pped you and, till Solomon Chuff
came along, you worshipped me. And God wouldn't stand for such wickedness
on our part, so He threw dust in your eyes and led you out into the
wilderness--to home with a lot of navvies and be deceived by a rare
rascal. And you've had your dose by the look of you; and I've had mine;
and what I've suffered you'll never know, I assure you."

He went whiter than a dog's tooth behind his black hair, and his eyes
bulged on her. He crept a bit nearer and she held out her hand. But the
little loony had got his pride yet.

"I ban't so sure," he said. "No doubt you've come with a tale; but you'll
have to hear me first. Your tongue be running a thought too smooth I
reckon. How do I know this is truth? Why should I believe you afore Bill?
He's sworn on his oath that Chuff spends half his time along with you and
the banns be called. He's come, as I tell you, off and on, to let me know
everything, and never a good word for you."

"You ought to break his neck," said Jenny. "However, you ain't heard all
yet. It may interest you to know that at last I've promised to marry--not
Chuff--he's old enough to be my father--but Bill himself."

"And you've come here to tell me that?"

Nicky looked round for his stone again.

"No, I have not. I've come firstly to forgive you, which be a lot more
than you deserve, and secondly to take you home."

"'Tis for me to forgive you I reckon; and why for should I?"

"I've worn black for a year and prayed for your soul and eaten the bread
of tears and lived like the widow-woman I thought I was--just lived in the
memory of our beautiful life together," she says. "That's all you've got
to forgive, Nicky. And it didn't ought to be partickler hard I should
think. Poison--poison--that's what you've been taking--poison--sucking it
down from Bill Westaway, like a little child sucks cream."

"And you tell me you're going to marry the man--or think you are? What's
that mean?"

Spider had come right alongside of her now.

"On one condition I shall certainly marry him, so you needn't pull no more
faces. I told him I'd take him if he found all that was left _of you in
the river_! And so I will." "But I ban't in the Dart! I ban't in the Dart!
I'm alive!" cried Nicky--as if she didn't know it.

"Working along with these quarry men have made you dull seemingly," she
answered. "It is true no doubt that you ban't in the Dart; but that's no
reason why Billy Westaway shouldn't find