'Yo're a quare lot--the two o' yer.' One thing more Reuben remembered with some vividness in connection with the children's arrival.

When they were both at last asleep--Louie in an unused room at the back, on an old wooden bedstead, which stood solitary in a wilderness of bare boards; David in a sort of cupboard off the landing, which got most of its light and air from a wooden trellis-work, overlooking the staircase--Hannah said abruptly to her husband, as they two were going to bed, 'When ull Mr.Gurney pay that money ?' 'Twice a year--so his clerk towd me--Christmas an Midsummer.

Praps we shan't want to use it aw, Hannah; praps we might save soom on it for t' childer.

Their keep, iv yo feed em on parritch, is nobbut a fleabite, an they'n got a good stock o' cloos, Sandy's nurse towd me.' He looked anxiously at Hannah.

In his inmost heart there was a passionate wish to do his duty to Sandy's orphans, fighting with a dread of his wife, which was the fruit of long habit and constitutional weakness.
Hannah faced round upon him.