Slowbridge had been shaken to its foundations. It may as well be explained however at the outset that it would not take much of a sensation to give Slowbridge a great shock. In the first place Slowbridge was not used to sensations and was used to going on the even and respectable tenor of its way regarding the outside world with private distrust if not with open disfavor. The new mills had been a trial to Slowbridge a sore trial. On being told of the owners' plan of building
them old Lady Theobald who was the corner-stone of the social edifice of Slowbridge was said by a spectator to have turned deathly pale with rage; and on the first day of their being opened in working order she had taken to her bed and remained shut up in her darkened room for a week refusing to see anybody and even going so far as to send a scathing message to the curate of St. James who called in fear and trembling because he was afraid to stay away.