He looked back at her with that faint, distant grin.
"Derby, then! Why do you speak Derby? You spoke natural English at first."
"Did Ah though? An' canna Ah change if Ah'n a mind to 't? Nay nay, let me talk Derby if it suits me. If yo'n nowt against it."
"It sounds a little affected," said Hilda.
"Ay, 'appen so! An' up i' Tevershall yo'd sound affected." He looked again at her, with a queer calculating distance, along his cheek-bones: as if to say: Yi, an' who are you?
He tramped away to the pantry for the food.
The sisters sat in silence. He brought another plate, and knife and fork. Then he said:
"An if it's the same to you, I s'll ta'e my coat off, like I allers do."
And he took off his coat, and hung it on the peg, then sat down to table in his shirtsleeves: a shirt of thin, cream-coloured flannel.
"'Elp yerselves!" he said. "'Elp yerselves! Dunna wait f'r axin!"