"I've got a matter of a few words to have with her about the family.

Her father he couldn't come, so I come instead." "And how are you going to get back ?" "I'll have to walk, I expect, without I can pick up with a cart." Frances Freeland compressed her lips.

"With that leg you should have come by train." The old man smiled.
"I hadn't the fare like," he said.

"I only gets five shillin's a week, from the council, and two o' that I pays over to my son." Frances Freeland thrust her hand once more into that deep pocket, and as she did so she noticed that the old man's left boot was flapping open, and that there were two buttons off his coat.

Her mind was swiftly calculating: "It is more than seven weeks to quarter day.