"Without any help too," he said to himself, not without a touch of complacency as he hung the watch on it. Ruth watched him with wistful affection. Pleased with himself and his action, as is only the man who rarely uses his hands, he stood back and admired his work.
"There!" he said. "Didn't know I was a handy man, did you? It'll keep you going anyway till the clock comes back."
He left more hurriedly than usual, and when he was gone Ruth found two shillings on the mantel-piece.
The old man's kindness and her own sense of humiliation were too much for Ruth. She went out into the back-yard; and there Joe found her, standing like a school-girl, her hands behind her, looking up at the church-tower.
Quietly he came to her and peeped round at her face, which was crumpled and furrowed, the tears pouring down.
"I'd as lief give up all together for all the good it is," she gulped between her sobs.
He put out his hand to gather her. She turned on him, her eyes smouldering and sullen beneath the water-floods.
"Ah, you, would you?" she snarled.
As she faced him he saw that the brooch she usually wore at her throat was gone, and her neck, round and full, was exposed.
She saw the direction of his eyes.