"But you give notice in, didn’t you? You likely got that fixed?" "Well, I did and I didn’t, after a manner o’ speaking. I kept handing it in like, and he kept handing it back. He said we’d best take a bit more time to think." "We’ve had time and plenty, I’m sure!" Sarah sighed,--"ay, that we have! ... I reckon you tellt him about my eyes?" Simon stirred uneasily when she mentioned her eyes, remembering how they had played in and out of his mind, but never once managed to come to the front. "Nay, then, I didn’t, if you want to know, because I never gitten chanst. I didn’t rightly know what to say, neither, come to that. You catched doctor right enough, I suppose?" "Ay, we hadn’t to wait or owt. And he was right kind, he was that!" "Happen he hadn’t a deal to say, after all?" Simon enquired hopefully, and she gave a faint laugh. "Nobbut that if I didn’t have an operation right off, I’d be as blind as a barn-door owl by next year!" Simon said "Gox!" and jerked the horse so violently that it nearly went through the hedge. "Losh, missis, that’s bad!" he went on dismally, when he had straightened out. "It’s worse than I looked for, by a deal. I’ve always been terble feared of operations and such-like. What’s to be done about it, d’ye think?" "Nowt." "Nay, but dang it!" he cried sharply,--"we can’t leave it like yon! If there’s owt they can do for you, we mun let them try. They say some folk come out right enough, wi’ a bit o’ luck." "Luck isn’t much in our way, I doubt," she said, with a sigh, "and it’d mean begging o’ somebody, I reckon, and I’ve had enough o’ that. May says there’s free spots for such as us, but there’s not that much free in this world as I’ve ever seen. I doubt it’d mean somebody’s brass or other going to pay for it in the end." "I could ax Will----" Simon began hurriedly, without pausing to think, but she stopped him before the well-known formula was out. "Nay, then, master, you’ll do nowt o’ the sort, so that’s all there is about it! You’re his brother, and you’ve a right to do as you choose, but I’ll never take a penny piece from him if it’s nobbut for myself." "He’d have his hand in his pocket for you right off. He’s never been close about brass and suchlike, hasn’t Will." "Ay, but it’s Eliza’s brass as well, you’ll think on, and she’s close, right enough! She’d see me blind and on t’streets afore she’d lift a hand, and if happen she did lift it, I’d strike it down! Nay, master, you can ax what you like for yourself, but you’ll ax nowt for me. As for the farm and Mr. Dent, we’re bound to get shot of it now, whatever happens. The sooner things is fixed the better I’ll be suited, so I’ll thank you to get ’em seen to as soon as you can." "’Tisn’t my fault they’re not fixed this very minute!" Simon grumbled, feeling hardly used.... "Did you happen across Eliza in Witham?" he asked her suddenly, after a while. Sarah laughed faintly again, though this time it was an echo of triumph.