‘Hold your noise about my mother! She’s a good woman, she is, and a good wife. The likes of you’s not fit to go near her. I know what’s been going on here without her telling me. Sleeping with the lodger! Don’t you deny it, or I’ll bash your mouth in for you!’
‘Never, George, never!’ she cried, passionately righteous. ‘I swear by God as I’m standing here, it never came to that.’
‘You can swear by the devil for all I care. I’ve finished with you. It’s him I want!’ His voice left him. He cleared his throat and spat viciously in the fire.
Mary pulled her senses together. ‘George,’ she said, ‘have you ever known me tell you a lie?’
‘I never knew a woman who wouldn’t,’ he said, with a laugh.
She let his speech pass. ‘Imagine the hard times we’ve had,’ she went on, ‘and not so much as a word from you! Not a penny in the house! The way he’s worked for us and suffered for us, and all for the sake of the word he gave you. There’s not a man in a million who’d have done it! And all for nothing!’
‘All for nothing!’ he mocked: ‘tell that to some one else!’
‘Without him we should have starved . . . me and the children. Can’t you see that for yourself? And yet you believe the first word that’s spoken against him and me. You ought to go down on your knees to him and thank him for what he’s done. If it hadn’t been for him you’d have found us all in the workhouse. George, you must believe me!’
‘Oh, shut your bloody mouth!’ he said, rising clumsily.
‘George, you must!’ she repeated. She put her hand on his shoulder, but he pushed her away. Both of them heard a step on the path. She made a last, desperate effort. ‘George, if you touch him . . . ‘ she cried. ‘If you . . .!