But he never has.

I can trust old Tom.

Aye, I ca' trust him in great things as well as sma'.
It took me a lang time to get used to knowing I had arrived, as the saying is.

Whiles I'd still be worried, sometimes, aboot the future.
But soon it got so's I could scarce imagine a time when getting an engagement had seemed a great thing.

In the old days I used to look in the wee book I kept, and I'd see a week's engagement marked, a long time ahead, and be thankfu' that that week, at least, there'd be siller coming in.
And noo--well, the noo it's when I look in the book and see, maybe a year ahead, a blank week, when I've no singing the do, that I'm pleased.
"Eh, Tom," I'll say.