But this new man had never employed him--no, not once.
"I hope you didn't make yourself too cheap ?" said his wife jealously.
"No, that I didn't! I hum'd and haw'd a lot; and I could see the fellow was quite worried--in fact, at the end he offered me half-a-crown more.

So I graciously consented!" Husband and wife laughed more merrily than they had done for a long time.
"You won't mind being alone, here?
I don't count the lodger--he's no good--" Bunting looked at her anxiously.

He was only prompted to ask the question because lately Ellen had been so queer, so unlike herself.

Otherwise it never would have occurred to him that she could be afraid of being alone in the house.

She had often been so in the days when he got more jobs.
She stared at him, a little suspiciously.