Mrs. Tom, having brought in the Christmas groceries and stacked the tins and parcels on the side-table, had settled down for a chat. The bond between the women, which like themselves was stout and workaday, had been embroidered by the years with a pattern of memories; and what can be pleasanter at the end of a winter day than to sit by a bright fire with a friend who has been tried by time? Sabina talked of her husband, of the farm, of the future. "Ah!" said Mrs. Rosevear cheerfully, "and now the time ’as come for ’ee to make a fresh start. When Leadville knaw about Gray, ’e will ’av to rest ’is ’eart content." Sabina stirred her tea in a meditative fashion. With a simple faith in good and evil, reward and punishment, it was puzzling to her that she who was a ’member and had gone to prayer meeting and chapel all right and been a good livin’ woman,’ should have had so much trouble. "I think it’s a awful thing for ’e to be running after Gray, when ’e got a wife of’s own?" she said. "Too bad, I do call it." "Well, there ’tis, my dear, I ’spose ’e can’t ’elp it. Men are like that, bain’t they, poor old dragons? Best thing to do is to keep temptation out of’s way." "Do ’ee think so? Now I’d rather show’m as ’e can’t ’av what ’e wants." The more clear-sighted woman did not dispute the matter. Even if Sabina wanted Gray and Jim to live at Wastralls, the decision would not rest with her. Gray would not care so long as she was with Jim, but he, though good-natured and easygoing, knew his own mind. Not long since, he had been over to Gentle Jane where his aunt, receiving him warmly, had been urgent that he should live with her. He had not given a definite answer, but Mrs. Tom knew he was considering the matter. "Better for Leadville if ’e ’ad something to take up ’is time," she said. "E’s always mumpin’ around the cliffs like a wandering Jew." The wife’s happy-go-lucky faith in Leadville’s harmlessness did not commend itself to Mrs. Tom. She remembered the zest with which he had torn up the honeysuckle, the indifference he had shown as to whether Sabina lived or died, his moroseness since her return. They might yet have trouble with him. "Well, ’tis ’is choice, ’e could work if ’e like; there’s plenty to do, but ’e’s not that way inclined." "’E ’as got fever of lurk, Two minds to eat and none to work," quoted Mrs. Tom as she helped herself to a slice of yeast-cake. "If a man got nothin’ else to think about, ’e sure to get into mischief. Can’t you find something for’m to do? Why don’t yer let’n go to town for ’ee in an’ out, and work a team sometimes?" "’Av yer forgotten the trick ’e served me when I was in the ’ospital? ’Twouldn’t do at all. ’E’s one o’ they sort, if you give’n a inch ’e’ll take a nail."