‘Nobody will know it’s any different till we’re gone,’ he said. ‘They can’t say worse of us than they have done.’
‘They will. . . . Of course they will. They can’t help seeing. Mrs Mamble . . . an old woman like that sees everything. I shall look different. I know I shall, if it’s only that I’m happy.’
He laughed as he kissed her. ‘Bin yo’ happy, my love?’
‘Oh, Abner!’
‘Three or four days’ll see me finished up at old Williams’s. He done us a good turn, and don’t you forget it. Besides that you couldn’t get ready by to-morrow. You’ll take a few days over that, and I’ll go on and look for a home.’
‘No, no, Abner!’ she cried. ‘Don’t leave me now! Don’t you leave me! If ever I lose sight of you now something will happen. I know it as sure as sure.’
‘You’m a baby, that’s what you are!’ he said, teasing. He gathered her up in his arms and talked foolishly to her.
‘No,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘I mean it. I’m as serious as I can be.’
‘A damned sight too serious for me!’ he grumbled.
‘We must all go together. In three days I can be ready. No, two.’