‘Don’t ask me. Poor sweet lambs! Oh, Abner, where am I?’
‘You’m here with me, wench! In my arms. You belong to me, Mary. There’s nought can take you away from me. I don’t let you go now I’ve got you. Not a minute, not a second!’
‘I can’t take it in,’ she said. ‘If Mrs Mamble could see through the wall! To think of all that people have said of us!’
‘They can say it again. They’re welcome now! Talk? They can talk their damned heads off. We’ve been through all that!’
‘I should just think we have,’ she sighed. ‘They can’t touch us now. Abner! Abner!’
She clung to him and kissed him again and again. ‘Ah, Abner, don’t ask me!’ she said. ‘Just let things happen as they will.’
She hid her face against him.
‘But afterward,’ she whispered. ‘What can we do? How can we get away, Abner? I feel as if something might stop us. Let’s get away at once. Let’s go. I can’t bear waiting!’
He laughed at her. ‘To-night?’
‘No, to-morrow.’