He led her into the little parlour.
"Hessie be out to-day, and mother and me be mindin' each other."
"And how's your leg?"
Tom swung it slowly to and fro.
"Near as good as ever 'twas! You see, missy, I be what you call going on the tack. And I have an offer of work in a town firm. 'Tis a contrac' for some big house, ten mile or so away. 'Twill be a change and a beginning! But I ain't goin' so very far arter all!"
Harebell smiled.
"Did you get any message about Fanny? That's what she said—the drinking to be given up first, and then the work and then the wife?"
Tom's eyes twinkled.
"That there Fanny be too forward. Her must wait till her is axed!"
"Oh, but I asked her; I besoughted her; I begged her with all my heart, to marry you just as you were, and very quickly too! She was a great disappointment to me; I did hope she would have married you directly you came out of hospital!"