"You'd better fetch your bundle before you take your boots off," she said quietly.
"You may thank your stars I've come back tonight," he said, looking up from under his dropped head, sulkily, trying to be impressive.
"Why, where should you have gone? You daren't even get your parcel through the yard-end," she said.
He looked such a fool she was not even angry with him. He continued to take his boots off and prepare for bed.
"I don't know what's in your blue handkerchief," she said. "But if you leave it the children shall fetch it in the morning."
Whereupon he got up and went out of the house, returning presently and crossing the kitchen with averted face, hurrying upstairs. As Mrs. Morel saw him slink quickly through the inner doorway, holding his bundle, she laughed to herself; but her heart was bitter, because she had loved him.
CHAPTER III
THE CASTING OFF OF MOREL—THE TAKING ON OF WILLIAM
During the next week Morel's temper was almost unbearable. Like all miners, he was a great lover of medicines, which strangely enough, he would often pay for himself.