"Glad to hear it. Didn't think she'd have cared. No—I didn't."
"And you're here—alive! All these years after."
"I'm alive. I aint much more. And I've got about what's on my back—and nothin' beyond. I can tell 'ee that."
Paine hesitated. Was this unlooked-for return good for Molly—for the girls? A penniless failure, for husband and father! He had not liked Morris in the past, and he had strenuously opposed the engagement; but Molly had been wilful, and had taken her own way in this as in other matters. He liked the man even less now. Lines in the face told of a life of dissipation. Still—here he was!
"To think that Molly isn't a widow, after all! And hasn't been, all this while."
Morris stared in his turn.
"Dunno what you're after now. She married—of course."
"No, no,—never."
"Eh? Then she must ha' cared a lot more for me than ever I thought."
"Of course she did. Molly ain't one of the talkin' sort. Leastways, she ain't now. Different when she was a girl. But of course she cared. Wouldn't be natural-like, if she didn't."