all her life. She knelt
down on the stone floor and put an arm around her neighbour's waist.

"'Lizabeth, lass! Ye munnot tak' on like this. 'E'll be comin' back
i' now. It's 'appen nowt but a bit of a marlackin', an' ye shall come
an' live wi' us while 'e turns up. Now what say ye?"

The mother's mouth set hard and her brow contracted.

"I shall go into t' work'us, Susannah; where else should I go?"

There was a murmur of dissent, broken by Susannah's:

"No, no, lass, nowt o' t' sort. Ye'll come an' live wi' us; one mouth
more 'll none mak' that difference, an' Mr. Evans 'll be back i' now
an' put things straight for ye."

"Do ye think, Susannah, 'at your lasses 'll want to live wi' a thief's
mother, an' do ye think 'at I'll let 'em? Ginty's a thief, an' all t'
worse thief because he's robbed his own mother, an' left 'er to starve.
But I won't be beholden to none of ye; I never 'ave been, an' I never
will be. I've worked hard while I could work, an' I've saved what I
could an' lived careful, so as I wouldn't need to be beholden to
nob'dy; an' if Ginty has robbed me of my all 'e shall 'ave a pauper for
his mother, an' 'e shall 'ear tell of 'er in a pauper's grave. I thank
ye kindly, neighbours, but ye must all go an' leave me, for I amn't
wantin' any comp'ny just now."

I saw that I could not be of service just then, so I came away with
some of the other women, intending to go again on the morrow. But
though I went immediately after breakfast I found that she had gone.

"She was off afore I'd well got t' fire lit," said Mrs. Smithies, who
was my informant; "I looked across an' chanced to see 'er open t' door
and pull it to behind 'er. She didn't lock it nor nowt, just like
snecked it. She had a bundle in a red handkercher in 'er 'and, an'
such a 'ard look on her face, an' she never once glanced be'ind nor at
all them grand flowers, but just kept 'er eyes straight afore 'er.

"But I runs out an' I says: 'Nay 'Lizabeth, wherever are ye off, like?'
An' she says, 'I'm off to t' workus, so good-bye, 'Becca; an' if
there's ought in t' 'ouse after t' landlord's paid, you neighbours are
all welcome to 't.' Not 'at I'd touch ought there is, miss, unless it
were that chiney ornament on t' mantelpiece, which I could like if it
were goin' a-beggin'.

"Well, I couldn't 'elp cryin' a bit, an' I axed 'er if she wouldn't
change 'er mind, but she were same as if she were turned to stone. So
I went up t' road wi'