Few as the minutes of my absence had been, Mary had done a good deal towards tidying up the room, and as I entered I could see her bonnet and shawl hanging lovingly up against the wall, side by side with poor Bill's hat and greatcoat, just as if they had newly entered into the holy state of matrimony. There was beginning to be an appetising odour of chicken in the room, the bundle was tucked out of sight, the chairs in order, and it was plain to see that a clever housewife had been at work. "Oh my, how you have growed, my dear!" whispered Mary ecstatically. "I never did see a boy improve so. And only to think of your running away from old Blakeford and finding out." She ran here to the bed to see if her sweetheart was all right, and then turned to me with open arms. "Give us a kiss, dear," she cried, and in a moment I was hugged tight in her arms and kissed and fondled again and again. "I _am_ glad to see you, you can't tell how glad," she cried softly, "and it was good of you to write. No sooner did I get your letter, than I ups and tells Mrs Blakeford as I was going away directly, because my friend in London was ill." "But you did not say I wrote, Mary?" I cried in agony. "Do you think I was such a silly, my dear? No, I'd got the letter safe in here," she said, thrusting her hand inside her dress. "Well, as I was saying--stop a moment--let me look at the broth." She raised the lid, shut it again, had another look at Revitts, and then went on: "Who should come in but old Blakeford, and he said gruffly that they couldn't snare me, and, `Can't spare me!' I says; `well, you just must, for I'm going.' "`Then we shan't pay you your wages,' says old Blakeford. `Then I will make you,' says I, `So now then. I'm not going to have people die for want of help, to please you.' "`Who is it then as is dying?' says Mrs Blakeford. "`It's my sweetheart, mum, if you must know,' I says. "`Then all I can say is, that it's very indelicate of you, a young unmarried woman, to go up and nurse a single man.' "`No more indelicate, mum,' I says, `than for you to want me to nuss Mr Blakeford when he was ill.' "`But you didn't do it,' she says. "`No, mum,' I says, `but you wanted me to, and what's more, if the whole world and his wife come to me and told me it wasn't right for me to go, I should go; so now then.' "`But when will you come back then, Mary?' says Mrs Blakeford. "`Not at all, mum,' I says, `for after going and nursing a single man as is dying for aught I know, I shan't be fit company for the folks in this house. I'm going now directly, mum, and I shall leave my box and send for it and my wages too.'" Here Mary had another look at the patient and the cooking. "I wasn't long getting off, I can tell you, and glad enough I was to get away. I'd ha' left long enough ago, only I didn't want to make any more changes till the big one, and there was only one as I minded leaving."