'But would it be right, Minna?' Colin asked. 'You know I signed the agreement with them.'
'What's the odds of that, stupid?' Minna answered composedly. 'That were a year ago an' more, weren't it? You weren't no more nor a boy then, Lord bless 'ee.'
'A year older nor you are now, Minna,' Colin objected.
'Ah, but you didn't know nothing about this sculpturin' then, you see, Colin. They tooked advantage of you, that's what they did. They hadn't ought to have done it.'
'But I say, Minna, why shouldn't I wait till I'm twenty-one, an' then take up the marble business, eh?'
'What rubbish the boy do talk,' Minna cried, imperiously. 'Twenty-one indeed! Talk about twenty-one! Why, by that time you'd 'a' got fixed in the wood-carving, and couldn't change your trade for marble or nothin'. If you're goin' to change, you must do it quickly.'
'I hate the wood-carving,' Colin said, gloomily.
'Then run away from it and be done wi' it.'
'Run away from it! Oh, Minna, do you know that they could catch me and put me in prison?'
'I'd go to prison an' laugh at 'em, sooner nor I'd be bound for all those years against my will,' Minna answered firmly. 'Leastways I would if I was a man, Colin.'