in' me
with your greed!... he'll be as strong as his da, an' mebbe stronger!"

"Are you stayin' long?" she said again.

"No," he answered. "I'm going to London!..."

"London! Lord bless us, that's a long way!"

"I'm going soon ... in a day or two," he went on, making his resolution
as he spoke. The sight of her bare breast embarrassed him, and he wanted
to go away quickly.

"You're a one for roamin' the world, I must say!" she said. "You're no
sooner here nor you're away again. Mebbe you'll come up an' see my aunt
... she was talkin' about you only last week ... an' Peter'd be right
an' glad to welcome you!"

"No, thanks, not to-day," he answered. "I've something to do at home ...
I'm sorry!..."

"But you said you were comin' to see me!..."

"I know, but I've just remembered something ... I'm sorry!" He was
speaking in a jerky, agitated manner and he began to move away as if he
were afraid that she would detain him. "I'll come another time," he
added.

"Well, you're the quare man," she said. "Anybody'd think you were afeard
of me, the hurry you're in to run away!"

He laughed nervously. "Of course, I'm not afraid of you," he exclaimed.
"Why should I be?"

"I don't know!" She looked at him for a few seconds, and then the
whimsical look that he remembered so well came into her eyes. "D'ye mind
the way you wanted to marry me, Henry?" she said.

"Yes ... yes! Ha, ha!"

"An' now I've this! It's a quaren funny, isn't it?"

"Funny?"

"Aye, the way things go. I wonder what sort of a child I'd a' had if I'd
married you!"

"I really don't know!... I'm afraid I must go now!"

"Well, good-bye, Henry! I'll mebbe see you again some time!"

She held out her hand to him and he took it, and then dropped it
quickly.

"Yes, perhaps," he answered, and added, "Good-bye!"

He went off quickly, not looking back until he had reached the foot of
the "loanie," and then he stood for a second or two to watch her. She
was busy with her baby again. He could see her white breast shining in
the sunlight, and her head bent over the sucking child.

"Well, I'm damned," he said to himself, as he hurried off.

And as he hurried home, his mind set on quitting Ballymartin as speedily
as possible, he remembered the casual way in which she had spoken of
their possibly meeting again. "I'll mebbe see you some time!" she had
said. So indifferent to him as that, she was, so happy in her love for
her husband whom he remembered as a gre