Sarah received these remarks with an ironic smile.
"Bosom friends we'd ha' been, d'ye think," she asked, "if I'd nobbut seen my way to a bit more care?"
"Nay, well, I wouldn't be sure about that," he returned grandly, hedging with ease. "But we'd all ha' done better, I'll take my oath, if you hadn't been that smart to take offence."
"Happen I'd ha' done best to hold my tongue, when she was telling all Witham we'd gitten notice to quit?"
"Nay, I don't know about that!" ... He was stamping about the floor. "A bit o' tact wi' her, happen? ... nay, dang her, I don't know! ... Leastways, you needn't ha' tellt her yon rubbish this afternoon," he concluded, brought to a stand.
"You'd have had me set by and say nowt while she sneered at our lad?"
"Nay, then, I wouldn't,--dang her! ... I wouldn't, that's flat!"
"You'd have had me say nowt, neither, yon day we was wed,--give her a kiss, happen, and praise her gown----?"
"Nay, then, I wouldn't, I tell you! Blast you! Nowt o' the sort!" Simon was fairly shouting now. He thumped at the table in his rage. "I wish to Gox I could ha' gitten my hands round her throat wi'out having to swing!"
Sarah looked at his prancing shape with the same ironic smile.