VASHTI. Ah, ’tis in her place as th’ old woman will be set come morning—And that her’ll be—I count as ’tis long enough as her have mistressed it over the house. [_Shaking her fist towards the ceiling_.] You old she fox, you may gather the pads of you in under of you now, and crouch you down t’other side of the fire like any other old woman of your years—for my May’s comed back, and her’ll show you your place what you’ve not known where ’twas in all the days of your old wicked life. So ’tis. MAY. Her han’t changed a hair of her, th’ old stoat! Soon as I heard the note of she, the heat bubbled up in I, though ’twas chattering in the cold as I had been but a moment afore. “One of they dirty roadsters—I’ll learn you to come disturbing of a wedding party, I will.” [_Shaking her fist towards the ceiling_.] No, you bain’t changed, you hardened old sinner—but the words out of the cruel old mouth of you don’t hurt I any more—not they. I be passed out of the power of such as you. I knowed I’d have to face you when I comed back, but I knowed, too, as I should brush you out of the way of me, like I would brush one of they old maid flies. VASHTI. Ah, and so I telled she many a time. “You bide till my May be comed home,” I says. “She be already put safe to bed and ’tis in the churchyard where her do take her rest,” says she. Ah, what a great liar that is, th’ old woman what’s Steve’s mother! And the lies they do grow right out of she tall as rushes, and the wind do blow they to the left and to the right. So ’tis. MAY. Ah, she han’t any more power for to hurt I in the ugly old body of her. I be got beyond she. There be but one or two things as can touch I now—But one or two. And I be struck to the heart, I be, struck to the heart. [_She bends forwards_, _rocking herself to and fro and weeping_. MAY. [_As though speaking to herself_.] Back and fro, back and fro—On the dark of the earth and where ’twas light. When ’twas cold and no sound but the steps of I on the road, and the fox’s bark; when ’twas hot and the white dust smouldered in the mouth of I, and things flying did plague I with the wings of they—But ’twas always the same thought as I had—“Some day I shall come back to Steve,” I did tell me. And then again—“Some day I shall get and hold Dorry in my arms.” And now I be comed. And Steve—and Steve—Ah, I be struck deep to the heart, ’tis so. Struck deep! VASHTI. You get upstairs to Steve, May. Get you up there and take the place what’s yours. MAY. My place, my place! Where’s that I want to know! ’Tis another what’s got into the nest now, to lie snug and warm within. And ’tis for I to spread the wings of me and to go out into the storm again. So ’tis.