WILLIAM. [_Visibly relieved_.] We might do worse nor that. [_They sit down side by side with the basket between them_. LAURA. [_Lifting the cabbage_.] O, this is quite a little picture! See how the leaves do curl backwards—so fresh and green! WILLIAM. Ah, and that one has a rare white heart to it, it has. LAURA. I do love the taste of a spring cabbage, when it has a slice of fat bacon along with it. WILLIAM. I might have brought a couple of pounds with me if I’d have thought. Mother do keep some rare mellow jowls a-hanging in the pantry. LAURA. [_Shyly_.] Next time, maybe. WILLIAM. [_Eagerly_.] ’Twouldn’t take ten minutes for me to run back. LAURA. Not now—O no master—not now. Do you bide a little longer here and tell me about—about t’other things in the basket. WILLIAM. [_Mopping his face with a handkerchief_.] Well—there’s the beans—I count that yours haven’t come up very smart this year. LAURA. That they’ve not. The whole place has been let to run dreadful wild. WILLIAM. I’d—I’d like to show you how ’tis in my garden, one of these days. LAURA. I’d be very pleased to walk along with you there. WILLIAM. [_Hurriedly_.] Ah—you should see it later on when the—the—the parsnips are a bit forrarder. LAURA. I’d like to see the flower garden now, where this nosegay came from. WILLIAM. [_Looking round uneasily_.] I don’t know what the folks would say if they were to see you and me a-going on the road in broad day—I’m sure I don’t. LAURA. Why, what should they say, Master Gardner? WILLIAM. They might get saying—they might say as—as I’d got a-courting, or sommat foolish. LAURA. Well—and would that be untrue? WILLIAM. [_Looking at her very uncomfortably_.] I’m blessed if I do know—I mean— LAURA. This nosegay—and look, those young carrots—and the turnips and beans, why did you bring them for me, master, unless it was that you intended something by it? WILLIAM. [_Very confused_.] That’s so. So ’tis. That’s true. I count you have got hold of the sow by the ear right enough this time. And the less said about it the better. [_A slight silence_. LAURA. [_Looking up shyly in_ WILLIAM’S face.] What was it drew you to me first, master? WILLIAM. I believe ’twas in Church on Sunday that I chanced to take notice of you, like. LAURA. Yes, but what was it about me that took your fancy in Church on Sunday? WILLIAM. I’m blessed if I know, unless ’twas those coloured ribbons that you have got to your bonnet. LAURA. You are partial to the colour? WILLIAM. Ah, ’tis well enough. LAURA. See here. [_Taking a flower from her dress_.] This is of the same colour. I will put it in your coat. [_She fastens it in his coat_. WILLIAM _looks very uncomfortable and nervous_. WILLIAM. Well, bless my soul, but women folk have got some powerful strange tricks to them. LAURA. [_Pinning the flower in its place_.] There—my gift to you, master.