"You take it cool enough!" he said with a rare sneer.
She looked at him, surprised.
"Well, where's the sense in wearin yourself into a fret?" answered Ruth. "That doosn't help any as I can see."
"Ah, I knaw!" he said. "You needn't tell me."
She put down the poultice and regarded him with eyes in which there was a thought of challenge.
"What d'you knaw, Ern?"
There was something formidable about her very quiet.
"What I do, then," he said, and turned his back on her. "If it was somebody else, we should soon see."
She came to him, put her hand on his shoulder, and turned him so that she could read his face. He did not look at her.
She turned slowly away, drawing in her breath as one who rouses reluctantly from sleep.