‘Does he want me to see him?’
‘He didn’t say nought of that.’
‘No,’ she said reflectively.
‘He said: “Tell ’em that I’m all right,”’ Abner explained. ‘Nowt else.’
‘Them?’
‘That’s his mother . . .’
‘Ah!’ She stiffened a little, and Abner, scenting a new hostility, continued:
‘This business bain’t all George’s fault. It’s a bit of bad luck that might have happened to any one. It might just as well a’ been me . . . as well and better. If that Bastard hadn’t gone at me from behind George’d never have touched him.’
‘If he’d been home here,’ she interrupted, with a sudden energy, ‘it wouldn’t have happened at all. It’s drink that’s done for George,’ she added.
‘He hadn’t a drap in him,’ said Abner loyally. ‘He was as sober as I am this minute. He hadn’t set foot in the place not half an hour.’