Edward came over to her and took her hand. 'When will you be my wife, Hazel?' he said. 'I dunno. Not for above a bit.' 'Haw! haw!' laughed Abel. 'Hark at her! Throw summat at er', man!' 'I should prefer your absence,' said Edward, stung to expression at last. 'Eh?' 'Go away!' said Edward rudely. He was surprised at himself afterwards. Abel withdrew open-mouthed. Hazel laughed with delight. 'But why didna you hit 'un?' she asked wistfully. 'My dear girl! What a thing to say!' 'Be it?' 'Yes. But now, when shall we be married?' 'Not for years and years,' said Hazel, pleased at the dismay on his face, and enjoying her new power. Then she reflected on the many untried delights of the new life. 'Leastways, not for days an' days,' she amended. 'Will you gi' me pear-drops every day?' 'Pear-drops! My dear Hazel, you must think of better things than pear-drops!' 'There's nought better,' she said, 'without it's bull's-eyes.' 'But, dear,' Edward reasoned gently, 'don't you want to think of helping me, and going with me to chapel?' Hazel considered. 'D'you preach long and solemn?' she asked. 'No,' said Edward rather curtly. 'But if I did, you ought to like it.' Hazel took his measure again. Then she said naughtily: 'Tell you what I'll do if you preach long and solemn, mister. I'll put me tongue out!' Edward laughed in spite of himself, and thought for the twentieth time, 'Poor mother!' But that did not prevent his being anxious to have Hazel safely at the Mountain. It seemed to him that every man in the county must want to marry her. 'What would you say to May, Hazel, early May--lilac-time?' 'I'd like it right well.' 'And suppose we fix it the day after the spring flower-show at Evenwood, and go to it together?' 'I'm going with father to sing.' 'Well, when you've sung, you can have tea with me.' 'Thank you kindly, Mr. Marston.' 'Edward.' 'Ed'ard.' Abel came round the house. 'You can come and see the bees, if you've a mind,' he said forgivingly. In his angers and his joys he was like a child. He was, in fact, what he looked--a barbaric child, prematurely aged. He was aged and had lines on his face because he enjoyed life so much, for joy bites as deep as sickness or grief or any other physical strain. Hazel would age soon, for she lived in an intenser world than most people, as if she saw everything through magnifying glass and coloured glass. Edward went to the bees as he would have gone to the dogs--sadly. He disliked the bees even more than he disliked Abel, who in his expansive mood was much less attractive than in his natural sulkiness. Abel did not know how near he came once or twice to frustrating an end that he thought very desirable. A less steadfast man than Edward, with a less altruistic object in view, would have been frightened away from Hazel by Abel's crudeness. 'What about the bitch?' he asked Edward when they had seen the bees. 'Will you take her, or shall I drown her?'