The dogged look vanished; joy, wonder, took its place.
'Marry me!' she exclaimed softly. 'O Tom, if you would! if you would, Tom!'
'Is there any doubt of it?'
'I never arksed 'im, sir! I never arksed 'im!'
'Well, dear child, ask him now, and let me know.'
'Won't it cost money, sir? she asked anxiously.
'But little; and that little I will find.'
She held out her hands to me in thankfulness. She had learned to trust me.
'I'll arks Tom, sir. Though, mind!' she said, out of the noble chivalry of her nature; 'nothink that Tom can do can bring me nearer to 'im, or make 'im stick closer to me! But I'll do it, sir, because you think it's good, and because I think, too, it might be righter so.' She turned with a newborn joy in her face, and knelt by the bed, and as I went out of the room, I heard her whisper to her child, 'Baby! baby! me and Tom's goin' to git married! Ain't you glad, baby?'
Robert Truefit was waiting for me in Stoney-alley.