She shook her head and smiled back at him, full of content. She herself, shyly daring, allowed her hands to caress his head, stroking his hair, his ears, his neck. And the light contact of her fingers maddened him, finding strange nerves that had never felt before, awakening new yearnings. At last she opened her eyes. ‘The lamp’s flaring,’ she said, in a curious, toneless voice. Smiling gently she freed herself from his arms and turned down the wick. He followed her, feeling that she was escaping him. Never again should she escape him. Obedient to his will she came back to him. ‘Us bain’t gooin’ to wait for the parson, bin’ us?’ he said, and when she would not answer: ‘Durs’n’t you, wench? We’ve waited above a bit, us two!’ ‘There’s the children,’ she said, lowering her eyes. ‘I thought I heard Morgan cry out in his sleep.’ ‘Bless them!’ he said. ‘And don’t I love every bone in their bodies as if they was my own?’ ‘I know,’ she said. ‘I know. And they’re so fond of you.’ ‘It’s because they’m yours,’ he said. ‘So what does it matter?’ ‘Don’t ask me. Poor sweet lambs! Oh, Abner, where am I?’ ‘You’m here with me, wench! In my arms. You belong to me, Mary. There’s nought can take you away from me. I don’t let you go now I’ve got you. Not a minute, not a second!’ ‘I can’t take it in,’ she said. ‘If Mrs Mamble could see through the wall! To think of all that people have said of us!’ ‘They can say it again. They’re welcome now! Talk? They can talk their damned heads off. We’ve been through all that!’ ‘I should just think we have,’ she sighed. ‘They can’t touch us now. Abner! Abner!’ She clung to him and kissed him again and again. ‘Ah, Abner, don’t ask me!’ she said. ‘Just let things happen as they will.’ She hid her face against him. ‘But afterward,’ she whispered. ‘What can we do? How can we get away, Abner? I feel as if something might stop us. Let’s get away at once. Let’s go. I can’t bear waiting!’ He laughed at her. ‘To-night?’ ‘No, to-morrow.’ ‘Nobody will know it’s any different till we’re gone,’ he said. ‘They can’t say worse of us than they have done.’ ‘They will. . . . Of course they will. They can’t help seeing. Mrs Mamble . . . an old woman like that sees everything. I shall look different. I know I shall, if it’s only that I’m happy.’ He laughed as he kissed her. ‘Bin yo’ happy, my love?’ ‘Oh, Abner!’ ‘Three or four days’ll see me finished up at old Williams’s. He done us a good turn, and don’t you forget it. Besides that you couldn’t get ready by to-morrow. You’ll take a few days over that, and I’ll go on and look for a home.’ ‘No, no, Abner!’ she cried. ‘Don’t leave me now! Don’t you leave me! If ever I lose sight of you now something will happen. I know it as sure as sure.’ ‘You’m a baby, that’s what you are!’ he said, teasing. He gathered her up in his arms and talked foolishly to her.