Ellen was standing in the doorway, staring at him, doing nothing.
"Come in," he said, "do! Ain't you finished yet ?" "I was only resting a minute," she said.

"You don't tell me nothing.
I'd like to know if there's anything--I mean anything new--in the paper this morning." She spoke in a muffled voice, almost as if she were ashamed of her unusual curiosity; and her look of fatigue, of pallor, made Bunting suddenly uneasy.

"Come in--do!" he repeated sharply.

"You've done quite enough--and before breakfast, too.

'Tain't necessary.
Come in and shut that door." He spoke authoritatively, and his wife, for a wonder, obeyed him.
She came in, and did what she had never done before--brought the broom with her, and put it up against the wall in the corner.
Then she sat down.
"I think I'll make breakfast up here," she said.