"Surely," he replied with an easy laugh.
"Listen," she repeated timidly; "if thou shouldst get steady work—I should be content ... to be..." But her voice became inaudible.
"Allons!... what?" he demanded irritably.
"To ... to be married," she whispered.
He started. "Eh ben! en voilà an idea!" he exclaimed.
"Forgive me, Jean, I have always had that idea——" She dried her eyes on the back of her hand and tried hard to smile. "It is foolish, eh? The marriage costs so dear ... but if thou shouldst get steady work..."
"Eh ben!" he answered slowly with his Normand shrewdness, "I don't say no."
"I'll help thee, Jean; I can work hard when I am free. One wins forty sous a day by washing, and then there is the harvest."
There was a certain stubborn conviction in her words which worried him.