"Yes, that Grange girl," answered Dale, with a rueful smile. "And just at present that Grange girl won't have anything to say to me."
Mrs. Hodge pressed his hand and whispered:
"Don't you tell Nellie what I say, but let her go, dearie, and take my girl. She's sick for you, Dale, though she'd kill me if she heard me say it."
"Aye, but I'm sick for the Grange girl, mother."
"You don't take it ill of me, Dale? But there! a kind word from you is more than the doctors to her. She'd say nothing of what she's done, and I say nothing, but she's a good girl, and a pretty girl."
"That she is, and she deserves a better man than I am."
"Well, there it is! Talking mends no holes," said Mrs. Hodge, with a heavy sigh. Then she added, in an outburst of impatience:
"Why did you ever come to this miserable little place?"
Dale raised inquiring hands to heaven and shrugged his shoulders.