invitation she had come, displayed all the operation of turning flax and hemp into yarn.  He aired his knowledge, but it was incomplete and he referred constantly to the operators from stage to stage.

Round-eyed and attentive, Estelle poured her whole heart and soul into the business.  She showed a quick perception and asked questions that interested the girls.  Some, indeed, they could not answer.  Estelle’s mind approached their work from a new angle and saw in it mysteries and points calling for solution that had never challenged them.  Neither had her problems much struck Raymond, but he saw their force when she raised them and pronounced them most important.

“Why, that’s fundamental, really,” he said, “and yet, be shot, if I ever thought of it!  Only Best will know and I shouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t.”

They stood at the First Drawing Frame when Daniel appeared.  They had followed the flat ribbon of sliver from the Carding Machine.  At the Drawing Frame six ribbons from the Carder were all brought together into one ribbon and so gained in quality, while losing more impurities during a second severe process of combing out.

“And even now it’s not ready for spinning,” explained Raymond.  “Now it goes on to the Second Drawing Frame, and four of these ribbons from the First Drawer are brought together into one ribbon again.  So you see that no less than twenty-four ribbons from the Carder are brought together to make stuff good enough to spin.”

“What do the Drawing Frames do to it?” asked Estelle; “it looks just the same.”

“Blessed if I know,” confessed Raymond.  “What do they do to it, Mrs. Chick?”

A venerable old woman, whose simple task was to wind away the flowing sliver into cans, made answer.  She was clad in a dun overall and had a dim scarlet cap of worsted drawn over her white hair.  The remains of beauty homed in her brown and wrinkled face; her grey eyes were gentle, and her expression wistful and kindly.

“The Drawing Heads level the ‘sliver,’ and true it, and make it good,” she said.  “All the rubbish is dragged out on the teeth and now, though it seems thinner and weaker, it isn’t really.  Now it goes to the Roving Frame and that makes it still better and ready for the spinners.”

Then came Daniel, and Raymond, leaving Estelle with Mrs. Chick, departed at his brother’s wish.  The younger anticipated trouble and began to excuse himself.

“Waldron’s so jolly friendly that I thought you wouldn’t mind if I showed his little girl round the works.  She’s tremendously clever and intelligent.”