"My dear life," said Mrs Tom, pursuing her old tactics, "’tis just what Leadville’d like for ’ee to be." "D’yer think ’e would?" "Iss, I’m sure ’e would, ’e’d wait on yer ’and and foot." "I should like to see ’un then." "I can’t fancy you being a bed-lier," said Mrs. Tom comfortably. "Did Gray tell ’ee there’s a piece of hedge down in the li’l medder?" "No, she didn’t." Sabina was interested. "An’ I thinking to ’av the sheep turned into the lower field! I’ll send Jim down this afternoon to mend’n. ’E’s a good boy." "Farmer’s son and got farmin’ in’s veins." "I like to see the way he wait on Gray. I should be glad for’m to live ’ere after they’m married. The way he’s goin’ he’ll do fine. Biddick’s gettin’ old and Jim shall be foreman and teel Wastralls for me. He got an eye for the stock and he’s a good-working li’l feller. Oh iss, Gray’s a lucky maid." Mrs. Tom did not think the suggested arrangement would prove satisfactory; but the young couple were not yet married, were not even engaged and, if Sabina could not see what was going on, it was not for others to point it out to her. "Jim’ll be agreeable," she said non-committally, "’tis all the same to him whether he go to his auntie at Gentle Jane or whether he stay ’ere. All ’e think about is Gray. Ah, my dear, I should like for ’ee to get as far as Hember and see they two sittin’ together wi’ us. ’Tis so good as a picture." Sabina nodded. "Leadville was only sayin’ yesterday he never seen a maid so fond of ’er ’ome as Gray. Soon ever ’er work’s done she’s off ’ome like a bird." "I ’ope she don’t leave ’ee too much by yerself?" "No, no, my dear, if she’d been my own daughter she couldn’t do more for me," and she sighed, feeling that if Gray had been the child whose place she filled, Leadville would have been able to rest his heart content. She could see that the pseudo-relationship in which the young girl stood to him was unsatisfactory and she understood, though too vaguely to put it into words, that for people to share a home they should be bound by blood or sex. "Well, I must do so well as I can," she added, reverting to the main topic of their wandering talk. "’Tis live from day to day and though I don’t feel very special, I must be surely stronger than I was." "Iss," said Mrs. Tom encouragingly, "I can see as each month make a difference to ’ee."