Read "John Halifax, Gentleman" by Dinah Mulock online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
A great, eager, but doggedly-quiet crowd, of which each had his or her -- for it was half women -- individual terror to hide, his or her individual interest to fight for, and cared not a straw for that of any one else.
It was market-day, and this crowd was collected and collecting every minute, before the bank at Norton Bury. It included all classes, from the stout farmer's wife or market-woman, to the pale, frightened lady of "limited income," who had never been in such a throng before; from the aproned mechanic to the gentleman who sat in his carriage at the street corner, confident that whatever poor chance there was, his would be the best.