‘I mean, Annie,’ he replied, low and gravely,--with a gravity indeed that seemed beyond his years--‘I mean as there’s things as I don’t much like to tell, an’ yet as make me feel anxious over thee. It’s only a night or two agone, as Alice says, as she were stannin’ i’ t’ passage in t’ dark, an’ Jim Gillan come in fro’ an evenin’ in t’ town, a-staggerin’ an’ a-talkin’ as if he couldn’t mind hissel’.... An’ his words they was all upo’ “Jenny Salter’s daughter”--“he’d have Jenny Salter’s pretty girl,” he said--he called her “t’ handsomest lass in all t’ parish,” an’ said as he’d “get a sight o’ her agen.” I don’t like to think, Annie, as thy mother’s name an’ thee should be made free like that upon such lips as his’n--I would as he hadn’t got thee upon his mind, as thinks he’s a gentleman’s rights, a plague on him! Alice thinks he pays Molly to do what things he will, to sneak out wi’ letters an’ messages for him.’ ‘Ye think I write to him,’ cried Annie in a frenzy, ‘ye think as I meet him an’ let him talk to me!--me as hasn’t spoke with him sin’ he came with his sister, an’ lodged at t’ Farm to be spied upon by all. What is it to me if he does think me pretty, I reckon as I can take care of mysel’? An’ if he do write to me at all, what’s that, so as I don’t take it on mysel’ to answer him? I tell thee, Tim Nicol, thee think’st a deal o’ thysel’; thee’dst best keep thy hands from off thy neighbour’s ways.’ Indeed it is certain that poor Tim had not prospered in either of the warnings which he had bestowed that morning, although it is possible that the passion with which he was now accused was not otherwise than consoling to his heart. It did enter his mind that he might ask Annie if the dangerous stranger _had_ ever written to her, but he was afraid to rouse her wrath again, and thankful to take her word and be content. After a minute’s silence during which he seemed to ponder, he rose from his seat, and then took up his cap. ‘Well, good-day, Annie, I must be off,’ he said; ‘I’m thankful to hear what thou hast told to me--thou knowest it is a bad world, this of ours, and we’ve got to be careful and to mind our steps. Look after thyself, I can’t think thou art strong, thou used not to have a face as pale as that!’